Shopmate gets a good kicking from the customers...
http://techau.com.au/review-australia-post-international-parcel-service-shopmate/
A lot of different people in a lot of different forums are saying the same thing.
"Australia Posts Shop Mate" - the international mail forwarding service from the US and A is complete crap.
A lot of different people in a lot of different forums are saying the same thing.
"Australia Posts Shop Mate" - the international mail forwarding service from the US and A is complete crap.
13 June 2015 at 11:39 am
Ugghh. I should have read these posts before using shopmate. I have a 1.9kg parcel and I’m being charged 7.3kg!!!!! It’s a handbag not a brick! I know the supplier didn’t package this way and now I have to argue with auspost but they have no weekend customer service. Had I known I never would have used them. AVOID at all costs, it’s more of a scam. Shame on Aust post – they should be reported for fraud….
22 June 2015 at 7:59 pm
I had a terrible time with shipmate. They charged me 12.4 kg for a 2.8kg package. I asked for a repackaged and they said it was not possible. When I paid the $179 postage there was 35% of the box empty. DO NOT EVER use shopmate.
Anita
Anita
23 June 2015 at 9:44 pm
ShopMate is a WORTHLESS service. I purchased 9 boxes of goods from the USA and had it shipped to Sydney. Not only did it cost hundreds in shipping, Australia Post refused to deliver it to my home address. Australia Post uses a contractor to deliver its parcels, and the contractor kept leaving ‘collection cards’ at my mailbox rather than actually delivering the boxes. I stayed at home 2 days from work to receive the boxes but the contractor never showed up and simply left a ‘collection card’ WHAT A JOKE! I tried multiple times to sort this out with Australia post but they reused to help!! I am 8 months pregnant and could not collect two of the boxes as they weighed 12 kgs. In the end my husband had to HIRE A CAR to collect the boxes as we were frightened the goods would be sent back to the USA! NEVER USE THIS SERVICE. ShopMate uses misleading and deceptive advertising – they do not deliver your goods to your home and refuse any liability for the use of their third party contractors!!!
3 July 2015 at 9:38 am
Never, ever use Shopmate!! The repackaging quite should be seen as deceptive or misleading advertising as it leads you to believe that you can make multiple purchases and have them consolidated into a single shipment – not the case until after you’re committed. Apparently on inquiring they only ‘repack’ if they deem the packaging it arrived in unsafe.
Then they lose the now ridiculously expensive 200g item.
Never use it and advise anyone you can there are far better options – eg MyUS!!!
Then they lose the now ridiculously expensive 200g item.
Never use it and advise anyone you can there are far better options – eg MyUS!!!
5 July 2015 at 2:42 pm
Update: Beware using Shop Mate. In the end we had a truly terrible experience with Australia Posts’ ShopMate service. Firstly, whatever you buy in the US will be calculated at a much higher weight that the actual product. For example I was charged 12 kgs for a 5 kg baby swing purchased from US Toys R Us. Then, the 9 items I purchased online from Toys R Us were not delivered to me via courier, even though I was at home waiting for delivery. Australia post refused to deliver the items and dumped them at 2 different post offices in Sydney. After much stress we had to hire a car because Australia post threatened to return the goods back to the US. Dealing with Australia Post has been a nightmare. This was the resolution provided by Australia Post: Australia Post refused to provide a refund for postage and referred to their failure to deliver the goods as “unfortunate” and the need for us to hire a car to collect the goods from 2 different post offices as “collateral damage”…. All in all, a terrible waste of money & time, awful service and an expensive lesson.
7 July 2015 at 8:53 am
Shopmate is a piece of shit. They lost my fedex package, and trying to communciate with anyone to resolve the issue has been a complete nightmare
7 July 2015 at 8:54 am
Are you interested in contacting a current affair? I’m game
8 July 2015 at 1:46 pm
I think many people are having issues with Shopmate’s cubic weight measurement system, which in itself makes no sense since it’s based on volume, Shopmate does explain that it’s: (H (cm) times W (cm) times D (cm))/6000. Although they only state in tiny text at the bottom that they will charge for whichever is bigger (either weight or cubic “weight”) so that seems to be the issue. This might be the reason people are being charged for a light pair of shoes that likely come in a rather large shoe box for example. I’m not defending ShopMate since they should change this system or at least communicate it better (providing measurements???), obviously no one’s going to have any idea how big their package will be. Ultimately the service is misleading and a shame on a Government owned enterprise.
