Thursday, 20 October 2016

Ezbuy Slowing Down & Useless Chat Staff: Crazy Purchaser/s (review)


Getting worse. Something wrong with their purchaser/s. Just recently, they used to order within the same day. Now, it takes 2-3 days to place order.  Problems more often now. And when there's a problem, chat staff can't help & don't know what's going on.

They used to be so fast that just a few hours after submitting, they will place order. And just a few hours within the same day, they will ship out once you request to ship.

Now, even shipping out takes a few days. For China & US orders.

Previously, US ordering was slow. Now even China ordering has problems.

No excuse. Can't say that because of so many Prime orders or because too many orders, not enough staff/time.

Seriously, every time I order from Ezbuy, I'm worried. What's going to go wrong? There are perfect orders & also messed up instances.

Problem is these days, running into problems with Ezbuy has become more frequent.

Side note: Ezbuy chat is usually available till 10pm Mon to Sat. But sometimes, they disappear. Like now 9pm. 21 Oct Fri.

Case #1: 18 Oct cancelled 2 items

I ordered 2 pieces of underwear from a China site. Previously, I have ordered from this site before & Ezbuy was able to order within the usual time frame.  I submitted the 2 orders on Friday (14 Oct).  They should be ordered on the same day. However, these days, it's usual for Ezbuy to order it the next day.

So, I waited but was not ordered on Sat.

Sunday, Ezbuy is dead. So I waited till Mon. No order placed.

I waited until Tues late afternoon & still not ordered. So I entered chat & asked what's going on.

[Previously, a few days before this, I had ordered some underwear from a Taobao seller & one item didn't arrive at the warehouse for a few days. When I asked, Ezbuy chat staff kept smoking through without any solution. I had to ask every day what was happening before I finally got the answer that the item was rejected by warehouse because seller had sent a defective & wrongly-sized item.

Throughout, purchaser did not leave any updates in my order remarks. After posting in their Ezbuy Facebook page, the purchaser finally left an update in my order.

When I said I wanted to cancel for refund, the purchaser assured me it will be done. But many days after that, nothing happened (even when seller was online & their China holiday had passed). When I asked chat staff, I found out the refund request was not yet submitted by purchaser.

So that's how I know their purchaser is shitty.]

This time, up to late Tues afternoon, my 2 new items were still not ordered. Clearly, the purchaser was putting off ordering from that site from some odd reason.

Fine. If the purchaser don't want to order them, it's Ezbuy's loss. Just tell me.

On Mon, I already asked a chat staff (YC) who smoked through by saying "dear so sorry, will inform purchaser to order asap". YC said will leave message for the purchaser. Nothing happened the whole day.

On Tues, here's another chat staff who tried smoking through:


What update manually? That's clearly a lie. Previously when I ordered from the same site, everything was "updated" normally just like any Taobao order. 

The orders were cancelled & I got the refund immediately. Very smooth & fast, only because the items haven't been ordered. If already ordered, refund will take a longer time (& these days, as from previous experience, will need to push purchaser to get it. Could be because this time, it's... I don't know what's the excuse. In the past, no need to push to get refund.).

For now, refunds are processed instantly (for un-ordered items) by chat staff.  I don't know how long that's going to last.

I don't know what happened to their purchaser/s. Could be newly recruited lazy staff because previously, they were very fast & efficient.

Bottomline is: I didn't get to buy what I wanted. In the time it took for Ezbuy not to order, I lost interest. Ezbuy didn't get to earn anything. What the heck is Ezbuy for?  Plus, they have this ridiculous rule about being unable to ship liquids above 200ml. Come on, EMS/Speedpost ships everything.

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For my own record:

Case #2:  So far, I haven't had China orders missing before.  Delayed a few times.  After so many items I ordered: single small items & larger items. Mainly, my items are small packets. Quite amazing. Even delayed, they arrive at the warehouse. I still don't know at this moment whether this new item is missing or delayed. It should arrive by end of today.

US order missing once & Ezbuy said it was seller's mistake sending to wrong address. I've not ordered from that seller again.

This time, ordered a Taobao item on Sat 15 Oct. Coincides with the underwear problem above (case #1). Previously, when they were 65daigou, it would have been ordered on same day Sat. But these days, it's normal for Ezbuy to skip Sat.

So, order was placed on Mon. At the same time, (case #1) the underwear placed on Fri 14 Oct was still not ordered.

