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Nat!

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A very bad experience with Globalshopex (updated once more)

Short version: GlobalShopex has no clue how to run a proper shipping business. Customer should expect to be lied to by GlobalShopex at any time. Priority Shipping costs you more, has no effect.

I wanted to send some sports equipment to friends in the carribean. A problem with that is, that when you send a package from Germany to a middle american country, that the receiver often will have to pay import duties and fees. These can be quite high and possibly too high for the recipient. DHL in Germany has an option to prepay these duties and fees, but it is only available to professional mailers.

After some research I found out, that in the U.S. there are one or two online sport shops, which have the option to send out their wares internationally with all duties and taxes prepaid. Exactly what I needed. They use a service from a company called GlobalShopex. (Later I learned there are others like BongoUS etc)

This is the order I placed:

Naively I even payed for priority shipping, because the increased delivery speed sounded good to me for $12:

On the day of my order I got the Order Confirmation and then one day after placing my order I got :

Dear Customer,

Order : XXXXXX

Your order is undergoing our verification process. As soon as your order is approved (or declined) you will receive an email notification. Please be aware this process may take between 48 to 72 hours. For additional questions please do not reply to this email, please contact us at helpdesk@globalshopex.com

Kind Regards,

and five minutes later I got this:

Dear Customer

Order : XXXXXX

We are glad to inform that your payment has been approved. As soon as your order is completed you will receive an email confirmation. If you have any additional questions, please contact us at helpdesk@globalshopex.com

Kind Regards,


OK, that looked fine to me. I also got a link to a status page on their site, which initially read and still reads to this day:

Order Destination Name Order Date Total Track No Status
000XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX 5/21/2013 3:34:12 PM $529.38 Not Available Yet In transit to GS warehouse


That status page should never change. It certainly didn't in the first week. Being a priority shipment customer I got a little bit upset. So I mailed them:

Hi

I would like to know, if you could tell me, why the order is taking so long ?
I actually payed 12 $ more to use express shipping, but so far the wares haven't even reached your Miami warehouse yet much less XXXXXX it seems. It seems like wasted money to me.

Regards

And that was the reply from GlobalShopEx:

Dear Georg,

We apologize for the delay in our processing. However, when it comes to orders when the shipping and billing addresses are in different countries, we need to double check all the information related to your order, so we can avoid errors. Your order has already been processed and the store will send your items shortly.

If you have any questions, please contact us at helpdesk@globalshopex.com or give us a call at (786) 3147144 during our business hours, Monday to Friday from 09:30 AM to 05:30 PM EST


Kind Regards,

This already quite frankly didn't really ring truthful with me. I paid with a credit card, what other problems could they be having with a foreign billing address ? But what do I know about the internal procedures of a shipping corporation...

Another week goes by and nothing happens, so I ask again what the status is. They reply:

Dear Georg,

Thank you for contacting GlobalShopex! Where customers meet brands!

We are glad to inform you that your international order is on its way!

Order number: 000XXXXXX

Your order has been received from the store. As soon as we process it, it will be shipped and we will send a Tracking number so that you may follow your order until it arrives at its final destination.


We would like to remind you that our shipping time frame for priority orders is of approximatly 10 business days.

If you have any questions, please contact us at helpdesk@globalshopex.com or give us a call at (786) 3147144 during our business hours Monday to Friday from 09:30 to 05:30 EST.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Kind Regards,

So the goods are in the GS warehouse now ? My status page doesn't show it. Interesting how the advertised priority shipping time frame from 5 to 7 has now increased to 10. So why did I pay $12 extra again ? Lets ask:

I am very glad to hear that the order is on its way, but I would like to remind you, that by my observation we are already on the 12th or 13th business day, and as far as I know the package hasn't even been shipped to XXXXXX yet. I am just unhappy that I paid "priority" for it, but I don't see this getting any priority.

Also on my status page it says "In transit to GS warehouse" meaning is still not at your place ?

Regards

Now this coaxes the following reply out of  them. Interestingly from here on they often address me as Glenford (the recipient), so I assume they actually have the wares and their internal focus of the order is now the recipient.

Dear Glenford,

Your international order is on its way!