22 July 2015 at 9:15 am
Shopmate review
It was by default that I chose to utilise Shopmate..
(An American company informed me that 2 out of 3 of the items I had on order were unable to be shipped internationally due to marketing rights…)
I had heard that Australia Post had a new forwarding facility; so instead of shopping around, I decided to go with a known company as I urgently needed the products.
To my dismay I read the reviews online after I had informed the merchant of my US address provided by Shopmate.
I prayed that my package would be handled fast and professionally and lo and behold! just hours afterwards I received a notification from the merchant that the parcel had been delivered – I received an update from Shopmate (OIA Global Forwarding Service) that my parcel was ready to be shipped.
Perhaps I was just lucky to have a lightly packed parcel, but the shipping cost came to AU$48 as opposed to the initial US$60 quoted by the seller.
3 days later, I received another update that my package had arrived in Australia from Vancouver.
Total transit time from Shopmate warehouse to Sydney totalled 5 days.
Again, maybe I was just lucky or perhaps the previous reviews here were teething problems from a new project launched during the Christmas rush.
Anyone else with a positive experience?
It was by default that I chose to utilise Shopmate..
(An American company informed me that 2 out of 3 of the items I had on order were unable to be shipped internationally due to marketing rights…)
I had heard that Australia Post had a new forwarding facility; so instead of shopping around, I decided to go with a known company as I urgently needed the products.
To my dismay I read the reviews online after I had informed the merchant of my US address provided by Shopmate.
I prayed that my package would be handled fast and professionally and lo and behold! just hours afterwards I received a notification from the merchant that the parcel had been delivered – I received an update from Shopmate (OIA Global Forwarding Service) that my parcel was ready to be shipped.
Perhaps I was just lucky to have a lightly packed parcel, but the shipping cost came to AU$48 as opposed to the initial US$60 quoted by the seller.
3 days later, I received another update that my package had arrived in Australia from Vancouver.
Total transit time from Shopmate warehouse to Sydney totalled 5 days.
Again, maybe I was just lucky or perhaps the previous reviews here were teething problems from a new project launched during the Christmas rush.
Anyone else with a positive experience?
31 July 2015 at 6:40 pm
ShopMate is absolute rubbish. Can’t log on and can’t get Australia Post to take action. Avoid like the plague
4 August 2015 at 12:49 am
Another awful experience. They lost my package a month ago, are showing no signs of finding it, and I can’t get in touch with customer service to sort it out. Avoid like the plague – the reviews are overwhelmingly negative for a reason!
4 August 2015 at 8:38 pm
Received an invoice nominating a frankly obscene postal fee. Regrettably only found these reviews today. After reading the various complaints now realize I may not even get my parcel. Will keep all posted.
13 August 2015 at 10:54 am
I have ordered some items from a US supplier and used Shopmate to forward on to mu Australian Address. My experience so far? It took a month to delivery an item the size of a shoe box at a cost of $57.20 AUD. I also ordered some archery equipment (that include 2 arrows) they interpreted my instruction of “please remove and discard the 2 arrows and send the rest” as throw at the entire bow. Now that my items have been delivered I cannot contact them by the email stream connected to the delivery ID as it is closed. Australia Post contact centre (the number supplied for inquiries) tell me that Shopmate isn’t part of their business and they cannot help me. Shopmate haven’t responded to my last 2 inquiries about what they are going to do about my missing items.
This is a appalling business and a pretty good sign as to why Australia Post is losing so much money.
Use a different service. This has been nothing but a slow, painful, expensive exercise.
This is a appalling business and a pretty good sign as to why Australia Post is losing so much money.
Use a different service. This has been nothing but a slow, painful, expensive exercise.
