Fanatec will not ship to Qatar because they 'don't want to invest there'

[Lesthegringo]

Hi all, I was looking at the Fanatec DD base, and got to the point where I though it would be a nice Christmas present for myself as part of the rig upgrade. I'd been looking at the DD1 for a while but was put off by the cost, but the DD changed that and the feedback I'd seen made up my mind.

Well, I'll have to continue looking because Fanatec do not ship to Qatar. I e-mailed them to ask why, and the response was that they do not want to invest there...

What....? I'm not asking you to store 100 units in case of potential sales, I am just asking you to sell it to me and get a shipping company to bring it to me.

Now I don't know about you guys, but I always thought shipping things was done by shipping companies, like DHL, Aramex, Deutche Post, and making race sim wheels was done by dedicated companies like Fanatec. Where it gets a bit hazy for me is that Amazon.com and Amazon.de both deliver here no problem. I received packages via Aramex and DHL respectively after purchasing on the US and German sites.

As I understand it, Amazon do something called 'subcontracting' with respect to the shipping, in that they take your order, contact the shipping company, find out how much it costs, add that to the total cost of the order (they sneak it in under the heading 'shipping'), then once they receive the total cost hand the goods over to the shipping company. Amazon themselves don't move it, the shipping company do.The shipping company know the rules for importation (both Amazon sites ask for your Qatari ID number before agreeing to ship there) and so the responsability for shipping transfers from Amazon to the shipping company.

But obviously Fanatec are unable to use this business model because they must be a shipping company as well..... oh, wait, the previous Fanatec gear I bought while living in Hungary was delivered to me by a shipping company, not a guy in a Fanatec branded van.

Seriously Fanatec? You can ship to the US, Australia (and I see all the free kit the guy on Boosted Media gets to try, I bet he isn't told 'sorry mate, we don't deliver dahn under..'), Japan etc. and yet the country that will hold a Grand Prix this month and the FIFA world cup next year is too tricky? Is it too hard to ask a shipping company for a quote? Never mind, please don't bother.

For me I am back to questioning Fanatec's rather suspect customer support, when even an established customer is told this.

Les

 

[Raysy]

My guess is that due to the alleged human rights record of Qatar, Fanatec are not happy with shipping their products to the country. Yes they're not shipping it in their own van, but they're still delivering items to the country which maybe they don't agree with.

You may disagree with that stance (either the human rights record of the country or a company using that information to decide to not "interact" with that country) but it's their choice not to take your money.

 

[metalnwood]

I have a feeling that the 'not wanting to invest' is a wording issue and nothing else..

I have heard something similar about New Zealand and there are no human rights issues here that are not in other areas that they accommodate. We are right new to Australia and the fanatec store wont send to us, a few hours in a plane.

I believe the 'invest' is put in enough infrastructure that they can adequately offer returns and support etc. I think that if they were to ship to us they cannot offer the level of support required. So it's a small country and they skip us. They also know that people can find ways around and import things taking on risks themselves.

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

While I obviously can't comment on why Fanatec does and doesn't sell in different countries, I did get slightly triggered by the following:

responsability for shipping transfers from Amazon to the shipping company.

While the responsibility might transfer, the financial risk doesn't. Let's say something went wrong during shipping, your package has been lost and the shipping company has done everything on their side of the agreed-on service contract. The shipping company won't help anymore, but you, as a customer, are still upset about your order not being delivered. So you contact the vendor, and they now have to take the loss, either by fully refunding your order or by sending a new shipment.

Yes, package insurance exists but this often costs more on a yearly basis than replacing all of the packages that go missing, so the vendor still ends up paying for it.

 

[Guido Trampe]

Perfect Fanatec. Proud of this bold statement. F1 Management take note please!

 

[Lesthegringo]

While I obviously can't comment on why Fanatec does and doesn't sell in different countries, I did get slightly triggered by the following:


While the responsibility might transfer, the financial risk doesn't. Let's say something went wrong during shipping, your package has been lost and the shipping company has done everything on their side of the agreed-on service contract. The shipping company won't help anymore, but you, as a customer, are still upset about your order not being delivered. So you contact the vendor, and they now have to take the loss, either by fully refunding your order or by sending a new shipment.

Yes, package insurance exists but this often costs more on a yearly basis than replacing all of the packages that go missing, so the vendor still ends up paying for it.

While I understand where you are coming from on this, I have to say that so far I have found that all the Amazon, Ebay and other couriered stuff (like a CNC milling machine conversion kit from the states) delivered by the likes of Aramex, Fedex and DHL have all arrived fine, and actually in most cases quicker than projected, and I have also received refunds from Amazon for the import duty where it was set at a certain level when buying, but in reality was lower.

In comparison, stuff I had delivered within the EU from a number of companies including the likes of Amazon to my old house in Budapest was frequenly late, in some cases they 'couldn't find the house' even though the same company had delivered there a week before, and even got charged import duty from Germany for some books I bought that was actually more than the purchase price of the books themselves - in the EU. In one case I had to drive 25Km to the DHL distribution centre to collect my package because they wouldn't deliver it to my home. It was 10 inch LCD screen in case anyone thinks it was something wierd

So whatever Fanatec's reasons for not wanting to, I think if it is shipping issues related they are not looking at reality.

My guess is that due to the alleged human rights record of Qatar, Fanatec are not happy with shipping their products to the country. Yes they're not shipping it in their own van, but they're still delivering items to the country which maybe they don't agree with.

You may disagree with that stance (either the human rights record of the country or a company using that information to decide to not "interact" with that country) but it's their choice not to take your money.

I most certainly do not agree with the way that Qatar treat human rights issues, but I am happy to say so out loud - one of the reasons I did not go to the GP despite being offered cheap tickets. If Fanatec have an issue with it too, they should come out and say so rather than just obfiusticating the issue; that helps no-one

Les

 

[FrictionZone]

Use a package forwarding service

 

[Deleted member 197115]

It's a sign, Buy SimuCube.