VexPro delayed deliveries for Israeli teams

[Tomker]

I decided to make this post because as an international team we have to face all sorts of added difficulties, and for the past 2 years we find ourselves going out of schedule because we have to wait an excessive amount of time for VexPro products to be delivered.

VexPro orders that were made by Israeli teams during week 1 of the build season had just arrived yesterday to the FIRST Israel offices – 3 weeks after they were done!
After emailing them yesterday to try and see if something could be done to fix this situation for future orders, we got some unclear answer saying things about 10 day transit times and needing a 2 week lead time on international orders. In addition, we were told that we could use other order methods such as ordering directly from their site – as all Israeli teams, we are forced to make our Vex and Andymark orders using an alternative system through the FIRST Israel website – to save us both money and time on orders. To our knowledge, the possibility of allowing Israeli teams to order directly from vex was brought up and denied by Vex themselves. Finally, we were told that we should try to plan and figure out parts for our robot ahead of time and give them as much lead time as possible to process the orders, the main problem is that with the current system – we have to manually submit our order through the FIRST Israel website and then, each Thursday, our regional director has to manually send all Israeli orders in one combined document – which by itself makes place for tons of possible mistakes. With that in mind I don’t see how we can affect the amount of lead time given to them in any way, and I don’t see how we can finish planning our robot early enough to make an order that will allow us to stay on schedule.
Not trying to say they don’t do their best to shorten the delivery times as much as possible, but somehow Andymark orders are almost always being delivered to us under similar circumstances in under a week.

Vex owes nothing to us or any other team and we are obviously not forced to use their products, but the VexPro products are of great quality, really diverse and most importantly - relatively cheap (which is essential to us because we have to pay nearly 150% on all orders because of international delivery and customs), and we find them to be the best solution for most parts of our robots.
We don’t want to give up on using those products, and believe that a solution could be found to improve our experience with ordering through Vex and shorten the delivery times.

In the meantime we made another VexPro order this past Thursday, because we planned and CADed our robot with their products, believing those problems will be fixed for this season. We couldn't afford to spend any more time changing our robot so we had to make this order, and are really hoping that it won't set us back by too much time.

Us and all Israeli teams would really appreciate it if someone from Vex who sees this post will find a way to fix the problem, or at least accelerate the most recent orders – because we believe these mid-season orders are the most important and most packed ones for all teams, and right now all our local teams are in some sort of a stall until further notice…

[Leav]

I wholeheartedly agree. Israeli (and all international) teams have it hard enough.

We try to source as much stuff locally as possible but in some catagories AndyMark or Vex products are the only viable and affordable alternatives (CIMs, transmissions, hex bearings, inch hex shaft, wheels).

We love the products from both companies and it's a constant struggle for the FIRST Israel regional directors to make stuff available to us (e.g. the RSLs are currently stuck in customs because they look like car lights and customs wants a note of compliance to Israeli standards for car lights...)

It would be really awesome of VEX to decide to step up their game for international teams. 55 Israeli FRC teams would really appreciate it!

-Leav

P.S. and while we're at it. It's worth giving AndyMark a big thank you from all Israeli teams for spending time on building a fast and efficient process for Israeli orders. Knowing we can depend on AM means peace of mind in one area at least!

[Paul Copioli]

Originally Posted by Leav

I wholeheartedly agree. Israeli (and all international) teams have it hard enough.

We try to source as much stuff locally as possible but in some catagories AndyMark or Vex products are the only viable and affordable alternatives (CIMs, transmissions, hex bearings, inch hex shaft, wheels).

We love the products from both companies and it's a constant struggle for the FIRST Israel regional directors to make stuff available to us (e.g. the RSLs are currently stuck in customs because they look like car lights and customs wants a note of compliance to Israeli standards for car lights...)

It would be really awesome of VEX to decide to step up their game for international teams. 55 Israeli FRC teams would really appreciate it!

-Leav

P.S. and while we're at it. It's worth giving AndyMark a big thank you from all Israeli teams for spending time on building a fast and efficient process for Israeli orders. Knowing we can depend on AM means peace of mind in one area at least!

Guys,

We are using the same process with Alisha that AndyMark is using. I can find out from our international sales staff what the hold up is, but we are processing orders the same way that your orders from AndyMark are being processed.

