UPDATE 1.... 21/07/15 5:49pm


After trying times without number to reach a customer agent on phone over here, I placed a call to their US office now and was connected almost instantly with a customer agent. After speaking to her, she promised to look into the matter. Will update on the outcome.

UPDATE 2.... 21/07/15 8:02pm

I called back after getting a funny email from them that says and I quote

"The chargeable weight for the items in your warehouse is 27.36lbs and shipments are billed based on the higher between the weight or the dimension of the items in the warehouse. This chargeable weight is what we have currently for your shipment. As earlier stated, there was an error and has been worked on by the unit in charge. We would have the unit in charge pull this shipment out of the ocean section so that you can have this shipped via air."

This mail in no way addressed any of the complaints that I mentioned on the phone so, I called back and spoke to a customer care agent Irene who kept going back and forth and not giving me straight answers, rather kept repeating the same thing that they sent to my mail as if that by saying it repeatedly, my issue will be solved. After spending close to 30mins with her, she transferred me to Andrew who now tried to further explain things. According to him, the packages are being stripped, measured and weighed immediately they are received and then only packaged when it was ready to be shipped. I asked him, how come you are able to generate invoice and charge a customer before the items are consolidated and ready for shipping. He then claimed that it was being done automatically and that due to that, sometimes a customer could even end up paying less than he should cos at the end of the day, they might end up with a bigger box than was quoted. I countered by saying that could also swing the other way and the customer ends up paying far more than he/she should pay. After all the back and forth, for over an hour on the phone, he still couldn't explain how come about the 19lbs that I saw, he claims that he doesn't have the records. When asked to simply go back to the system and regenerate it, he claimed that it gets automatically deleted once there are any changes in the shipment method (how convenient). When I asked him to pull up records from the warehouse, saying that the workers there must have their own records that they stored when they weighed and packed it, he claims that they were very busy and if I should need that, then I should pay a repackaging fee of $5 or so. I explained that I don't need a repackaging, but simply for them to check their already existing records. And he answered that any request to them will warrant that payment, asking me if that is what I want to do. In the end, I told him since he claims he has no records but was still able to invoice and bill me, that I will indeed pay to ship the item via air. And when I do get it, I will measure the package and using those values I got, I will check with their calculation tool and see if it corresponds with what I was charged. I wished him a pleasant day and then hung up. A perfect 1 hour wasted talking to Shoptomydoor.

UPDATE 3…. 23/07/15 12:03pm

I got a call from a customer care rep in Nigeria and she was very courteous on the phone. Even before explaining all these to her, she has done her homework by, at least, checking my previous emails and records and she promised to call THE WAREHOUSE TEAM in US not the CUSTOMER CARE TEAM to get the actual dimensions and find out for certain if I’m being properly charged. At first, I thought she meant that she will call the US customer care to tell them to get my records and I explained that I have already talked to them and they said they couldn’t get the records but she clarified that she is going to call the WAREHOUSE TEAM and get the details and not the CUSTOMER CARE. She promised to call them when they open for business over there and will get back to me right after she does that. She promised to call them when they open for business over there (3:00pm local time) and will get back to me right after she does that. It seems funny that someone here in Nigeria knows her job and what to do better than someone on the site at US. Kudos to you girl. For the fact that you did this tells me that you know your job well and if I were your boss, I would recruit more people like you and not those reading from a script like the two over at the US office.

UPDATE 4.... 23/07/15 4:38pm

The Customer Care Rep, Bisola in Nigeria just called me now to update me like she promised. According to her, she has put a call through to the US warehouse and got the actual dimensions of the consolidated package. And using that dimension, the chargeable weight was reviewed and updated to the correct values. The value of 19.5lbs was actually the correct value as was previous indicated when it was manually generated. Bisola has done a task that was supposed to be done by someone else. The job isn't even hers in the first place but she took initiative and did what needs to be done. This is the kind of service I used to get from Shoptomydoor in the past. I'm glad that I saw this to it's logical conclusion.

**********************************************************************************************************

Let me start by saying that what wrote here is but a pure and honest review based on my own personal experience which started on the 24th of June, 2014. Anyone reading this could have a much better or worse experience from mine. Now with that caveat out of the way, let me begin.
Shoptomydoor….. Hmmmm….. This is one company that had a very good start. Tremendous even. They provided a service that was very much in need when very few players in the market were keen on doing so. Plus, their service was like no other Nigerian company that I could think of. I mean, great service delivery coupled with great performance. I remember when I first started using them, they were so efficient in their service delivery, for instance, you get fast replies to emails (between 1 – 2 hours tops), give you calls to sort out your issues, issue refunds when they overcharge you in error. Yes, you read that right, they issue refunds and in my own case, the refund was discounted from my next shipping.
But all good things come to an end, they say. And in the case of Shoptomydoor, The Nigerian Syndrome has crept in and taken over a once honest business that can be compared with international franchises of the likes of UPS, Fedex, and DHL. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, let me recount my experience from the beginning.
Sometime in early 2014, I was looking for a way to buy stuff abroad and ship to Nigeria at a reduced cost. My search was prompted by the fact that I was informed that Amazon accepts Nigerian Cards plus the fact tha Paypal re-entered Nigeria and hence, eBay was opened up again to Nigerians. In my research, I got to know and understand what Freight Forwarders are and how they work. Cos they afforded a lot of opportunities to Nigerians wishing to shop abroad without having to travel out to do so. I did some research on freight forwarders and came up many of such that ship to Nigeria like Shippyme, Bongo, MyUS, Americanshipper, Shoptomydoor, etc, and 2 of them came highly recommended as at then. One was Shippyme and the other was Shoptomydoor.
On further research, the results I got on Shippyme wasn't encouraging. Lots of complaints going on and on about loss of items, slow customer service response to issues, theft, loss of customer confidence, etc. I kinda drew a big X on Shippyme when I read about items lost and stolen items by Shippyme staff. Although, to be fair to Shippyme, the culprits were found, sacked and handed over to the authorities. But unfortunately, the damage has been done. Shippyme never recovered from that and it ended up re-branding to Zaposta in the hope of starting afresh. But that is a story for another day.
On the other hand, Shoptomydoor at first glance was woeful. I mean, the website looked tardy and totally unprofessional. You think I’m joking, take a look and see for yourself here http://web.archive.org/web/20140729192156/http://www.shoptomydoor.com/? Anyone visiting the site for the first time will have lots of doubts of using their services. But I decided to look beyond the cover and flip a few pages before writing them off totally. So, I went ahead and registered, obtained my warehouse address and unit number. So now, I'm good to go and ready to buy me a few things.

So, I started off small. I purchased a few items from Old Navy and sent them to the warehouse. And did I forget to tell you that their service was great? It was topnotch. I mean, from the moment you get the email from UPS/FEDEX/USPS that your goods have been delivered to Shoptomydoor’s warehouse, in 24hrs max, Shoptomydoor will send you an email notifying you about it. When you log in, you can view your items with the name, package size and weight displayed correctly. The names were written properly helping identify which item is which. This is especially helpful when you have multiple shipments containing similar items coming in from different stores. You can even edit the values of your goods in Dollars or in Naira so that they can charge you the accurate customs duty you are supposed to pay. Every single thing was transparent, not a case of where UPS will declare your package to be one size and weight and they will declare something different. To cut it short, there was no mago mago or wuru wuru or ojoro there.
I had a couple of questions to ask Shoptomydoor before paying to have my items shipped to me, so I fired off an email to them and, voila they replied me within reasonable time. I was impressed. Subsequent emails were ALWAYS replied within reasonable time again and again. And by reasonable time, I mean within 2-3 hours tops. So, with all my fears and doubts been assuaged, I went ahead and paid to have my items shipped to me. The invoice was instantly processed and they kept updating me about the status of the items like when it departed for Nigeria, when it arrived Nigeria, when it was going thru customs, when they received it in their Nigerian warehouse, when they sent it to the courier to deliver to me and tracking number of the courier, etc. As you can see, the service was just impeccable.
Altogether, it took 10 business days for the items to arrive at my doorstep just like they promised. I was so happy that despite the mega mistakes I made by ordering wrong sizes of clothes in my first shipment (JJC for shopping online then), I still went ahead and ordered and sent more items to their warehouse again and again. And the level of service remained the same.
In all, I think I have shipped packages via them, at least, 30 times since then. And then, all my shipments have been delivered safely to my house. The only exception was sometime last year when the Shippers Council or Union went on strike over the increase in tax or something being levied them and during that time, I got an email from them telling me that my shipment was being delayed because of it. I also got another email notifying me that the issue with the government has been settled but the shipment will still be delayed due to backlog of goods.
I would have loved to end this in good taste and say many more nice things about this company and the quality of services they offer, but alas, this isn't a fairy tale. This is the real world. And here in 9ja we have something known as The Nigerian Syndrome. It is a syndrome that affects many Nigerian businesses today. It works like this, a business will start off well, offer great services for your buck, everyone is happy. After a few years, when the business have built up a veritable client base and become a household name, they then rest on their oars and let things degenerate, believing that their past records will sustain them no matter how low the quality of their service falls. This is very common and can be seen with some businesses like Jumia, Konga, etc, to mention but a few. Unfortunately, this syndrome has steadily crept up and taken over Shoptomydoor.
Sometime ago, Shoptomydoor expanded their business to Ghana and relocated to a bigger warehouse from Darwin Drive to Westbrae still in Houston to accommodate the expansion. Their website was redesigned and some "features" added. With this expansion came the first signs of the syndrome creeping in. The first sign was No more email updates when items are received in your warehouse. In my case, I waited 1, 2, 4 days and still no updates that an item has arrived. I mean, I can clearly see the item siting in the warehouse when I login, but they never informed me that it is there. I took up the matter with them by sending an email and that was when I saw more signs of same problem. It took them DAYS to reply. DAYS not hours. Ok, I thought that could be a fluke. I replied the email and the next reply still took days to receive.

