12 Nov (the day after 11.11)
It's always interesting & informative to read the Facebook posts by users/buyers. Some of the comments are quite funny. They are the reality behind all the marketing & promotions.
You can see what problems customers face. More importantly, what's happening at the moment, and how effective Ezbuy's Facebook customer service is.
Some things you need to experience yourself to understand. I've been buying through Ezbuy (65daigou) for some years since the beginning, so I am familiar with their shit. No surprise. Just be prepared.
In Ezbuy Facebook, for every positive review/feedback, there will be 2-3 negatives. And those negatives are quite bad.
Update Tues 29 Nov: Complaints are still appearing in their Facebook. It's not just Prime & Ship4Me that are affected. My order is Buy-for-me & it has also been delayed at the warehouse "inspection" stage. It just means that my package is among the heap somewhere & waiting for them to attend.
Update Sun 27 Nov: Don't request for withdrawal. Just leave the money in there & hope it stays there. Wait for Ezbuy to solve their mess or until things return to normal, then either request for withdrawal or spend it on another purchase with Ezbuy.
This is why it is bad to leave money in such an account that is ungoverned. I never keep money with Ezbuy until recently I made the mistake of topping up but didn't buy anything. Even so, guessing they would not be able to process any withdrawal, I left the money in my a/c.
Update Sun 20 Nov: This time, I see they still haven't put up Black Friday banners on their website. Either staff are slacking in putting it up or they are afraid of handling another flood of orders like 11.11 just a week ago.
Update Tues 22 Nov: For some days, it's been the Ship-4-Me customers encountering problems because Ezbuy shifted their Ship-4-Me warehouses. Some 11.11 orders are still not ordered & customers still demanding for them to be ordered. Odd. Why can't these people just cancel & refund? Their minds cannot go-stun (reverse), is it? Not yet ordered, refund will be fast.
1) Although you are greedy for sales, resist the temptation to jump in during their 1 day mega-sales type promotions where the entire country (China/USA) participates such as 11.11 (China) & Black Friday (USA).
Every year, it's the same problems. Ezbuy cannot handle the flood of orders.
Even during normal time, their purchasers either don't place order or take super long to place order. Nothing happens even if you bug their live chat staff.
This year's 11.11 also same as last year. Last year, same complaints (I didn't join the sale but read their Facebook.). Last year's Black Friday had super many complaints. So, this year will be the same.
During 1-day type events:
~Ezbuy's phone line will be dead or jammed.
~Their live chat will be swamped or disappear.
~Their website will hang or cannot access.
~Weird things will happen (like your entire cart items disappears, your top up becomes zero, your credit card charged twice.).
~Your items won't be ordered.
~Order status will not be updated.
~Your items won't be checked when received at their warehouse.
Even if ordered, deliveries in China or US will be swamped. Your items will either be lost, damaged or severely delayed.
If you choose to jump in during these times, be prepared for shit.
Ezbuy is like Fate. You can plan & coordinate everything perfectly. But shit happens. With Ezbuy, there is at least "customer service".
2) Their China purchasers don't order all the items in the same order together. Different Ezbuy China purchasers are ordering your items. So, when you submit all items in 1 order, you'll see some being ordered & some not. It's like a restaurant that serves food 1 by 1 (not together) depending on who is cooking each dish.
You can test this by ordering the same item from different sellers in the same order.
Back when when they were less tight with shipping categories, I submitted 2 orders of the same soap bar in the same order, each from a different seller. One purchaser ordered one of them without problem. But another purchaser remarked that it couldn't be ordered if I wanted Economy shipping as the item is "cosmetics". I said that the other purchaser ordered the same item just now & it's fine. Then this purchaser backed off & ordered it.
That's when I realized, it's 2 different purchasers doing the same order list.
That's also why many buyers (in the Ezbuy Facebook) keep asking why some of their items have been ordered while other items are still waiting to be ordered. This problem becomes especially obvious during mega-sales like this year's 11.11.
According to their Facebook staff, the reason some orders are ordered & some are not is because of the below reason. Note that it does not change the fact that the items in a single order are ordered by different purchasers. Ezbuy also does not deny it.
