Poor
Based on 166 reviews
Honesty, pricing, process and quality scores appear once 5 customers have rated them.
International shipping of American products through mail forwarding and parcel forwarding services.
Bongo International (bongous.com) has 166 customer reviews on Folks Told, with an average rating of 2.0 out of 5.
166 approved reviews, newest moderated first
Richard M.
A great way to get shipments from the USA or other parts of the world. Bongos rate are very competitive and the goods get here (Australia) so fast, 4-5 days! I would recommend Bongo to anyone...full stop.
Reply from Bongo InternationalJul 17, 2015
Richard, Thank you so much for the awesome feedback! We have passed this on to our customer service manager and he appreciates you taking the time to review our company! :-) Sincerely, Bongo International
Miranda H.
Received goods promptly. Impressive, expensive but you know up front the cost and that's your choice. Will definitely use again
Reply from Bongo InternationalJul 16, 2015
Hi Miranda, We really appreciate your feedback, we have also passed your note about shipping prices to our customer service manager, he accumulates feedback such as this to make future changes to policies, procedures and/or rates. Have a great day! Bongo International
JW
I ordered 2 belts and 1 scarf online and ship to Bongo's Belgium address, after my shipment came in, Bongo claimed that one of the box is too big so they have to calculated the shipping cost in billable weight 30 pounds which will cost me US$160 to ship it to HK. I called their customer services and told them there is no way 2 belt and 1 scarf will weight that much, I shipped 2 pairs of shoes before it was just cost me US$60 in April, i requested them to re measure again on the size and they insist it was correct. They explained to me that was not an actual weight but the dimensional weight, they offered me 20% discount so i end up paying US$140. Today i have got my box, I found there is no way to fit in 2 pair of shoes, no matter the dimension weight or actual weight still not possible to be that expensive. Bongo is over charging me. This is an unreasonable charge as I shipped all around the world, no one ever charged that much. Furthermore, Bongo's attitude is not helpful at all, they cannot convince me why they have to charge that much, they even tell me to ship to other forwarder if i do not happy with the price!!! This is the worst forwarder I have ever used. Finally the company offered me full refund, I accepted that, and I am satisfy on this case as i respect them as a company who is willing to take responsibility and they do care about their customers. I will recommend their services to my friends in future, and i am so glad we can settle the case.
Reply from Bongo InternationalJul 15, 2015
Hello, First and foremost we take all of our customer feedback seriously. Though we understand your frustration, we want to explain to you our shipping costs. The shipping cost is determined by the dimensional weight of your package or its actual weight - whichever is greater. Dimensional weight is calculated by taking the package dimensions, multiplying them together, and dividing the result by 139 (Length x Width x Height/139). If the dimensional weight of an item is greater than the actual weight of the item, the dimensional weight is used. This is the standard for international shipping, and we happen to use FedEx International Air which is a more expedited method of shipping. Think about shipping a bumper. The actual weight of that bumper may only be 10 pounds, but it takes up a lot of space on the truck and the plane, so the dimensional weight may come out to 40 or 50 pounds. Also, because we use the measurements of the incoming boxes, you cannot compare this shipment to previous shipments you’ve made – unless the merchant who shipped us the items used the exact box size each time no matter its contents. We strongly encourage all customer to research with the merchants they purchase from to determine the size of the box that will be received by Bongo. If you had obtained the box dimensions, and used our calculator prior to making the purchase you would have received a fair estimate. Our customer service manager is aware of your feedback, and after having spoken with you on the phone he offered a discount of 20% being that you are a valued and long term customer. We have sent this feedback to him again, and he has had the shipping cost checked again and it was accurate. He also, went to FedEx’s main site and confirmed that had you shipped FedEx direct (not using the discount we receive based off our volume) your shipment would have been 40% higher than the initial cost you paid. If you add your 20% off coupon, this shipment is 60% discounted from what you would have paid shipping yourself directly, with the same method and same distance. We also took the time to review the phone conversations, our staff was trying to be helpful in offering the names of some of our competitors whom you could try contacting to find more competitive rates. But in regards to this shipment there was nothing more we could have done at the time to assist in reducing the costs. We are sincerely sorry to see a valued customer leave, but we understand that our rates are simply too high to keep your business. As a good will gesture, our customer service manager will offer a full refund on this shipping and we will close your account per your feedback. We hope you find this resolution satisfactory and we thank you for your years of business. Bongo International
Dafne
Easy, fast and efficient.
Reply from Bongo InternationalJul 13, 2015
Hi Dafne, Thank you kindly for taking the time to leave this feedback, we have passed this on to our customer service manager! Bongo International
Luis Eduardo Archundia O.
Bongo is a blessing. I can buy internationally and receive my things with confidence via FedEx.
