BREAKING NEWS: X-Pole Australia shipping/delivery delays.

UPDATE 22/06/2020: X-Pole Australia has received their shipment, approximately 1 month later than expected. They are in the process of preparing the orders to be sent out, and have reminded people who are waiting on their deliveries that it can take 7-10 days from shipment to delivery.

See their update from Facebook:

Today X-Pole released a statement regarding the shipping status of much-anticipated pre-ordered stock. The TL:DR is basically:

• Pre-ordered stock is on the APL England vessel that lost 40 shipping containers.
• X-Pole stock does not appear to have been in one of the lost containers.
• There will be further delays to delivery as the APL England ship inventories and secures remaining containers.
• X-Pole is offering refunds to anyone waiting for a pre-order that would like their money back, in place of waiting.

Dear Customers, OFFICIAL STATEMENT RE: SHIPPING DELAYS Monday 25th May we were advised by our shipping agents that our May shipment has been affected by delays owing to bad weather. We notified people immediately on our Facebook & by individual emails (as enquiries came in). After one or two customers inquired about the possibility that our container could be on the APL England vessel (after extensive news coverage), we have been chasing more information from our freight agents; & we can now confirm that our container (with all your orders) is on this vessel. We were notified of this late yesterday afternoon by our logistics/shipping guys: another one of their clients has lost a container, 21 of the 40 containers that were lost in the ocean were empty, and others that were lost or damaged contained a variety of products (face masks, coles plastic food containers, building supplies, gazebos, aircon ducting, airplane seats & household appliances). This morning we have been officially notified by our shipping agents: “Assessment of the vessel is still being done. However at this stage the carrier has released a list of all affected containers. As per the attached your container is not on the list. Carriers are not fielding calls regarding the status of individual containers at the moment.” So whilst the shipping/transit time delays will be longer than initially thought, we now know exactly why & we want to share this information with you as quickly as possible for complete transparency. We do have Marine Cargo insurance and contingency plans in place should an event like this ever affect us. However, after waiting so long for this stock, our concern was not so much the monetary side, as the lack of poles to dance on!! Our factory orders are placed 3-4 months ahead of dispatch, so losing this consignment would have meant massive delays. For those that are fed up waiting, or are angry: we are more than happy to facilitate refunds. In 15 years of X-POLE this is completely unprecedented, and it will most likely open discussion on whether we open presale going forwards… we welcome people’s thoughts on this – if constructive! We are actually feeling super grateful & relieved that our poles are safely tucked away in the container & are still on board for delivery to us in the coming weeks. So yes, bad news – we are affected as in we are on that ship. Good news – we are told our container is ok. Bad news – we have to wait for them to make safe the boat – restack the containers & do their reports before we get the stock. Good news – your poles are not underwater mermaid poles & will be able to be used by humans on land  This is as much information as we have right now.Any further updates will be posted on our Facebook page in a pinned post including the new ETA for the vessel arriving to Sydney, stock unpack & dispatch & any further news. We are feeling pretty blessed. Concerned about our oceans, but grateful. At this point the revised vessel arrival is June 13th, but should we hear any differently we will update you all. These emails often disappear into Junkmail, so please check & follow our Facebook for the latest information & notifications. Thank you also to those customers who inquired with us about the vessel & made us concerned enough to push our freight guys for answers.  Read more about the container loss here. NB: We will be sending this update by email – however as our emails often get lost in spam folders – please follow our FB and check back here for updates  Sincerely, Jessie Dee – DirectorX-POLE Australia

I’ll update further if/when we receive more information.

If you’re looking to buy a home pole or pole stage in Australia, check out our Poles and Aerial Rigging directory to find a supplier.

Have you been affected by these shipping delays? Let me know in the comments.