Australia Post Shopmate

The item I purchased was custom built and the fabricator would not ship international and I was prepared for expensive freight cost and was prepared to pay what it took through Shop Mate even after reading all reviews about it and shipping costs. There was a mix up at the Portland depot and my item was sent elsewhere. I contacted the Aussie Post team and yes it took multiple calls and I had to ensure I wasn’t just given a case number and that was it. But the Australian Team was very good and very pleasant to deal with and intercepted my item and eventually got it to me and did not charge me. So cheers to Aussie team and not so much for the US team. My advice to anyone using Shop Mate, (trying not sound nasty) use this as a last option. if your item doesn’t show up after a few days on the site do not hesitate to ring the Post hotline to chase it for you and Chase any case number numbers up if you get them. The Australian team kept me well informed and were very apologetic for error that was not theirs. In all fairness the Australian team did every thing in their powers to help me and got me the result I needed and that’s what made up for bad experience I had with the Portland depot. I believe the experience I had with service was just a genuine human error, it happens. I would use this service again if I needed to.

I paid to have items repackaged into one box, they weren't so I paid for a service they didn't do. They requested the same document 4-5 times for each item at different points of the delivery, and after all that one item never arrived. It's still in limbo and tracking shows it still as waiting for pick up from the US address.

This company was amazing! I had something shipped to another shipping service, and I was never notified of anything! I was obviously hesitant to use another service after that mess, however AusPost was absolutely amazing! Shipping was very fast and worth every cent to have things shipped. Would highly recommend

I really wish I had done my research before using them...shame on me.

The fees are bascially extortion. There’s nothing you can do about it either as if you don’t pay them you don’t get your package so they know they charge whatever they want.

To send a package to America using aust post only costs something like $50 - $80 for up to 20kg. So how is it justified that my 5kg package cost almost $200 to send the other way round? Even taking into account added labour costs and repackaging? Who from the company actually thinks these fees are fair and acceptable?

I would have been better off buying each individual item from different companies in Australia, paid the higher prices and paid the separate Australian shipping cost for each one and it still would have been SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to do so.

I thought this service would save me money but I was foolish and so very wrong.

To anyone thinking about using this service, don’t. There’s no value for money in it. I certainly wont be using it ever again. It’s only useful for items you can’t get in Australia anywhere that you desperately want and will pay whatever cost to have. Other than that, it’s a poor service at best.

I’m extremely disappointed and have lost faith in the company after this experience and you will be too if you make the mistake of using them.

I’m expecting a copy/paste response from some Indian or Filipino service centre below which I hope will not sway you into using this service. This service is truly terrible.

I was quoted $88 US dollars to post my purchase from America to Australia, after looking around i thought, id try ShopMate, what did i have to loose?
Well It was $48 AU delivered ($32US), yes it took two weeks, but that was what I expected anyway.
Yes I would consider using ShopMate again.

Final Note: my package was compact and light at 0.3kg, a heavy or large object could really up the price. Find out the size and weight before buying and get several quotes!

takes a very long time and is incredibly expensive. they do not give accurate shipping costs prior to sending your package there, so what i thought would cost $50, ended up being $200.

I was also charged for 12kg weight, when the parcel was only 2.5kg

I ordered 2 standard rifle scopes from Amazon US. I had it sent to the Oregon facility of shopmate. Shop mate send me an email saying they will not send it to Australia because it is a prohibited import (firearm accessory). I contacted the Australian Border Force firearms import department and advise of this and the officer said that the item is not a prohibited item and there is no cause for it to be stopped from entry. I call up Australia Post and express my concerns. I am then transferred to the Shopmate team member. I advised again that Australian Border Force said that this is not a prohibited item and offered the number for Australia Border Force. This person said well we consider it prohibited. This is not mentioned on their website and quite the contrary on there terms and conditions. According to section 4.8 of Australia Post prohibited items guide it is allowed. The service of Shopmate is shocking

I would not recommend Shopmate to anyone. 1 star is to much for Shopmate

In Mar 2019 Ordered some good from Amazon USA.
All 3 items were sent to shopmate... but because they were from different suppliers shopmate couldn't consolidate them into one package to save on shipping. So you need to ship all 3 separately at premium shipping rates.
They then have a tick box to 'add extra insurance against theft/damage' - really? Aus post doesn't trust their own system.
Overall experience was poor value for money, an $11 Amazon item, cost $30 to ship to Aus. (multipled by 3 items)

If I was doing it again, i'd find another freight forwarder in the US and use UPS/DHL.

My expensive Omega watch was stolen in the care of ShopMate who will not compensate for total cost. This is an extremely useless service that should be avoided! Have a nice day and we are sorry doesn’t sort it out!