27 September 2015 at 8:40 pm
I recon shopmate’s customer service is not the best. Looks like they invest a
lot in marketing, that’s why people deal with them. I personally started
using Shopfans approximately 6 months ago. They are pretty cheap,
especially when I use their own Shopfans mail delivery service. I almost
never pay more than AU $40 for a 5 lb parcel (including all service
fees which are very small) and trust me, 5 kg(approx. 3 kg) is A LOT of
clothes/shoes! It makes sense to buy well discounted items, buy
multiple items and consolidate them for free. I normally shop on
ebay, amazon and 6pm and look for some well known brand that cost HEAPS
in Oz. My favourite footwear store on american ebay sell good shoes
(Calvin Klein, MK, Ralph Lauren, asics etc) for like $30- $40… Do the
maths!
shopfans is the way to go for sure
lot in marketing, that’s why people deal with them. I personally started
using Shopfans approximately 6 months ago. They are pretty cheap,
especially when I use their own Shopfans mail delivery service. I almost
never pay more than AU $40 for a 5 lb parcel (including all service
fees which are very small) and trust me, 5 kg(approx. 3 kg) is A LOT of
clothes/shoes! It makes sense to buy well discounted items, buy
multiple items and consolidate them for free. I normally shop on
ebay, amazon and 6pm and look for some well known brand that cost HEAPS
in Oz. My favourite footwear store on american ebay sell good shoes
(Calvin Klein, MK, Ralph Lauren, asics etc) for like $30- $40… Do the
maths!
shopfans is the way to go for sure 18 October 2015 at 10:13 pm
Is shopfans any good? Idk I am spectacle about shopmate…
4 December 2015 at 9:07 pm
I wish I had read these posts before using the service. I have a total weight of 8.3kgs across 3 packages and they have charged me based on 51.7kg. That is approximately $450 in additional freight charges. There is no way to contact them directly, all queries are just lodged with Australia Post here. The AustPost customer service phone line does not take queries or complaints for Shopmate though. You are forced to just lodge an online query with AustPost. 4 days later and not even a reply, from AustPost or ShopMate. I’m now forced to pay the extremely unfair postage fee as these are my kids Christmas presents. I will be taking this further.
Never use this servce!
Never use this servce!
11 January 2016 at 3:23 pm
Australia Post Shopmate have lost my package – a $5000 retirement gift that my sisters and I bought for my father.
This has been incredibly stressful but what makes it so much more worse is the lies, misinformation and entire absence of any personal ownership on behalf of the Australia Post customer service team to initiate an investigation in a timely fashion.
It has only been after daily calls and a mountain of emails that the team have acknowledged that there is a problem.
Over the past fortnight I have been told:
(i) Delayed due to Customs inspection
(ii) Delayed due to Christmas holidays
(iii) Delayed due to Sydney Floods
(iv) Your shipment has cleared Customs and will be with you in two days
None of this was actually true – what is the case was that my parcel cleared customs on 23rd December and was never scanned back into the Australia Post network. To me, this is a very strong indication that the package has been stolen.
Australia Post Shopmate is by far the most terrible service I have ever encountered to date. I do hope they can redeem themselves by finding my package. My next step is to contact the police and the industry ombudsman.
This has been incredibly stressful but what makes it so much more worse is the lies, misinformation and entire absence of any personal ownership on behalf of the Australia Post customer service team to initiate an investigation in a timely fashion.
It has only been after daily calls and a mountain of emails that the team have acknowledged that there is a problem.
Over the past fortnight I have been told:
(i) Delayed due to Customs inspection
(ii) Delayed due to Christmas holidays
(iii) Delayed due to Sydney Floods
(iv) Your shipment has cleared Customs and will be with you in two days
None of this was actually true – what is the case was that my parcel cleared customs on 23rd December and was never scanned back into the Australia Post network. To me, this is a very strong indication that the package has been stolen.
Australia Post Shopmate is by far the most terrible service I have ever encountered to date. I do hope they can redeem themselves by finding my package. My next step is to contact the police and the industry ombudsman.
