Andrew
The swaps work
The swaps work, the timing is really pretty good, and it is 1,000,000,000,000,000% simpler than going to any bank in China. The website is a mess; it isn't updated to reflect the current reality (swap credit cannot be purchased by any method other than credit card, and you don't find that out until after you've paid by the other methods that the website says you can.....instructions for swaps are very thorough, but somewhat outdated as several of the screenshots that they show are from previous versions of Alipay and/or WeChat pay.......also, if one contacts customer service, one is told not to use WeChat pay at all, only to use Alipay and only to use it by entering the account information and NOT scanning, but the website tells you to do ALL of these things and there will be no problem ((but there are problems if you do the swap that way)). Customer service is mixed. I have two customer service agents in my WeChat; one in China, and one in the USA. The agent in China is very kind and very helpful and has walked me through solving several problems, despite his fear of language problems. The agent in the USA, who is supposed to be providing English service, is a mess. She told me to submit my swap "again and again and again, even 10 times until it works", and that's what got my account blocked for a period of time (too many failed swaps in one day). After giving me bad advice that rendered my Swapsy account useless for a period of time, she told me "we wish you a happy life" when I told her I wasn't happy that she caused my account to be blocked, and ignored all of my future attempts to contact her. In my experience, she is both severely unprofessional, and quite rude. But, as mentioned, the agent in China is really very good. Lastly...and this is not Swapsy's fault....Alipay is a TOTAL mess, and when one is setting up Swapsy for the first time, one must allow a few extra days for all of the Alipay problems (there are many) that will occur. I'm happy with the swap process, and I'm happy with SOME of the customer service. Not happy at all with the extremely unprofessional agent in the USA, and not very happy with the website which needs a lot of updates. The swapsy fees are not extreme; they're fair and you get what you pay for (considering avoiding the grief of going to a bank in China...pure grief), but the fees are high enough that the website should be accurate.