I can tell you with certainty that VEX did not state you can't order directly from us. We ship internationally all the time and even negotiated UPS World Saver rates to help you save money.

Again, I will confirm but I personally worked with Alisha on this two years ago and handed it off to my sales staff.

Paul

[Tristan Lall]

International shipping happens all the time in the business world, frequently as quickly as you need it, provided that the formalities are complied with. The regional director may have arranged to centralize customs brokerage and freight to save money and to facilitate the process, but if you're in the position where time is more valuable than money and you are willing to get it through customs yourselves (perhaps with the help of a broker of your own), just do it.

As a practical matter, this may require some advance research to determine exactly what is of concern to customs inspectors. You may also want to contact your suppliers to see if a detailed, descriptive customs invoice can be supplied, which lists the intended end use and references standard commodity codes to facilitate processing.

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

I can tell you with certainty that VEX did not state you can't order directly from us. We ship internationally all the time and even negotiated UPS World Saver rates to help you save money.

To play devils advocate for a minute... I can't speak for the above posters or where they got their information, but having watched this video you guys put out last year, I could see how someone could mistakenly think that the only way to get parts to Israel would be using the "Bulk Shipment" method. In fact, when I first saw this thread, before I even read past the title, it was the first thing that came to mind.

It would seem that the issue here might simply be inadequate communication to international teams as to what their options are.

[Tottanka]

I'll just comment that as an Israeli team, we placed 3 VEXpro orders this season not via FIRST Israel, but by ourselves.
All of them have been shipped out after 3 days at most, (2 after 4 hours, 1 after the weekend) which is pretty good by all means.

I highly recommend teams to just go ahead and order stuff yourself, the difference in the eventual cost is really not that big.
If anyone needs help with customs, or on how to do the whole order feel free to contact me.

Also, thanks VexPRO, we totally love you guys

[MrJohnston]

Some thoughts that might "alleviate" the pain next year..

* There have been two occasions when I ordered something from Vex "next day" and it did not get shipped by the end of the second business day. I called Vex the next morning, they apologized and sent it immediately. Blunders do happen (on both ends of ordering - I'm usually at fault), but when Vex has had one for us, they have remedied it immediately.

* Shipping days are a reality. We generally don't have to ship internationally (though we had one year we bought quite a few electronics from some company in Austria....), but we still need things in a rush and sometimes a small company gets overwhelmed with our order (and 2000 orders from other teams). To mediate this, we try to order "basic" parts in October and November. For instance, we have the parts in our shop on Kickoff to build either a tank drive base or a swerve base - and enough frame pieces to adjust to whatever size needs we might need. We also have a small collection of wheels, motors, pistons and electronic doohickeys. This gives us the ability to start prototyping and building as soon as we have a design. We just need to order specialty parts. Is this more expensive? A little. However, we find that purchasing all these parts in the fall allows us not to pay some of the extreme "next day air" prices we'd otherwise need. In other words, a larger percentage of our expenditures actually go to "robot parts" than shipping companies. We do spend more, overall, this way. But it does alleviate a lot of stress.

* There has got to be somebody in Israel that makes most of the items you need, yes? For instance, we often will buy all of the aluminum we need at a local warehouse - we can order it online and pick it up the next business day. With no shipping costs, its cheap.

[timytamy]

We have found a noticeable difference in AM and VEX shipping. We've noticed AM has worked out how to ship internationally so as to get through customs really easily. We've had issues with items clearing customs from VEX (and WCP) that holds up orders. We're not sure if there's extra paperwork to expedite things through customs that AM uses, or if just comes down to the difference of FedEx vs UPS. But the experience is definitely not the same. Admittedly it's not a three week delay like you've been noticing, but there is enough of a difference that places AM above VEX as a preferred supplier (and both above WCP) Down Under.

I feel like I should note that AM hasn't always been this good, but we've had a great experience working with them to improve. One of the most beneficial things is that since we've started working with them, orders for off-season/non critical parts can now be shipped USPS. This is nowhere near as fast but saves a lot on shipping for non-urgent items. Also, combining/saving shipping with other Australian teams has really helped younger, struggling teams in Australia.

EDIT: I should be fair and say that the USPS and combined shipping are things that don't happen directly through the AM Webstore, but through special requests and post-checkout emails.