I placed my order on ASOS on December 9, paid for Express shipping so I'd get my dress on December 18. The party is on December 26 so I thought great! It will get there one week before the party. But boy was I wrong!
On December 18, I got nothing. Tried to reach Skynet in Egypt but all the telephone numbers on their website are not picking up. Better yet, all the emails are not working either!
I tried to reach ASOS but they were helpless. All they said was that it's Christmas time and they're too busy and I should wait for a few more days! (Heck no I won't. Why on earth did I pay for Express when I'm going to "wait"??)
I tried to reach Skynet UK but then they said that the order left London on December 13 and it should be in Cairo by now. They suggested I contact Skynet Egypt. (Nice joke, I know!)
This was followed by a long thread of emails of me trying to explain that Skynet Egypt are unreachable and Skynet UK providing the same numbers on the website.
Friday morning I decided to give Skynet UK a call. I was transferred to Julie Reeves who was quite nice. She apologized for the late delivery and for Skynet Egypt's behavior. She also sent out an email to management (particularly Mr Ayman Bazaza) in Egypt asking them to give me a call.
It comes as no surprise that Mr Ayman never gave me a call - and his reply was in fact pointless.
I tried reaching ASOS again and they gave me two numbers; a cellphone number which I later found out is Ayman's number, and another landline where no one answers.
Saturday morning, I tried calling the cellphone number. After about 4 tries, Ayman finally picked up! (Oh wow! They're alive!)
Now here comes the best part, Ayman said that he has no idea where my order is and that he never received it. He never bothered to apologize for their total disappearance. When I asked him what should be done in cases like this, he said "I'll email Skynet UK and will let you know when they reply."
Bottom line is, this has proven to be a very terrible experience and I'm not sure if I'll even receive my dress. But what I do know is, if you're thinking of making an order from ASOS, think twice! I don't know if the service is as bad in other countries but it is quite terrible in Egypt.
This is not the first time that I've faced problems with Skynet. Earlier this month, I placed an order and the delivery agent (Karam Shawky) called before he got there. I was not home, so I asked him to leave the shipment with a friend. I had to pay for customs and duty and the fees he said on the phone were much more than what the documents said. Last time I checked, that's considered fraud. I wanted to report that, but as usual, no one answering the phone!
I suggest ASOS fixes this before they offer delivery to Egypt, or better yet, choose a more reliable courier!!
hi... I am very curious as to how your story ends! I am currently waiting for an order from ASOS too where (surprise surprise) I also paid for express service... I do not know why I still bother with the HUGE ripoff in customs and horrible courier service, but I have tried ASOS delivery to friends/family in UK and it is always excellent so every time I am delivering to Egypt, my hopes are high.. expected delivery date for my order is Dec 29, but the website shows no update since Dec 18. My guess is that the order left UK since Dec 18 but is somewhere in limbo stage meanwhile :/
ReplyDeleteHorrible and disappointing, and still a ripoff above all that!
After several attempts to reach Skynet, I finally found out it was in customs in Cairo since the 18th! So the Ayman guy called and said it will be delivered the next day. Now here's the fun part, they were charging me almost 80% for customs!
ReplyDeleteHe said that they had some internal problems and that they had to leave parcels at the Egypt Air cargo - which cost them money. And that's when I went psycho bitch. How is it my problem that they're having internal problems? and why should I pay for their mistakes? Eventually, they decided to cover all those expenses, and I ended up paying the usual 43%
On another note though, I think it's insane how much we pay for customs in Egypt. Such a ripoff. I usually ship things to Vancouver, BC to avoid that. But since I wanted to get the dresses early, I decided to ship it to Egypt.
thanks for this blogpost. I was about to order from Asos :D you saved me.
ReplyDelete