Hi, I'm looking at this site as their phones are cheap- http://www.valuebasket.com.au/en_AU/. Has anyone bought from this site? Is it reliable?
Buying from ValueBasket?
zelda707 on 03/10/2012 - 12:30
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thanks! Shipping seems to take a while..
Agree Shipping takes a long time. The Site will say they have stock on hand but when you order they give excuses (see bottom)
Example Sonos
Ordered 10th Feb 2013 Did not even ship until 6/3 and arrived a week or so laterI ordered a sonos playbar on 1/4/2013 nothing has happened ie backlog I will let you know results
"The item you purchased is a popular high demand item. All previous stock had been prioritized and shipped out. We are now working diligently to ensure your order is part of the next dispatch list. An email notification regarding the delay should have been sent to you. If not, do let us know so we can take it up with our IT team.
Under the present conditions, dispatch can be expected late this week or early next week the latest. You can check your order progress by logging into your ValueBasket account online. If the order status has not changed in the next few days, kindly contact us by email or phone and we will advise you accordingly.
Meanwhile, please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further clarification
and
My sincere apologies for the delay caused in shipping your order.
After some investigation, I understand the delay was caused due to backlog on our fulfillment end. As we sell on different platforms, stock is allocated on a first come first served basis. At this time we have received an overwhelming number of orders and therefore weren't able to full a few orders.
I have just received an update from our logistic department and unfortunately they have confirmed that it is not possible as due to the current workload that they have, they are unable to accomodate the request to dispatch today. However, they have informed us that once they see an opportunity, they will certainly prioritize your order first.
Meanwhile, please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further clarification.
Recently I bought a Blackberry Z30 from valuebasket.com.au on 28th Oct
It has been about 10 business days now and they still haven't even sent out the shipment. They sent their products from HongKong however, they claimed they have this warehouse in Melbourne.
Did anyone buy anything from them? Is that even true.
Anyways, my phone is broken and I really need one obviously. So I called them and emailed them asking about the shipment of my order but they always tell me it is being processed and not yet shipped and now it is the tenth day already.
They claimed to delivery the product within 10 business days and mine is not even shipped out yet.
When I try to cancel my order they say it is gonna take 5~7 business days to refund me the money, and by the time it is refunded I should have received my order.
I m bit stuck here. What do u think I should do now?
If you have bought stuffs from them and it s broken, have you tried to ship it to Melbourne to fix?
tks
They haven't sent me any emails like the one you received. I just got a order confirmation.
I saw a recently posted deal and several other deals were posted here https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/175502
so I've decided to give them a shot.I'll let people know how I'm going here.
I've ordered a Canon SX240 HS along with a Mack Diamond Warranty. It is currently a discontinued camera.
I was told over the phone that the website stock levels are accurate and the camera is in stock.
The stock level on the camera dropped from 4 to 3 after I made the purchase. The warranty was in stock before I ordered and is still in stock.I've used Paypal, so I can quickly cancel this order if they fail to meet the advertised times.
From the email it takes 2-4 working days to get the package ready to ship. (seems a bit long if it's 4 working days for in stock items)
5-7 working days to be delivered.
If they actually deliver inside those times … 5-7 days … seems pretty good.
Note: This is a HONG KONG company, which may affect your expectations of Australian legal coverage etc
Also, from talking to them, although they said there is a local drop off point in Victoria (if you are in other states you can enquire about your state), repairs etc have to be sent to Hong Kong for assessment etc Which will slow down any repair process.
It is into the second day and the order still says, on their website
"Order Details Approved"I just remembered, it's Chinese New Year and this business is in Hong Kong.
According to the government website, there are 3 days public holiday, so … 5-7 working days for them to prep the order for delivery.
The order is now marked as Order Handling.
Allowing for Chinese New Year public holiday, this counts as business day 2 after the order was lodged.
They still have up to 2 more days for the order to be shipped, to stay inside their advertised handling delays.
I placed an order on valuebasket on wednesday and only after that did i see all the bad reviews about how they don't keep products in stock so they can't ship them out quickly or at all, etc. If it is just a long shipping time I'm fine with that as long as they make the process clear.
Anyway I just wanted to reach out and see what happens to your order, since you ordered recently too. Mine is 'order approved' (i only ordered a few days ago so this is fine) and it seems that in the good cases, it is order approved for up to 5 days then if you are lucky they really ship it out to you and your product isnt faulty!I'll keep an eye on this thread and hope all goes well for both of us!