On Tues, I cancelled underwear orders & got refund. That same night, I remember the seller of this new order I placed (on Sat) dispatched the item because I was thinking (when I saw the update) that the seller is so fast despite his 4.7 track record.  But till last night Thurs, still not arrived at warehouse.

Normally, it takes just 1-2 days for China local delivery. Anything longer means there's a problem.

According to Ezbuy (this Fri morning), it was dispatched on Wed 19. Odd. If it was dispatched on Wed, I wouldn't be so disturbed because I know 2 days China delivery to warehouse is normal.  And that "dispatched by seller" status in my order page has been there for a long time. I check many times a day.

Either I made a mistake in recalling the day of dispatch, or the seller clicked sent earlier before actually sending it out (like Ebay button that seller can click whenever).

Anyway, bottomline is: delay. It should be flying now but till now 12:13pm Fri 21, still not at warehouse.

If it hits Sat, it might not be shipped out until Mon. These days, that's how slow Ezbuy has become.

Last night about 8.30pm, I asked chat staff to check why it still wasn't at warehouse. Chat staff still online until 10pm, but purchaser already disappeared. What can chat staff do?

Many times these days, I am finding out that chat staff are hopeless. They can't do anything without the purchaser. Can't order, can't update, can't check anything.

Ezbuy chat staff are the frontline smiley face.

I hate it when useless chat staff who didn't solve anything put this crap at the end: "You are most welcome! Pls rate our service".

Note that I said "Mon" dispatch. That is incorrect. It should be Tues. Or if Ezbuy is really correct, then Wed.

This is last night's chat Thurs about 8.30pm 20 Oct:  Heather was nice enough to tell me to wait along the way. Some chat staff just leave me hanging. But it was a 20 minutes wait.





 Leave message means nothing will be done, don't expect update from purchaser.

Since she can't do anything without the purchaser, I said I'll wait to see if it reaches warehouse tonight. I thanked her. She sent the template "You are most welcome!" & ended with:

What further assistance can you provide when I just asked for assistance & you were unable to help??

The chat staff replies can be so slowww these days... that even after I've crapped & bathed in the bathroom, come out & still no reply. 

Next morning at 10.10am, I asked another staff where's the item. Note the chat staff never corrected me when I said dispatched on Mon. She didn't check. She didn't argue. I would say so far, the staff have never argued with me. Always neutral. Pretty good training.

In order to test whether Heather (last night) was being inefficient last night, I asked this staff whether she needed the purchaser to check.  Answer: Heather was fine & telling the truth. The purchaser really, could not be contacted. And chat staff can't do anything without the purchaser's information.

Nice of Venx to copy & paste the entire local delivery information, rather than just telling me.

There are a few chat staff who are nice & genuinely try to help. But the limits to their accessing of purchasers' information & warehouse information makes it impossible for them to help much, if at all.

This is bad considering they are frontline staff who must know everything to be able to answer customers' enquiries.

This morning's chat at about 10.10am:



as checked in the courier company website your order is be sent out on 19/10, it still on it ways to our china warehouse for that >2016年10月21日 上午8:46:24
[浦东金桥] 浦东金桥 的 唐陆路 正在派件

I wait to see if it'll arrive at warehouse today. If not, I'll have to throw the above information back to them.

[Update Sat 22 Oct: arrived at warehouse at night on Fri. Today Sat I submitted ship request. Due to Haima typhoon, not sure if flying today. It's not my item. Customer's item.  
Update 24 Oct Mon 9:04pm: Ezbuy breaks record for speed this time. Despite typhoon Haima & Ezbuy's warning that flights out will be delayed, item really shipped out on Sat daytime! Amazingly, it just arrived tonight. I just checked & it was freshly updated to "arrange delivery". Out of so many times, this is the 1st or 2nd time Ezbuy is this fast. Amazing.].

Sometimes, I get so sian, I tell myself to just be grateful that there is Ezbuy, still quite professional with chat always on. They are the only ones reliable out of the few 2 others.

Anyway, I seldom buy things from Taobao unless necessary or I have some spare cash. Taobao variety is very bad for many things. All the sellers tend to sell the same things, just different prices. Because they get from the same source.

Even after browsing more than 20-30 pages, still same designs. Lack of variety.

Also, the designs are all look very crude. Across all items. Clothing, shoes, underwear, furniture etc... One look, you know it's from China. No refinement.  Compare the products from Europe or US, the difference is clear.

It's actually very difficult to find something on Taobao that don't shout "China". 



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