Shipment delays... no Corona, just Indian customs in this case...
We are very happy to distribute the fine products of Animal Factory Amps, also think it is not so tragic to wait for fine gear a bit longer, however it seems that Aditya the maker was already asked by a few end customers if there are bigger issues at stake with his stuff being not available right now. The thing is, it has been stuck in customs for several weeks in India but should be here soon...
A few words from Aditya:
"Dear Animal Factory Partner,
This is Aditya writing to apologize deeply for the delays in shipment of modules and pedals, mostly the Godeater Eurorack that everybody is so keen on that I can hardly keep up with production and testing.
The current delay that we are facing, to cut a long story short, is due to a complete breakdown of communication between Indian customs, the courier company and the local Customs Handling Agent. I am not sure where the problem originated, as the shipment was picked up on Feb 3, 2020 and has been lingering between courier and customs since then.
A basic summary of the issue is that customs requested three sets of (practically the same) documents for three different processes - one week apart from each other. The chain of communication is always Customs <-> Agent <-> Courier <-> Exporter. It is not a transparent process particularly since the CHA is only answerable to the Courier and not the Exporter.
Usually, all three sets of documents would be requested at one shot; this was not the case.
Whether Mumbai customs raised each flag separately, or the CHA updated the courier company a week apart every time, or the courier company updated us in this ridiculous manner - this I cannot say and will probably never find out, since no questions have been replied to clearly and the buck has been passed up and down the chain like a football.
To reiterate - there is no problem with the goods, supply or paperwork from our end, except that paperwork was requested from us and forwarded to authorities in a very haphazard, untimely manner. We have every paper either on file or ready to go in printed format because we try to stay one step ahead as far as statutory compliances are concerned.
It is ridiculous that we have so much red tape to deal with as exporters in India, and the process is slow and cost intensive. I apologize for any problem caused and wish this was a situation over which I had a degree of control or was within my sphere of influence to act upon. I've been following up every day on the status of our shipments, including getting a third party to intervene, and it's been a nightmare to just get someone on the phone at times.
Now for the good news:
The constant nagging and intervention intervention seems to have paid off, since I have been assured that the shipment is in clearing today and will be on its way shortly.
The other good news is that these processes need to be done only once, so that future shipments will be cleared immediately. Unless there is a drastic change in rules, this should be the first and last time that we encounter this problem.
Thank you for your understanding and patience, and again, my apologies.
Aditya for AFA"