So, from their own email:
- 2 to 4 business days to have the item ready for shipping
- 5 to 7 business days for the item to arriveThursday late - still said Order Handling
Friday - I was out the whole day and night and did not check
Saturday - Order is being picked …Picking means they haven't got the order ready for shipping. They are going around, getting the items needed to be packed.
5 business days have passed and they still are not ready to ship (compared to the estimated 4).
So I think their email is saying 7 business days total for it to arrive. If it is here by next Wednesday, then it is on time. If it is not, I may lodge a dispute with Paypal.
If VB say 2-4 days for order processing essentially, plus up to 7 days after that for delivery, it's closer to 11 business days. Add in weekends and it's up to 15 days. I'm not usually too hasty to lodge a dispute, I will allow a few days extra than estimated if the seller seems legit. When I order small things regular mail from China on ebay, I'm aware it will take up to 30 days, so my expectations are set, and if it takes longer than that I am always reasonable and wait a while, then ask for either refund or new item if it doesn't arrive. Valuebasket need to make customers aware of real timeframes, then they wouldnt get as many bad reviews.
Mine was order approved for 3 days then straight to awaiting pickup from courier, so all going well there in theory. So many people have said the status updates on the website don't reflect the reality though.
I'm still nervous because if it does really get sent and arrives, it sounds like any after sales support is horrendous if there's something wrong with the item. Because you can send it back to them, and say you want a refund, but it's a lot harder to get a refund when you have actually received the item. It's easier for the seller to look like they have fulfilled their end of the bargain (how do you prove its faulty).
Needless to say it's too much of a hassle and even if I get my product and it works, i'll pay extra for peace of mind with another company next time. Especially when it comes to expensive items or electronics that I will be using heavily day to day. I'll update what happens with my order in this thread
I hadn't checked the status in the past few days.
It now says:
Order in Queue
We are experiencing a slight backlog at this time but anticipate dispatch in the coming days. Thank you for your patience.That doesn't sound good. Mine has said awaiting pickup from courier for 3 days with no change in status with tracking number - it just says "booking arranged". Might be their way of buying time - they send you a tracking number so you think it's on its way, but really only book the courier for a week later when they have the stock. Sigh.
They have a few more days. I'll guess that, if they had what I ordered, it was in Hong Kong and is affected by holidays.
Possibly what you ordered was in Australia and is awaiting courier. But 3 days awaiting a courier to pick it up doesn't sound good.
Perhaps you should ring or online chat with them now to get it picked up tomorrow?
@foundit:
Latest update when I visited the site (They didn't bother to email me this)Order Held
Kindly contact us to confirm some details regarding your order by sending us an email via our Contact Us page. From the General and After-Sales Enquiry option, choose 'My Account page says Order Held'.They should have emailed me along with the reason instead of leaving it hidden.
I tried using the Contact Us page. I filled out the information. It has a pop up that says "Processing".
When the green spinning thing on Firefox is finished, I am left on the "Processing" page.Also the "Live Support" link seems to always say "Offline" day or night
No, it's definitely still in Hong Kong and has not been picked up by the courier yet. The status is still 'booking arranged', which means they are just buying time.
They are a HK based company so I doubt they have any stock in Australia, and likely little stock in HK as well which is why they delay orders so long.
Yeah I've noticed that about the livesupport. All their numbers route through to HK call centre anyway and I think staff don't really know what is happening in the warehouse or with shipping, etc.
What info do they want from you? I hope everything works out.
Just to confirm they:
- already have all my delivery details
- could ship it if they wanted to
- no one else decides last minute that they need to confirm more details
- have not attempted to contact me (no emails; junk mail checked)
- could have written what the problem was, in the status of the order (plenty of room)Are now 4 days past the due date for posting the item
I lodged a dispute with Paypal.
Now ValueBasket replied by email.
Something they could have done if they genuinely had a problem with any of my details.
In this email, there is no mention of the details they claimed they needed confirmed.
Now the old line of "our stock levels on our website are not up to date", despite their staff on the phone saying "the stock levels on our website are up to date".
:S
Also claim there was high demand, which is why their stock levels were not up to date. Since the camera I purchased was old, discontinued stock, it is rubbish for them to claim their was high demand.
In addition they claimed they had 4 of the camera in stock. They dropped it to 3 after my order and it stayed there for days … so much for the stock of this camera being rushed out the door.
Unfortunately, as per usual, they lied about having stock.
Then they say, sorry for messing up my order, why don't I pick out another camera from them and they will "work out a great deal"!?!?!
I'm supposed to trust them again, when they lie about items being in stock? When they lie to buy time so they can sit on my money longer!???
