Why Is My Sauna Taking So Long to Arrive? (My Personal Experience)

We’ve been seeing more and more sauna shipping delays lately—and it’s not just one brand. In this video, I share what’s happening behind the scenes with third-party logistics companies and how even we’re running into issues with our own delivery here in Florida.

If your sauna is taking weeks longer than expected, you’re not alone. This kind of delay used to be rare, but something’s shifted across the industry. Here’s what we’re experiencing and what you need to know before planning your setup, filming day, or delivery.

Read the transcript >

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Transcript

So I don’t know how to preface this, but we are having issues ourselves with getting a sauna delivered. I see complaints in the Facebook group of people having issues with various sauna brands. It’s not just limited to one. And just today, we’re having our own issue now.

We’re trying to get Aaron’s sauna scheduled delivery and then set up time for film crew to go over there, also help with the install. And there’s a process that we got to schedule out. And the shipping coordinator for the distribution hub here in Central Florida is not cooperating.

Would you say, Aaron? I would say they’re not cooperating. So the deal is, unless he’s wrong, I got him to confirm that the shipment has arrived. So it’s no longer still in transit.

It’s here at the hub in Central Florida, but they don’t want to start scheduling until two weeks from now. Well, that just doesn’t work. I have a flight the day before. It’s probably 25 minutes from where we live.

Like we could literally go there with a truck and pick it up. So it’s a little frustrating. This has happened a little bit in the past, but it seems to be more prevalent as of late. I don’t know if it’s new 3PL fulfillment, logistics agreements or something like that.

But usually I only run into these issues when I’m in Maine. And that’s because it’s super remote. I mean, I’m a hundred miles from the closest Walmart. I’m three hours from an airport.

It’s back in the boonies on a dirt road. It’s normal for you to have to wait several weeks for a delivery like that or for them to schedule, especially in wintertime. They don’t send 18 wheelers up there on snow days This is summertime. We’re in central Florida.

We’re right in the heart of Orlando in downtown and right behind the Orlando international airport, there is literally shipping hub and storage industrial for every single major carrier there is. That’s only, it’s less than a half an hour drive from any of us. And we live in different parts of the city.

So I don’t know, this is really frustrating. I just wanted to talk about it. I wanted to touch on it because it’s happening in real time. We were going to record the call.

We just didn’t even think about it. On one hand, it’s kind of mean or rude.

Because it’s like some outsourced call center. And the guy doesn’t know any better. He’s just doing his job. On the other hand, this sucks.

This bull and Aaron’s laughing because the guy said, is there anything else that I can help you with at the end of the call? And I was like, yeah, quicker delivery, right? Cause how do you work with this? I’m used to it in Maine.

There’s like physical circumstance where it’s warranted, right? What am I going to say? Oh, don’t come three hours to the boonies on a dirt road on a snow day with an 18 wheeler that you can’t turn around because the snow bank is too high. Okay.

I mean, he doesn’t know, but we get the bulldozer out and pull them out, but that’s not the point, right? That’s not the point though. There’s none of those limitations where we are. This should be really easy.

And I don’t know what the solution is because not all carriers are like this. Usually they have routes. They deliver around the city on a route, usually two days a week. You can do like a Tuesday or a Thursday or a Monday or a Friday or something like that.

So if they miss you on one or you have to work or you got something that, you know, whatever, you have to pick your kids up, whatever it is, they’ll usually get you on the next one, but never weeks in advance to schedule an initial delivery. And I’ve waited for these delivery windows before and sometimes they don’t show up.

So I’m not going to base travel and flights and everything else on a maybe two weeks from now. So yeah, these companies have to do better. I don’t really know how to fix this. Unfortunately, it’s not the manufacturer or the sauna company that, you know, you buy the sauna from that’s the end result here.

I guess there is some responsibility on their part because they’re choosing which partners to use for distribution and shipping, but sometimes it filters down from the company they use to the local distribution hub. Cause the people that we’re talking to and communicating with have nothing to, they’re just a logistics company.

They have nothing to do with any of the sauna companies. So it’s like you can call the sauna company until you’re blue in the face, but it’s really how the logistics companies are getting pushed out of areas because of Amazon and all these.

delivery companies, there’s a shakeup in that industry right now. And so five years ago we never had troubles like this, but right now, um, man, this seems to be a pretty big issue. And short of taking the lift gate truck to the damn thing and banging on the door and saying, Hey, give us the shipment, which a lot of times they won’t do.

Um, I don’t know what to do about it. We’ll figure it out. You say that, but I’ll be gone. I’ll figure it out.