As many of you may have experienced when importing, postal services can be very slow and courier services very expensive, especially when you only want one or two items.
Maybe you have avoided importing the light you so desperately want due to these reasons.
This thread is to discuss and organise a group buy for all of us in the same situation.
Firstly I would like to find out how many are interested in the idea.
What everyone is interested in getting.
Which country most people would be interested in importing from.
Which supplier everyone is interested in buying from.
Discuss the best courier method to use to get the items into the country as well as how to get the items to their respective buyers.
And lastly when will you be interested in buying as to give everyone enough time to get their finances in order for those interested in the higher priced items.
Feel free to list multiple suppliers, countries of origin etc.
The idea is to get all the South Africans what they want at the lowest possible cost.
This is a group discussion and all suggestions and ideas are welcome.
I will update this post with the most popular suggestions and recommendations as the discussion goes on.
Things have become dramatically worse here recently, SAPO delays have increased by a couple of months, post office charges for collection are now approaching R30, and customs clearance is a huge issue, with possible imposition of a 3 package a year restriction on everyone.
The difficulty is that anything done to get over these problems, like using a forwarding agent and courier, means it gets into the country faster (at higher expense), but then is far more likely to attract customs duty, and also has to be repackaged and shipped around domestically as well.
If enough people are interested to make it viable I would like to see a projection of costs, I am definitely interested if there is not too much of a price difference. I suspect customs and courier fees would ruin it though, and customs is not very predictable.
I did signed up for a few BLF FW3A torches on this BLF forum, maybe someone else also signed up or interested
I did ordered from Banggood , Gearbest and Aliexpress the past two years without a problem except with SAPO (Slowpost) delivery and recently order from Fastech which I still waiting (SAPO delay)
I don’t think one should expect a overwhelming response
Not all SA members are familiar with this post yet as some of members are not that active (including me )
Some members are very selective as they already have many flashlights or budget responsibilities.
Some never ordered overseas before and wait for proof for the first successful group buying .
I hope that enough members can sign up to benefit in successful group orders in future , even it is a slow participation in the beginning.
I also stand to my own believing to support local agent suppliers where products is available , although little more expensive , I experience just excellent service and backup service so far .
SAPO is definitely out of the question. I have tried importing from DX before using SAPO. Half my package actually made it here. The other half never got scanned even entering the country.
Courier will be the only option, if enough people are interested the costs will be cut quite dramatically.
If going to banggood, the predicted courier cost of one item compared to more than one item, the amount does not increase all that much.
I know that is not a very accurate estimate of cost, but it does give an idea of the possible increase when bringing in multiple items.
Customs is another matter entirely and making an accurate prediction would be very difficult.
The best we can do is to find out from those who have brought in similar products recently by similar channels what they had to pay at customs.
Alternatively we could make contact with someone like torchguy.com as he is already bringing in sofirn products among others and he’s prices seem quite reasonable.
It might be worth suffering a small markup to save us the hassle of getting the items in the country and it could actually save us money by using someone who already has established channels.
By the looks of it he would be up for negotiations, I have not dealt with him personally, but monkeylight has and has received good service.
Obviously if he does not have to back the products by his usual warranty, he would consider a smaller mark up.
I bought Acebeam products from Torchguy.com and was very surprised that his prices were actually cheaper than Banggoods. So it just goes to show there are in fact some honest dealers out there.Plus his customer service is top notch .I think I received my order delivered to my door in like 2 days .
I’m waiting for some parcels for more than 4 months now and some family members not going be lucky for presents this year
Apparently SAPO with the strikes and inefficacy has a big backlog and the imposition of 3 package max , import duties will be applicable for more parcels a year with a possible import code requested .
Thankfully it looks like our Post Office is back on track.Today I received a parcel that was ordered 20/10/18 so it seems that the backlog has finally been cleared.Tracking shows parcel took 2 weeks to arrive in SA and then a further 2 weeks to clear customs and arrive at my local post office.
I wouldn’t hold my breath. I am still waiting for 2 out of 3 June orders and 3 out of 5 July orders.
I am not ordering anything else via post until everything outstanding arrives, certainly not now since December is just around the corner.
I did a quick check and I see some of my parcels still outstanding from September .So seems there is a bottleneck with the older parcels still lying with customs.
I will track my 11\11 impulse buys hopefully they arrive within 4-6 weeks .
I’m hoping for between 5 and 10 people bringing in at least one light each to make it worth while. More is always better.
Due to our limited local BLF members(not sure how many there are) and members not being online very often. I think we run this thread until the new year (roughly a month and a half) to gather as much interest as possible.
Ordering in the new year would also avoid the Xmas rush on packages coming into the country which has the potential of creating a backlog at customs.
This should give us more than enough time to explore all avenues and find the best method of proceeding.
My outstanding Sofirn order from Aliexpress placed 9 September arrived today 23 November.Very happy 10 weeks not to bad considering what we had to endure earlier this year.
You guys can relax and just order from Banggoods.Today received an order placed 22 November so 21 days from placing order to courier delivering to my desk at work.
If you import a certain amount from Banggood then SARS requires you to get an Importer’s code. That’s a major hassle. I’ve been over my limit in September already after my 4th order this year. It resets every year. So a GB will come in handy from time to time for frequent buyers.