My story is similar to pretty much all of the negative reviews on this website in that I ordered an item that weighed 600 grams, the chargeable weight is 1.3 kilograms, and shipping will cost me $61. However, reading through these negative reviews, of which there are many, shopmate always defaults back to one generic statement in response: "we're sorry BUT you should have looked at the estimated shipping page". Remember how in school a teacher would say that an apology is not an apology if there is a 'but' in it justifying the behaviour? Yeah, well clearly AUSPOST didn't go to school and don't know how to handle VALID customer complaints.

We are already disadvantaged as a country due to our geographic location (apparently Australia is a blackhole and retailers don't know it exists), and as a result are forced to use services like shopmate in order to purchase products that the rest of the world can get with ease. So why is an Australian company taking advantage of its consumers when they're already in a disadvantaged position purely because they live in Australia? How very un-Australian.

Here's a tip: refund your customers, reduce their costs manually after a complaint or give them some kind of incentive to continue shopping with shopmate. It's consumer behaviour 101, if a customer leaves with a negative experience they will never return and warn other people from using the service. Mitigate the complaints. It's really not that hard.

Ps. And while you're at it, replace your complaints management team because they are disgraceful.

I ordered a product from the states back in November. We are now mid February and I am still yet to receive it. The issue is in part that the product was over the $2,500 limit so extra paperwork is involved.

When the product arrived in warehouse in the states (as per the supplier we bought it from delivery notification) we received no notification from shopmate. After a week we called them. A few messages back and forth two weeks later it was finally found.

I was then sent the shipping paperwork which comes with no instructions on how to fill it out. The point of using this service is that I am are not a importer. I am unfamiliar with the process and the terminology used on the formed. I filled out my personal and product details and sent it back assuming they would fill out the detailed shipping port information. Form rejected as not fully completed and returned. I googled how to fill it out and did a best guess based on this for the askers and returned it. This form went back and forth half a dozen times correcting information. Then I didn’t hear back. I hoped that meant I had it right. Three weeks passed hearing nothing. I rang the information number. I lovely helpful lady answered. She found my forms had been received but there was still errors in it. She went through explaining exactly what was needed and even sent us a guide on how to fill it out. That would have been helpful to have had from the start!! Mission accomplished and form finally completed and accepted.

Package accepted by US customs and sent to Australia. Weeks pass. I hear nothing. So again phone the information line. Package has been sitting customs here for weeks only no one has been in contact with me to organise payment of the taxes. Not only have they failed to contact me but the lady was rude about something that was their error. Customer service training needed badly. Where’s that option at the end of the call to review the service experienced during the call.

I still don’t have my parcel three months after they received it. Beyond disgusting service. I don’t recommend using this service and will never use it again.

Needed something from the USA for this week...Shopmate said delivery would be between 4 and 8 Feb. It's really hard to tell from the tracking info avaliable, when it will actually arrive. For what is costs, the tracking info should probably be better. The shipping from Syd seems really slow too.

I ordered a laptop of Amazon US that was on sale - however the value was over USD 1000 which meant they would not forward it directly and would need a customs broker who can charge $200 on top of a $90 freight charge. So I asked to redirect the package to a relative in the US - they charged me $115 for this repacking and delivery to a local US address !

I really wanted to like this service but its just unwieldly and way too expensive.

Organised for a package to be sent that contained 4 pairs of shoes. Actual weight 5.7kg, chargeable weight 15.7kg! Was told this was due to the size of the box. $212 to send it over..

I asked if there was another way to reduce the cost, and was told they could repack it for a $5.50 fee. Requested, and over the next week followed up twice, only to be told it wasn't possible. Andrea on the phone advised that i could sign a damage waiver, and the shoes would be removed from the boxes, and repackaged. No worries, signed the waiver and waited.

Followed up after 2 days, warehouse was closed for CNY. Called back after another 2 days, told they were waiting for the warehouse to reply still, and to call back in 24 hours. Attempted to call back after 24 hours, only to find they're only open 9-5, M-F via phone...

Called back yesterday, to be told that the warehouse can repack - Great, after 2 1/2 weeks and 5 phone calls, it looks like we're getting somewhere.. Only to be told that this repack is different from a normal repack, and would probably take 1-1 1/2 hours - AT $35 US/HOUR! This was the first i'd be told of this fee, even though i'd requested this a week before, had signed a waiver and had 3 phone calls in between.. Not once did anyone tell me this.

Needless to say, that fee negates any savings to be made by repacking. I'll pay the ridiculous fee this time, but will be closing my Shopmate account after it's delivered.

If I could 0 star it I would. Another lousy experience with Auspost. What did we Australians do to deserve such shoddy offerings from our national postal service???

