UPDATE November 24, 2014: It’s been over 3 weeks since my third shipment arrived ShippyMe’s US office and despite countless emails and phone calls (one of which was allegedly with the CEO himself), they are still not giving me a concrete reason for delaying appropriate billing and shipment of my goods to Nigeria. Do please expect a full breakdown of this issue in a new post as soon as I can find time away from work and study. In the mean time be safe!
UPDATE November 27, 2014: Beware of ShippyMe – Circuit Atlantic
=================================
Amazon by default doesn’t ship goods to certain countries and Nigeria is one of such. Thus we have to rely on small shipping companies to purchase goods from overseas. In the past I used Circuit Atlantic to get my BlackBerry PlayBook but after they launched ShippyMe I decided to give it a try as it seemed like a cheaper option.
NOTE: ShippyMe and Circuit Atlantic are operated by the same people. The major difference is that Circuit Atlantic helps purchase the goods on your behalf while ShippyMe lets you shop on your own and then ship the goods to their US Headquarters from where the goods are then shipped to Nigeria
ShippyMe in my opinion is cheaper than Circuit Atlantic
How ShippyMe Works
In a nut shell, you go to their site and sign up for a free account after which you will be given a personal mailing address where you can ship all your goods. Personally I only shopped Amazon as they had no issues with my UBA AfriCard and they were offering free shipping
TIP: When shopping Amazon from Nigeria, DO NOT checkout in Naira. Checkout in Dollars. Amazon’s exchange rate is kinda steep. Also choose to consolidate your Amazon purchases in one package if they are from different retailers. This way you pay less though the goods may take a while before they ship.
Once you’ve placed your orders, simply go back to ShippyMe site and book a shipment listing all the items that you’re expecting. As soon as your packages arrive ShippyMe, you’ll be alerted via email and based on your shipping options, you’ll be given a quote which has to be paid before your goods are shipped out to Nigeria. You can even preview the goods via your account. The picture above is that which ShippyMe uploaded to my account when they received my order
Expect to receive email alerts from ShippyMe when the following happen:
- When your goods arrive ShippyMe HQ
- When your goods undergo processing for delivery to Nigeria
- When your goods are sent to the Courier
- When your goods depart the US for Nigeria
- When your goods arrive Nigeria and are undergoing clearance by Customs
- When your goods are been processed for delivery to you
- When your goods are ready for pickup … if you chose office pickup option
My first order came into Nigeria within 7 days but due to issues with Customs/NAHCO been on strike, I got my goods over 3 weeks late BUT the last order sailed through smoothly within 7 days (including weekend)
One peculiar thing with ShippyMe though is that they claim the more your ship, the less you pay.
Refer to http://www.shippyme.com/faq/
3. What are your shipping costs?
Our shipping costs start at $5.5 per pound (lbs) and goes to as low as $4.00 per pound. The more you ship, the lower the per unit weight cost. This variation is done automatically by our system.
My first order weighed just 0.45kg and I was charged $40.04 in shipping and handling fees as you can see below
But my next order was almost triple the first order at 1.27kg and I only paid $51.89
Boy was I delighted.
To reduce your shipping cost, you must use the Consolidation and Strip My Package features.
ShippyMe Issue(s)
My only problem with ShippyMe though is that they don’t accept online bank transfers. I’m so allergic to queuing up in banking halls. I just wish they’d look into this and implement that asap ‘cause sometimes debit card payments don’t go through on their site. #BlameItOnOurYeyeBanks
Compared to shipping goods in via the likes of DHL, ShippyMe is a cheap delight.
I’m looking forward to my next order using their services once I’m done researching what I want to buy next. Hopefully they will never disappoint me.
Have you ever done business with ShippyMe? What was your experience like? Do please let us know in the comment form below. Thanks
You’ll also like:
- UPDATED: Beware of ShippyMe - Circuit Atlantic! You've Been Warned
- UPDATED! Mall For Africa Review: Shop US/UK Stores From Nigeria
- UPDATED: MyUS.com Review: Fast International Shipping From The US
- MallForAfrica Nigeria Communication & DHL Issues
- Splendid Packaging Review: Shop UK/US Sites To Nigeria Service
Please rate & share this article to help others. Thanks
Affect is wrong word.
