Trying to get an A6100 - courier issues, help?

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paulca

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Paul Campbell
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Hi guys,

I've literally been mulling over a pro-ish camera for decades. Decided to jump in with an A6100. The reviews on the A6000 speak for themselves and the A6100 adds 4K video and update AF etc.

The trouble is, they are "Currently unavailable" on Amazon. In fact after checking about a dozen major retailers and moving to on-line outlets, I only found one claiming to be in stock. The body + kit lens + 55-210 + bag, for £950 ish. I ordered it on "Onbuy" I did check it wasn't a scam site and it seemed ok. I am using paypal anyway.

Order Saga:
Nothing at all happened with the order for a full 3 days. So I emailed and asked politely if they actually had it in stock and could they give me an ETA.

They told me that my order was being processed and to be patient. Transit time can be 9-15 days.

I ordered it on the 26th. One day later there were tracking updates saying it had been allocated and dispatched. Then nothing for days. Then a flurry of update and it appeared in the UK on the 2nd June. Woohoo, I thought.

Nothing for 3 days. I emailed again asking if there was a problem, they responded at a suspiciously coincidentally just as the tracking updated to show it had now been routed again to Germany where it was experiencing an export delay.

About 4 days ago updates about warehouse scans appeared, but no movement.

TLDR:
It's been 24-25 days since I ordered.
The original delivery estimate was 4th June.
The customer support just fobs you off with please be patient.
The Courier is shown as "Okay Parcel", but they don't appear to exist, no website and only a Hong Kong number.

I have still got 180 days of buyer protection from PayPal, but we are taking nearly a grand.

I note that, while the package with twin lenses seems unavailable, the Sony Centre claims to have the camera + kit lens in stock, but... at full RRP though! £899.

What are your thoughts? Chargeback before 30 days? If the product arrives before that completes I can always cancel it. Or let it run and assume it IS just a Covid / shipping / brexit screw up?
 
I have no experience with them - but I also wouldn't have confidence in using them. I'd be trying to cancel and get my money back if you've gone beyond your delivery date. If it does turn up, you can then work out what to do next. If none of the big boys had it, none of the grey import sites had it, and amazon didn't have it, I don't see how a little sub-company advertising on on buy would have it. My alarm bells would have been ringing before placing the order, but you are where you are, so get on the case for damage limitation and see what the options are in terms of getting your money back - and good luck.
 
Yea. :(

I got a response from them today. It's a copy and paste customer service email with the dates changed. It still says delivery time is 9 to 15 days. However the tracking information they keep referring to says 21 days in transit.

OnBuy reviews don't seem that bad, however googling the seller does not look good.

I don't want to give up just yet. International shipping isn't exactly at it's best right now and there is the whole Brexit thing and with me being in Northern Ireland it's even more confusing. The fact it went from China to the UK and then back to Germany could actually make sense, if the local "GB" end courier does not ship to Northern Ireland due to the "Northern Ireland Protocol", they might ship it Germany-Dublin-Belfast and remain in the EU market zone.
 
I don't think it's a scam.
It may have got lost in transit but some of these economy deliveries from China are notoriously 'relaxed'.
I had an item mysteriously in Poland for over a week.
Things happen, all kinds of delays are plausible e.g. Mechanical breakdowns or cancelled flights putting containers to the back of a queue etc
Another one I eventually decided must be lost and on the very day PayPal escalated it arrived.
 
4wd said:
I don't think it's a scam.
It may have got lost in transit but some of these economy deliveries from China are notoriously 'relaxed'.
I had an item mysteriously in Poland for over a week.
Things happen, all kinds of delays are plausible e.g. Mechanical breakdowns or cancelled flights putting containers to the back of a queue etc
Another one I eventually decided must be lost and on the very day PayPal escalated it arrived.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a scam either, PayPal would just intervene and eventually lock their trade account.

However, I'm more suspecting that they can get that camera from China to me in 3-4 days, but they don't have it, they are lying about it being dispatched, using a shadey courier, probably with fake updates. They will stretch it out as long as they can, until it is in stock or PayPal intervene.
 
they might be using the weekly freight train service from China to Germany because ships and containers are so hard to come by except at highly inflated prices. Still, that takes less than a week.
 
Not quite what we wanted to hear then. Do let us know how you get on - I wonder 'what' is actually stuck in Germany, and why.
 
At that price you could have sourced everything in the UK.
A6100+16-50mm from park camera for £749
www.parkcameras.com

Sony Alpha 6100 Camera Body & 16-50mm Lens | Park Cameras

Order the new flagship Sony Alpha 6100 mirrorless digital camera body for early UK stock delivery with the 16-50 Lens as a kit. Full specs & price
www.parkcameras.com www.parkcameras.com

The 55-210mm can be easily had for £100-150 used. Most shops normally have one these to sell used.
And even if you buy a new one in the UK it's £219 (in fact Amazon are selling it for £195 at the moment)
£18 saving is not really worth the hassles of grey importing.
 
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Well, that resolved quickly. In my favour, refund coming.

Now I gotta find actual UK stock. At least I know Parks say they have them.
 
Well, seems there is stock on Amazon from Amazon themselves on the 14th July or from Camera Centre UK.

Body only £655, delivered this week.
Body and kit lens, £625, delivered mid July.
Body and dual lens kit, £999, delivered this week.

The later is out as I can buy that extra lens cheaper as pointed out, it's a beginner lens people move on from and sell.

£655 is also was Sony Centre Direct are selling the body only.

Do I order from Amazon and wait another 2 weeks hmmm. Ponder.
 
paulca said:
Well, seems there is stock on Amazon from Amazon themselves on the 14th July or from Camera Centre UK.

Body only £655, delivered this week.
Body and kit lens, £625, delivered mid July.
Body and dual lens kit, £999, delivered this week.

