Anyone in the USA purchase from CarTFT?

**lightman** · 11-26-2003, 07:10 PM

I know the CarTFT folks will be reading this, and I'm not looking for a public response from them. I'm looking for the carputer community thoughts. Oliver has my email and if he wants to respond he knows how to reach me.

Anyway.. I'm in the midwest of USA and I ordered a screen from them exactly 2 weeks ago. I still have not received my expensive unit yet. I did pay the extra $20 for "express shipping" in addition to the "standard" shipping of $30. So I'm looking at $50 worth of shipping charges from overseas. I don't know any different so $50 for "express" shipping could be a standard rate. Anywhere in the US "express" means 3 days or less. Standard shipping in the US is a week. And neither is $50..
So this brings me to my question, has anyone in the USA ordered from CarTFT and how long did it take to reach you? What did it cost, and how did it arrive?
I was expecting a UPS truck however one stopped by the apartments but nothing for me..
I know I've got people thinking, 'email them and they will track it for you'. Well I have.. twice.. In this thread here:
Germany - USA shipping time?
He said 7-10 days. No problem. On day 12 I sent an email asking about when and how. I recieved a response 1/2 hour later saying he will check on it and get back to me that day (he responded at 1am Germany time). Nooo problem.. I expected an email by 2am my time. No email. So after my UPS delivery time on day 13 I sent another email asking the status and the method of delivery. No response from that email.
I'm now sitting here writing this wondering whats going on, and would like your opinion. I plan on writing another email to Oliver and restating my questions since we are now at the end of day 14.
Now some caveats.. I realize that Turkey day is coming up in the US, I don't know if they do this sort of thing in Germany but it's possible I guess. He may be out of town or indisposed and cannot return my emails promptly. I also understand that if he shipped the screen it's out of his hands, however he could look into it for me. I realize I'm just one customer and I'm sure his day is much more hectic than mine. He most likely has more customers and 'bigger fish' than me, however I'm only concerned about me. One customer who is ****ed won't break his pocketbook however good business sense says never to PO any customer.
My intent is not to publicly blast him or his company, so far this has been the only problem and In my opinion it's pretty minor so far. I'm just wanting info from other customers of his company. I've heard good things on this board about CarTFT so I had no issues with ordering from him. If this did turn into a problem I think it would be the first I've heard of about CarTFT. Perhaps this post may remind him. He could've just forgot about me. No biggie.

Whats been your experince? How long? To where? What method did it arrive?
Thanks folks
Wade

**Needstorage** · 05-26-2004, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by lightman

Whats been your experince? How long? To where? What method did it arrive?

Well...

I've sent an order to carTFT on may 11 May. The bank transfer was received on May 15th. The order was shipped at May 17th. I live in Belgium, and I still didn't receive my over 500€ order that's already payd since 2 weeks ago. Shipping would normally take 2-3 days according to carTFT.

Asked them twice about what's going on, but still don't know *****. I'm getting pretty upset by now regarding the fact that it's about 300-500km. from here.

I'm planning on buying some more stuff but ordering it with carTFT will rely on the outcome of this painfull situation right now and the service they are going to provide to get this mess sorted out.

other ppl in here have something to add to this?

**greenday** · 05-26-2004, 12:49 PM

Hello
I live in Portugal and allready buy from cartft 1 touchscreen, 1 gps mouse, 1 navipc software, cables, 1 arat, in two different orders.
The first one took 2 days, the second one took 5 or 6 days.
Everything was well packed and arrived in perfect condition, always responded to my mails and they have tracking numbers on their site for people to track the packages.
One more thing I always paid just when I received the stuff, because they give that option to some countrys (European mostly I think).
Bottom line is that i recomend it, never had problems with them.

Nuno

**Needstorage** · 05-26-2004, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by greenday

I live in Portugal

bon dia,
Spent some time in Portugal a month ago. Nice country...

Originally Posted by greenday

they have tracking numbers on their site for people to track the packages.

Yes, i know... But where can I track it? I tried DHL, because they used DHL for shipping but found nothing.

Originally Posted by greenday

I always paid just when I received the stuff

Yeah, I would do that too, but the payment has been done through my employer. The company I work for doesn't work with payment on arrival, they mostly work with 30 days after invoicedate payment or just pay in advance or by using credit card.

