Shipping US Goodies via the LBC Shipping Cart

This is a sort of follow up post from my previous post regarding LBC Shipping Cart.

The problems I had in that post were already resolved by LBC Shipping Cart and I have moved on as well. I decided to write this post just to keep everyone on track of the progress of that box.

February 4, 2015 2:00pm

Another item was waiting for me when I checked my LBC Shipping Cart today. I moved that in my box then hit the Ship Now button. Yes. Today is the day that I am finally shipping this box to my PH address. After paying the shipping fee with my partner's BDO debit card, I checked my account and realized that once you shipped your box, you can no longer see what's inside it. What you will see under the My Shipments tab in your account is something like this:

Although I already have an Excel list for the items inside that box, I couldn't help but think that this might cause a bit of anxiety for people with no list of what's in their boxes. Of course, if you're shipping less than 5 items, it's easy to keep track of the stuff in your box. But if you're like me who shipped more than 10 items in one box, better keep a list of your box' contents or take a screenshot of your box' list in the LBC Shipping Cart site before proceeding to ship your box. 

(Edit: I got an email today, 2/06/2015, from LBC with a list of the items inside the shipped box.)

A few minutes later, LBC sent me an email letting me know that my box is on the way. The tracking number for my box is also included in that email. What's cool about their tracking system is that you can track your box while you're signed in in your shipping cart account and you can also track your box via the LBC Express site's tracking feature.

Tracked via LBC Express' site. Yes, James Taylor was my shipper.
Not sure if this is the singer with the same name. lol

Tracked via LBC Shipping Cart site

Btw, the posted ETA for this box is Feb 15. After shipping this box, I also sent Voltaire a text message to let him know that I finally shipped my box and that I was hoping for zero delays this time. Well, last week, he promised that he will make sure that my box will reach me without delays and I'm just making sure that he kept that promise. :p

February 7, 2015 2:00am

Sigh. No change in status since I shipped my box. I already sent Voltaire a message this afternoon about this and after asking for my box' tracking number, I haven't heard back from him again. Great. Hopefully we'll see some movement/updates by Monday.

To be continued...

UPDATES

February 11, 2015 1:20pm

The tracking status of my box was only updated last February 8, including 'Estimated Departure & Arrival' here in the Philippines. I also got a couple of text updates from Voltaire regarding the status of the box but he only repeated what was on the tracking status, but that's okay. 

Estimated arrival of my box at the Manila International Airport was yesterday, February 10. Today is February 11 and no further updates were posted in the tracking status. I was also told that until the box is released to LBC once its done with customs clearing and processing, I won't see any updates with the tracking status. 

February 12, 2015 9:39pm

After days of waiting for new tracking updates, I finally got a couple of them today when I tracked my box at their site. Thank God. I'm guessing that my box is with the local LBC team now.

February 13, 2015 4:00pm

Box finally arrived! The box arrived 2 days earlier than the given ETA and I couldn't be any happier. Everything in the box were in perfect condition. They were packed properly and the box that held the items was in good condition, too. I'm sorry I forgot to take a photo of the box since my daughter immediately took over upon the box' arrival. :D

Good job, LBC! 

Side note: I mentioned earlier that the contents of the box, my items, were in great condition when I got them. This is true. HOWEVER, I would have to mention something that I found rather, hmm, nakakainis when we were inspecting the items.

I'm not sure if this is an issue for some people, but for us and for the items we bought, it is an issue: 

Stickers or item tags that they attached on some of the items.

I understand why they did that. It's for tracking or storage purposes? The stickers they plastered on some of the items were attached AFTER wrapping the item in a clear plastic bag. 

BUT on some of my items, they were attached on the item's packaging/box itself. It wouldn't be such an issue if it was a small sticker because you can easily peel that off without damaging the box/packaging. But it's huge! Think 1/4 size of a bond paper. So imagine the trouble of having to carefully remove that huge sticker without damaging the box/packaging of your item. Also, even if you managed to remove the sticker on the packaging, good luck removing the sticky remnant that was left to your items' box.

I know some of you would ask: Why? Why is that an issue? Ang arte mo naman! Box lang naman yun. Tatapon mo din yun after.

Well, some people, like myself, buy things from the US that are not found here in the Philippines. We would buy an assortment of things from the US and some of those things are for our personal collections. Like toys, books, or whatever. Most collectors like me would shell hundreds or even thousands of $$$ for those items, luckily my items are not really worth that of a fortune. Anyway, since we collect things, everything about the item matters. Yes. Even the box/packaging. We don't really throw those away. Some would even leave the item in the packaging and not open them until who knows when. 