Of course, their purchasers are in China. Only their frontline chat & phone staff are in Singapore. That's why they have no power over their China purchasers who can choose to ignore them.
My guess is they are paying their purchasers too little cash. Not enough incentive to place orders. And these purchasers are sitting at home. They can choose to ignore anybody & any order.
Purchasers were still ordering fine a few months ago. But somehow suddenly, they changed. Wouldn't place orders for days with no reason given. Or sometimes, place orders within a few hours (like back when they were 65daigou).
3) Their China purchasers used to be fast & good. Used to order within the same day in amazingly short time. Just like 30 mins or 1-2 hours.
Whether it's from Taobao or other China site. Nowadays, very seldom orders are placed on the same day. Usually, next day. Worst I experienced was a few days (& even then, still not ordered, so I cancelled & had to ask 3 times for refund.).
If the purchasers feel like ordering, they will order. If they are lazy for any reason, they don't order. No reason given, no updates, no order remarks. You can just sit & wait.
In the past, the purchasers were very responsive & would immediately inform if there was a problem with the order. These days, order remarks are non-existent & very rarely purchasers send a message. No updates if there's a problem. Purchaser will just MIA even if chat staff "informs purchaser" many times to update.
I can only say that they are purposely not placing orders. Their China crazy genes.
So, you better hope your order goes through smoothly.
17 Nov Thurs: 6 days after 11.11, there are still complaints in Ezbuy Facebook.
4) In the past, ship out used to be the same day after you submit your item/s for shipping out. These days, ship out takes 1 day if lucky, or more (a few days). I just saw this on Facebook (14 Nov Mon):
Quite a sense of humor, unless he really wasn't trying to be funny. He says it's been 2 weeks. Means his order was before 11.11. Yet for 2 weeks, it's been sitting in warehouse. Most likely missing. He shouldn't have waited so long.
Usual ship out time after request should be 1-2 days (Mon-Sat) for China orders. For US orders, should be 1 day. 3 days still not moving, you can start asking their live chat what's going on.
5) You will discover that the live chat staff are hopeless. Stupidly frustrating. Clueless about the workings of their own company. Clueless about almost everything. Stupid China chat staff. As a buyer already remarked in Ezbuy Facebook, they copy & paste irrelevant replies that don't help, like a robot.
Exactly what I've been saying in my other posts. They have stupid China robotic staff as their frontline customer service.
Some people have even commented their English is lousy. I would say it depends. Sometimes, it sounds like a Singaporean with the usual confident English feel. Usually, it's imperfect English that you know it's China, but still understandable. Come to think, those with lousy English tend to be hopeless at solving issues.
6) Live chat staff have no power over purchasing & warehouse staff. All they can do is "inform" the purchaser to update. Wait for purchaser to reply to your enquiry & update (but nothing happens). "Inform" warehouse to ship out your item/s asap (but still not shipped even after end of the day). Basically, the purchasers & warehouse staff work at their own time & target. Live chat staff cannot touch them.
Saw this today 16 Nov Wednesday:
Dangerous promotion because this could be a way for the company to get money while it's sinking. Hanjin shipping was "fast" & reasonably priced (cheap). Everybody jumped in. Look what happened overnight.
7) For every problem, I need to ask 3 times, 3 different staff, 3 consecutive days, before the problem gets fixed. It's better to get a different staff on chat because 1 staff can be stupid & another staff might be less stupid. If you cannot get refund from 1 staff, wait till they change to a staff who will refund straightaway.
Ezbuy tends to put 1 staff on chat for the whole day. Sometimes half day, change staff.
If you ask a staff in the morning & ask the same staff again later in the day, you'll find that the staff is still waiting for "purchaser" to reply. Also, the staff will sound annoyed.
8) Note that their live chat is not instant. You have to wait for staff to attend to you depending on the queue number. So just wait. With my laptop, no problem.
Many customers complain that they get no response from live chat. There is response always. But you have to wait.
9) When an item is not yet ordered, refund into your Prepay will be instant. When an item is already ordered, refund will take a few days. (Prepay = My available amount). There is in fact no need to "wait for purchaser to reply" before issuing a refund if item has not yet been ordered or if cancelled by Ezbuy.