Reply from Bongo InternationalJun 25, 2015
Hi Luis, Thank you kindly for taking the time to leave this feedback, we have passed this on to our customer service manager! We hope that you have a wonderful Thursday evening. Thanks, Bongo International
Nadra
I am an American living overseas and we have been Bongo customers for 7 long miserable years now and have given them thousands of our dollars. In my eyes, a mail forwarder's job is to : 1. Stay in one place. 2. Receive my mail. 3. Forward it on to me. Simple right? Wrong. Bongo has completely and utterly failed at all three seemingly simple objectives. 1. They move more then we do! In the 7 years that we have been customers they have moved at least 3 times. This has meant that we had to go through the trouble of changing all of our addresses on all of our accounts because they sure as heck didn't forward our mail on to their new address as one would expect mail forwarders to do. 2. In our minds, one of the main reasons to keep a US address was to receive financial correspondance in order to keep our US financial accounts going while were living overseas. Little did we know that checks and new credit cards would destroyed WITHOUT ANY SORT OF NOTIFICATION. Tax return check, gone! New credit cards, gone! Gift check from uncle, gone! When I found this out, their lackluster customer service representative's response was "didn't you read the policies?" By the way, I still have not found any place on their website where I can find this information. Not only are checks and credit cards destroyed but ALL YOUR MAIL IS DESTROYED if it is stored there for more than 21 days WITHOUT NOTIFICATION. What the hell am I paying $30 a month for then? I was also completely unaware of this until today (when I cancelled my account). Again their lackluster customer service representative's response was "didn't you read the policies?" By the way, I still have not found any place on their website where I can find this information either. 3. IF you have any mail that has not been destroyed you will be charged ridiculous prices to have that mail forwarded to you. My last (and lightest) shipment contained about 10 pieces of paper but cost me over $50 to be sent over. Not overnight, mind you, it took something like 5 days to get to London. Absolutely ridiculous. So, after 7 long disappointing years I can honestly tell anyone who is even thinking of opening a Bongo account. DON'T DO IT! THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED WITH YOUR MAIL / PURCHASES / ANYTHING. Do not make the same stupid mistake I did in trusting them with my mail. GOOD RIDDANCE.
Reply from Bongo InternationalJun 24, 2015
Hello Nadra, First, we are sorry to see a long-term valued customer discontinue their account. We are taking feedback you’ve provided and passing it on to our customer service manager for review and improvements. We would also like to take a moment and address the concerns outlined here which could not be controlled by our organization: Bongo International was founded in 2007, since then we have been a rapidly growing company in the industry, to the point that we were acquired by FedEx Trade Networks. As a business grows, so must our operational warehouses. You are correct that we have made three moves in the past four years, this is due to rapid growth and expanded customer solutions. A positive attribute to our success. We understand your comments about our storage policy. With the lack of space in our warehouses we do have a storage policy. You can find the storage policy outlined here: https://bongous.com/legal/ In addition to the policy being listed on our site, when you signed up for your account you agreed to the terms and conditions of our policy, including storage. Our customer service manager reviewed your account and using the email address on file – you received successful emails notifications daily alerting you to inventory in your mailbox. Also, the last five emails we sent offered discount coupon codes to encourage you to ship the items; including details of our storage policy. Our customer service manager pulled the call for quality assurance and our staff conducted themselves with the utmost professionalism; per the conversation you acknowledged to us: “no one reads storage policies”. This is the responsibility of the consumer to understand the policies, and based off of this decide if we are the correct solution for you. Lastly, as you noted we default to FedEx International Air for our transit, depending on processing and accounting verification it can take 2-5 days to received items shipped from one of our domestic hub. The transit times you described are normal for the services we offer. We sincerely hope you found value in our explanations, and again we are truly sorry to see you go! Bongo International
sidiq
Make atonement in my account number B287293 suite on the 11th May by using jasapembayaran.com as a third party in making payments. Since I do not have Credit card or paypal. Once the payment is done I got an email from stating bongous to copy id credit cards as verification. Then I confirm to the jasapembayaran.com And they refused to do so because the rules of their company. In this case I feel aggrieved, after making a payment and how long the funds declined in refund? And how to account My blocked? I am very aggrieved. I as a consumer is very difficult to communicate with bongous, and email I always send an automatic email reply from the bongous.
Reply from Bongo InternationalJun 10, 2015
Hi Sidiq, We have sent this to our customer service manager for immediate review. After review of your mailbox it was found that your account was frozen for the following reason: the IP address associated with the email account used to open this mailbox was identified in connection to international credit card fraud. Additionally, you have created multiple accounts with multiple email addresses, using different names each time all with the same IP address. We kindly sent you a message in regards to this; and the merchant can contact us to recover the product in your account. Bongo International
W B.
I was contacted by Citibank credit card fraud department alerting me that someone was trying to buy laptops with my card. Laptops were shipped to Bongo's warehouse. The address is 861 E. Sandhill Ave. , Mailbox # 285007 Carson, CA 90746. I closed my card account and contacted Bongo directly to complain. They are difficult to contact and their email reply was : "We have done everything we can with this account" - whatever that means. US authorities and the FBI should investigate the fraud being facilitated by Bongo International
Reply from Bongo InternationalJun 3, 2015
Hello W. Bhatti, We are sincerely sorry you have been the victim of credit card fraud. We want to first let you know that we do not in any way facilitate or tolerate fraud in any manner. Having recently been acquired by FedEx, the acquisition happened first and foremost due to the dedication and integrity of the Bongo International team, which extends heavily into fraud prevention and protection. Unfortunately, the data you referenced is not associated to an order or mailbox which matches your experience, so I cannot offer specific details to your feedback. Though I want to reiterate: we do not in any way facilitate or tolerate fraud in any manner at Bongo International. Fraud comes in many forms in international e-commerce, including: criminal fraud, friendly fraud and customs fraud – and we tolerate none of them. Here are some of the steps we take when we are notified of a fraudulent transaction: 1) When notified of credit card fraud, either from the bank, the merchant or the consumer we immediately freeze the associated order/mailbox 2) If the funds can be reimbursed, we will do so with 24-48 hours 3) If the product is recoverable, we will send the product back to the merchant – usually paying for the cost of shipping to return the goods purchased through fraud 4) If the product is already in transit to its destination we will work with our shipper to have the goods turned around to our warehouse – usually paying for the cost of the return shipment As you can see, not only do we not facilitate fraud; but we go to great lengths to prevent and recover goods and funds when fraud is involved. Thank you, Bongo International