They stole both online and offline is the right statment. This is not a joke I have many links where people are willing to tell the FBI and the entire america government about the stealing of good by shippyme, circuitatlantic, zaposta scam company
SHIPPYME, CIRCUITATLANTIC, ZAPOSTA SENT ME AN EMAIL AND IT SAYS:
Message:
On the 30th of June, the fulfillment facility of Circuit Atlantic Inc, our US sister company that processed shipments for Circuitatlantic.com and Shippyme.com, was shut down by the State of New Jersey. Our staff there were harassed and sacked and all packages pending delivery were taken away. The company and its management were accused of instructing the US staff to ship items believed to have been procured by fraudulent customers. The confiscated packages belong to mostly innocent Nigerian customers who have purchased them with their hard earned money from US vendors. This is a fact.
All legitimate owners of property currently in the custody of the State of New Jersey can be sure to receive them if they have proof of ownership. We believe strongly that there will be no basis for a permanent seizure of items belonging to innocent people if the laws of the state of New Jersey and the United States prevail. It is politically and morally incorrect to cast all Nigerians as fraudulent because of the actions of a few.
We have been economical with information because of the restrictions imposed on our management regarding communication with customers for legal reasons. We have asked the New Jersey State, through our lawyers, to give us a phone number or email which our customers can contact in order to get a direct response on the status of the packages in their custody. So far we have received no response.
We really understand the agitation of affected users and would like this issue resolved as soon as possible. It has gone on for too long. The delay has not been our making and has been tremendously costly to our customers and to us as well. Up to this moment, we have not been questioned on the issue. No one from the department has sought clarification or information from the management. We are as much in the dark as you are.
Please bear with us until after this meeting to provide more details on this case.
Again we plead for your understanding. As a Nigerian company, we have been focused on providing a good service. We have worked hard on achieving that. We need your support to scale through these trying times. There must be a resolution. Please bear with us.
Reply:
AND HERE IS MY REPLY: First understand that you are a thief and a fraudulent organization if you are not what were you still doing in the business by the month of November when this claim was already in place by june or july? my order and my goods and also money huge money got to you all in the month of november now u talking nonsense you are a thief and you will see, nobody will support you.
If you want support return our money paid for shipment at least let’s know goods were in mess but u took our money and goods and its almost a year now and u had issues in july or june you went ahead made us order goods and u took the goods and money and refuse to return both goods and money and u even forcefully collected insurance money on transaction if in deed your are not a thief where insurance that you forcefully took our money and covered us? You are nothing but an ole, oyi, oyeoshi, oyiberibe, barawo banza kawaei
shaegae!
kutumaburaubanza u go see hell till u do what is right. Ole idiot like you.
Who go support thief wicked bastard that will never see peace till death thief!
Did this raid affect those that bought stuff off online stores like Amazon and shipped to Circuit Atlantic quarters or it affected just those that had relatives drop off packages for them at Circuit Atlantic?
fellow Nigerians….
if you are reading this comment that mean you are about shipping a package from outside Nigeria to Nigeria…
please i beg of you.. for the sake of you package, not mine…. if you don’t want to kiss your package good buy after paying a huge amount of money for shipment… or wait for a year for your package to arrive Nigeria and if you don’t want to hear lame excuses over and over….. PLEASE DO NOT USE SHIPPYME… OR YOU WILL REGRET EVER DOING SO.
that organization is a child’s play believe me…. i have several evidence to show you about this claim i just made… PLEASE MY FELLOW NIGERIANS… DON’T BE DECEIVED BY WHAT IS ON THEIR WEBSITE…. NOT THIS ” IT IS ALL DECEIT” IT WILL LEAD YOU AND YOUR PACKAGE TO DOOM.
i saw this and fell for it all so… please don’t fall for this . befor trying to use it please contact me through this email let me show you screen shuts of all the story you’ll receive after using them. .”nosafrankosawe@gmail.com”.
please save your money and your package.
don’t listen to all those advertising for them that they have use it without problems….. it’s all lies… this company is so deceitful….
@Crabwise: can I see the screenshots please? Quite sad to hear the service is still a mess :?
