Matt, Hobie, please, any information on shipping to Europe?

Hello. I am writing this message with the hope that I might get some feedback from Matt Miller, who is usually very helpful on this forum, or anyone else from Hobie.

Please don't take my message negatively. I am deeply in love with your brand. But I am going through a very frustrating experience.

After many years of dreaming about it, I finally ordered a Hobie Tandem Island (dune) in February. I live in Switzerland. I was told by my dealer (who is extremely kind and supportive) that it would arrive in April, then, in May, then in June. I really needed it for the summer. In the end, it arrived at the end of July, when I was on holidays in another country. To make things worse, the hull arrived damaged. Following the advice of other Hobie Tandem Island owners, I told the dealer I preferred to wait for a non-damaged TI, which he kindly accepted. But I am now stuck waiting again, and I have received zero indications on when it could arrive. Hobie doesn't even give an estimate to the dealer. Apparently, until containers physically arrive in Europe, the dealers don't even know what they'll be receiving.

I find this all very difficult to understand, in times of digital trackings of shipments. And it is rather painful and inconvenient not to have a clue on whether I will need to wait another month, three months, six months, or even more for a kayak that I ordered long ago, that took much more than expected to arrive (ruining my summer plans, but that's my problem) and that finally arrived damaged.

Is there any way to get any updates?

Thank you very much,

Chess

A story that's been dominating US news is the problems with the California container ports. Problem with US news is we tend to think local and not world-wide. Shipping is a disaster worldwide, with ships stacked off of ports throughout the world. Southern China, last I heard had over 100 ships waiting for berths in those ports.

For the ports that don't have ships waiting to get in, there's a shortage of containers. All those containers sitting in ships waiting to be emptied are causing containers to be in extremely short supply. Any tracking system that existed seems to have completely broken down in the disaster.

So your dealer and Hobie not knowing where your TI is or when it will arrive is unfortunately the present norm. No one in the shipping industry has an answer on how to get out of this mess, other than to work through it one container at a time. Estimates at the moment is sometime in spring 2022 is when we'll see this straightened out.

There's nothing much anyone can tell you, other than a lot of people and companies have the same problem.

Jim Clark-Dawe

I have shared your post with the Hobie importer in Holland who handles your territory. He will hopefully reach out to you or your selling dealer to give an update - yes - we have been hit by many parts shortages and are behind on many orders but doing the best we can to fill all orders as quick as possible.

_________________
Jacques Bernier
http://www.hobie.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HobieCatCompany

Thank you very much for your kind reply, Jim!

And thank you, Jacques, for getting in touch with Hobie Europe. The Swiss dealer reached out and told me that I would have to wait at least until the spring to receive the Tandem Island that I ordered in February. That's a pretty long wait! But there's nothing my dealer or I can do about it. At least I now know what to expect.

I would kindly like to ask Hobie to do its best to speed up the production and shipping, as challenging as it might be, but also to try to keep their regional hubs and dealers informed.

Once again, thank you for your kind support.

Chess