SINGAPORE — What started off as a chance for shoppers to get better deals has turned into a distressing experience for some, when items bought were not processed or shipped weeks after payments were made.

E-shopping service provider, Ezbuy, which is popular among consumers here, is facing an onslaught of complaints from users whose orders are delayed, with many saying that they are unable to resolve their issues with the company through its customer service platforms.

Customers have taken to posting on the business’ Facebook page — which has more than 244,000 followers — leaving long messages of complaints.

The website, which was set up in 2010, serves more than 500,000 Singaporeans to date.

Ezbuy offers e-shoppers affordable or low shipping rates and the convenience of buying products that are from overseas websites. It acts as an agent to process these orders.

After a shopper notifies Ezbuy of an item to be bought from selected overseas online retailers and makes payment, Ezbuy will order the item for them. Once it has ordered the item, the package will be shipped to an overseas warehouse. From there, it will be further processed and checked before it is shipped to Singapore to the buyer, who may then track the shipment via Ezbuy’s mobile application.

Some customers who have ordered items in preparation for Christmas parties or year-end holiday trips said that they are now unable to get them in time.

Ezbuy was unable to respond in time when TODAY tried to contact it for comments.

On Tuesday evening (Nov 28), the live chat service on the website was closed, said to be “under maintenance”.

Ezbuy had indicated that customers who need help may use its mobile application to have a live chat with customer service personnel. However, the service was down for a few hours on Tuesday and restored later in the evening.

Over the recent weekend, the company had continued to promote the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, which drew even more flak from customers, since there is still a backlog of orders not processed.

Customers interviewed by TODAY said that they have been trying in vain to contact the site’s administrators through various channels. Some said that they were put on a waiting list on the website’s live chat, but were redirected to the end of the queue after waiting online for hours.

ORDERS NOT SHIPPED

Most of the problematic orders appeared to be linked to the Buy-For-Me service, where customers have paid for items they wanted from China’s e-marketplace Taobao, as well as other major e-commerce sites in the United States (US), South Korea and Taiwan.

Mr Sebastian Sim, a businessman, had ordered more than S$400 worth of packaging materials from China through this service on Nov 8. The status of the goods has been at “preparing shipment” for two weeks.

“For the past two to three weeks, there has been no news from Ezbuy. I tried to contact the chat support and was put on the waiting list. Then, I also tried calling the hotline, which was not answered,” he said, adding that filing a ticket to get help also saw no response. “In conclusion, they are totally missing in action.”

He has since switched to another provider because he needed the materials for business purposes. “(Ezbuy) should stop promoting the other marketing advertorials so much since it is unable to resolve the current problems.”

Another customer, who wanted to be known only as Priscilla, said that she had bought S$95 worth of items from the US under Ezbuy’s Prime service because she was attracted by its promise of package inspection for defects and consolidation of items to reduce weightage charges.

The items that she ordered in October still have not arrived. She has contacted the customer service channels multiple times because she wanted the items for her trip in December, but they are still stuck in the overseas warehouse.

A customer, who gave his name as just Mr Leong, ordered three items on Nov 1 and paid about S$100 including shipping. He has received just one item to date. He waited two hours on the “live chat” to find out about the rest of the order, but has not been able to reach the company.

‘UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES’ AFFECTED SERVICE

Facebook user June Loo said that she has been chasing Ezbuy for answers for a month and it was “frustrating” because her items may not arrive on time for her Christmas party.

In a memo to customers on Nov 9, Ezbuy said that it would stop taking new orders under its Buy-For-Me service for the “next few days” owing to “unusual circumstances”. It noted that many of its “purchasing partners’ accounts”, which are used to place orders on a very popular e-commerce website in China, were “suspended” without any valid reasons.

Although the memo did not name the Chinese e-commerce player, Ezbuy lists Taobao in China as a global shopping site it supports.

Ezbuy had apologised in the memo for the inconvenience caused, because the Singles’ Day sales weekend was coming up, which would have seen a high volume of orders.

Later on Nov 13, it put up another notice on its website stating it was “sorry” that there were no updates on the shipping status of some parcels, and there were paid orders from customers that were not yet placed.

The company promised to look into the matter and would only relaunch its Buy-For-Me service after that, saying that it would “guarantee a full refund” if it was unable to give a satisfied solution.

As of Tuesday, the Buy-For-Me service was still not available.