Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Zarmark Taobao Agent Shopping Service Review - Negative!!

So, I switched over to Pruany from Taobaospree a while back, and recently they refused to give me consultation for an item I wanted to buy, something about "we do not buy this product, irritates our employee", whatever. It's a long story, I have no idea what they were talking about. So I went on the hunt for a new service. I came across Zarmark. They have a streamlined system where all you have to do is copy/paste links into a webpage, which I liked. I placed my order, everything seemed to be going well. Once they received all my items, I decided to ask for pictures of a certain item I bought, to make sure it was correct. I asked for very specific colors and model types, and the colors were allllll wrong. Naturally I was a bit pissed, so I asked the purchaser about it.
"Seller say he cannot promise the color you want but he would try. Sent at random"
"And why didn't you tell me about this before you spent my money on it?"
"Is my mistake. What do you want us to do."
"I'd like a refund or a shipping credit."
"Ok. Please forgive."
"It's fine, just make sure to credit me."
So finally all my items arrive. I speak with a representative and say that I need my items as quickly as possible, so he quotes me for about $31 EMS and I pay immediately. Later that day, I get an email with my tracking number. It says RA_________. I'm thinking, RA? Is that... goddamnit, that's fucking Airmail isn't it?? I immediately respond asking about it.

"Sent airmail by mistake, will refund the difference."
"What part of 'I NEED THESE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE' did you not really get?"
No response.

Just, extremely irresponsible and bad all around. I stopped to think about it, if I hadn't caught the mistake, would they have refunded me? Or would they just be sittin' pretty on that free money? I wouldn't recommend them to anyone, really. I'm still on the hunt for a decent service since Pruany decided to be a cock for no reason =/

*UPDATE* My package finally arrived, and surprise! More issues. I ordered 30 pcs of an item, 15 pics match what I wanted, the other 15 don't. I emailed them and basically said, "I only have 15 pcs of the item I wanted, I want a refund for the items that are wrong." And this is the response I get:

Dear

The item is out of stock, and jelly  [the agent] already tell you and change it into another item.
Do you forget it ?
 
I think you must be a Child, and I hope you could be a good girl if you can.
 
Do you think so ?
 
Have a nice day.
 
Karen

Can you believe that?? I am so flabbergasted and disgusted with that response I can barely articulate it. I want to blame the language barrier but, really? Calling me a child because you sent me the wrong item? Btw I was never told they were out of stock. I looked through every email and message archive of correspondence with Zarmark and not once did they mention this item being out of stock.

14 comments:

  1. ZARMARK.COM SCAM!!!!!!!!!!! Обманьщики никогда не пользуйтесь их услугами! перечислил деньги долго думали что ответить потом ответили что товар на месте далее я оплатил доставку но не получал трекинга! вконце дали мне смишной набор цифр после чаго я оканчательно понил что это обман и создал жалобу деньги не возращяют!!! ОСТАРОЖНО!!!

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  2. same here.. they will force you on china post, if you ask other shipping method like FEDEX, or DHL .. they will just say its unavailble. They will not also give you EMS quote and just say you should inform us at the beginning that you want EMS..

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  3. Wow... That's actually jaw droppingly appalling -_-. Sucks you bought so many items too! Too bad you can't even dispute it. I would be soo pissed.

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  4. Hello
    you are right
    they are running scam.
    No 50% discount in shipping.
    I ordered many products through them.
    I asked DHL shipping
    Before shipping they show me Big Box Picture on weighting machine.
    and asked for High shipping fee when I ask why High shipping fee ?
    they Told me Real weight is low but Volume weight is High.
    I asked for Box size and weight for my for my records.
    I paid them
    they given me tracking number.
    I tried tracking number no results.
    when I contacted DHL they told me thr is no such packet with them and told me to contact sender.
    after four days I am able to track packet. and packet was ship from Hongkong after four days.
    after more four days packet deliver.
    when I open packet I found products are damaged and Packing of products are missing.
    when I checked all products some products are missing.
    when match weight and size of Box with seller Picture I found box is small and different size.
    approx 2.5 Kg difference.
    They charge me extra for 2.5Kg.
    Products are useless as products are damaged.
    when I contacted them they said they sent big box and all products are in box before shipping.
    as per them may be DHL changed the packet and they took out products.
    when I contacted DHL they showed me booking weigh, shipping weigh and delivery wait. all are same. Even same delivery weight was printed on AWB number of DHL and Invoice.
    when I contact seller again they said DHL written less weight on packet by mistake.
    they are trying to make fool by saying that DHL write low weight. when I showed all details from DHL they they say may be shipping agent changed the box.

    same problem with all my order.
    every time same excuse.
    every time same mistake is not mistake its called habit .
    They are 420 , people with low moral value and Fraud team.

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  5. funny excuse by Zarmark Support agent Jelly
    ""she told me if she will recover my loss
    her salery will cut.
    she is young & new in business """
    she want to say cleint is rich and client will pay for her mistake

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  6. here is the list of taobao agent
    most organized one is www.go2tao.com, charge you 10% and the international shipping charge is little higher than "bottom“ price. hope it is helpful.
    http://www.amormaq.com/index.php/2012/09/taobao-agents-list/
    for how to avoild being scammed, check here:
    http://www.amormaq.com/index.php/category/avoid-being-scammed/

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  7. Zarmark is a scam, no doubt.

    My company resells things we purchase from China, and buy about $10,000 a month in inventory from TaoBao alone. Its not as much as some people out there, but to us its a big deal since we operate with a thin profit margin. Every once in a while, we check out new shipping companies to see how fast they can get things ordered, if they will pass along the haggled price to us, and we check their international shipping rates.

