Bongo InternationalReviews of bongous.com

I suppose to get 11 items in my shipment but in my inventory they only showing 7 items. And there is no way i can contact them. Please help me!

At first I loved bongo, easy to get in to contact with, they answered questions, and shipping prices were reasonable.. Until last year. Theyve just charged me £30 (minus tax and insurance) to ship FOUR lipsticks to London from US!! A few months ago I ordered candles from US and shipped it over to bongo yet bongo did not notify me of it's arrival for WEEKS and charged me £60 just because they had been there so long THEN charged me shipping/box/handling whatever. So to ship 4 candles came to $110!! And they arrived smashed! And I've contacted ten numerous times about this ,it's 2015 and they still haven't answered. I've been using this company since I started my online business but I'm not coming back.

I placed an order with Bongo, they confirmed and took the money, then a couple of days later they advised the following: Hello, We were attempting to place your order with hometrainingtools.com for "Carbon electrode rod, 0.25" x 4"" for $1.60 each. We are sad to say that we are unable to locate the item at that price. For that reason we have had to cancel the order. Please verify the pricing and submit again if you would like. Thank you. Please let us know if we can be of any additional assistance. We would appreciate it if you would [ RATE OUR RESPONSE ] Kind regards, Bongo Member Services So I waited a few days for the refund - nothing. I tried phoning and after waiting on hold for an hour at exceptionally high international calling rates I hung up. I typed into their help section where is my refund and this is the message: Check Refund Hello We are very sorry about the delay with your refund. Unfortunately we cannot refund your credit card anymore as the time has elapsed. We will need to send you a check. Can you please email with the Payee Name and Address of where to send the check so we can have our payments department issue your refund by check. Anyway, I emailed and after a few days the money was refunded back to credit card. It was quite stressful as you don't quite know if anyone is actually at the other end.

I placed an order on saturday november 22nd however I still haven't received any news about it; I understand that they are busy but I think that 2 weeks is a very long time to process this. They already took the money from my account (on november 24th) without checking if the order was send by the merchant!!! I contacted the merchant who said to contact Bongo. I am very annoyed and angry. It's unacceptable to took the money without checking if the items were send.

He usado los servicios de esta empresa en tres ocasiones, y en todas ellas he tenido problemas. Básicamente su sistema de comunicación es inútil. Es como un diálogo de sordos. No puedes replicar, ya que envían los emails desde una dirección que no admite respuesta. Por teléfono, simplemente no existen. Si buscas ahorrarte un euro, consolidando tus envíos (tal y como ellos mismos argumentan en la web) olvídate. Para evaluar el precio del transporte ellos tratan de enviarte la mercancía en las mismas cajas en las que la recibieron, por lo que el transporte (por volumen) es siempre carísimo. En todo caso, sus precios de transporte son caros por si mismos. Debes pensar que cualquier cosa que compres, entre transporte, aranceles, impuestos, etc. quedará duplicada en precio al pasar por Bongo. Todo un desastre... Por mucho que te empeñes en facilitarles códigos de envío, de pedido, descripción del material, etc. los trabajadores colocan sus propias descripciones y su propia valoración; que luego se usa para pagar impuestos... Valoración que siempre está muy por encima del valor real de mercado; cuando quieres modificarlo, sólo se admite un 30% por debajo del valor que ellos creen que debe tener tu mercancía. Puedes quejarte, y te solicitan una factura original, pero eso sólo lo puedes hacer una vez!!! Ellos no están allí para meter tus datos! Para colmo de males, y esto no sé si es culpa de Bongo, eso de que tienes tus compras en 4 días en tu casa, nada de nada, debes esperar dos semanas como mínimo. En fin, esta compañía está en un nicho de mercado muy interesante, pero su forma de operar dista mucho de ser óptima, no se lo recomendaría a nadie.

Firstly, I have tried all the terrible alternatives out there: myus.com, viabox.com and now tried bongous.com to ship goods to South Africa. The Bad: Bongous has one major flaw. They charge you the cost of forwarding the ORIGINAL BOX's dimensional weight(s). Read that sentence again... So if you split up your order from different vendors, and decide to consolidate the shipment using the Bongous "ship-all" function, your cost to ship will NOT be the dimensional weight of the final consolidated box. The cost will actually be based on the original incoming boxes dimensional weights. For example: 7 items arrive in 1 box (12 lbs dimensional weight) and 1 small item is shipped separately in its own box (4 lbs dimensional weight). They are consolidated to fit into a box that is still the original 12lbs dimensional weight box for all 8 items. BUT... you will still be charged 12lbs + 4lbs = 16lbs??? Where you would expect to only pay for the 12lbs weight. Crazy. The other weird charge was a "fuel-surcharge" which is a strange hidden cost included on the invoice with no clear explanation. The Good: The website works okay and the fact that they answer their phones is a major improvement compared to other companies! They provide free photos of the items received, even if the photos are tiny. Also seem to offer a varied bunch of locations to ship to, but not sure how well this would work, considering the consolidation fees. Conclusion: If you need a reliable service to ship only 1 box, it is worth a look.