And that is the problem. I'm not sure if its common practice for forwarders to plaster tracking stickers on the items but since I saw that some of the items were wrapped in plastic before the stickers were attached to them, I'm wondering why they didn't do that for every single item?

 If anyone from LBC reads this blog, please don't do that. Don't attach stickers to our stuff. Please don't get lazy and kuripot because we're expecting better handling of our items when we ship them to you. If you really need to attach stickers to our items for proper tagging and storage, please do it AFTER wrapping the item in paper or plastic bags first. The stickers damages the packaging. While most don't care about packaging, I do. And I'm pretty sure some people out there do, too. 

Conclusion: Although I encountered some problems before with LBC Shipping Cart, which they were able to resolve as mentioned in my previous post, and if I would skip the 'sticker issue', I would have to say that my first experience with LBC Shipping Cart had been rather satisfactory. I would give them credit for trying hard to address my issues before and for helping me out up to the point of the box' delivery to my home. I really appreciate that. They are fairly new in this kind of consolidation/freight forwarding business and I have to admit that they actually excel in some of their offerings, there's a lot of room for improvement and I'm looking forward to seeing that as a customer. I've decided that I would have to retract the title from my previous post (although I'm not going to change it) and say that I'm glad I decided to try them. I'm going to stick with them for now. In fact, I already shipped another box today. Hopefully, transit and delivery would be just as smooth as my 1st box. :)

LBC Shipping Cart: The Good, The Bad & It Got So Ugly I Now Regret Using Them

The idea of US to PH shipping is something most Pinoys would cringe at. It's just impossible to do it without paying exorbitant customs fees by the Bureau of Customs once they 'hostage' your package at their office. So for normal people like me, things that are commonly available in the US but not here in the Philippines are just 'Hay...' with matching sigh na lang. Dreaming that one day, a sort of miracle would happen and those items would just pop out of different stores here in the Philippines.

Well, something happened indeed but they are not miracles and the items we want didn't just magically appear in Philippine soil. US to PH forwarders are now slowly becoming available to us here and we now have the freedom to shop on most US online stores, send those items to forwarders, skip all the BoC drama and have the items safely delivered on our doorstep. I will no longer explain the process since the info is out there, just a Google away for you who are reading this post.

So out of all the choices out there, I stumbled upon LBC Shipping Cart. Although surprisingly new in the US to PH forwarding game, they seemed promising. You use the US address they will give you once you create an account on their site, shop on US stores and have your items shipped to their US address and they will consolidate the items in a box for you until you are ready to ship them to your PH address. One of the features that they have which sets them apart from the rest is they photograph each item they receive and the photos will be posted on your LBC Shipping Cart account. Plus, you can view how much it would cost you to ship the items by sea or by air. No hidden fees. No heart attack inducing US to PH shipping fees if you suddenly decided to ship your box to your PH address.

Of course, aside from the info I got from their website, I did my own research for people with firsthand experience about them. Went forum hopping, backread hundreds of forum pages with discussions about US to PH shipping and how their LBC Shipping Cart experience go. I was fairly satisfied with what I found from days and days of my research that I finally signed up on their site.

My first item was a book from Amazon. This was just a trial item for me so I can see how fast and efficient their system is. The book was delivered to their Hayward, CA office January 13, 2015. A few hours later, I got an email from LBC confirming that they got the book and I can view the image and details on my LBC Shipping Cart account. When I logged in to my account, it is indeed there. Though the photo they took is not in high resolution, the photo is enough proof for me that the item was received in good condition and they now have it stored in my box. 

Impressive.

I was encouraged with this experience. I shopped more and sent the items their way. I had the same positive experience as my first item with them. It seemed like I really made the right choice with LBC. I mean, its LBC, right? They are the biggest and most popular courier here in the Philippines. After years and years of handling packages in the PH and from abroad, how can they fail? They know their shit. 

Well, soon enough, I found out that this was NOT TRUE. Yes, they are good if everything in their system works properly, but once they fuck up, they do it ROYALLY.

Here's how my nightmare began...

January 25, 2015

Package #1 = 1 item

One of my Amazon packages arrived early. So it was delivered on a Saturday (January 24 US California time). Since the LBC Hayward, CA office is closed on weekends, no one was there to receive it. I checked the USPS tracking on their site + Amazon tracking and it said that they left the box where I (or the LBC office) typically get my mail. Okay. Breathe in. Breathe out. At this point I was already panicking inside. Where did they leave it? Will LBC find this package once they open Monday (Jan. 26)???