I've told them to give me an immediate refund and if they want to make up for messing with me, they can add extra.
(The only reason I gave them a shot was because some people on the web, despite reporting lots of difficulties, claimed they eventually got items from them PLUS there was a recent deal on here with 40+ votes and no complaints about failing to receive the item PLUS of course, having Paypal to fall back on)
My order is in the country and has been for days but taking a long time to actually clear customs. (this seems unusual as I usually receive things quite quickly, but I can't blame valuebasket for this I don't think… I wonder if it has anything to do with their arrangement so we don't have to pay import taxes/GST?)
I will update when it actually arrives. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't die within a couple of weeks and actually works. Once they deliver it i will have no hope of a refund and they offer a 36 month warranty but will just take the goods back and never return them from what i've read.
So not worth the stress of buying from them. I don't want to throw hundreds of dollars away.If you have lodged a dispute with paypal and they havent sent your item, you'll definitely get your money back. Paypal offers great buyer protection. Keep us updated - from what i have read it takes them a couple weeks to actually refund you, but you do get it eventually.
Boy do I wish I had read the bad reviews before buying - i had only read good things and they seemed legit.
@foundit:
I think it was about 2 days after that last email, that the refunded the money in full, with no further questions. It was only days into the Paypal 10 day period for seller's to respond.The email gave the new claim that, their systems are up to 1 week behind, on stock levels. In this day and age, that is appalling. Other suppliers update stock levels in just minutes, seconds or instantly.
They still try to claim that my discontinued camera was an extremely popular item which is why the stock cleared before my order could be filled.
This is after their staff told me categorically, that the online stock levels were up to date and that the camera was definitely in stock.
Although they have listed deals here on OzBargain, and I got my money back, I would no longer place an order with them.
I am also very appreciative of the Paypal method to open disputes, which is much more transparent, easier and more informative than opening a dispute via my credit card provider.
I'm looking forward to buying a second hand camera off eBay, instead.
I'm glad you got refunded so quickly! That's great.
My order arrived on Friday morning. So it IS possible to receive an order from valuebasket! It seems to be fine. I have a little worry in the back of my mind it will stop working after a few weeks but I'm trying to forget that.
Even though I got my item, I wouldn't buy from them again until they stop some of their shady practices with stock levels and so on.
I thought I'd post this for anyone who does a search on valuebasket hopefully before they make a purchase at their own risk.
DO NOT BUY FROM THIS SITE!!!!
They do not abide by Australian Consumer law (or any other law than HK law).THIS IS ILLEGAL!!!
I bought a very expensive quadcopter (Parrot drone) after being ASSURED that the item was in stock and would arrive before I was going overseas.
THe item arrived weeks later.
It was faulty and when I tried to return it WITHIN THE 14 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE I was given the run around for weeks.
Finally, they agreed to give me my refund MINUS 25% because apparently the packaging was damaged.
- THE PACKAGING WAS NOT DAMAGED - I HAVE PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF OF THIS
- UNDER AUSTRALIAN CONSUMER LAW, I DO NOT EVEN HAVE TO PROVIDE THE PACKAGING TO RETURN A FAULTY ITEM FOR A FULL REFUND.
DO NOT BUY FROM THIS SITE - STEER CLEAR
An overseas business has no reason to abide by Australian consumer law. If they don't have an ABN you are not protected.
DO NOT BUY FROM THIS SITE - STEER CLEAR
I agree 100%. I really regret that I did not take this advice.
I really regret that bought a quadcopter CX-20 from this Valuebasket company. It was the first time that I bought a product from them despite reading many bad reviews about this company.
In my experience, their after sale support is WORST of all that I have ever dealt with. Even though I sent them video clearly demonstrating the product's defects, they still demanded many unreasonable requests. Their responses are full of abuse and treated their customer like an idiot.
I escalated via Paypal and Paypal asked me to return the product to them with the following conditions:
Return must be via registered mail or courier and AT YOUR OWN COSTS.
Failure to do the followings will result in a restocking fee (% of the product value) being applied to the order in accordance with our Returns Policy:
- Cable (AV, USB, power plug) 5%
- Earphone 10%
- Case/Screen Protector 10%
- Battery 15%
- Remote 15%
- Charger 15%
- Box & Original Packaging 25%
- Item not returned in good condition or as New 15%
By default the product can't be "as New" hence 15% will be deducted. And the packaging will always be damaged (as you receive it) that's another 25% gone!
You can check some of previous posted deals. Also reviews from TrustPilot — 6.2 out of 10. Hmmm.