I have used BongoUS since 2007 and their services were great up until recently. I have forwarded items to the UK, China and Hong Kong, throughout these past 7 years I haven't had any major problems whatsoever. Back in April, I purchased a snowboard bag and the cost to ship was outrageous - USD 230 (even more expensive than the bag itself). Of my past experiences with BongoUS, I found their shipping charges to be quite fair. The shipping fee for the bag was charged dimensionally, which I could understand, but as to how they managed to come up with USD 230, I really don't. I have shipped a wakeboard that was much bigger than this bag in dimension and still didn't cost as much! I left it in my inventory until a friend of mine who was visiting the states to arrive so I could send it to him instead. Now, the cost to ship within the states was still pretty damn expensive - USD 130, but I had no choice. When I could finally send the bag out, it was missing from my inventory. I called and emailed, their representatives told me my bag had been purged because I stored it for too long! I was outraged because there wasn't any notification that the terms & conditions had changed. They claim that they sent emails notifying the changes in terms & conditions and that my item was about to be purged if not shipped. I have never received such thing but they insist that their system has records of these emails being sent. I have only received emails from BongoUS when items are being added into my inventory, if they have replies to my customer service enquiries or when items are being shipped (only sometimes). Fortunately, in this case, my bag was retrieved and I was able to ship it out. A couple of days later, when I was ready to ship out some more inventory, I realised that some items were deleted from my inventory again. I didn't receive any prior notification regarding the purging of my items like they said I was supposed to. So I called again. At first, 2 items were found and the other 3 were missing. The next day, the 3 items (3 Blu-ray discs) that were missing was added back into my inventory, along with a new order (5 bracelets) that had just arrived at the warehouse. To be fair, I have to mention that I did not log this incoming purchase because I had forgotten to. I mistakenly thought this package was a duplicate from a previous order that was already in my inventory. But it wasn't the first time that I forgot to log an incoming purchase and their colleagues still managed to log the received items into my inventory without problems. The next day, I received an email explaining that the 2 items (a Blu-ray disc and a pair of shorts) that were found first were purged already and they urged me to ship out my items ASAP. Naturally I was angry and disappointed, in a sense it was like stealing. I mean who knows where these items actually go when they are 'purged'. But honestly, there wasn't much I could do sitting a few thousand miles away. The Blu-ray disc and the shorts didn't cost much so I guess I can only say it was a lesson learned. In light of recent incidents, the first thing I did this morning was log on to my BongoUS account to check whether my shipment had been processed. However, everything was back in my inventory, minus 5 bracelets (The new order that arrived 2 days ago). I checked my email, and their representative explained that my shipment could not be processed due to missing items - the bracelets. They said that they had refunded my shipping and the missing items costs, and was waiting for me to approve the shipment again... I genuinely thought BongoUS was trustworthy up until now. How can I trust them when they keep purging things without telling their customers, and now things go missing even when they weren't supposed to be purged! They keep saying that notifications were sent out to on their system, and I keep telling them, NO - none were received! They also keep telling me that they have to 'check' with their IT department, but as usual, I have heard nothing back. After reading other user reviews on BongoUS's poor packing skills, I am really worried about my latest shipment as it contains 7 coffee mugs. I have added insurance, but I just realised that upon cancelling my shipment due to the missing items, they changed the cost of all my items! For example, a jacket that costed USD 214 is changed to USD 40. Which means should anything happen to my goods in this shipment (touch wood) they most likely will not compensate the supposed cost of the items. Nonetheless...All shall reveal when I receive the shipment and I will definitely write a follow up review. I have had great experiences with BongUS, but this breach of trust has damaged my confidence with BongoUS. I can't help but agree to most of the problems pointed out in other reviews, extremely poor communication, acting without consent and sometimes ridiculous shipping rates. With the majority of customers being international users, you would imagine communication being one of their top priorities. I wouldn't recommend their services anymore, they have proved to become more and more unreliable.

I have been using Bongo for a number of years, during which over US$5,000 of goods has passed through them, to be shipped to the middle east. Initially the service was very good, rates were reasonable, and customer service was effective in resolving issues. Over the last year however, the level of service has deteriorated dramatically, to the point where I believe that there are much more effective and affordable options available. Today I noted that an item was missing from my inventory. It was very difficult to query Bongo, as they have removed the Customer Service chat app, and the e-mail is "No-Reply" forcing you to navigate through the Help Menu, and several levels of FAQ's which were not helpful. To their credit, once I had managed to raise the issue, I received a same day e-mail reply from them stating: "STORAGE. Bongo will store packages free of charge for a period of [21] days from the date of delivery. After [21] days, Bongo will charge you a fee of $5 a day which will have to be paid prior to shipment to you. After [30] days in storage, Bongo reserves the right to sell, destroy or otherwise dispose of such packages without incurring any liability to you or any other party whatsoever." Unbelievably, I did not receive any notification of the changed T&C's (I am a long standing member, and the storage time limit is a recent change). Neither did I receive any notification that I had exceeded my free storage time, of the incurred charges, or of the purging of my item from their inventory! When I tried to reply to the Customer Service e-mail, it bounced, as it is a "No-Reply" address. Following this I called them, and when I eventually managed to speak to an agent, although he was very polite, he was unable to resolve my issue (it remains open, whilst they check the inventory). Not withstanding the resolution of the issue (whether or not they find the missing item) I find the following unacceptable: (1) Communication with the Customer Service is very difficult, frustrating and time consuming. To get any meaningful information requires a phone call. It is inexplicable that the chat and e-mail channels have been eliminated. (2) That the storage time limit is not communicated, and that no warning is given before items are purged from the inventory. (3) That the storage time itself is limited to 21days. I use the service to consolidate numerous shipments, and it often takes over a month for all the shipments to come in, before being forwarded to final destination. If items are purged before this, the service is useless to me. (4) The cost is now at a level where it is cheaper to ship directly by UPS, DHL or FEDEX. Their only current redeeming quality is that shipments are quick, but to be honest the shipping is handled by the courier company, not Bongo itself. It is a great shame that a once useful service is now reduced to being redundant on so many different levels. Once my next shipment has been processed, I will cancel my membership, and find a more effective alternative - there are many. Marco