[ask] bongous.com scam or not?

Another TWO THUMBS UP TO VIADDRESS.COM !

After spending a few hours comparing the shipping rates for all the package forwarding companies mentioned in this forum and other forums on the web, I found out that Viaddress.com offers the lowest shipping rates according to the shipping calculators on all those sites.

Their Package forwarding service is actually FREE !, with NO set up fees and NO monthly membership fees and they also offer FREE Concierge Service!!! While other companies charge you 5% to 15% commission fee. It also says on their website viaddress.com that they have the biggest Personal shopper service on Ebay.com in the US.

Well… All of these good points convinced me to try them… and I’m glad I did...

I have used them to shop from Ebay in the US and on other couple of US sites that didn't ship outside the US and I was able to save a lot on shipping by combining all my boxes in one large box for FREE! You can do this by using the package consolidation tool in your account area on Viaddress.com.

 

Bongo US rips you off by not telling you what their shipping rates are.

Be prepared to pay 4x the regular rate, at a minimum.

I have not tried alternatives yet but will be!

 

Wow, that's a lot for a few shirts and a couple of pairs of shoes...

 

Tara, i thought you new here, and i'm too but is it true what are you saying?? because i don't know much this bongo

 

I agree with Canada_gman & JHybrid...
Bongous's shipping charge of $71.18CAD to ship 5 pounds to Canada is waaaaaaay too much!

I'm glad I found a cheaper & better alternative to Bongous, which is : www.Viaddress.com

According to their shipping calculator, the shipping fee for 5 pounds to Canada is only : $24.92

Just look at the comparison table for the fees between Bongous and Viaddress at the bottom of this page: http://www.viaddress.com , you will see what I'm talking about...

 

Bongo? Forget about it! It is very bad !!
They abuse charging your credit card without any email notification.
They charge your money with silent mode, but when you are ask for the refund, you will have a very bad customer service!
I wouldn't recommend it.

 

Just a short introduction first of all, I am a business owner. My company is based in Asia and I have many suppliers around the world. Most of which, located in the United States. I first encountered BongoUS about 2 years ago and back then made the decision to go with BongoUS as it seemed to me, at the time, like they were the best all rounders in their field and industry. Slightly higher price point, but makes up for it in speed and customer service. Something which I required should any of my clients have serious time constraints and needed urgent deliveries.

Everything was fine and dandy for most of the 2 years with, of course, several hiccups. These were easily resolved at the time and did not cause much problems for me. Recently however, things have taken a turn for the worse.

The whole situation unfolded as follows. About 3-4 weeks ago, we placed an order from a store in the USA for several items (I shall name this Store A). These items were scheduled to be shipped into BongoUS under my name to be later forwarded back into Asia. However as it turns out, a day before the items left Store A for BongoUS, our client changed his mind about the order and wanted something else. Thus we promptly cancelled our order from Store A and ordered the new request from Store B. However Store A made an error and sent the package out to BongoUS anyway even after a refund was issued to us. This was fine as we assumed the Store A would call FedEx and have the items redirected back to the Store as was done before on past cancellations.

The problem started escalating when, Store A, didn't recall the items with FedEx but rather allowed the package to arrive at BongoUS. Both packages from Store A and Store B arrived, I assume, on the same day at BongoUS. However by this time Store A had already called BongoUS and requested for the items to be returned to the store. This is where my first gripe at how BongoUS handled the whole situation begins.

1) BongoUS did not bother to inform me that they were contacted by Store A requesting for the items to be returned, and had already made plans to have the items returned (they did not inform me of this either). Instead they had the items listed in my inventory. (I found out much later that the items listed in my inventory had already been returned)

When I instructed BongoUS to ship the items from Store B out to me later that day, my Inventory showed that 1 item was missing from the list of items originating from Store B. On questioning of BongoUS, they decided to take their own sweet time to figure out what happened to the item. A total of 5 days passed before I found out what happened to all my items. During these 5 days, I made daily calls to their US head office from Asia, this costs me alot of money, daily emails and even the use of their live chat. Spoke to multiple "customer service" staff, with little to no result. All I got were empty promises.