The email I even sent was to enquire about a free shipping promo that they were presently running and to sort out an issue I was having with it. After all the delays in getting my messages replied on time, I finally opted to ship it by air and quit waiting for them, only then did a customer representative give me a call to "help" me out with the issues I was having. Granted, he was very courteous and explained things in detail, but unfortunately, it came too late.
Presently, I’m having an issue with them that started thus. During the 4th of July sales, I got me a bunch of stuff and sent them to their warehouse as usual. When the items began to arrive and populate in the warehouse, I started to notice some strange things. After the first item that came in, subsequent items coming in kept getting the wrong values assigned to them “Value Per Item” column. For instance, items that I got for $13 were being declared as $45. Another thing I noticed was that they kept messing up the names of the items as well, e.g. a couple of female shirts were named men's shirt. Now this wouldn't have been an issue in the old site because I had the option of editing those values myself. But the new site has taken away that feature and replaced it with option to upload the invoice you were issued when you purchased the item in the warehouse. I tried that option and uploaded the said invoices and yet they only updated one out of the 3 that were wrong. That was when I noticed that they only updated it because the name on the invoice tallied with what they had named the item themselves. I decided to re-upload and rename the pdf file (not the content of the file) with the names corresponding to the items ie the "men's shirt" invoice was saved as "men's shirt.pdf" but it still shows and written lady's shirt when you open the pdf file. Only then, were the items finally corrected. On the final item that came in, I had to upload the invoice 3 times and mail them over and over for them to effect the changes. And each time, the lady wrote back (after a few days) to tell me that it has been changed, whereas there was no change done when I logged in.
The last and strangest thing I noticed with my items was this. As more and items were coming in, I noticed that the chargeable weight kept on doubling. Now let me explain this for those that are a bit new to shipping. When you want to ship an item, you are usually billed in one of two ways per kg/lbs. Either using the actual weight or by the dimensional weight of the package.
The actual weight of a package is the true weight of that package. That is the weight obtained when you place it on a scale and measure its mass. So, when your package gets weighed and the result is 2lbs, that 2lbs is the actual weight. On the other hand, the dimensional weight is a bit different. The dimensional weight is obtained by multiplying the values of the length, width and height and dividing the total by 139 for international shipments. For instance, let’s say you have a package with dimension of 3x4x2, the dimensional weight becomes (3x4x2)/139 and that gives you 0.17lbs. Now, having obtained the two weights, you will be billed using the greater of the two. So, if the actual weight is greater, that is used and vice-versa. This is done because some packages can take up much space and yet weigh so little and make the shipping firms run at a loss if they charge only based on the actual weights.
Now, in my own case, I noticed that from the second item that came into the warehouse, the chargeable weight, which is listed next to the actual weight kept on increasing exponentially. In fact, for each item that was added, the chargeable weight became double + a little extra of the actual weight. This continued until all my items arrived with a total of 14.6lbs and a chargeable weight of 27.36lbs. I was livid. I mean, at first, I thought maybe that I somehow changed my profile settings and unchecked the options that tells them to strip and consolidate multiple items but when I checked, I saw that those options were still enabled. So, how come the drastic increase?

With that strange weight, my bill became $113 to ship it by air. So, I went ahead and ignored it and requested for an invoice to be prepared for me to ship the items through the $20 Ocean Promo and when I got that invoice, I got a shocker. The chargeable weight suddenly dropped to 19.55 with a consolidated box size of 19x13x11. I was like, if this was the actual consolidated package, then it wasn’t too farfetched from the actual package weight in the first place. To crosscheck, I used their online calculating tool that could be found here http://www.shoptomydoor.com/home.php?mode=get_a_quote and input the values of the box and I arrived at a lower value than what they initially wanted to charge me for the air freight. I then then did further checks and saw that not only were they trying to bill me using the exorbitant weight, they also increased their rates from the advertised rate of $3.29/pound as advertised on this page http://www.shoptomydoor.com/Nigeria.html, instead, they are charging me $4.14/pound on top of the exorbitant weight. I sent them a couple of mails to that effect, telling them how I noticed the discrepancies in the weight and the box size not reflecting the chargeable weight that I’m being billed, the rep, after some days as usual, got in touch and informed me that I should ignore the 2nd one that is closer to the real deal and pay the amount that they are billing me which is the 27lbs. She also claimed that they are experiencing an error on the page as well. That 2nd statement clicked a light bulb in my head, and I logged into the website. Lo and behold, they have removed the lower weight and substituted everything relating to weights and box sizes with null values.
I was shocked. Can they really go this low just to get my money? Is this what the company has finally resorted to? In my anger, I sent a final message and gave them a piece of my mind and promised that this is the last time I’m gonna do business with them. I can’t stand such dishonest and duplicitous business practices. I also requested that they prepare all my items for air freight so that I will pay that ridiculous amount and terminate the relationship for good.
In conclusion, Shoptomydoor was one of the best freight forwarders from Nigeria. Their prices were fucking awesome. I mean, you can’t get such prices elsewhere with that quality of service. I kept on recommending them to friends and colleagues that want to get stuff abroad. They also have zero tolerance for fraudulent activities and for more than a year I was their customer, I never heard a case where they were being investigated by the government, 9ja or US. Same can’t be said for others. But now, the business has gone to the dogs, literally. I just get apprehensive when my friends and colleagues talk about wanting to buy some item they saw on Amazon or Walmart because I’m afraid of what they might encounter when they use this service. So, for now, it’s curtains for Shoptomdoor. It was really nice knowing you. We had some great times and some not great times. But alas, we must part ways for our best interests.
I hope someone in management actually gets to read this review and do something to turn the company around cos I’d hate to see a good thing go bad.

These are the screenshots of the site showing the actual weight, blown up chargeable weight, the lower chargeable weight that is closer to the actual weight. This lower weight value only shows up when I want to pay for the shipment. B

These are the screenshots of the quote tool when I tried to get a quote using the amount and figures I saw in the reduced chargeable weight, the second screenshot was taken after they claimed they have an error and asked that I should go with the first figure.

UPDATE!!!

After trying times without number to reach a customer agent on phone over here, I placed a call to their US office now and was connected almost instantly with a customer agent. After speaking to her, she promised to look into the matter. Will update on the outcome.

Nawa o, and I'm just thinking about shipping a refrigerator through them.
But going by my experience with another freight forwarder, I don't really think they are worse than the rest, it's just that they started well and couldn't sustain it. If I may ask which other shipping service have u used and would recommend?

lordkay10:
Nawa o, and I'm just thinking about shipping a refrigerator through them.
But going by my experience with another freight forwarder, I don't really think they are worse than the rest, it's just that they started well and couldn't sustain it. If I may ask which other shipping service have u used and would recommend?

Yeah, like I pointed out, they are much better than the ones I have encountered so far. I'm still looking for a replacement will let you guys know when I see one.

henryskywalker2003:


Yeah, like I pointed out, they are much better than the ones I have encountered so far. I'm still looking for a replacement will let you guys know when I see one.

Okay I'll follow this thread. I'll likely go ahead with the purchase and ship through them; one thing I want to get clear is whether they will deliver it to my Nigerian address upnorth as I don't stay in Lagos

lordkay10:

Okay I'll follow this thread. I'll likely go ahead with the purchase and ship through them; one thing I want to get clear is whether they will deliver it to my Nigerian address upnorth as I don't stay in Lagos

From what I know, they actually deliver items nationwide, so no problem with that.