Anyway, my experience went something like this:
- ordered a bag of coffee which obviously has a shelf life.
- get alert from USPS saying it has been delivered to Shopmate warehouse
- cool, takes 48 hours to process. seems reasonable, so I wait
- after 4 days my package hasn't shown up online, so I send an email asking after the parcel.
- wait another 3 days without response
- send another email
- get a response
- response says to call them because my parcel is "dangerous or prohibited" (fantastic)
- they say they can't send the coffee because they don't ship food
- backstory: like an idiot, I trusted what was written on the "What you can and can't send" page https://shopmate.auspost.com.au/shopping-guide/what-you-can-and-cant-send which is the MOST PROMINENT PAGE on their website detailing what you (supposedly) can and can't send.
- No mention of food being prohibited on this page, but to be fair, the shopmate staff correctly point out that food is excluded on one of the other pages
- Anyone else reminded of misleading and deceptive conduct??? I guess one of the things you CAN'T send is food, and that should probably be listed on the page, huh???
- Partially my fault, I admit, but now they want to charge me $5 to discard the parcel

Honestly, reading some of the horror stories below, I am glad it's just $5. it was worth it to learn the lesson: Never use this service again

My items arrived at the USA Shopmate address and took over 72 business hours to process. The fee was enormous but I assumed that meant it would be a fairly quick delivery timeframe. No. I was wrong. In what I have found to be fairly consistent service from Auspost, the delivery is late according to the estimated window provided by Shopmate.

If you think going with Auspost for USA freight forwarding will be reliable, think again. I'll be going with myus.com next time.

Never ever believe the estimated shipping price table they have on their website. It's a joke. I'm paying double. Catchyalater Shopmate, you guys are done.

I ordered 3.5kg from USA and the merchant was charging about 100AUD for shipping. Shopmate had a discount code for 20% off at the time and I thought it was definitely going to be cheaper! I was wrong, shopmate reported a shipping volume 13.6kg and even with the discount it came to $150AUD.

I considered requesting Shopmate return the item back to the merchant to ship to me and shopmate wanted $100AUD without economic options just to move it in the same country!

I never am bothered to review things but the damage that shop mate caused to my wallet demands a negative review. I know they have the safety and journey of my parcel in their best interests but they seem to lock us in the most expensive method of delivery.

I also had to email my merchant invoice like 4 times because they kept losing it or something and their clunky online
Interface does not offer documentation upload or a messaging system and also requires a certain amount of characters to be typed in the description of your order cannot be shipped.

Very disjointed communication.
Clunky online interface.
Terrible fees even with discount.

Purchased a rubbish bin with plastic liners. Apparently arrived at Shopmate's USA depot TOGETHER at the same time but in 2 parcels from the same compaby. Shopmate didn't tell me this at all. They then asked me to pay the fee to transfer the parcel to Australia (which I did)… however the next day they started to write me emails about an 'oversized' parcel??? I was confused as I'd just paid for the parcel to be sent and I had an email saying 'It's on it's way!'... I was confused, why is it oversized, I just paid you for it to be sent???... so I contacted Shopmate again and they finally told me after much deliberation that there were 2 parcels received and they chose to send the plastic bin liners. So I'd paid all that money for just the bin liners to be sent to Australia and the bin is still in the USA! Then they said the only option is to get the bin redirected, so I finally found someone I knew in the USA and then provided that name and address to Shopmate who then charged me $180 to redirect it! That's $180 to send to my mate in the USA, who will then have to send to me in Australia of course at a cost again. So, so far, I've paid $280 USD for the bin and liners. Over a $100 AUD to get the bin liners sent to me, now $180 AUD to get the bind sent to my mate, then he will ask for money as well. This is all because Shopmate didn't tell me that my order, although it arrived at EXACTLY the same time together and was signed off by the SAME person at the USA depot, was 2 parcels! It is clear that they decided to just send the bin liners (the smaller parcel) without telling me that the main parcel (the bin) was still there. It's actually quite shocking me still and I cant believe it - my whole family is completely gobsmacked by the service? They should have worked out that the 2 parcels were related and told me 'hello, there are 2 parcels here just arrived from the vendor for you (even though you provided an invoice showing one), we understand they may be related, so before you pay any money to us, we'd like to tell you that one of them is oversized... how would you like to proceed?' that would have been better then being cheated out of my money, I could have got them both returned - transparency is key here but that wasn't the case... a very angry customer... and the bin is still not here - bin liners all stacked up but no bins.. this bin wil lcost me over $600 all up im sure. more than half of that due to shopmate!

Everyone here is bagging out Australia Post, but I generally have no issues with them. I'm currently using ShopMate and the experience has been very simple and easy. Australia Post wise, the drivers are friendly, the support on the phone is reasonable and friendly (actually just talking to one a moment ago for the third time has made me want to come here to express my thanks) and I haven't had any bad experiences with them. Postal services always have their delays and things they can't help but they can't just be smashed for it.