COVID Update

It is an understatement to say COVID-19 has had a massive effect on society, the economy, how we do business and live our lives. At Smartfire HQ our thoughts are with the affected families and how we can best support our customers through a fairly rocky time.

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June 11 Update: We are back in stock! We are shipping internationals via DHL eCommerce and it's taking ~12 business days, but that is highly variable due to the ongoing situation. Life is good, and most customer orders from before changing to DHL are moving through the system steadily. 

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Let's cover off an update of the key topics that we're concerned by!

International shipping 

• Bad: Our major partner is AusPost who keep moving the goal posts in terms of when and even how our lodged parcels back to March will be handled. The latest update in their soap opera can be viewed here. The first advice of international issues was April 19 when they advised 3 week delay to the US for instance. AusPost updates can not be relied on as the current update page overrides what they said a month ago.
• Good: We haven't been sending anything as the free 'economy' that most customers selected, we have upgraded everything to Standard with Tracking or above.
• Good: Parcels to the US and Canada were the most affected though we are seeing some movement now. US parcels through mid April have been regularly updating as delivered with no intermediary tracking events due to using new cargo partners that aren't integrated with their tracking system.
• Bad: AusPost due to the massive backlog are having issues getting their prepared pallets onto cargo freight in chronological order 
• (Really) Bad: AusPost have advised just today (May 22) that multiple parcels to Canada dating back to March have been placed on sea freight with a 30-60 day estimate (!)
• (Really) Good: We are not going to be using AusPost for international freight for the foreseeable future, we'll be skipping the international air hop hurdle using DHL eCommerce who have their own fleet of cargo aircraft

Domestic Shipping

• Good: AusPost has been delivering fairly consistently domestically. At our discretion we've been upgrading parcels to Express for interstate shipments.
• Bad: AusPost have suspended their next day guarantee on Express but it's still worthwhile to get faster service

Stock Availability

• Good: Most of our suppliers are up and running at 80% capacity and speed
• Bad: We're currently out of stock (May 22), but expect to receive more supplies within 10 days

We'll try updating this as we go, and feel free to reach out for a chat via FB messenger on the Smartfire page or via email