I have actually noticed they do not notify you when you have items in the warehouse, which I think is very wrong and sad. You have to keep monitoring to know when your items get to the warehouse.

Anyways I have never had issues with their billing system though. And I do large amounts of shipments with them via air and ocean, most times I know what to expect as my bill even before it gets to the warehouse. Recently its been difficult because of the mad fluctuation of the naira.

My suggestion would be to go into their office at Ajao estate and ask to see someone in authority so that they understand your worries better. A lot of employees sit down and take laws into their hands at the detriment of the business. Most times management would not know except from feedback from the clients. Having tried a lot of other courier services before theirs I can authoritatively tell you it might be difficult finding a better Nigerian courier company.

Dauchman:
I have actually noticed they do not notify you when you have items in the warehouse, which I think is very wrong and sad. You have to keep monitoring to know when your items get to the warehouse.

Anyways I have never had issues with their billing system though. And I do large amounts of shipments with them via air and ocean, most times I know what to expect as my bill even before it gets to the warehouse. Recently its been difficult because of the mad fluctuation of the naira.

My suggestion would be to go into their office at Ajao estate and ask to see someone in authority so that they understand your worries better. A lot of employees sit down and take laws into their hands at the detriment of the business. Most times management would not know except from feedback from the clients. Having tried a lot of other courier services before theirs I can authoritatively tell you it might be difficult finding a better Nigerian courier company.

That's been an issue for a long time and when I informed them about that lapse via email, they said it has been fixed. My last item arrived 2 days back and got updated today in the warehouse and no email update whatsoever.

About the billing, I guess you haven't noticed it yet because of the fact you have done a lot of business with them in the past and gotten used to their past fair prices and also, the major fluctuations in dollar too will also make you think it is still a fair price. But in my case, I have always been paying and dealing with them in USD and not with NGN. So, it was easier for me to notice the changes. As for going to their office, I don't think that is possible. I have a full time job in the island and have no time to head to Ajao. The best I can do was to call their customer care number in the US and speak with them. And after spending more than an hour on the phone with them with nothing to show for it, there really is no point bothering myself any longer. If they continue this way, with time, it will implode like it did for Shippyme.

As for finding a better Nigerian courier, you may be right there. But still, that doesn't give them the right to trod on their customers goodwill.

@Dauchman, you say you've tried a lot of them, do you know of ShipAfrika and if you have tried them, how good is their service? I kinda came across them last night and couldn't find much reviews online.

Hello Henry ... I hope that is your name ... Wow... I am blown away by your review. By the way, this is Nduka Udeh, President here at Shoptomydoor.

Its good to see people who are actual customers and who take their time to give constructive reviews and not other shipping companies masquerading as customers just to spoil our image because they cant beat our service. Thanks for the very constructive review.

Anyway, thanks for the review. Your issues have been noted and while you may not know, we have solutions for all this. Let me list your main points one by one and deal with the solutions that already exist besides each.

1) Not Been Notified When Items Arrive Your Warehouse - This was a bug in our site software and its been worked on now by our IT team. Its a simple fix that should be fixed in the next few days. Not a big issue. But even if you are not notified, our standard update time is 24 hours. So 24 hours after you get an email from Amazon or any company that your items have been delivered, when you log into your warehouse you should see the item. Once in a while, especially when we do promos, we get over whelmed with lots of orders and you may experience update delays. But typically in 24 hours your warehouse is updated.

2) Fluctuations in Billing Due to Naira - This is unfortunately something we can t do much about as we pay airlines and service providers in dollars. So we have to peg our service charge against the dollar, and update the exchange rate as it fluctuates. You will always get the same dollar amount, but the naira may vary as it fluctuates. My advise is to stock up on dollars for now, and pay in dollars which is always consistent. The best bet for a heavy shopper is to use your card to pay (either a naira or dollar card) as you will be billed against Visa/Master Card rates. This can save you a lot in the long run.

3) Wrong Declared Values - Not all shipments come with an invoice from the store when its delivered to us. So your warehouse personnel will typically estimate a value for customs purpose. Our platform allows you to easily change this. When you log into your warehouse, there is a link beside each shipment that says "If the values of any item is wrong, please upload invoices". I have attached an image of this for you to see. Once you upload your invoice, any wrong value is corrected within 24 hours.

You may ask why we do this. (1) For insurance - We have a 100% delivery guarantee that your items will be delivered intact or your money is refunded (item cost and full shippiing cost). Based on this, we have insurance on every single item shipped and the insurance company will insure only based on the declared value. So it makes sens e to ensure that at all times you have the correct item value declared. In the past, we allowed customers to enter the value themselves without invoice verification. We had customers with items worth $2000 entering $20. When an issue occured, and insurance requests to refund just $20, you can imagine what comes up. (2) Customs Purposes - We have had instances in the past where customs held some high value items and on contacting the customer to pay the extra requested duty, it became a problem cos they had declared wrong values.

So to be on the safe side and to avoid back and forth, we always enter what we feel is a reasonable estimate based on general web search. When you now feel the value is wrong, follow the procedure to have it corrected.

3) Actual Versus Chargable Weight - This is programmed into the system and its based on the same formular used by all shipping companies. Chargable Weight = L x W x H /139 and its the same with DHL and UPS and Fedex. You can google dimensional weight to see this. When packaging your items, note that boxes are used and items are not thrown like that into the plane. So the final packaged weight may differ slightly from weights you see online. To combat this and to be sure customers know they actual shipping cost even before shopping, we have the "Item Quote Tool" online that enable you to enter the actual item and a shipping cost is displayed. For these, if there is any difference, we guarantee not to charge you more than the quote shows.

4) $3.29/Pound Advertised Rate - This is a special rate been advertised strictly and for just US residents, and not for every one. We have typically restricted our business to shoppers from Nigeria but have decided as of June to open up to US residents with the special discounted rate. Please read the page well. This rate applies only to customers living in the US sending their items to us direct from their house or coming into our US warehouse to drop it off. For those shopping online from a store and sending direct to us, the rate can be seen open and clear for various weights by going to our "Get a quote tool". Our base rate for all others can be seen from the get a quote tool and is automated into the warehouse. It is still better than any rate you will get from any shipping company serving Nigeria that offers the quality of service we strive to offer. Yes, you may get a few cheaper that our rate for shoppers, but be sure there is no money back guarantee, no online view of your items, no online payment, may be no customer service at all. You really get what you pay for and to offer quality service, our cost has to be reasonable (but not expensive).

I hope this answers your pressing questions.

Go ahead, try other companies but l am 100% certain that you will return. We continue to look at comments from customers like you and constantly implement solutions to solve these and other issues you may encounter.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh.
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

@Henry, I have been using shoptomydoor for the past 3 years and I can tell you that they have scored 85%. Even humans are not perfect, hence you cannot find a perfect company as there may be ups and down but what is important is how they get it resolved. Looking for shipafrika and the likes may land you in more deeper shit than you expect. To find a company who tries to resolve customer's need is one key thing you should look for and shoptomydoor has that better than any of the shipping companies I have used. You can go ahead to try others and I will like to hear from you what your experience is. For me, they got their customers back.

Nduka193:
Hello Henry ... I hope that is your name ... Wow... I am blown away by your review. By the way, this is Nduka Udeh, President here at Shoptomydoor.

Its good to see people who are actual customers and who take their time to give constructive reviews and not other shipping companies masquerading as customers just to spoil our image because they cant beat our service. Thanks for the very constructive review.

Anyway, thanks for the review. Your issues have been noted and while you may not know, we have solutions for all this. Let me list your main points one by one and deal with the solutions that already exist besides each.

1) Not Been Notified When Items Arrive Your Warehouse - This was a bug in our site software and its been worked on now by our IT team. Its a simple fix that should be fixed in the next few days. Not a big issue. But even if you are not notified, our standard update time is 24 hours. So 24 hours after you get an email from Amazon or any company that your items have been delivered, when you log into your warehouse you should see the item. Once in a while, especially when we do promos, we get over whelmed with lots of orders and you may experience update delays. But typically in 24 hours your warehouse is updated.

2) Fluctuations in Billing Due to Naira - This is unfortunately something we can t do much about as we pay airlines and service providers in dollars. So we have to peg our service charge against the dollar, and update the exchange rate as it fluctuates. You will always get the same dollar amount, but the naira may vary as it fluctuates. My advise is to stock up on dollars for now, and pay in dollars which is always consistent. The best bet for a heavy shopper is to use your card to pay (either a naira or dollar card) as you will be billed against Visa/Master Card rates. This can save you a lot in the long run.

