pinephone lost?

[janw]

Because I've still not received my BH pinephone, I contacted the local post service of Belgium (bpost) and asked them if they know where my  pinephone is.

I've got an answer back (in Dutch). They say that my pinephone has never arrived at bpost (latest scan is "event Awaiting presentation to Customs") and I should contact the sender

What should I do? Wait a little-bit longer? Or is it better to contact service at pine64.org?
Note that I don't want my money back, I just want to play with a pinephone

Code:

Naar aanleiding van uw aanvraag in verband met uw zending RSXXXXXXXXXCH, stuur ik u deze e-mail.
Na onderzoek ben ik tot de conclusie gekomen dat uw zending niet is toegekomen bij bpost. Laatste scan nog steeds "event Awaiting presentation to Customs" .
Volgens de internationale postregelgeving verlopen compensatieprocedures altijd via de afzender. Daarom vraag ik u contact op te nemen met de afzender. Die kan een dossier laten openen bij de buitenlandse postdiensten die uw vraag verder opvolgen. Uiteraard kunnen zij rekenen op onze volledige medewerking.

[colin hodsdon]

i found the best way is to sign up for "text updates " ,more reliable than emails (for this purpose).

If your device is with customs --- 3 days to 3 weeks, once they go into customs ,its like they fell in a black hole
No No info, till it suddenly , re appears
needs to be signed for ,unless you have a lockbox

[janw]

Mmm, according to https://www.reddit.com/r/pinephone/comme...e/fiye9qj/ I'm not the only one in Belgium that hasn't received the BH pinephone. So I will wait just a little-bit longer.

[kiddailey]

I'm having a very similar situation with my shipment to the U.S. where it has been at customs for a month.  After some digging and a few hours on the phone to customs and the various postal organizations, I was informed that I needed to have the sender (Pine64) contact the Switzerland Postal Service to start an "International Inquiry" in order for customs to release my package.  No reason was provided.

I was told that the International Inquiry needs to come from the Swiss Post because that was listed as the country of origin for the package (thus the "CH" in the tracking number) and only the sender (Pine64) can submit the request.

I contacted Pine64 and asked for their help with it.  Still waiting to see if anything happens.

[mogwai]

I'm in the same boat: ordered a pinephone destined for Belgium.  My delivery has also been stuck in customs since Feb 4th.
I first contacted bpost more than a week ago.  They mentioned I should just wait another week because customs were "behind".  Mind you, at that moment they already had the package for more than three weeks.

Today I contacted them again.  I got an email address of the backend customs organization: backoffice.customs@bpost.be . I got a response within half an hour saying that they were waiting for a "proper proof of payment" ("correct betalingsbewijs), and that the package would have been sent back to the sender if they would not have got that proof of payment within a couple days.  I've just sent them the confirmation email that I got from pine64.

While typing this message, I've just received an email that my package has been cleared and should be delivered within the next couple of days.  Extra costs to be payed to postal services are 61.12 EUR.  The status is still not updated on the tracking website.  I hope that will happen within the next couple of hours.

Anyway, the whole email conversation took less than an hour.  So I'm a bit frustrated why I had to wait almost 5 weeks only to get the whole thing wrapped up in an hour.  I've asked them whether I should have got a request for more information earlier, and through which channel I should have got that message.  Let's see if I still get a reply ...

---

Small update: apparently we were supposed to get a physical letter through the mail asking for more information about the shipment.
Since there are at least three people from Belgium that did not yet get their phones, and who also did not get a letter (or at least they did not mention getting a letter), it might be the case that somehow no letters were sent at all for the entire Belgian batch.

In other words, Belgian customs are waiting for our inputs even though the letters asking for input have most likely never been sent.
So if you don't take action yourself, most likely your phone will be sent back to Hong Kong in a matter of days from now.

[janw]

In other words, Belgian customs are waiting for our inputs even though the letters asking for input have most likely never been sent.
So if you don't take action yourself, most likely your phone will be sent back to Hong Kong in a matter of days from now.

Thanks for sharing this information! I've just send an email to "backoffice.customs@bpost.be".

[janw]

In other words, Belgian customs are waiting for our inputs even though the letters asking for input have most likely never been sent.
So if you don't take action yourself, most likely your phone will be sent back to Hong Kong in a matter of days from now.

Thanks for sharing this information! I've just send an email to "backoffice.customs@bpost.be".

I've not received any response. I'll guess that I just give it up. No pinephone for me

[mogwai]

I've finally received my pinephone yesterday after paying 61.12 EUR.

[janw]

I've not received any response. I'll guess that I just give it up. No pinephone for me

Some follow up:
On 10 March, I've created a support ticket at https://support.pine64.org/.
On 11 March, I've received an email of support:

Code:

Hello Jan Wagemakers,
Shall we get Pine64 Sales Team to assist on your case.
Please to inform you that now we close this ticket as the issue is follow up by Sales Team.
If you have any issue, you are welcome to create new ticket.

Hello Pine64 Sales Team,
Please assist on Jan Wagemakers.

Your understanding and patience is greatly appreciated.

support team#2...

Since then, I haven't heard anything.

Some thoughts: Asendia Hong Kong has received my pinephone at 22 Jan, so that was

Code:

echo $(((`date +%s -d now`-`date +%s -d 20200122`)/(60*60*24)))
56

days ago. And according Belgian Post tracking, customs has received my pinephone at 5 feb, so that was

Code:

echo $(((`date +%s -d now`-`date +%s -d 20200205`)/(60*60*24)))
42

days ago.

This is all taking a very long time... So, for me this asendia shipping is a very bad experience. I don't know what the plans are for shipping the final pinephones, but maybe it's a good idea to give people an alternative option for shipping?

[janw]

Today, I see this on the track and trace of bpost (Belgian post).

• Documents received for clearance
  
• 2020-03-20 | 09:40
  

So, hopefully my pinephone will arrive soon.