Send to strictlyonlinebiz@gmail.com
Pls can u pls explain wat d handling fee,psßdg and d vat means
@Ossy: Handling fee I think is Shippyme’s profit. VAT is value added tax imposed by the state or country. I’m not sure what PS & DG means. You can contact Shippyme for clarification.
Shippyme is something else now, I shipped goods to a guy who paid for his goods but when the items were to be delivered he discovered that some items are missing, we are still on it now, secondly it took more than a month before they deliver any of the goods but some are still missin. My eexperience with Shippyme is very bad, now I am waiting for their response before I take my own aggressive action against them.
I’ve used them before and they are quite good. I think their rates are fair at least it is better than the one from my previous shipper. All in all, I think Shippyme is good.
Trust me, you don’t want to try DHL and the likes unless you have money to burn. You are better off using a shipping service. I’ve checked out the top 5 in my opinion and shippyme is one of the cheapest. They also have a good delivery time. And @Ifeanyi there is no shipper that doesn’t charge for some of these options, abi you no wan make them chop?
Oga doc.,abeg I hear say UBA Africard dey charge person per transaction. Na true?
@Chukwuka: I think it’s like 1-2% per transaction. Same applies with other banks
When you say use the dollar option on amazon, does the UBA Africard give that option of converting your naira deposits to dollars giving amazon’s steep rates.thanks
@Uchefe I don’t understand your question but you can transact in any currency on the UBA Africard as far as I know
Would like to see how your package looked like when you received it. I dey fear that “strip my package” feature… Don’t wanna loose those boxes ;)
@Tobechukwu I don’t have a picture if that. All I can say is don’t strip anything that you don’t want ruffled.
The Shippyme platform now has the platform for paying via Credit /Debit cards. You will be re-directed to the Guarantee Trust Pay Portal where you can make your payment using your card. You should try it next time you ship through them.
Also, you could make a transfer using your online banking facility and then use the “PAYMENT ON HOLD” field to log your payment details. If you are picking up at the office, there is a POS which you can use to pay.
Good times!!……
@Chiamaka: I’m aware you guys accept debit cards ’cause that’s how I paid for my first order but the second one just wouldn’t go through and since I saw no reference to online transfer, I decided to hit the bank and make the deposit. Thanks for the info though. Will most definitely make use of online transfer from today.
You say you have a POS at the office for office collection. Does that mean you ship all orders from the US to Nigeria irrespective of whether the customer has paid up or not? Isn’t that risky? Some Naija peeps can like to play smart oh. lol
Na wa for their ps/gs charge, commission fee, striping charge, its just too much. Pls make a comparisim between them and dhl so as to clear my doubts.
@Ifeanyi: There’s no need for me to make a comparison with DHL. The last time I tried to ship in a Kindle Paper-white via DHL from the US, they were requesting for close to $200. Kindle wey no reach 500g oh. Catch my drift? Shippyme all the way man ;)
Are you kidding me?
I just used DHL to ship down my BRAND NEW DELL 17.3″ i7-3630QM QUAD CORE 3.40GHz 8GB 1TB GT650M GAMING LAPTOP PC which I bought from ebay via http://www.ebay.com/itm/251391690979?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649,1 mouse,2 head phones and 16GB kingston memory card all consolidated into one package weighing 12.1lbs for $170 today yesterday.
@Presegs can I get your number please? 12.1Ibs for this low amount sounds ridiculous.
How can I purchase from ebay without a paypal account if I want to use shippyme as a courier?
@Rasak: I don’t know how to shop Ebay with PayPal that’s one of the reasons I stick with only Amazon.com for my online purchases. They accept Naija debut cards ;-)
pls how do you make use of your UBA AfriCard that offers free shipping
@Rasak: AfriCard doesn’t offer you free shipping. Amazon does depending on how much goods you purchase. UBA AfriCard is a debit card issued for online shopping etc. You don’t need to open an account with UBA to own one. If you need it, visit your nearest UBA branch with say N3,000, your form of identification and recent Utility bill ie Nepa or Water bill
Thank you for this honest review. I got to know about ShippyMe a while ago but I needed a pathfinder. And you turn out to be my pathfinder.
Looking forward to my first order with them…. What is that Amazon’s url again?
@E-Yinka : it still remains Amazon.com. :-D