3) Wrong Declared Values - Not all shipments come with an invoice from the store when its delivered to us. So your warehouse personnel will typically estimate a value for customs purpose. Our platform allows you to easily change this. When you log into your warehouse, there is a link beside each shipment that says "If the values of any item is wrong, please upload invoices". I have attached an image of this for you to see. Once you upload your invoice, any wrong value is corrected within 24 hours.

You may ask why we do this. (1) For insurance - We have a 100% delivery guarantee that your items will be delivered intact or your money is refunded (item cost and full shippiing cost). Based on this, we have insurance on every single item shipped and the insurance company will insure only based on the declared value. So it makes sens e to ensure that at all times you have the correct item value declared. In the past, we allowed customers to enter the value themselves without invoice verification. We had customers with items worth $2000 entering $20. When an issue occured, and insurance requests to refund just $20, you can imagine what comes up. (2) Customs Purposes - We have had instances in the past where customs held some high value items and on contacting the customer to pay the extra requested duty, it became a problem cos they had declared wrong values.

So to be on the safe side and to avoid back and forth, we always enter what we feel is a reasonable estimate based on general web search. When you now feel the value is wrong, follow the procedure to have it corrected.

3) Actual Versus Chargable Weight - This is programmed into the system and its based on the same formular used by all shipping companies. Chargable Weight = L x W x H /139 and its the same with DHL and UPS and Fedex. You can google dimensional weight to see this. When packaging your items, note that boxes are used and items are not thrown like that into the plane. So the final packaged weight may differ slightly from weights you see online. To combat this and to be sure customers know they actual shipping cost even before shopping, we have the "Item Quote Tool" online that enable you to enter the actual item and a shipping cost is displayed. For these, if there is any difference, we guarantee not to charge you more than the quote shows.

4) $3.29/Pound Advertised Rate - This is a special rate been advertised strictly and for just US residents, and not for every one. We have typically restricted our business to shoppers from Nigeria but have decided as of June to open up to US residents with the special discounted rate. Please read the page well. This rate applies only to customers living in the US sending their items to us direct from their house or coming into our US warehouse to drop it off. For those shopping online from a store and sending direct to us, the rate can be seen open and clear for various weights by going to our "Get a quote tool". Our base rate for all others can be seen from the get a quote tool and is automated into the warehouse. It is still better than any rate you will get from any shipping company serving Nigeria that offers the quality of service we strive to offer. Yes, you may get a few cheaper that our rate for shoppers, but be sure there is no money back guarantee, no online view of your items, no online payment, may be no customer service at all. You really get what you pay for and to offer quality service, our cost has to be reasonable (but not expensive).

I hope this answers your pressing questions.

Go ahead, try other companies but l am 100% certain that you will return. We continue to look at comments from customers like you and constantly implement solutions to solve these and other issues you may encounter.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh.
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

UPDATE NO 3 OCCURRED WHILE I WAS COMPOSING THIS REPLY

Hello Mr. Nduka,

I'm glad this got your attention and that you came here to address some of my concerns. Like you can see from my review, I repeated time and again how your service was topnotch and transparent in times past. In your post, you tried to address some of the issues I raised here, but unfortunately, you were only repeating the same thing your customer care staff were telling me and it's something I myself already know fully well. You also failed to address the other issues that made me call your US office and talk for over an hour without getting any meaningful solution. But before I delve into all that, let me address the points you made so far.

1. About the notifications issue, this like you pointed out, is a simple fix. I am not a webmaster but from my little experience in web development, I can tell you that it is indeed a very simple issue that can be fixed within a day. Since it was working before, that means it has already being implemented and hence, It is just a matter of going thru the code for that and finding the bugs. This should actually take not more than 2 days for a single web dev to fix. But as it stands now, this issue has been there for as far back as May 17th of this year and up until 3 days ago, it still hasn't been fixed. I said 2 days ago because that was when the warehouse was updated with the last item that was received for me and I still got no notification regarding that. If you check your records, you will see among my emails one in which I told you guys to do something about your website. I even went out on a limb and offered to recommend some solid web devs that I know of that will do a great job in giving your website the much needed overhaul. We both know the outcome of that today. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I will suggest you to take a look at website of similar firms and you will see a mix bag of features that wouldn't hurt you to incorporate in your own site. Granted a lot of them have terrible sites that make you cringe just visiting it. But others have well-thought-out designs that even if their services may not be great in the end, it encourages first time users to give them a trial. Case in point ShipAfrika. Compared to your own site, there is no comparison at all. Most of the links that a first time user will need to visit for information are buried and hidden away with no links to it existing on the home page, except for the FAQ page that was even displayed with a bit misleading heading. And note, I'm not saying you should go copy other sites verbatim, all I'm saying is that you should take a look at them, look at the features that they implemented well that is user/customer friendly, then implement it in your own unique way.

2. Fluctuations in Billing Due to Naira - This point is void because like I pointed out before, I always deal with you guys and pay my bills in USD and not in NGN. So, the fluctuations have never been an issue to me per se.


3. Wrong Declared Values - Truly, not all shipments come with an invoice from the store. That was why, in your old website, you implemented a feature that enables one to input the figures themselves. Granted, a lot of issues will arise from this and I see the point of you removing this feature. But what I don't get is that even when I uploaded the invoices, your staff still went ahead and put in different wrong values in multiple occasions. Is it that they can't read a bunch of figures from a pdf file? And what about the wrong names assigned to items too? Sometime ago, I shipped a phone through you and that phone was mislabeled as a tablet and even though I didn't bother back then due to your awesome rates, I wouldn't be surprised if I check and see that the cost I paid for that would be that for a tablet. But that's past. Presently, as it stands, it says a lot about your staff if they keep making these type of errors.

4. Actual Versus Chargable Weight - Yeah, I understand perfectly the deal with the difference between the two and how packages are being charged based on them. But like you said just now and same thing your customer care rep said on the phone, it is programmed into the system and done automatically. And therein lies the problem. From what your customer rep said and what you are confirming here as well, it appears that an estimate is generated automatically based on the individual items before they are actually consolidated. When I requested for an invoice to be generated for the $20 Ocean Shipping, it was manually packaged and the final actual weight, chargeable weight and box size were all within reasonable estimates for a package that started off at 14lbs. This is a far cry from what I got from the automatic estimate that has been programmed. And even when I took the manually generated weights and dimensions and input into the shipping calculator, I got the same exact charges that was to be paid if I went with the ocean shipping.

So, you can see that there is an issue somewhere, and anyone will tell you it lies with your automatic invoice generation. If it can make such a massive error, imagine the kind impression it creates. This is why it needs to be investigated properly and fixed immediately if it is found to have errors now. I haven’t complained of this issue with any of my past shipments so it’s quite obvious that it probably broke around the same time some other features on the site got broken e.g. Notification System.

5. $3.29/Pound Advertised Rate – Yeah, you are right and I was wrong. It says clearly on the site that it is ONLY for US residents. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to also include the rates for non-US residents alongside that so that others won’t make similar mistake like I did.

One issue I would like you to kindly address is, the huge discrepancy that occurred between the figures generated manually and that of the automatic. I wasn’t the one that put in those figures on the site and for it to suddenly vanish and you chalk it up to errors being encountered makes me think that something fishy is going on. Then again, your customer rep in the US also claims that he doesn’t have the details of my shipment that was manually generate anymore. According to him, the system flushes the records automatically when one makes any changes after the invoice was first generated. That explanation seems unbelievable based on these reasons.

1. Cost-Effectiveness - If you configured your database to flush/delete such crucial information simply because the customer made changes. It will not be cost-effective in the long run because, the change could be a temporary one. Like for instance, the person might want to see what the charge will be if he/she uses a different freight without having to go back to the “Get a Quote Tool” and start inputting the figures manually in it. In fact, it will be a good idea to have it incorporated in your site that one can use the final manual consolidated package dimensions and automatically compare the charges for shipping. In that way, the customer will always pay the right amount and both parties will be happy. Besides, you can even scrap the automatic generated invoice thingy and only generate manually once the customer is ready to ship. Generate the invoice latest in 24hrs and have it update on the site. Once generated, any further changes (like adding more items to the consolidated package) should then attract the $5 service charge. This manual generation will be better because, you normally ship out on a particular day of the week, say Monday, and if someone decides to ship on say Tuesday, he/she will have to wait until Monday to have their items shipped. So, there really is no need to rush and prepare an estimate and bill the person when at the end of the day, you will still need to get those info manually since you need it as well for your own payments that you make to the air/ship courier as well as records.

2. Customer Errors – cases where the customer mistakenly clicks on link that causes a change, e.g. changing an item from the ship by ocean option to ship by air, does it mean that because of this, the customer will have to wait another 48hrs for another invoice to be generated for the person? There are other reasons I can think of but let’s leave it at those two for now.