**Vicci** · 05-26-2004, 01:49 PM

FedEx is about the only shipping company I trust. Since UPS merged with DHL they've gone way downhill. DHL is arguably the worst shipper to use for international shipments. It is entirely possible that CarTFT shipped out and DHL is sitting on it in a warehouse.

I worked in a jewelry store for 2 years, and we never shipped with UPS/DHL. They have the highest incident of theft by employees, are notorious for mistreating packages, and have among the lowest performance and customer satisfaction ratings in the whole industry.

FedEx gives you a discount if your package is late. UPS/DHL says "Sorry! Better luck next time"

There's a reason FedEx pretty much runs the US & International business shipping industry.

My advice to CarTFT and others: It's worth the extra few bucks to get it where it should be on time. Don't save 5 bucks and have it cost you a month.

**Needstorage** · 05-26-2004, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by Vicci

There's a reason FedEx pretty much runs the US & International business shipping industry.

Well, as my working experience (I have been contracted several times by the FedEx office in Belgium) i would never have any fate in a company like this.

**CorpZ** · 05-28-2004, 09:12 AM

UPS merged with DHL/Airborne Express??

**greenday** · 05-28-2004, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by Needstorage

bon dia,
Spent some time in Portugal a month ago. Nice country...

Thanks a lot buddy

Yes, i know... But where can I track it? I tried DHL, because they used DHL for shipping but found nothing.

To me they send it from German post office, Internationaly I think that they send through DHL, have u tryed to call dhl instead of tracking in their site?
Its better to talk to a "real" person and tell them whats happening because like some one said here, they sometimes have the packages laying around there warehouse and take a lot of time delivering them.
Well...good luck

Yeah, I would do that too, but the payment has been done through my employer. The company I work for doesn't work with payment on arrival, they mostly work with 30 days after invoicedate payment or just pay in advance or by using credit card.

ALWAYS PAY ON DELIVERY IF THEY GIVE U THAT OPTION

**VooDoo1999** · 06-10-2004, 12:13 PM

Dear Community,

if a parcel gets lost, this is always on our risk. I can't repeat this enough : Shipping risk is on seller side ! And please be sure about one fact : Buyer always receives his goods and always has to choice to return the goods, if he is not satisfied.

And yes, we sometimes have trouble with DHL where shipping needs a few weeks without knowing the reason at all. This is very uncomfortable for the buyer and for us, because we just have to wait then until the parcel returns to us to send it again.
And these long delays are scratching on our company image, because the buyer sometimes thinks we want to cheat them :-(

Therefore we are offer FedEx as option. And the 5 EUR you pay more is worth the investment. They usually ship within 1 day (!) and you can track the parcel at every time.

Please see http://www.cartft.com/versand for shipping durations to your country and a statistic about our work.

Thanks,
Oliver

**Needstorage** · 06-11-2004, 04:56 AM

Originally Posted by VooDoo1999

Dear Community,

if a parcel gets lost, this is always on our risk. I can't repeat this enough ...

Yes, Oliver... I jumped to conclusions a bit too fast earlier. It was my first online order I paid in advance. The products are deliverd by now, although it did not take 2-3 days as claimed by DHL, but took 2 weeks and a day.

I know -now- that you are not to blame, Oliver... so... accept my humble appologies.

As for DHL... why don't you just kick 'em out and send everything with FedEx next time? I don't mind paying some extra bucks to make 2 weeks become 1 or 2 days.

I'll be posting some photographs of my install in a couple of weeks.
This is what my current Test & development setup is now:
Hardware:
- 7" Touch screen
- 800 Mhz notebook MB in custom made case (will be replaced with a Travla 1-din unit)
- Invertor used (will be replaced by DC-DC PS)
- No startup/shutdown circuits for now (Will be custom with use of basic Stamp when the DC-DC PS is installed)
- Working on a ODB connection (Custom interfacing using Basic Stamp too)
- USB GPS mouse
- DLink WLAN card
- Backup Camera installed on my caravan

Software:
- Windows XP EMBEDDED
- using custom made software with full Destinator embedding, and BSPlayer Embedding (I'm planning to go open source on this one)

As for the installation in the car: I am not making a custom dash, I have a company car and cannot afford to 're-engeneer' the dashboard. BTW, I have a pre-installed OEM navigation system with 5.6" color screen embedded into the main dash console. The 7" screen is placed above this screen, hooked up to the vent exits. Main unit has a Audio-in for the output of the carpc.
I will be checking out several software navigation packages to be able to see to pro's and con's of both the OEM and new system.

Needs..