FYI to everyone waiting on an Order from Adrian....Adrian has decided to stop using FedEx to ship the Basses. He is now using DHL that will get handed off to USPS here in the states.....I now have been waiting over 2 weeks since my Bass shipped out and I have still not received it yet. USPS has had my Bass in their possession since last Saturday 6/25 and has already gone through customs in Los Angeles then the tracking stops. I only live in Las Vegas about 4-5 hours away from Los Angeles Calif. DHL should not be handing off packages to USPS IMO...I had no issues getting my last 4 Maru basses from FedEx last year and some other people have recently got their Basses from FedEx with no issues here in the states...Not sure why Adrian decided to switch but he sure did not do his homework about DHL and their terrible shipping practices...Over 3 weeks since getting my couch pic and still no bass....Rant over!
I placed an order with Adrian in April 2021 and it was shipped to me in the UK in September using FedEx. The tracking showed the bass leaving Germany within 48 hours, but never updated after that and didn't show up at FedEx UK.
After 6 weeks of both Adrian and I constantly chasing FedEx with no response from FedEx or resolution to the problem, Adrian decided to make me a new bass. Adrian told me that this was the 6th bass that FedEx had lost that year.
Out of the blue, after 2 months, FedEx notified me that the bass was due to be delivered and I received another notification that it had been delivered the same day. Nobody was home at the provided delivery time and I was out at work. When I returned home - No bass!
Despite promptly informing FedEx and Adrian of the situation and us both repeatedly contacting FedEx to say that the bass was still missing, nobody from FedEx got back to us. I kept receiving demands from FedEx to pay import charges for the bass and despite repeatedly contacting FedEx to tell them that I hadn't received the bass, I kept receiving import duty demands. Eventually, I received a threatening final demand stating that it was being passed to the collections team and that I would be charged interest and my credit report would be affected.
I contacted FedEx informing them that I was going to report the company for fraud and that I was seeking legal advice. Miraculously, the invoice was then cancelled.
When my replacement bass was about to be shipped, I specifically requested that Adrian use DHL not FedEx. Adrian shipped it using DHL in Germany and instead of DHL delivering the bass, it was passed to Parcelforce in UK who are part of the UK postal service and my bass arrived several days after it was shipped. For some reason, I received no demand for import costs.
FedEx were an absolute nightmare to deal with. The customer service and communication that both Adrian and I experienced was practically non existent and I suspect that Adrian encountered the same problem on numerous occasions after this and was never able to recover the costs of all the missing bass shipments from FedEx.
There is no way that a business can succeed or survive under these circumstances and it only makes sense for Adrian to use a different shipping company.
I have always found DHL to be extremely reliable with excellent customer service and communication. I believe that the issues that you have experienced are down to USPS, which I have also had issues with in the past - standard USPS shipping from US to UK takes an average of 3 to 4 weeks (which is unbelievable in this day and age) and I have found USPS tracking to be extremely unreliable.
In future, I recommend that you request Adrian ship using DHL to DHL in the receiving country - maybe he is using DHL to the resident's postal service in order to keep shipping costs down. My recommendation is a better option if this is proving to be unreliable for US shipments.