Back to the customer rep in the US, when he said that he has no records because they have been deleted due to changes I made, I asked him to give a call to those in charge at warehouse and request for a copy of their own records that they have about mine. And he answered that doing that, the people at the warehouse will have to re-weigh and re-measure the package and that will attract a fee of $5 or so. I told him over and over that I wasn’t asking my package to be re-weighed, rather he should simply request for their own records since his own has been deleted. He still insisted that it will require the $5 charge before they will grant the request cos they will still have to re-measure it. Well, I don’t think there is more to say about this than what has been said already.

Finally you said and I quote “Go ahead, try other companies but l am 100% certain that you will return.”. That smacks highly of arrogance. I mean, I know your services are good and topnotch in the past like I mentioned here, but it clearly isn’t so at the moment. Also, there are others out there that could offer the same level of service, if not better, that you currently do and at similar rates too. Before you get carried away by your level of success, do remember that Nokia was the King of smartphones before and Blackberry was the lovechild of business users, now look at where they are today.

No business is perfect but no matter how successful it is, it needs to always be on its toes and maintain a constant level when it comes to products and services it renders to its customers. It needs to always strive to stay ahead of the competition to remain the King of the Hill. The competition will not remain 2nd best forever, they also are striving each day to beat you and improve their services. Same also, an entrant into your niche can take away your clientele in a few months despite the fact that you’ve been market leader for years. That being said, I’d advice that you work on these issues I have pointed out.

DayoAle:
@Henry, I have been using shoptomydoor for the past 3 years and I can tell you that they have scored 85%. Even humans are not perfect, hence you cannot find a perfect company as there may be ups and down but what is important is how they get it resolved. Looking for shipafrika and the likes may land you in more deeper shit than you expect. To find a company who tries to resolve customer's need is one key thing you should look for and shoptomydoor has that better than any of the shipping companies I have used. You can go ahead to try others and I will like to hear from you what your experience is. For me, they got their customers back.

@DayoAle, I know no business is going to be 100% perfect. I will be a hypocrite asking that of others knowing fully well that I am not perfect either. But like you pointed out, it all comes down to how the issue is resolved. In the past, the few issues I had then were always resolved promptly and to my satisfaction. So, let’s see how they resolve this one in the end. As for getting into bigger poo by trying others, I think that could swing either way. Besides, haven’t you heard the saying that one doesn’t know what he might be missing because you didn’t try? I do believe the good ones are out there, albeit in small numbers. And, if need be, I will find them the same way I found Shoptomydoor. And I pray I find many good alternatives because monopoly is not always a good thing and when you know your competition is as good as you are, you tend to be focused and very serious with what you do.

SEQUEL TO UPDATE NO 4

I will like to commend Shoptomydoor for the fact that they made a mistake, admitted and also corrected it. Even though it took a lot more back and forth between us than it used to in the past. All the same, still commendable. Again, I will also like to commend Bisola that took it upon herself to work out an issue that wasn't even her prerogative in the first place. I will advice that Mr. Nduka should employ more people like her. I know that you expanded recently and possibly recruited a lot of new hands, but you need to maintain a certain level of quality among your employees. They are the ones that reflect what your company stands for, much more than even you the President. They are your foot soldiers, and you the General. And we all know a General is nothing without his/her foot soldiers. So, I will implore you to always train and retrain your soldiers. Make sure that they are the best and meet a certain level that is required of them, weed out those that do not and reward those that do go that extra mile to make the company be what it is today.

Also, kindly look into the points that I have raised here. These are real issues that need to be addressed. Fix that automatic invoice or even better, get rid of it entirely or overhaul it completely. You can see the error margin was just too much here. It isn't something that you would want to turn to a regular occurrence. Fixing this issue and the others that I mentioned will surely go a long way in boosting customer's confidence in your business.

Once again, I'm glad that we resolved this issue amicably and will continue doing business with you guys once I see that the issues raised has been addressed sufficiently.

Thanks to everyone that contributed.

henryskywalker2003:
SEQUEL TO UPDATE NO 4

I will like to commend Shoptomydoor for the fact that they made a mistake, admitted and also corrected it. Even though it took a lot more back and forth between us than it used to in the past. All the same, still commendable. Again, I will also like to commend Bisola that took it upon herself to work out an issue that wasn't even her prerogative in the first place. I will advice that Mr. Nduka should employ more people like her. I know that you expanded recently and possibly recruited a lot of new hands, but you need to maintain a certain level of quality among your employees. They are the ones that reflect what your company stands for, much more than even you the President. They are your foot soldiers, and you the General. And we all know a General is nothing without his/her foot soldiers. So, I will implore you to always train and retrain your soldiers. Make sure that they are the best and meet a certain level that is required of them, weed out those that do not and reward those that do go that extra mile to make the company be what it is today.

Also, kindly look into the points that I have raised here. These are real issues that need to be addressed. Fix that automatic invoice or even better, get rid of it entirely or overhaul it completely. You can see the error margin was just too much here. It isn't something that you would want to turn to a regular occurrence. Fixing this issue and the others that I mentioned will surely go a long way in boosting customer's confidence in your business.

Once again, I'm glad that we resolved this issue amicably and will continue doing business with you guys once I see that the issues raised has been addressed sufficiently.

Thanks to everyone that contributed.

Wow! I'm glad the lingering issue has been put to bed. I've been following closely to see how all these would pan out but I must commend them for giving u a fair hearing.
By the way I've been trying to reach their customer service on 07008008000 but it doesn't link me up to any customer care representative, I just get a few advert and would be finally told to record a voice message. Pls is their any other way to call them? Thanks

lordkay10:

Wow! I'm glad the lingering issue has been put to bed. I've been following closely to see how all these would pan out but I must commend them for giving u a fair hearing.
By the way I've been trying to reach their customer service on 07008008000 but it doesn't link me up to any customer care representative, I just get a few advert and would be finally told to record a voice message. Pls is their any other way to call them? Thanks

Yeah, I was glad that it was resolved too. As for that number, I never had any luck connecting to them all the times I tried to. In fact, their US number connects far more easily than the 9ja one. This is something else that they will also need to be look into. But in the meantime, you can try this. Send a mail to their email, then go their page on facebook or twitter and drop a comment telling them about the mail you sent and a summary of your issue. That seems to get their attention and if your query can be dealt with easily, they will reply you there.

henryskywalker2003:


UPDATE NO 3 OCCURRED WHILE I WAS COMPOSING THIS REPLY

Hello Mr. Nduka,

I'm glad this got your attention and that you came here to address some of my concerns. Like you can see from my review, I repeated time and again how your service was topnotch and transparent in times past. In your post, you tried to address some of the issues I raised here, but unfortunately, you were only repeating the same thing your customer care staff were telling me and it's something I myself already know fully well. You also failed to address the other issues that made me call your US office and talk for over an hour without getting any meaningful solution. But before I delve into all that, let me address the points you made so far.

1. About the notifications issue, this like you pointed out, is a simple fix. I am not a webmaster but from my little experience in web development, I can tell you that it is indeed a very simple issue that can be fixed within a day. Since it was working before, that means it has already being implemented and hence, It is just a matter of going thru the code for that and finding the bugs. This should actually take not more than 2 days for a single web dev to fix. But as it stands now, this issue has been there for as far back as May 17th of this year and up until 3 days ago, it still hasn't been fixed. I said 2 days ago because that was when the warehouse was updated with the last item that was received for me and I still got no notification regarding that. If you check your records, you will see among my emails one in which I told you guys to do something about your website. I even went out on a limb and offered to recommend some solid web devs that I know of that will do a great job in giving your website the much needed overhaul. We both know the outcome of that today. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I will suggest you to take a look at website of similar firms and you will see a mix bag of features that wouldn't hurt you to incorporate in your own site. Granted a lot of them have terrible sites that make you cringe just visiting it. But others have well-thought-out designs that even if their services may not be great in the end, it encourages first time users to give them a trial. Case in point ShipAfrika. Compared to your own site, there is no comparison at all. Most of the links that a first time user will need to visit for information are buried and hidden away with no links to it existing on the home page, except for the FAQ page that was even displayed with a bit misleading heading. And note, I'm not saying you should go copy other sites verbatim, all I'm saying is that you should take a look at them, look at the features that they implemented well that is user/customer friendly, then implement it in your own unique way.

2. Fluctuations in Billing Due to Naira - This point is void because like I pointed out before, I always deal with you guys and pay my bills in USD and not in NGN. So, the fluctuations have never been an issue to me per se.


