My advice: AVOID Viabox for package forwarding!!

[papinist]

Hi guys,
I want to tell you my misadventure with the package forwarding service Viabox.
We started to talk about how to order from US with minimal shipping costs (in THIS thread) and we found some good services.
These package forwarding services give you an US address, often in a tax free state (like Oregon or New Hampshire), collect all your orders and ship the to you in a single box to save on shipping costs.

In my case I decided to use Viabox since its specs are the best of all: no monthly fee, no deposit fee, no pictures\repacking\consolidation fees.

So I registered about on october 15th, got my new address in Portland (!) and started buying things from ebay, cjponyparts, amazon and so on. My orders slowly appeared on my account dashboard, and on november 10th I asked pictures of my orders and repackaging\consolidation (they said that pictures should be requested before consolidation).
They took 8 day to consolidate all, but the link for pictures always stay on "loading..." and can't see nothing. When I asked about that, they said that I should ask for pictures before consolidation (!) Ok, no problem, I now want they send my package because I want it before christmas. Consider that every request should be done via web ticketing system, and every replies from viabox requires at least 2-3 days.

However, before the end of November I did the shipping process and on december 4th it said shipped. Yay! I choose Aramex because it's cheaper, requires 4-7 business days that are ok for me. Shipping is split into two packages and was 330 USD.

On december 14 I receive one of the two package (via Dubai-London-Milan), the other seems to be in Portugal, via London-Belgium-Portugal, and the day after it reports Milan, in customs waiting for customer instructions. So I called the Aramex italian representative (Air Express) but they said that package, even if tracking said Milan, was still in Portugal. They can't do anything until package is phisically in Italy.

But unfortunately now the problems begin!

Air Express tried to contact Aramex Portugal and Aramex USA without luck - no reply to email and no answer to phone calls. They said I should contact the sender because they can see the real situation. So I confidently contacted viabox... after the 2-3 days delay (I already explained the situation) they simply replied "tracking said that package is in Milan, Italy". Moderately upset I replied to them whit an angry message, and afte SEVEN days they replied "tracking said package is in Milan, Italy. You should contact aramex italian offices to declare customs informations" :frusty:
Meanwhile I tried to write email to aramex portugal, issued a complaint to aramex usa but no one replied!! I still have the complaint open with aramex usa, dated december 28!

Since I can't see a simple solution, I open a dispute on paypal to protect at least the delivery value! With my surprise, viabox replied very promptly saying that they cares of me and will try to contact aramex, but I should close the dispute to not slow the solving of the problem

I continued to contact viabox with very angry and rude messages, I was very upset because it's not possible to lost a package full of stuff like that! On top of that, I declared only 100 USD as value mainly for lowering custom fees, but also because they never told me what orders were inside what packages!

After many messages, jan 14 they send me a screenshot of mails with aramex, where they said that have contacted london headquarters: package left for Italy but never arrived. They will try to gather some more info and then reports.
So my package is lost.

Viabox continues to ask me to close paypal dispute, because they can't issue a claim with aramex with dispute open but paypal is my only and last defense against its bad service. So after the last message (I asked about refund and they said I could at max get back the declared value - even they know what was inside the package!) I changed the dispute to a claim. Now paypal should decide who is right.

They have the worst service I ever found in many years of online shopping: bad customer service, bad user dashboard, poor information on package received, bad shipping procedure. But the worst is the slow reply, and the stupid (or apparently stupid) behaviour of the customer service.
They take advantage of the fact that they are in Oregon and I am in Italy.. I can't go there and punch their face, I can't open a complaint with lawyers and so on.. but I have never found a bad service like that.

Shipping was 330 USD for two boxes, even if I received one they made some mess with info and the shipping costs appears as for only one package.. the one that was lost. I sure will lose some money because that package had about 230 USD of goods inside, but if I can get back the entire shipping value it's not bad.

I know that sh*t happens, but you (customer service) should give all the assistance to a customer in this situation!

So my advice is: before using one of these services, first try to contact customer service and based on the speed and type of reply, choose it or not.

:shrug:

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[John577]

Oh man, sad to hear that mate. :(

That so crazy that now, in 2016, a shipping company can always lose a package !! :doh:
And that 2 packages, that goes out from ONE place, takes 2 differents ways to arrive at home...

Hope that everything goes well for you...

 

[Nordic]

Damn, I had some problems too with my shipping company, the owner started to drink and went out of business, now the previous owner has payed the rent for the warehouse and will send me my parts I hope.
Everytime it involves american cars or car parts there is always a lot of gold seekers that cant be trusted involved, I will buy my parts direct from CJ or Steeda in the future, it will cost a little more but it is worth it.

 

[Ericc B]

Man that blows. The concept of collecting stuff into one shipment has some disadvantages too apparently.

I used Stackry once, to get a set of GT grills from an eBay seller who didn't want to ship internationally. That went quite well I must say. But it was just once package that they didn't even have to open, just forward it and done.