2) Staff WP tells me that items are missing and that they are trying to find it. I tell WP to tell me exactly what item is missing and he cannot tell me because he doesn't know exactly what he's looking at. He knows generally what the item is but I can't get specific details as they're not proficient enough to identify exactly. To solve this problem I ask WP to send me pictures of all the items (I'm talking about like 4 items so thats 4 pictures). This is so that I can identify exactly what is missing. He says yes yes yes he'll do it. After a day passes, 2 days, weekend, still nothing. -> Empty Promises

3) On a fresh Monday I call again and look for WP, however WP is busy so I speak to a different staff named GG. On talking to GG and explaining the situation AGAIN. I get told that management has labeled the item as lost/missing. As such I was give a choice. Either accept a refund or the management will purchase the same item as replacement. Seeing as I needed the item urgently, I accepted the refund. However before they actually issued the refund I went ahead and reordered a replacement and had the item express shipped to BongoUS. I seriously needed the items urgently so had to do it this way as I did not know how long BongoUS would take to repurchase a new set. I also managed to finally, FINALLY, get 1 miserable picture of 2 items, which I then got them to proceed to ship out. This was supposed to be the shipment from below point 1 above. Yes they held my shipment this whole time and already took payment. On my end I expected the items to arrive on Friday and it is already past the weekend the items haven't even left their warehouse yet.

Constant reminders that the items were required urgently over and over again over the phone and emails and live chats fell on deaf ears.

4) The next day, I get an email saying that they found out the item was really missing but was returned to the wrong store, so now BongoUS will not be refunding the item as it is no longer missing. They also decided to hold my shipment for several more days while the item is returned BACK to BongoUS so that the items can be shipped out together. -> Not sticking to their words. This comes after I have already made my urgent reorder of the missing item and assumed that the refund was on the way.

After another angry call, I managed to get them to ship the package with whatever is available in my inventory out that same day.

Also rather than arguing with them some more I decided to handle the refund myself and get them to return the item back to Store B where I reordered the supposed missing item. So does this mean problem resolved? Think again...

5) 2 days later the reordered item arrived at BongoUS, unfortunately so did the item that was mistakenly sent to the wrong store. Doesn't matter though I expected something like this to happen so I just issued a request for 1 out of the 2 items to be sent to Asia and the other one I left untouched in my inventory.

6) Next day, my item left the US and was on its way to Asia. However the remaining item disappeared from my inventory. Sent BongoUS an email asking where it was, they promptly said that they would be returning it to Store B on my behalf. -> I found this just plain rude. After so many problems and issues you'd think they'd learn their lesson and at least ask first right? Nope they decided to just do it anyway.

So in an effort to halt the return before more problems occurred, I had to call them again. Quarrel with the customer service staff GG to have the item relisted in my inventory. GG being quite rude over the phone threatening to hang up etc etc. Granted I raised my voice abit but after holding it in and controlling myself for over 3 weeks, you seriously can't blame me for raising my voice. And she had the cheek to tell me to not raise my voice. She keeps trying to explain the same thing over and over again when I'm talking about a whole other issue. Worst part of all, she tells me I'm wrong about the whole sitiuation. Like WHAT!? If I was so wrong about the situation, I wouldn't have to keep calling to explain. A simple email would have sufficed. But since that didn't fix it... Well you decide for yourselves.

I was getting so mad at that point I wanted to speak to the manager in charge. Hopefully I can finally talk to someone who can set the whole thing right and recover my faith in this company. But nope. From the horses mouth: Manager not around, no manager today and finally last but not least the icing on the cake... "Sir, it doesn't matter if you talk to the manager, she won't be able to fix anything for you today..." FAIL! EPIC FAIL!

To sum it all up. I have since given up my account in this company and am trying out several others. Hopefully you all will make the right choice in deciding which company to go for and that you can learn from my experience.

Cheers!