We deeply apologize for the delays, the order will ship as soon as our warehouse team finishes processing it. However we will ask if it's possible to rush this order.

We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused.

If you have any questions, please contact us at helpdesk@globalshopex.com or give us a call at (786) 3147144 during our business hours, Monday to Friday from 09:30 AM to 05:30 PM EST

Kind Regards,

Predictably nothing happens for another week! This time I call them by phone and ask what the problem is. The guy on the phone promises me that the package will be sent out today and to send me a tracking number. Indeed I get an email which reads:

Dear Georg,

Your order has already been received at our warehouse and it will be shipped to final destination during today. You will receive an email with a tracking number so you can follow your order through the shipping process.

Kind Regards,

Did I get a tracking number ? Ha, of course not. The next day, I get a mail from the "Lead Customer Support Representative" though:

Dear Glenford,

Order : 000XXXXXX

We are contacting you regarding the order you placed with WorldSoccerShop.
Upon receiving your order we were made aware there will be additional fees for shipping your order given that once we contact our local courier in your area to arrange delivery they reevaluate the cost of packaging, sending and delivering items to your desired shipping destination while maintaining the integrity of the parcel.

Due to operational issues they are sometimes forced to increase the cost of the estimate the initially provided and which is reflected in our system.

When you initially place your order and select international shipping it is stated that the shipping costs may vary considerably based on four factors:

-Order size & weight (volumetric weight)

-Destination country

-Shipping preference

-Duties & taxes collected by your government

We require an additional $54.32 USD in order to ship your order.

To pay for this added cost we will need your authorization to charge the credit card you initially used to submit your payment.

If you do not agree to this charge we will need to cancel the order since we will not be able to complete your order.

We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.



Now the part  "it is stated that the shipping costs may vary" is a plain lie. Nowhere not even in the fineprint of their terms and conditions is that stated. Quite the contrary on "International Checkout Button" it says the customer will see their "guaranteed shipping and duties and taxes".

I hate doing business with liars, so I am pretty clear I am not going to pay a penny more. If they had done my order promptly and not have stalled as much as possible, I might even have paid the extra $50, but they lost my goodwill now for sure. So I write them:


sorry, but no. That was never stated anywhere. As attachments I send you a copy of my order and the output from what I just got with another order on Worldsoccershop that is the same as mine (but of course I actually didn't submit it). As you can see this is nowhere mentioned anywhere, not even in your terms of condition.

Regards

In parallel I contacted Worldsoccershop:

Hi

I would like your opinion on an order I made at your shop using globalshopex. I placed an order for a Select Numero 10 Soccer Ball Package and a Kwik Goal Universal Stop Watch. The subtotal is $340. The additonal fees, shipping and duty were calculated to be an additional $190 dollars. I was fine with that and placed my order.

After waiting for a long time with no real progress I got the following mail from globalshopex (see attachment for full email) last week:

--

Due to operational issues they are sometimes forced to increase the cost of the estimate the initially provided and which is reflected in our system. When you initially place your order and select international shipping it is
stated that the shipping costs may vary considerably based on four factors:

-Order size & weight (volumetric weight)
-Destination country
-Shipping preference
-Duties & taxes collected by your government


We require an additional $54.32 USD in order to ship your order.
---

But that is untrue, it was never conveyed on any of the web pages nor in the terms and conditions, that the shipping cost are only an estimate.

So I would like to know what you think of the situation. Obviously to me it's been a highly unsatisfactory experience so far. And as a customer I feel being fooled with by your fulfillment agency. The additional $50 push the whole order into a price range, where it is just not very interesting any more.

Regards

GlobalShopEx now figured that putting their head in the sand like an Ostrich and playing dead was a viable CRM strategy for them. I didn't hear from them for a while. This is what World Soccer Shop answered:

Dear Georg,

Thank you for your email. I am so very sorry for the issues you have
experienced while ordering through GlobalShopEx.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find where they stated that shipping
prices can change during our ordering process either. However, it is
possible that this information may be included on their own website,
http://www.globalshopex.com/how_it_works.asp.

