Personally I am a little torn – I think the sensible thing to do would be to avoid Karachi based vendors for the time being as the situation is SO terrible there you just cant reasonably expect to get anything done especially if you have a time frame within which you need your outfits – just not possible.
On the other hand perhaps we should support our sisters there and continue giving them our custom to help them out?
It’s a relevant point right? I know of people who live in good areas not able to return home for three days for fear of being killed – in such a scenario can we expect to get our joras on time? If at all? Or perhaps are we being even insensitive if we expect so?
What do you think? will you continue ordering or will you look for vendors in other cities?
Vendors in Karachi - is this exaggerated? are you able to go about your daily business and can still guarantee delivery times?
Cannot say about other vendor but only of myself. I am based at Clifton, here situation is comparativly better, we pay double the charges to all our Karigars/taylors etc...and keep the margin for these situations also and, keep time margins also when committing time to our clients/orders, and always try to complete the orders before the giving time line and Alhamdolliah I have not delayed any of my parcel yet despites of all these situtaion, I always manage to send before the given time Alhamdolilah. (previously I used to give 3/4 weeks time to our clients now its 6 weeks )
What I can say in the end is not to order from untrusted source/vendor as no matter what the situation is, a trusted/reliable vendor will definilty meet the deadline... Hope it helps your concerns :)
Hey, I have some experience with ordering from Karachi designers, (Panache and a friends sister), as Panache said she's in Clifton, and my friends sister is in DHA. I've never had any timing issues with either of them.
But i have had a horrible experience with getting my clothes of a respected fb designer.. she had too many excuses, light gayi, car got stolen, my clothes were in the car that got stolen, her phuppar died (when i offered my condolences on her fb wall she deleted it straight away), didn't answer phone calls, mobile got stolen. I don't know what area she was in though. It took 5 months to 5 lawn suits!
We agree that we are having problems in getting the things done due to unannounced strikes, business closures and partial closure of markets some time. Despite these difficult situation we are working hard to meet customer expectation without passing any additional cost of operation. The only difference is the stretched deadlines so that the customer is beforehand knows when should they expect clothes. Even in this situation we are entertaining urgent orders which are possible to deliver with a day or two extra lag time.
I personally ordered 6 shirts from i-lace ( you can find them on facebook) and i'm quite impressed with their customer service. You can choose from the stuff they put on their page. They ship the clothes anywhere. They're based in Karachi and I have had no issues at all. I sent the money and they posted the clothes immediately.
I have been to Karachi recently. Last Saturday I was there. My SIL lives in clifton and the situation there does not seem to be bad at all. Living within Pakistan is totally a different scenario and viewing the circumstances from abroad specially through eyes of media is all opposite. There is lack of peace in Karachi specially but life is going on. Strikes do however affect the daily chores. Luckily when i was there for 2 days, eveything was open Passing through Zamzama, teen talwar and roaming in Dolmen mall was a total other side of Karachi as portrayed by media. Although my SIL's husband showed us the bridge where the Ulema of Jamia Binnoria were martyred, it was all life going. Port grand was scintillating with the stalls, magic show was on and the scrumptious food was quite tempting. I have lived in Pakistan till for 15 years till 2011 and have experienced the change of HALAAT myself, Pakistanis feel that they go through thick and thin. First there came 9/11 which resulted in our US slavery I was in University in those days. Then 2005-6 brought energy crisis, 2007-8 was the year when suicide bombing was seen frequently. Then the situations started worsening. Its basically that we living abroad grow more fears in ourselves and that creates problem.
Im sure vendors also would be getting affected but I really salute them that they work in all such odd situations. However I being a Lahorite has done a lot of shopping in months of dec, jan and feb although heard a lot about the stealing, burglary etc. Just i guess we are brave as a nation