The later is out as I can buy that extra lens cheaper as pointed out, it's a beginner lens people move on from and sell.

£655 is also was Sony Centre Direct are selling the body only.

Do I order from Amazon and wait another 2 weeks hmmm. Ponder.
Click to expand...

Amazon is not a recognised Sony dealer any more. Apparently they were caught selling the imported goods.
Make sure you get Sony warranty if buy from Amazon before buying from them.
 
Or buy used from MPB , £329, like new ;), choice of 37 and no doubt lenses too.
 
nandbytes said:
Amazon is not a recognised Sony dealer any more. Apparently they were caught selling the imported goods.
Make sure you get Sony warranty if buy from Amazon before buying from them.
Click to expand...

It seems it's a little more complicated. Reading up on this, it's not they are imported goods, it's just Brexit keeping on giving. In Europe Sony is required to provide a 2 year warranty. However in the UK after Brexit they only provide 1 year. They reply to a comment on that page pointing out that the warranty you receive with the camera is the European one, which is not valid in the UK but you do get 1 year.
 
paulca said:
It seems it's a little more complicated. Reading up on this, it's not they are imported goods, it's just Brexit keeping on giving. In Europe Sony is required to provide a 2 year warranty. However in the UK after Brexit they only provide 1 year. They reply to a comment on that page pointing out that the warranty you receive with the camera is the European one, which is not valid in the UK but you do get 1 year.
Click to expand...

I think they are right & wrong. That may be the warranty they provide but U.K. Law gives you a 2 year warranty and did before the EU one was introduced. In fact it’s longer than that in some circumstances, Best explanation I’ve read of the U.K. situation is Appleks, who used to claim to give only 1 year until they looked into it.
 
Well it turns out I ended up getting more.. assuming the A6100 arrives on the 16th.

I got the A6100 w/ kit lens + the 55-210mm OSS + a camera bag + a tripod + few filters. For £10 less than I originally paid.

It just so happens stock is becoming available, while I waited on vapor stock.
 
paulca said:
Well it turns out I ended up getting more.. assuming the A6100 arrives on the 16th.

I got the A6100 w/ kit lens + the 55-210mm OSS + a camera bag + a tripod + few filters. For £10 less than I originally paid.

It just so happens stock is becoming available, while I waited on vapor stock.
Click to expand...
Still no news on the one apparently in Germany?
 
cymruchris said:
Still no news on the one apparently in Germany?
Click to expand...

Nope. It's still sitting there since the 10th June. The seller spammed my OnBuy case every day saying "You got a refund, please reject the parcel on delivery" until I closed it.

Amazon now say my A6100 will arrive tomorrow. Already got the extra stuff delivered.

It should be obvious, if a parcel arrives not from Amazon, I can probably figure out if it's the long boat one and just say I can't accept it. Of course these days, they will chuck it on the door step and be gone by the time I get there. So I'll end up having to return it to the courier and pay for the return.
 
paulca said:
Nope. It's still sitting there since the 10th June. The seller spammed my OnBuy case every day saying "You got a refund, please reject the parcel on delivery" until I closed it.

Amazon now say my A6100 will arrive tomorrow. Already got the extra stuff delivered.

It should be obvious, if a parcel arrives not from Amazon, I can probably figure out if it's the long boat one and just say I can't accept it. Of course these days, they will chuck it on the door step and be gone by the time I get there. So I'll end up having to return it to the courier and pay for the return.
Click to expand...

If you can track it, maybe you can reject it online?
 
paulca said:
Nope. It's still sitting there since the 10th June. The seller spammed my OnBuy case every day saying "You got a refund, please reject the parcel on delivery" until I closed it.

Amazon now say my A6100 will arrive tomorrow. Already got the extra stuff delivered.

It should be obvious, if a parcel arrives not from Amazon, I can probably figure out if it's the long boat one and just say I can't accept it. Of course these days, they will chuck it on the door step and be gone by the time I get there. So I'll end up having to return it to the courier and pay for the return.
Click to expand...

I am sure they'll pay for the return or organise collection if they want it back
they have nothing on you now ;)

All that assuming it actually reaches you which doesn't seem very likely after all this time.
 
Woohoo! Finally arrived. I figured I'd be lazy and shoot the subject curiously watching me with my new toy.

Late EDIT: I thought I'd point out this is clean jpeg off the camera, out of the box, default set up, the only thing I went looking for and turned on was the animal eye focus, aperture priority mode and set AF to continuous. 50mm.
 
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Annoyingly the battery came next to flat. Enough to power the camera on, but it wouldn't format the SD card because of low battery.

So now I have to try and be patient and let it charge! :(
 
My first proper subject appeared out my bedroom window on Sunday.

Was quite nervous as I'd seen what it looked like last year and the phone camera just didn't cut it at all. Nervous because with a decent camera, tripod and lens I had no excuse other than being a completely noob!





I'll let them settle as they are and then have a go at editing one or two a bit. Full credit to the camera as it was not an easy task to focus on fireballs and smoke clouds at night through a window!

www.talkphotography.co.uk

11th Night Bonfires

* Disclaimer - I have no idea what I'm doing, I've only had the camera a few days. The ground stills are all shot through my bedroom window. Shooting into a night sky full of cloud was a challenge with the AF, but it struggled on and usually got something in focus in the cloud or the...
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk
 
paulca said:
Woohoo! Finally arrived. I figured I'd be lazy and shoot the subject curiously watching me with my new toy.

Late EDIT: I thought I'd point out this is clean jpeg off the camera, out of the box, default set up, the only thing I went looking for and turned on was the animal eye focus, aperture priority mode and set AF to continuous. 50mm.
Click to expand...
Good news! Which one arrived? the international one or the UK ordered one?
 
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