Since GlobalShopEx now has the package, it is up to them to deliver the
order and we would be unable to change how much they charge you for
shipping. We do suggest that you contact GlobalShopEx to discuss this
matter. They may be able to provide you with the location of this
statement on their website and resolve this matter with you.

Again, I apologize for the frustration and inconvenience this matter
must create for you.

Sincerely,



Well certainly World Soccer Shop didn't want to get involved in the dispute (no thanks from me), but they were also puzzled about the shipping price change. Since GlobalShopEx hasn't replied yet, although they claim they always would within 48 hours, lets politely tell them again to ship the package:

Dear Sirs

I contacted worldsoccershop to ask about their opinion about this matter of my order 000XXXXXX. They answered me and shared my point of view with regards to the checkout process:

--quote from email--
Unfortunately, I was unable to find where they stated that shipping
prices can change during our ordering process either. However, it is
possible that this information may be included on their own website,
http://www.globalshopex.com/how_it_works.asp.
--

Now this link was very helpful, since your website explicitly states that the checkout shows "guaranteed shipping and duties and taxes fees" and not an estimate.

--quote from http://www.globalshopex.com/how_it_works.asp--

International Checkout Button: How It Works

GlobalShopex is a fully integrated solution that enables merchants to sell worldwide without any risk. Once the international customer adds product to cart and chooses the international checkout button, they are simply transferred to a localized checkout page to finalize their order. The checkout is tailored to each individual country, customers can view their ***guaranteed shipping and duties and taxes fees*** in local currency and pay with various international payment methods.
--

I therefore ask you to please send my package to its destination, without any delay or any added surcharges.

Regards

Maybe I should have brought up the issue, that this was clearly no priority shipping and that they should give me my $12 back. :)

Today, since I didn't get any reply from my last two emails  (another week..), I figured it was time to call again. But the first time the phone rang I got through but was then disconnected and the second time the same. Maybe someone didn't want to deal with a caller from Germany ? :) Just speculation...

But about an hour later I got an email from GlobalShopEx:

Dear Glenford,

While we understand your point, we are currently reviewing our shipping rates, due to a sudden increase in shipping costs with our courier company. This has caused the need to ask for this charges, but we are already working to make sure that this kind of requests are not needed again.

If you do not accept this rates we will be forced to cancel your order as we wont be able to ensure the shipping.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate in contacting us at helpdesk@globalshopex.com or give us a call at 786314714 during our business hours, Monday to Friday from 09:30 AM to 05:30 PM.

Kind regards,

Yeah, yeah. What were operational issues last week are now a sudden increase in shipping costs... Finally after four weeks GlobalShopEx comes clear with the reasons for their stalling. I assume their checkout code was probably just miscalculating and noone wanted to stand up for the error.  I don't want to pay the $50 to cover up their internal errors, but I also don't want these weasels to make a single cent from this desaster. So I wrote:

Dear Sirs,

i stand on my opinion that you are obligated to send my parcel to its the destination at the agreed upon price. Nevertheless the whole experience with globalshopex has been entirely unsatisfactory, so if you give me a complete refund with no subtractions, and only then, I would be willing to let this be cancelled.

You can be sure, that I will publicize my misadventure with you to warn others about a company that apparently takes no pride in its business, underdelivers on its own promises and even misrepresents facts to their customers.

Regards

Is this the end or is it going to be lawyer time ? Only the future knows...

Update: It was the end. I got my full money back and my order status page now reads "Cancelled". Also putting in the searchterms "bad experience globalshopex" in Google returns this page as the second hit. Not bad :)

My other theory is, that GlobalShopEx may have stalled so long, because it hoped to aggregate my shipment with other shipments to my destination to save costs. But these shipments never appeared. In the end, they saw they wouldn't make any profit and bailed.

Second Update:

I was able to procure what are arguably better quality balls than what I would have gotten in the states for $200 instead of $300. Then I persuaded some friends in the destination to layout the duty and fees for me. The duty and fees only amounted to $30. The shipping by DHL was $70 and it took less than three weeks, although this time I didn't pay extra for priority shipping.

So in comparison when sending soccer balls to the caribs:
US soccer balls + GlobalShopEx $300 + $250 =$550
German soccer balls + DHL + friends $200 + $100 = $300
Ridiculous.


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