3. Wrong Declared Values - Truly, not all shipments come with an invoice from the store. That was why, in your old website, you implemented a feature that enables one to input the figures themselves. Granted, a lot of issues will arise from this and I see the point of you removing this feature. But what I don't get is that even when I uploaded the invoices, your staff still went ahead and put in different wrong values in multiple occasions. Is it that they can't read a bunch of figures from a pdf file? And what about the wrong names assigned to items too? Sometime ago, I shipped a phone through you and that phone was mislabeled as a tablet and even though I didn't bother back then due to your awesome rates, I wouldn't be surprised if I check and see that the cost I paid for that would be that for a tablet. But that's past. Presently, as it stands, it says a lot about your staff if they keep making these type of errors.

4. Actual Versus Chargable Weight - Yeah, I understand perfectly the deal with the difference between the two and how packages are being charged based on them. But like you said just now and same thing your customer care rep said on the phone, it is programmed into the system and done automatically. And therein lies the problem. From what your customer rep said and what you are confirming here as well, it appears that an estimate is generated automatically based on the individual items before they are actually consolidated. When I requested for an invoice to be generated for the $20 Ocean Shipping, it was manually packaged and the final actual weight, chargeable weight and box size were all within reasonable estimates for a package that started off at 14lbs. This is a far cry from what I got from the automatic estimate that has been programmed. And even when I took the manually generated weights and dimensions and input into the shipping calculator, I got the same exact charges that was to be paid if I went with the ocean shipping.

So, you can see that there is an issue somewhere, and anyone will tell you it lies with your automatic invoice generation. If it can make such a massive error, imagine the kind impression it creates. This is why it needs to be investigated properly and fixed immediately if it is found to have errors now. I haven’t complained of this issue with any of my past shipments so it’s quite obvious that it probably broke around the same time some other features on the site got broken e.g. Notification System.

5. $3.29/Pound Advertised Rate – Yeah, you are right and I was wrong. It says clearly on the site that it is ONLY for US residents. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to also include the rates for non-US residents alongside that so that others won’t make similar mistake like I did.

One issue I would like you to kindly address is, the huge discrepancy that occurred between the figures generated manually and that of the automatic. I wasn’t the one that put in those figures on the site and for it to suddenly vanish and you chalk it up to errors being encountered makes me think that something fishy is going on. Then again, your customer rep in the US also claims that he doesn’t have the details of my shipment that was manually generate anymore. According to him, the system flushes the records automatically when one makes any changes after the invoice was first generated. That explanation seems unbelievable based on these reasons.

1. Cost-Effectiveness - If you configured your database to flush/delete such crucial information simply because the customer made changes. It will not be cost-effective in the long run because, the change could be a temporary one. Like for instance, the person might want to see what the charge will be if he/she uses a different freight without having to go back to the “Get a Quote Tool” and start inputting the figures manually in it. In fact, it will be a good idea to have it incorporated in your site that one can use the final manual consolidated package dimensions and automatically compare the charges for shipping. In that way, the customer will always pay the right amount and both parties will be happy. Besides, you can even scrap the automatic generated invoice thingy and only generate manually once the customer is ready to ship. Generate the invoice latest in 24hrs and have it update on the site. Once generated, any further changes (like adding more items to the consolidated package) should then attract the $5 service charge. This manual generation will be better because, you normally ship out on a particular day of the week, say Monday, and if someone decides to ship on say Tuesday, he/she will have to wait until Monday to have their items shipped. So, there really is no need to rush and prepare an estimate and bill the person when at the end of the day, you will still need to get those info manually since you need it as well for your own payments that you make to the air/ship courier as well as records.

2. Customer Errors – cases where the customer mistakenly clicks on link that causes a change, e.g. changing an item from the ship by ocean option to ship by air, does it mean that because of this, the customer will have to wait another 48hrs for another invoice to be generated for the person? There are other reasons I can think of but let’s leave it at those two for now.

Back to the customer rep in the US, when he said that he has no records because they have been deleted due to changes I made, I asked him to give a call to those in charge at warehouse and request for a copy of their own records that they have about mine. And he answered that doing that, the people at the warehouse will have to re-weigh and re-measure the package and that will attract a fee of $5 or so. I told him over and over that I wasn’t asking my package to be re-weighed, rather he should simply request for their own records since his own has been deleted. He still insisted that it will require the $5 charge before they will grant the request cos they will still have to re-measure it. Well, I don’t think there is more to say about this than what has been said already.

Finally you said and I quote “Go ahead, try other companies but l am 100% certain that you will return.”. That smacks highly of arrogance. I mean, I know your services are good and topnotch in the past like I mentioned here, but it clearly isn’t so at the moment. Also, there are others out there that could offer the same level of service, if not better, that you currently do and at similar rates too. Before you get carried away by your level of success, do remember that Nokia was the King of smartphones before and Blackberry was the lovechild of business users, now look at where they are today.

No business is perfect but no matter how successful it is, it needs to always be on its toes and maintain a constant level when it comes to products and services it renders to its customers. It needs to always strive to stay ahead of the competition to remain the King of the Hill. The competition will not remain 2nd best forever, they also are striving each day to beat you and improve their services. Same also, an entrant into your niche can take away your clientele in a few months despite the fact that you’ve been market leader for years. That being said, I’d advice that you work on these issues I have pointed out.

Hello Henry,

Thanks for this. See my answers to this:

Point 1 - That has been implemented and customers get updates when shipment arrives. If they dont, then the warehouse personnel may have forgotten to activate the alert. Thanks for all your information on IT and web programming. Unfortunately, the same shoes do not fit all legs, and different companies have different approach.

Point 2 - There is no fluctuation in billing. You are billed based on your actual vs chargable weight and what you get as a quote is the same as you get when billed with the same weight and dimensions. The same quote system runs the amounts that you get on your invoice. Humans beings key in weights and dimensions and its possible for them to have made an error. When you notice this, the solution is simply send a mail or call and it will be handled within 24/48 hours. Resolution time will typically depend on the work load of a finite staff system but we typically strive to resolve issues within 24 hours.

Point 3 - The solution to this is what we have implemented and it so far works for 99% of our customers. When an invoice is uploaded, the right values are always entered 99.9% of the time. Is there a probability of an error occuring a second time, Yes. But definitely, we dont go around entering wrong values as we have nothing to gain from it. As insurance is based on actual declared value and purchase value, you will know if you have ever dealt with an insurance company that any deviation from declared and invoice values validates the insurance claim. So please understand that no one deliberately enteres wrong values.

On item names, you may know what you ordered. but when you have staffs dealing with over 10,000 different items on a weekly basis, do you think there is a probability for them to mistakenly call one thing another. Anyway, we receive so many different items and without invoice, its difficult at times to know what one ordered. These are just simple issues that are easily dealt with, best by chatting with us and pointing out the mistake right there for it to be easily corrected.

Point 4 - I beg to differ here. The system is designed to add the weights as items come in and we have run tests on it many times and seen it to be 100% accurate in summing weights. The only time an error like this will occur is again if there is a human error in the dimensions of one of the deliveries. We don't release a system without thorough tests. There is no need beating on the same issue over and over again. The main thing is that the error made initially was discovered when it was repackaged, and since it became smaller when repackaged, l think it shows that there was an initial error and obviously was not an attempt to inflate charges. Since this has been dealt with to your satisfaction, lets leave this and move on please.

Point 5 - I see you are one who is technologically savy and dont expect you to suggest for automation to make way for manual process. The system works automated as it allows us to handle over 3,000 packages that may contain over 50,000 items weekly. it remains like that as we have received well over 200 emails from other customers praising the speed of invoice generation using the automated system. While you have one view, we have views of 50,000 plus customers and will always go with what suits the majority.

All other suggestions have been noted and those we see fit will be implemented. Again, l stand on the point that you will return as a customer. Not because l am bragging but because of the statistics at our disposal. The key thing for now is that you had issues, they were dealt with, your initially wrong weights were corrected when it was manually packaged. At this stage we will close this chapter and wish you the best in your shopping and shipping endeavors.

As someone who has used us, you will notice that we always make changes and improvements on a regular basis. That has been our succes.. Listening to the voice of the customer and implementing the suggestions supported by "the many". While you may have your suggestions, others do have their too and we stand as judge to implement what majority prefer.

