I recently used a concierge service from Belgium-based Borderlinx to purchase some products from a US merchant that I could not buy with non-US credit card otherwise. The customer is provided with US and UK suite addresses and will only pay shipping fee after the packages arrive at their suite addresses. The company then ships the package to the customer's local address in his home country. I have been a loyal user of VPOST for this kind of service in the past and decided to give Borderlinx a try on recommendation from a friend who was a satisfied user.
It turned out to be a nightmare. The edge that Borderlinx has over VPOST is that the concierge service is free, and shipping is reportedly cheaper than what VPOST offers. But boy, what I thought would be a breeze turned out to be a torturous experience!
Here are why:
1. Concierge only allows you to place 4 items per order. Then you have to divide your items into separate orders. Some US merchants provide free shipping for orders over a certain amount, and you have to re-calculate which items in your order add up to that amount to take advantage of this option.
2. After I painstakingly input all the item description, price, size, URL link one by one, the website returned that the transaction had been rejected. No reason was given. I called my credit card company to check if there was anything wrong with the card, they said my card was perfectly fine. Did the data input more than 15 times before the website lets it go through. Hell #1.
3. After 3 orders had been submitted (12 items in total), I waited.
4. Two weeks passed, the package for my last order arrived at my US suite address. At this point, I was wondering why the last order arrived but not the first two. What makes it even more frustrating was, only 3 items arrived instead of 4 as what I ordered. Hell #2.
5. Borderlinx provides live customer service chat to their customers around the clock, not unlike many other corporations. I chatted with the first customer service rep, explained the situation, and was told to wait. Fine.
6. Every other day I chatted with different customer service reps, and had to explain the situation every single time. Sometimes they understood my predicament, majority of the times they didn't even understand what I wanted and transferred me to the original rep who handled my 'ticket' (log). The answer given was they would contact the concierge department and promised someone would reply within 1-2 days. No one even came close to replying, let alone giving me the answer. Hell #3. This is the source of my biggest frustration.
7. My latest dealing with the customer service department came to their agreeing to refund the items that did not arrive. After more than ONE month and I had to be the one to follow up. I sent email too, there wasn't any reply. And the refund has not come through. Hell #4.
My biggest complaint is with the concierge department, as customer is unable to directly place order with merchant, customer has to place his trust in the concierge; how and when the concierge actually places orders with the merchant is not within customer's control. This is a big risk to consider before customer places any orders. It is not that all the customer service reps are incompetent, but the working of the company as a whole; not responding to customer's repeated cry for help is just plain unacceptable, especially the concierge department.
It is unlikely I will place orders with Borderlinx again. I learned my lesson.
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