I checked with a friend who is in NZ and who was able to provide a tiny bit more insight here.
All major shipping companies provided rather drastic price increases for ‘bulky items’.
Despite the various trade agreements in place this had a big impact on local businesses already which rely on imported products.
Right now the only feasible option is to order in huge bulk quantities to use shipping containers, rather than several smaller orders spread out.
Then there is this weird business model that was set in place.
NZ businesses are fine but ‘imported’ businesses face extra taxing.
So the old concept of just having a big distribution warehouse and postal head office no longer works.
Who is to blame here ?
Of course we can blame Bambu to some extent as it really is not nice to just dump your customers like this and without any announcement or Email notification.
But we also have to look at the NZ and AU governments and how their trade and other deals affect people and businesses on the lower end.
For Bambu it makes a lot of sense to drop out of the direct market and to switch to authorised resellers only.
Sadly they make this move long before their dealer network is up to specs and able to also provide the required technical support.
And well, what good is it for the customer to see something listed by the company that costs significantly more through the reseller ?
It is insulting as the reseller gets the volume discounts but forwards all costs plus extra profits to the customer - knowing they have no other options left.
My friend is badly affected here as he builds custom housing for things like speakers, electronics and such, relying on the supply of parts in small volumes.
He said that right now it is often cheaper to order linear actuators and such from Europe or the US rather than China or Australia - because they still offer cheaper postage that local services.
On a larger picture it falls in line with the global move to weed out the reliance on imports while strengthening the local economy.
No more on-demand-production, back to warehousing and hoarding while the consumer forks out the costs.
One would think that if two country make dedicated trade agreements that they would consider the shipping problem…