Again, Yes. I said go and try other companies, and l am even willing to recommend others that are in the same field should you need my recommendation. My view on service is that when you have done your best to be the best, you believe in your self and leave the rest to God. I am still confident that we will see you soon and back to Shoptomydoor.com

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh.
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

henryskywalker2003:
SEQUEL TO UPDATE NO 4

I will like to commend Shoptomydoor for the fact that they made a mistake, admitted and also corrected it. Even though it took a lot more back and forth between us than it used to in the past. All the same, still commendable. Again, I will also like to commend Bisola that took it upon herself to work out an issue that wasn't even her prerogative in the first place. I will advice that Mr. Nduka should employ more people like her. I know that you expanded recently and possibly recruited a lot of new hands, but you need to maintain a certain level of quality among your employees. They are the ones that reflect what your company stands for, much more than even you the President. They are your foot soldiers, and you the General. And we all know a General is nothing without his/her foot soldiers. So, I will implore you to always train and retrain your soldiers. Make sure that they are the best and meet a certain level that is required of them, weed out those that do not and reward those that do go that extra mile to make the company be what it is today.

Also, kindly look into the points that I have raised here. These are real issues that need to be addressed. Fix that automatic invoice or even better, get rid of it entirely or overhaul it completely. You can see the error margin was just too much here. It isn't something that you would want to turn to a regular occurrence. Fixing this issue and the others that I mentioned will surely go a long way in boosting customer's confidence in your business.

Once again, I'm glad that we resolved this issue amicably and will continue doing business with you guys once I see that the issues raised has been addressed sufficiently.

Thanks to everyone that contributed.

Hi Henry,

Been the best is our goal. Our slogan is "The worlds best to your door" and in that we dont just mean the quality of the items you get from US, UK and may be China, but we in the quality of the service as well. We will continue to improve. We will continue to train our staffs. We will continue to innovate to bring out the best for our customers. That is our stand and l thank You greatly for taking the time to share your constructive ideas.

All the best, and see you soon at Shoptomydoor.com

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

Nduka193:


Hello Henry,

Thanks for this. See my answers to this:

Point 1 - That has been implemented and customers get updates when shipment arrives. If they dont, then the warehouse personnel may have forgotten to activate the alert. Thanks for all your information on IT and web programming. Unfortunately, the same shoes do not fit all legs, and different companies have different approach.

Point 2 - There is no fluctuation in billing. You are billed based on your actual vs chargable weight and what you get as a quote is the same as you get when billed with the same weight and dimensions. The same quote system runs the amounts that you get on your invoice.
Humans beings key in weights and dimensions and its possible for them to have made an error. When you notice this, the solution is simply send a mail or call and it will be handled within 24/48 hours. Resolution time will typically depend on the work load of a finite staff system but we typically strive to resolve issues within 24 hours.

Point 3 - The solution to this is what we have implemented and it so far works for 99% of our customers. When an invoice is uploaded, the right values are always entered 99.9% of the time. Is there a probability of an error occuring a second time, Yes. But definitely, we dont go around entering wrong values as we have nothing to gain from it. As insurance is based on actual declared value and purchase value, you will know if you have ever dealt with an insurance company that any deviation from declared and invoice values validates the insurance claim. So please understand that no one deliberately enteres wrong values.

On item names, you may know what you ordered. but when you have staffs dealing with over 10,000 different items on a weekly basis, do you think there is a probability for them to mistakenly call one thing another. Anyway, we receive so many different items and without invoice, its difficult at times to know what one ordered. These are just simple issues that are easily dealt with, best by chatting with us and pointing out the mistake right there for it to be easily corrected.

Point 4 - I beg to differ here. The system is designed to add the weights as items come in and we have run tests on it many times and seen it to be 100% accurate in summing weights. The only time an error like this will occur is again if there is a human error in the dimensions of one of the deliveries. We don't release a system without thorough tests. There is no need beating on the same issue over and over again. The main thing is that the error made initially was discovered when it was repackaged, and since it became smaller when repackaged, l think it shows that there was an initial error and obviously was not an attempt to inflate charges. Since this has been dealt with to your satisfaction, lets leave this and move on please.

Point 5 - I see you are one who is technologically savy and dont expect you to suggest for automation to make way for manual process. The system works automated as it allows us to handle over 3,000 packages that may contain over 50,000 items weekly. it remains like that as we have received well over 200 emails from other customers praising the speed of invoice generation using the automated system. While you have one view, we have views of 50,000 plus customers and will always go with what suits the majority.

All other suggestions have been noted and those we see fit will be implemented. Again, l stand on the point that you will return as a customer. Not because l am bragging but because of the statistics at our disposal. The key thing for now is that you had issues, they were dealt with, your initially wrong weights were corrected when it was manually packaged. At this stage we will close this chapter and wish you the best in your shopping and shipping endeavors.

As someone who has used us, you will notice that we always make changes and improvements on a regular basis. That has been our succes.. Listening to the voice of the customer and implementing the suggestions supported by "the many". While you may have your suggestions, others do have their too and we stand as judge to implement what majority prefer.

Again, Yes. I said go and try other companies, and l am even willing to recommend others that are in the same field should you need my recommendation. My view on service is that when you have done your best to be the best, you believe in your self and leave the rest to God. I am still confident that we will see you soon and back to Shoptomydoor.com

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh.
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

Hello Nduka.

As much as I am IT savy, it pains me to see when technology is being poorly implemented. And in such scenario, it's either the implementation is fixed/improved or it is totally scrapped. There are cases whereby automation is actually worse than manual operations. Before I go any further on this, I'd like to know how much you charge for shipping per pound presently, ie shipping rates. That is, excluding the import duties and taxes. Been trying to find where you listed the cost per pound for shipping but I couldn't find it. Can you help me out with it please?

Thanks.

henryskywalker2003:


Hello Nduka.

As much as I am IT savy, it pains me to see when technology is being poorly implemented. And in such scenario, it's either the implementation is fixed/improved or it is totally scrapped. There are cases whereby automation is actually worse than manual operations. Before I go any further on this, I'd like to know how much you charge for shipping per pound presently, ie shipping rates. That is, excluding the import duties and taxes. Been trying to find where you listed the cost per pound for shipping but I couldn't find it. Can you help me out with it please?

Thanks.

Hi Henry,

Please use our quote tool to get this. So you will be looking at shipping cost from Houston to you in Nigeria. Basically for delivery to our Lagos office, its a flat charge of $3 plus $3.59/pound. So if you have 10 pounds from Houston to our Lagos office, it will be $3 + $35.9 = $38.9. If its 100 pounds its $3 + $359 = $362. So basically the flat $3 charge has a bigger effect on smaller weights. Unfortunately this has to be there and compared to other companies, their typical minimum charge is $20 to $100.

We may increase this minimum to $10 in the near future as we put in more measures to improve our service way above the levels you are requesting, and as you know good service tends to be reasonably priced. In all, you will see that l always use the word "reasonably" priced as l believe our price irrespective of how good the service is must be affordable to the masses.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

If its not too much to ask, on my next trip to Nigeria, l would love to invite you to our office or meet you somewhere for a chat and a drink. I am really impressed with how you took the time to explain the issues you had and proffer some good suggestions. These are the things that help us to improve our service the more and l highly appreciate it.

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh.
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

henryskywalker2003:


@DayoAle, I know no business is going to be 100% perfect. I will be a hypocrite asking that of others knowing fully well that I am not perfect either. But like you pointed out, it all comes down to how the issue is resolved. In the past, the few issues I had then were always resolved promptly and to my satisfaction. So, let’s see how they resolve this one in the end. As for getting into bigger poo by trying others, I think that could swing either way. Besides, haven’t you heard the saying that one doesn’t know what he might be missing because you didn’t try? I do believe the good ones are out there, albeit in small numbers. And, if need be, I will find them the same way I found Shoptomydoor. And I pray I find many good alternatives because monopoly is not always a good thing and when you know your competition is as good as you are, you tend to be focused and very serious with what you do.

@Henry, good luck in your search.

Nduka193:


Hi Henry,

Please use our quote tool to get this. So you will be looking at shipping cost from Houston to you in Nigeria. Basically for delivery to our Lagos office, its a flat charge of $3 plus $3.59/pound. So if you have 10 pounds from Houston to our Lagos office, it will be $3 + $35.9 = $38.9. If its 100 pounds its $3 + $359 = $362. So basically the flat $3 charge has a bigger effect on smaller weights. Unfortunately this has to be there and compared to other companies, their typical minimum charge is $20 to $100.

We may increase this minimum to $10 in the near future as we put in more measures to improve our service way above the levels you are requesting, and as you know good service tends to be reasonably priced. In all, you will see that l always use the word "reasonably" priced as l believe our price irrespective of how good the service is must be affordable to the masses.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

If its not too much to ask, on my next trip to Nigeria, l would love to invite you to our office or meet you somewhere for a chat and a drink. I am really impressed with how you took the time to explain the issues you had and proffer some good suggestions. These are the things that help us to improve our service the more and l highly appreciate it.