 

[papinist]

Oh man, sad to hear that mate. :(

That so crazy that now, in 2016, a shipping company can always lose a package !! :doh:
And that 2 packages, that goes out from ONE place, takes 2 differents ways to arrive at home...

Hope that everything goes well for you...

yes really strange, but probably it was already lost even before arriving in europe since tracking reported portugal but as far as I understood, it never came to portugal.
I agree that to me seems impossible to lost a package in 2016.. but I think it's not lost, it's stolen from someone that knows how to report it as still in transit through some other countries.. and then it will be impossible to track back!

Damn, I had some problems too with my shipping company, the owner started to drink and went out of business, now the previous owner has payed the rent for the warehouse and will send me my parts I hope.
Everytime it involves american cars or car parts there is always a lot of gold seekers that cant be trusted involved, I will buy my parts direct from CJ or Steeda in the future, it will cost a little more but it is worth it.

I remember your story, hope you will get your parts soon!

I bought the rear US ecoboost panel, redline hood struts, T10 led parking lights, switchbacks and a few minor stuff mustang related. I bought from different shops so a service like this is very useful, though risky in case of problems because you already paid these stuff but they are delivered to another address :tsk:

Oh, just to be clear: I'm not blaming only Viabox but also Aramex. A courier service impossible to contact needs to go bankruptcy.
Just for fun , this is the tracking:
http://www.aramex.com/express/track-results.aspx?q=aWQ9MzgwMDI4OTI5Jg==-8sg8qyLVs/M=

 

[papinist]

Man that blows. The concept of collecting stuff into one shipment has some disadvantages too apparently.

I used Stackry once, to get a set of GT grills from an eBay seller who didn't want to ship internationally. That went quite well I must say. But it was just once package that they didn't even have to open, just forward it and done.

Yes in the other thread someone used stackry too, and I'll try it to get these parts! I'm not losing faith on the system :amen:

 

[Nordic]

I wonder why it cleared customs in Portugal when Italy was final destination, it should have been in transit like in London and Belgium, I guess someone in Portugal got some mustang parts...

 

[papinist]

yes my same thought or it never went to portugal since the other package went straight from london to italy.

 

[gojensen]

I lost a parcel from the UK so shot happens everywhere... Bought from eBay so I got a full refund...

1 month later eBay contacts me because their shipper (Pitney Bowes) wants my social I'd to declare the package... Which coincidentally is exempt from tax declarations so there's no need for that...

Told them to stuff it!

Also if you can stay far away from eBay global shipping programme - it's horrendously expensive, stupidly slow and feels like a scam. A lot of US eBay erst use this for international shipping now because it's easy for them - I believe they just ship it to a local forwarder.

Same goes for Pitney and Bowes. I'll stick with Royal mail thank you very much...

 

[friendgr]

I'm very sorry to hear for your bad experience papinist.

On the contrary I have used stackry on Christmas (for santa claus gifts) and I'm 1000% satisfied. Not 100, 1000.

I have bought two separate packages from Amazon total value of $200
I have consolidated for $2 for each package. Total $4
I selected to put my own description and my own declared value ;) This was the best part

Next day was ready to ship with USPS priority mail ($60 for a boots size box). I receieved it after ten days , with ZERO import taxes ;)

Also they,re replying to my queries within the same day. Every time.

I keep the best for the end: I asked them if they accept to split the big package in smaller packages in case I buy a huge box i.e. exhaust. They replied YES for a cost $7 . This service is not listed at their site. For your info USPS does not ship internationally huge boxes. Only Fedex does. I asked them yesterday for a vintage gas pump.
And Fedex = huge customs fees and taxes.

 

[papinist]

Thanks for sharing! Splitting boxes could be useful sometimes!

 

[papinist]

Happy end after all: paypal decided that I AM RIGHT and refunded me the entire sum I paid (328 USD) :clap2: No one from Viabox contacted me.

Even if I can't get back money of the stuff inside the package (about 230 USD) shipping costs was for 2 packages and I received the first, that was also heavier.. so I am happy with that (moreover considering the prospective of losing them all!)



And now, as soon as I get the money in my paypal account, I'll start buying again the same stuff but this time with Stackry

 

[friendgr]

Happy end indeed.

I'm always using paypal for purchases from abroad. ALWAYS.
For your info, Paypal recently extended the dispute period from 45 days to 6 months!

 

[papinist]

I see! Probably they extend it since january.
Six months it's even too much.. speaking as a private seller on ebay, sometimes happen that some buyers want to be smarter than you and use paypal to get more than he deserves..

Also, don't trust paypal too much. In this case it worked because they are a regular company working with paypal everyday, but if they didn't have money in their paypal account, paypal can't get them from their bank account.. and I can't have anything back but excuses.

This happened to me years ago.. hopefully Visa is a great company so after calling them and asking to block the payment, they refund me instantly and then investigate on it

 

[YLA G]

happy ending

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