If item ordered but cancelled by Ezbuy, refund will be instant. If ordered but you initiate the cancellation, refund will take a few days.
10) When you notice purchasers are not placing your order even after 2 days, just cancel & get refund. While Ezbuy is still willing to issue refund, you better take back your money & run. Consider yourself lucky you can get your money back.
I notice many women get so angry about not getting their items ordered. Some ask why have they been refunded without explanation.
I tell you: Explanation carries with it no money. Whereas refund is money back. Which one you prefer? Just take the refund & leave.
11) Ezbuy chat, order placement & warehouse staff work on Saturdays. They will sometimes ship out on Sat when they feel like it.
12) Ezbuy all dead on Sundays (during normal time). I have never had my item/s ordered on a Sunday during normal time. No order placement.
Only once, long time ago, the warehouse shipped out my item on a Sunday afternoon. Only once out of so many orders I placed. If it's true that they work on Sundays, then shiping out on Sun should be quite often. But that is not the case. More likely, that was a 1-time incident/accident.
Ezbuy Facebook staff posted the below message today 14 Nov Mon (after being absent for the entire Sunday). Working 24/7? I have never seen any updates on Sundays during normal time (except for that 1 time in the past).
[Update Sun 20 Nov: At the moment, my order is not placed since last night & no live chat & Facebook customer service absent. ]
Perhaps, the staff means that they are working behind the scenes 24/7 but the system updates are dead on Sundays?
The below reply pertains to 11.11 orders since one customer replied that her order changed status on a Sunday to "purchasing order".
13) Today, I discovered their chatbox has a new function. The ability to suddenly cut off chat immediately after finishing a conversation. Where's the "You're most welcome! Please rate us...."? I was talking to chat staff called Ice who previously disappeared while talking to a customer (Dennis Foo in Facebook comments below.).
Here's a sample (14 Nov Mon):
I always screen capture while chatting.
14) Chat staff become MIA sometimes. It happened to me once or twice before during normal hours (no sale or anything). Staff asked me to wait & I waited for about 20 mins & nothing happened. Seemed the staff had forgotten even though I think I typed something to get a response. Maybe it hung. So I clicked out of the website.
15) Never send e-mail or enquiry. It takes 3 days for them to respond. These days, they may not reply. Instant reply is using their live chat box. Some people use the phone. Calling them worked for me in the past. Now, I'm not sure since I've been using their chat.
16) 23 Nov Wed: Here's something I've never heard of. It was posted Tues. As you can see, Ezbuy is no help.
Facebook posts. Click to enlarge:
23 Nov Wed:
Note below she said: the service is worse than last year's 11.11
22 Nov Tues: Why do everyone call when they can use the live chat? The live chat goes on & off but it's faster & responsive. I think this takes the cake. Ezbuy service. Maybe she asked in a very rude way.
20 Nov Sun:
17 Nov Thurs:
Odd comment below that I'm not sure it's from a genuine buyer. Ezbuy staff? Everyone's app & desktop were affected but this person says it was "smooth" with "minimal lag"?? Yesterday, even till at night, the Facebook staff was still replying very quickly to comments. Suddenly today, no replies.
I'm curious, how did Oops fare during the 11.11? Let's take a look at their Facebook...
Don't look.
I'm not complaining about Ezbuy. I'm saying when you buy through Ezbuy, you have to be prepared that it's not perfect. I'm always prepared. Ezbuy is not reliable for doing business or if you need items urgently with a tight time frame. Shit happens. I don't know why women always expect their things to arrive on time saying "I need those things urgently by Tues!". Yeah, right. If it's so urgent, buy from a physical store.
Here's something added today 13 Nov Sunday: Customer says "One of my shoes drop off...". from cart. I don't know how that can happen. As I mentioned above, weird things happen during mega-sales. And as another customer mentioned, "they were unable to help".
Here's a customer who realized different purchasers are purchasing different things in her order list:
The China 11.11 sales is 24hrs, starting from 00.00am 11 Nov to 00.00am 12 Nov. How can Ezbuy stop the sale at just 9pm??