    We ordered a building block toy from a seller on TaoBao we buy from frequently. According to Zarmark, this seller was unwilling to negotiate the price and needed 40rmb for domestic shipping. They wanted 180rmb to complete the purchasing of the order. We know, based on experience and by talking to the seller outselves, the actual order price was 110rmb. The 70rmb is a difference of $11.50 USD - was it really worth lying about? A busy successful company wouldn't even waste its' time stealing such a low amount, but I digress.

    After 17 days, zarmark finally placed the order for the item and sent the taobao seller the money. They blamed me for not being more specific with what I needed, but we were perfectly clear and even the seller knew. Zarmark confirmed my order several times, but it still took them 17 days just to order the item after they received the money.

    Next it took 12 days to confirm my item had arrived. The seller actually provided me with the EMS tracking number, so I knew that it only took 4 days to get from the seller to Zarmark (So now we are look at a total of 29 days, and the item hasn't even been shipped internationally yet)

    At this point, they stopped replying to me completely in Chat, Skype, and QQ. I threatened to file a PayPal dispute and this got their attention. I told them they have 10 days to provide me with a tracking number for shipping the package from their office to me in the U.S. - They said yes.

    And now for the worst part of the story. I know how much it costs to ship this group of items from China to the U.S. because I've done it several of times. I expected maybe a $10 usd different, maybe a little more. On average, it should have costed me $30 USD... but according to zarmark.com - they could not send this to me for less than $110 USD. They wanted an extra $80 for no reason. The shipping they wanted actually takes 7 business days longer than everyone else. So what do you do with an item you've spent so much time, energy and money on? You send them the extra money, because hell, I wanted to see if I'd even get it!

    I had mentioned filing a PayPal Dispute a little earlier, and at this point PayPal called me on the phone asking what I was going to do about the dispute. I said they were going to provide me with a tracking number, and I was going to drop the dispute. I found out the reason why it had took them so long to order the item. It was because they owed more in disputes that were filed from other customers than they actually had in their bank and PayPal account so PayPal had suspended their PayPal account and they created another one. They wouldn't tell me how much they owed, other than that it was in the thousands.

    on the 9th day, I finally got my tracking number. This is now day 38 days after I ordered the item, and it was just now being sent out.

    32 days later, I got the item. Thats right, it took a total of 70 days to order something from them and have it arrive at my front door. The item was in good condition, but in the end, I paid twice as much as I should have/expected, and it took 4.5 times longer than it should have.

    Very shady company. I'm going to call them a scam not because I didn't get my items, but because they ripped me off by making me pay way more for buying the item, shipping the item, and by holding my item for Ransom.

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  8. Wow sorry to hear your story 70 days. Now im scare because I just sent them money for a item for my customer and im getting all kind of excuses. I paid on the 24... Help do anyone know of a good agent plz help

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  9. Awesome! I really like what you've purchased. Packaging seems to be thoughtful.

    I would vouch for http://www.chinabuy.com.au and they don't charge a service fee if you're in Australia.

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    Replies
    1. China Buy don't charge a service fee but they use an inflated exchange rate - that's how they make their money. However, still a good service. Other than having problems with items from a parcel going missing at one point but which has since been resolved (3 months later the items were found and sent) I would otherwise recommend Taobaoring.com
      Just note that they also use a slightly inflated exchange rate.

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    2. Just to add, I used Taobaoring earlier this week and they have changed fairly dramatically. No longer the previous inflated exchange rate along with their previous system where you put though and order and waited for a quote, the US conversion price always being a few extra dollars here and there than the current exchange rate was showing it to be. Using XE.com, their exchange rate is now pretty much on par with what it should be. However, where they're making up the extra slack is by bumping up their Paypal fees up to 4.4%+0.3 (it was previously around 2.8%-3.3, I believe).

      Just to add on the Zarmark front, I had several prefectly good orders with them in 2013 - all ran very smoothly. Then suddenly, on an order placed in January, they gave me a fake EMS tracking number. When questioning them multiple times over several weeks as to what was going on and whether they may have given me the wrong tracking number as there was nothing to show the parcel had even been lodged. Their repeated answer was that the parcel was possibly held up by customs and would be returned to them - strange as tracking was showing nothing, indicating the parcel still hadn't been lodged at all. Recently, I asked them outright for proof that the parcel had been lodged at an EMS / Postal Centre, such as a receipt. I am yet to get a response to that request. However, with assistance from http://track-chinapost.com/, I now know 100% the EMS parcel number given was a fake. Although I was too late to make a claim on the items ordered, I do now have a Paypal claim in place for the shipping fee paid. Now I'm awaiting the outcome :(

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  10. I'm an Angolan citizen who sometimes buys some items from the websites from your country. Never have I had any problem. Until now. I've payed $ 1465.94 that I've been saving for some time to buy a sewing machine in the site http://www.buychina.com that is an agent of TaoBao. On the 23rd of September. On the 25th I've received an email saying that the seller didn't have the item in stock, so I immediately asked for a refund of my money.
    I'm sorry to bother you but I'm desperate to recover a money that I've been saving for so long and I't seems to me that I've been robed and I don't know what to do.

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  11. Zarmark is a scam and the costumer service is terrible, they act like they're damn near retarded because they don't answer the questions you ask, they give you bullshit responses when I asked for refund. They also somehow duplicated my transaction and had my account in the negatives. I called BOA and opened up a claim on them, they took care of it and gave me my money thank god for BOA. I recommend all those out there to never use Zarmark is definitely fishy and not trust worthy.

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