PS. During my experience with BongoUS multiple attempts to speak with a manager or someone with higher authority came up zero. If you decide to file a written complaint because talking to their CS Staff doesn't work, don't bother because all you will be asked to do is write a message to your account support log or send them an email to the support email address. This will be replied by a CS staff and it takes a full day for a reply. So don't bother.

**A warning to BongoUS, when you start assuming that your customers are all frauds and decide to protect the vendors so much more than your customers, even those that have been loyal to you for so many years, you are just shooting yourselves in the foot. This is not the way to run a business. Let the vendors worry about their own customers defrauding them. You should worry about how to do your job, and getting it right.**

 

I wish I knew about these postings before I got involved with Bongous. They will truly rip you off! Canada_gman & others are right - they don't tell you up front what their rates are and charge your eyeballs out! I found out too late when I ordered from Amazon 3 items weighing less than 1 pound. They wanted $75 to ship to the EU. UNBELIEVEABLE! I had them return the items back to Amazon. Then they didn't even do that. I had to keep calling and demanding that they send the things back so I could get a refund because there was no way on earth I was going to give them $75 for something that could be done for $20. By the time they sent the items back, it was past the 30 refund period. I didn't even care. I would rather Amazon have the money than the thieves as Bongous. What a rip off. Seriously, stay FAR away from these frauds. Be warned. I think there might be better alternatives out there.

 

I heard some bad comments about it from some people, i didn't personally use it, but still hearing few comments doesn't mean it is that bad because there's no service that is perfect, everything has some defects, you need to read more about it to make your mind!

 

BONGO INTERNATIONAL is a ripoff !!!! If you live in CANADA and order anything that uses Bongo service DON"T DO IT !!!
I bought stuff from Exclusively Weddings for total $176 and when all said and done I paid almost $300 I could have bought the stuff here cheaper.
The main problem I had was that i did my research to find out if it is a scam. and read the fine print. When I ordered and I tracked my items when they got to Bongo. They said to ship to me it would be $42 "click here to ship" after I hit it it said $96. it is a very confusing service and not clear so you have no choice but to continue. I have learned my lesson Im very pissed off. and will NEVER recommend that service. nor buy anything from anyone who deals with them.

CANADIANS DON't USE BONGO INTERNATIONAL !!!!!

 

I did not have a good experience with Bongo. I ordered something from a company that was in partnership with bongo. The package sat for 3 weeks in their warehouse before I enquired about the shipment. They searched their warehouse, found it and then requested I send personal id information over the INTERNET. Apparently it is a requirement of the USPS 1583 form. All in the fine print. My husband was adamant that there should be no requirement of this type of information but in order for Bongo to open your packages (yes they have to open all packages before they forward it to you; its the law according to Bongo, not Bongo policy) So in my scenario we called the original company and they consented to make the shipment directly to our Canadian address.

In summary, if you're using Bongo be prepared to give away a ton of personal information over the INTERNET, have your goods sit in a warehouse for who knows how long until you inquire about it and then basically pay for shipping twice; once to the bongo US address and then on your home address. We're fortunate to have friends who live just across the border and will receive our packages. My advice, use another company listed in this forum and stay away from Bongo.

 

I joined up with them and had 3 parcels delivered to them and I never got sent them... They are a huge scam. They scammed me out of $15 dollars a month and they didnt even send me my parcels....


BIG SCAM!!!

 

I have so many problems with this company. After I applied they provided me a with a USA address saying that it was ready to use. I made some purchases using the USA address they supplied and shortly after I was denied access to their site. They charged me $5 for the registration and asked me to register AGAIN to regain access and send them scanned copy of my drivers license and credit card. After all that, still no access. They're after your identity and credit card info.

DO NOT USE THEIR USA ADDRESS AS THEY WILL NOT FORWARD ANY MAIL!
SUPPORT TAKE 3+ DAYS TO REPLY.
INTERNET USERS BEWARE!!!

 

I would recommend www.myaddressus.com. Reasonable rates and subscription rate. Great people. You can get someone on the phone, etc. The site has a calculator to figure out your rates. You have to pay duties/taxes for your country.

