May 07, 2020Apos Updates

Apos Audio COVID-19/Coronavirus Update - May 8, 2020

Introduction

The on-going global pandemic brings with it a lot of unpredictability and we are doing everything we can to respond to these ups and downs while maintaining our commitment to top-notch customer service.

Earlier this week, San Francisco Bay Area extended the Shelter-in-Place order to May 30th. We’ve worked hard to put a process in place that would allow a skeleton crew to start processing returns at our Oakland facility. With the exception of this task, our Oakland fulfillment center will remain closed in compliance with the Shelter-in-Place guidelines. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to fulfill all incoming orders from our Shenzhen fulfillment center as we have done over the course of the last two months.

Rest assured, with the operational changes we've made, we expect no impact on our ability to fulfill new orders on time.

Order Fulfillment

We continue to fulfill more than 99% of orders within one business day. Where possible, we have been pushing our warehouse colleagues to fulfill more orders within the same business day, just to buy us time in case of delays from the shipping network.

As we’ve stated in our previous COVID-19 updates, our Shenzhen Fulfillment Center has implemented multiple check-points to ensure the health and safety of our staff. All areas are being sanitized and the staff is required to wear masks and other protective gear while processing any orders. We’ve also included an additional step of disinfectant spray on all shipments before courier pickup.

Out of an abundance of caution, we have also been including one-time disinfectant wipes in all shipments starting Monday, March 30. We understand that shipments go through many contact points, and the wipes are for you to use as an additional safeguard should you feel the need to do so.

Shipping

We are starting to see part of the international shipping network getting bogged down as a result of the on-going global pandemic. Due to the sharp rise in the numbers of cargo flight cancellations and the increase in international shipping volume out of Hong Kong airport, DHL told us that they are seeing an unprecedented backlog in their Hong Kong hub.

Having said that, we are doing everything we can to mitigate and alleviate the impact on the customer's side. We have been proactively upgrading shipping speed on most of the orders at our expense so it will (1) be ahead of the processing queue in the DHL hubs, and (2) take a more direct/faster route with far less risk for unexpected delays.

Needless to say, we are fully committed to the shipping time of all the orders you entrust us with. And you can continue to expect the usual transit time of 3-7 business days for our Priority Shipping service and 1-3 business days for our Express Shipping service.

Customer Support

Our Support team is continuing to lead the charge of keeping our customers informed with the status of the order as well as resolving potential issues related to an order.

As always, if you have any questions about a product, an order, or a shipment, please do not hesitate to reach out to our Support Team.

Product Returns

As we mentioned earlier, we’ve put a process in place so that a skeleton crew from our Returns Team can operate at our Oakland facility. Keeping the safety of the staff in mind, we’ve implemented extensive protocols at the fulfillment center. These include social distancing measures along with the availability of protective equipment for any staff on site.

These safety protocols and social distancing measures at the fulfillment center do slow down the returns process. We are doing our best to work on the returns as quickly as possible and our Customer Support team will always be present in case you have any questions about your return.

New Products

Our Product Team recently launched two highly anticipated products from SMSL.

The SMSL M200 is a high-resolution Bluetooth companion DAC to the heavily reviewed SMSL SP200 THX Headphone Amp and creates a sound system that is a top tier at its price point. A special combo of the SMSL M200 and SMSL SP200 is also available for Apos Audio customers at an amazing price.

The SMSL M400 is the newest DAC by SMSL that will use the latest D/A chip, the AK4499, produced by the Japanese company AKM. As one of the only SMSL Authorized Retailers based in the US, Apos Audio will be giving a 5% discount on all pre-orders in appreciation of the early supporters of this product. We started taking pre-orders on May 6th and will be shipping all orders out from our fulfillment center beginning May 12th.

One of the highly anticipated launches that is coming up later during this month is the TOPPING A90 Headphone Amp. Apos Audio is proud to be the exclusive TOPPING launch partner for the new TOPPING A90 Headphone Amp. This Amp is meant to be combined with one of the best performing DACs available in the market - the TOPPING D90. The A90 will be available for pre-order starting May 18 and first orders will ship out on May 25.

Finally, a recent release on Apos Audio was the TOPPING D90 MQA DAC, which completed the highly reviewed D90 DAC family from TOPPING. You can take a look at this phenomenal review for the D90 MQA created by Makiah Shenay from Oak Forest Audio to learn more about the product.

Our regular business updates on COVID-19 have been greatly appreciated by the community and we’ll continue to provide new information as we adapt to the changing circumstances around us. We are very grateful to all our customers for the support and well wishes they have provided us. It’s always great to hear from you and if you have any suggestions on how we can improve, please feel free to contact us.