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh.
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

Hi Nduka,

Ok. Quite fair. But what about home delivery? I expect an extra charge is added for that extra service. Well, taking it up to $10 from $3 might seem a bit much, especially to those shipping smaller weights like you mentioned. All the same, I do hope you will do a thorough review before the increase and settle on one that is reasonable to all parties involved (business and consumer).

About the meet and chat, that's no problem. I can make out time as long as I get a heads-up before then.

DayoAle:


@Henry, good luck in your search.

@DayoAle, thanks.

henryskywalker2003:


Hi Nduka,

Ok. Quite fair. But what about home delivery? I expect an extra charge is added for that extra service. Well, taking it up to $10 from $3 might seem a bit much, especially to those shipping smaller weights like you mentioned. All the same, I do hope you will do a thorough review before the increase and settle on one that is reasonable to all parties involved (business and consumer).

About the meet and chat, that's no problem. I can make out time as long as I get a heads-up before then.

Hi Henry,

Our Online tool "Get Shipping Cost" actually allows you to know the shipping cost direct to your door anywhere in Nigeria. So just select your warehouse location as the From, and your town where you reside as the final destination and you will get an accurate shipping cost.

Also starting August 2015, we will be opening up locations in about 10 cities where people can go pick up their shipment, talk to an agent there and have any questions they may have fully answered. These locations will be in Warri, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Awka, Kaduna, Uyo, Ibadan, Benin. THis is our first phase of rool out and we expect to expand to more cities before the year runs out.

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

Nduka193:


Hi Henry,

Our Online tool "Get Shipping Cost" actually allows you to know the shipping cost direct to your door anywhere in Nigeria. So just select your warehouse location as the From, and your town where you reside as the final destination and you will get an accurate shipping cost.

Also starting August 2015, we will be opening up locations in about 10 cities where people can go pick up their shipment, talk to an agent there and have any questions they may have fully answered. These locations will be in Warri, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Awka, Kaduna, Uyo, Ibadan, Benin. THis is our first phase of rool out and we expect to expand to more cities before the year runs out.

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

Hi Nduka,

Yeah, I.ve used that before. But why I was asking was to get the extra cost for home delivery that is being added to the shipping cost. That info used to be on the website, but I can't seem to find it anymore.

About the rollout, that is great news especially for those who would like to further reduce their shipping costs by picking up the package themselves. Keep it up.

Nduka193:


Hi Henry,

Our Online tool "Get Shipping Cost" actually allows you to know the shipping cost direct to your door anywhere in Nigeria. So just select your warehouse location as the From, and your town where you reside as the final destination and you will get an accurate shipping cost.

Also starting August 2015, we will be opening up locations in about 10 cities where people can go pick up their shipment, talk to an agent there and have any questions they may have fully answered. These locations will be in Warri, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Awka, Kaduna, Uyo, Ibadan, Benin. THis is our first phase of rool out and we expect to expand to more cities before the year runs out.

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

will like to get some things explained to me. When purchasing item from site like ebay or amazon, how do one get the size packaging lenght, height and width of the item since its not written on the sales page of the item on ebay or amazon. Also how much is your current charges for shipping stuffs from US to nigeria per pounds including clearance and every other little charges.

Is there any hidden charges aside the shipping charges

needinfo:
will like to get some things explained to me. When purchasing item from site like ebay or amazon, how do one get the size packaging lenght, height and width of the item since its not written on the sales page of the item on ebay or amazon. Also how much is your current charges for shipping stuffs from US to nigeria per pounds including clearance and every other little charges.

Is there any hidden charges aside the shipping charges

Hello Needinfo,

You definitely will get the products dimensions and weight on ebay and amazon. Once you select the item you want to purchase from any store, scroll down the page to view the items description, there you will get all the information you need about the product you are buying and even see reviews from other customers who had purchased same or similar item. See attached for descriptions of a luggage on ebay and and a laptop amazon.

Hello Needinfo,

You definitely will get the products dimensions and weight on ebay and amazon. Once you select the item you want to purchase from any store, scroll down the page to view the items description, there you will get all the information you need about the product you are buying and even see reviews from other customers who had purchased same or similar item. See attached for descriptions of a luggage on ebay and and a laptop amazon.

needinfo:
will like to get some things explained to me. When purchasing item from site like ebay or amazon, how do one get the size packaging lenght, height and width of the item since its not written on the sales page of the item on ebay or amazon. Also how much is your current charges for shipping stuffs from US to nigeria per pounds including clearance and every other little charges.

Is there any hidden charges aside the shipping charges

Nduka193:


Hello Henry,

Thanks for this. See my answers to this:

Point 1 - That has been implemented and customers get updates when shipment arrives. If they dont, then the warehouse personnel may have forgotten to activate the alert. Thanks for all your information on IT and web programming. Unfortunately, the same shoes do not fit all legs, and different companies have different approach.

Point 2 - There is no fluctuation in billing. You are billed based on your actual vs chargable weight and what you get as a quote is the same as you get when billed with the same weight and dimensions. The same quote system runs the amounts that you get on your invoice. Humans beings key in weights and dimensions and its possible for them to have made an error. When you notice this, the solution is simply send a mail or call and it will be handled within 24/48 hours. Resolution time will typically depend on the work load of a finite staff system but we typically strive to resolve issues within 24 hours.

Point 3 - The solution to this is what we have implemented and it so far works for 99% of our customers. When an invoice is uploaded, the right values are always entered 99.9% of the time. Is there a probability of an error occuring a second time, Yes. But definitely, we dont go around entering wrong values as we have nothing to gain from it. As insurance is based on actual declared value and purchase value, you will know if you have ever dealt with an insurance company that any deviation from declared and invoice values validates the insurance claim. So please understand that no one deliberately enteres wrong values.

On item names, you may know what you ordered. but when you have staffs dealing with over 10,000 different items on a weekly basis, do you think there is a probability for them to mistakenly call one thing another. Anyway, we receive so many different items and without invoice, its difficult at times to know what one ordered. These are just simple issues that are easily dealt with, best by chatting with us and pointing out the mistake right there for it to be easily corrected.

Point 4 - I beg to differ here. The system is designed to add the weights as items come in and we have run tests on it many times and seen it to be 100% accurate in summing weights. The only time an error like this will occur is again if there is a human error in the dimensions of one of the deliveries. We don't release a system without thorough tests. There is no need beating on the same issue over and over again. The main thing is that the error made initially was discovered when it was repackaged, and since it became smaller when repackaged, l think it shows that there was an initial error and obviously was not an attempt to inflate charges. Since this has been dealt with to your satisfaction, lets leave this and move on please.

Point 5 - I see you are one who is technologically savy and dont expect you to suggest for automation to make way for manual process. The system works automated as it allows us to handle over 3,000 packages that may contain over 50,000 items weekly. it remains like that as we have received well over 200 emails from other customers praising the speed of invoice generation using the automated system. While you have one view, we have views of 50,000 plus customers and will always go with what suits the majority.

All other suggestions have been noted and those we see fit will be implemented. Again, l stand on the point that you will return as a customer. Not because l am bragging but because of the statistics at our disposal. The key thing for now is that you had issues, they were dealt with, your initially wrong weights were corrected when it was manually packaged. At this stage we will close this chapter and wish you the best in your shopping and shipping endeavors.

As someone who has used us, you will notice that we always make changes and improvements on a regular basis. That has been our succes.. Listening to the voice of the customer and implementing the suggestions supported by "the many". While you may have your suggestions, others do have their too and we stand as judge to implement what majority prefer.

Again, Yes. I said go and try other companies, and l am even willing to recommend others that are in the same field should you need my recommendation. My view on service is that when you have done your best to be the best, you believe in your self and leave the rest to God. I am still confident that we will see you soon and back to Shoptomydoor.com

Best Regards,
Nduka Udeh.
President/CEO - Shoptomydoor.com

Hello Mr. Nduka,
Let me first commend you on how you handled the issues raised by Mr. Henry and how they can be resolved.
Personally, I registered as a customer this year 2015 having read some of the positive feedbacs and recommendations on NL and as Mr. Henry pointed out, the services I received from my two deliveries so far has been excellent. But I fear if the ladastical attitude of some of your staff will not hamper the smooth relashionship I'm currently having with your company.
To make my point, my item was delivered on Monday 3rd Aug, 2015 and up till this moment which is very unsuall has not been recorded into my warehouse. I sent an email which was replied 24hrs later requesting for my invoice which I did yet nothing done to my warehouse. I phoned your USA office promised of looking into it coupled with an email stating that necessary action will be taken. Now I cannot make the shipment for this week. What exactly is going on? Well I still believe in the company in addition to your previous explanations and hope you will quickly make amendments.
Thank you.