 

In reply to the various questions raised about Bongo in this thread: I found the thread because I was googling "bongous" to find out what the hell was hitting my account in the U.S. for $15.00 every month. I live in the U.K. having moved here 7 years ago from the U.S. of A. Some time ago I needed to have the radiator replaced on my Ford Explorer, which I wisely brought with me from America. I got the replacement radiator from a parts supplier in the U.S. who recommended that I use Bongo International to have it shipped to the U.K. I contacted Bongo US (I do find it interesting and poetically just that if you take the "n" and the "o" from "bongous" you have "bogus") who had what seemed to be a very reasonable deal on the shipment.

That has been the only contact that I have ever had with them, and I expect that when I do manage to contact them I will be told that I made some kind of agreement that allows them to do this. If I did, I didn't know it.

I do consider this to be a rip-off, and I hope that someone is going to report them to the FTC.

Best wishes,
Charley

 

According to me my research goes they are scam .

 

It´s too bad that I haven´t read this thread earlier. This would have saved me a lot of trouble.
In my opinion bongo international is a rip-off. I subscribed to their services after checking the price with their own shipping calculator. I used their bongo buddy add-on to do that. This add-on calculates the shipping costs on the basis of goods shown on your computer screen. For the items in my online shopping basket that would have been $112. That was $15 cheaper than the shipping cost offered by the online shop. On arrival of my items at the bongo international office, they recalculated the shipping cost. I was shockingly surprised that they are now $236!!!!!
I tried to argue with them that you can´t make an offer, as a basis of a contract, and then just double the price. That didn´t help. I tried it through the Better Business Bureau also to no avail. Bongo keeps on repeating that I have accepted their terms and conditions and that the shipping charges of $236 are ok.
But the point is that i would never have agreed to a contract if I could have known that the shipping costs would be $236 or that the shipping calculator is producing shipping quotes that are pure fiction and not binding for the company.
Right now I hope that I will find a solution with the help of the Department of Consumer Protection.
To you, I would strongly suggest to use another competitor.
Thank you for sharing my experience

 

I regretted for not doing my research thoroughly before I joined Bongo US. Wished I had read this forum.

I needed to purchase 3 computer hardware from newegg.com but they don't deliver outside U.S. and I live in Australia. After Googling for mail forwarding services, Bongo came up on top of the search list and upon reading some info of this site, I decided to join Bongo because I needed those items urgently. Also I thought I could save money on my purchases as well as the shipping costs. I signed up for the Pay Per Use service and was immediately charged with USD5.00 for it and also got the credit refund of 41 cents to log on to their site. I then used the Personal Shopper service to purchase the computer items & was charged immediately for the items plus 10% service fee USD132.76. All seemed ok until I realised that USPS 1583 form is mandatory & photo ID needed. Because I signed up using a Christian name, it differs from my passport name so I freaked out because my identity would not match with the account name! Moreover according to their terms & conditions, if no USPS form supplied, any mail/parcels sent to them will be destroyed within 7 days! This freaked me out even more! Fortunately, I emailed customer service and was reassured that because I used their Personal Shopper service, I didn't need to supply USPS form.

Goods have arrived at their warehouse today and I decided to have them all shipped to me. Actual weight of my goods were about 7.1 lbs but Bongo rounded it up to 11 lbs because they calculate the items via dimensions of each item individually because I'm only using the Pay Per Use service. To my horror, the shipping fee is now USD128.75! The total value of computer products I got the Personal Shopper to purchase on my behalf was USD132.76. On my god, the shipping cost is almost the same as the cost of my goods! This absolutely sucks!

Bongo is the most expensive of them all. Avoid them.

Lesson learned...do thorough research, read forums & reviews, compare prices before signing up anything. Anything that is on the top of Google search results does not mean is the best.

 

LOL,it is as expensive as hell

 

also i recommend one website: www.fjruan.com which specilized in trading kinds shoes,apparel,handbags and so on.