Package # 2 = 2 items

Another package from a different US shop arrived and was delivered also by USPS. This was also the same day that the Amazon package was left outside(?) the LBC office. I'm not really sure if this package was delivered the same time as the other Amazon package, but with this one, USPS didn't leave it there. They brought it back to the USPS office and will redelivered the next business day.

So, with sweaty and shaking hands, I contacted LBC Shipping Cart via the Contact Us form in my account. I informed them about both the packages. I think I got a response Monday that they will be forwarding my inquiry with their Hayward office and will send me an update. Okay. No need to worry. They got it. 

January 27, 2015

Package # 2 = 2 items

True to their word, USPS redelivered this package at the LBC Hayward office. Awesome. Although some of my anxiety was relieved by this information, I was still expecting an update from the LBC cs who promised to update me. Package #1 is still unaccounted for. 

Package # 3 = 2 items

Another package was delivered at the LBC Hayward office by UPS. The tracking status said it was signed by SANDRA and left at the office there. Good. Someone signed for it and it was received properly. 

Okay. I have my own Excel sheet and marked the 2 packages as received and 4 items should appear as received in my account the next day. I was excited to wake up the next day to see these 4 items posted in my account.

January 28, 2015

This is what I saw upon opening my LBC Shipping Cart account. That's weird. They usually post the items in my account at the end of their business day there, I kept hearing warning bells in my head but I decided to ignore them because it's LBC. They got their shit together. They must be some kind of delay in their system. The items should be posted there by tomorrow (January 29). I TRUST THEM. 

I sent them another email about it for good measure. I also called their hotline to see if I could talk to someone about this problem. I was able to talk to Carlo who handles the LBC Shipping Cart CS hotline. He just repeated what he said in the email response I got. He will follow it up on their Hayward office and he will update me once the Hayward office sent them a response.

I placed another 3 Amazon orders and had the items delivered at their Hayward office again. Like what I said earlier, I trust them. This is probably just a minor glitch in their system. I'm sure they would resolve this eventually.

January 29, 2015

Hmm... This is not right. I placed another call to their hotline and asked to talk to someone who handles the LBC Shipping Cart concerns. I got connected to Trish. Again, she promised to send a follow up email to their Hayward office. She was very polite but I lost it when she couldn't give me the number of their Hayward office. She said they don't have the number of their Hayward office and they are solely relying on emails to communicate with the people there. 

What. The. Fuck.

So, its either she's lying and she doesn't want me to call their Hayward office or they really don't have the Hayward contact information I was asking for? Well, none of these made sense so I got mad and raised my voice a little. (I'm sorry, Trish.) But at the end of the call, she promised to get back to me and even got my mobile number so she could me once they got an update.

At this point, my head is already spinning. What have I gotten myself into? What kind of forwarding company does not know their offices' contact numbers and just rely on emails to communicate?

Where in the world are my items?! 

And the thought that my recent Amazon orders will be delivered again by January 30 (US California time) at their Hayward office makes me worry even more. I could cancel it I know. But for the life of me, I decided to just let the packages arrive at the LBC Hayward office. I'm still hopeful that they will resolve this soon.

January 30, 2015

This is maddeningly annoying. If you've used other forwarders in the past and you are used with the delays in posting of items with your account, this is tolerable. I know. I've read it on different forums. And that is the exact reason why I stayed away from the other more popular forwarders and chose LBC. In my book, they were efficient and reliable. My previous items were received and posted on time in my account. But this has been going on for days! WTH is happening?!!!!!!!

January 31, 2015

Package # 4 = 1 item

Package # 5 = 1 item

Package # 6 = 1 item

I woke up and checked the USPS status of my recent Amazon orders. They were already marked as delivered at the LBC Hayward office. Great. Now the moment of truth awaits. Let's see if the problem only affects the previous packages they got last January 26-28.

I opened the email account I'm using for my LBC account and saw that there was NO LBC EMAIL waiting for me. No new received item notification. No promised update from their CS. Fantastic. They are now becoming super reliable for being unreliable in my book. 

But to my surprise, when I checked my LBC account, I have a received item! (Sorry I forgot to take a screenshot due to my excitement and immediately put the item in a box--that's how you consolidate your items at their site--in fear of losing this item also. 

Unfortunately, the other items weren't there. Just 1 out of the 3 received items on January 30th (Friday, US CA time) was posted in my account. 

Furious, I called the LBC hotline again and got connected to Carlo. I already spoke to him a few days ago about this problem and he already knew me. I was really trying so hard not to raise my voice again but he made the mistake of using the zip code of Package #2 as an excuse of why it was possibly lost. 

He said that in the USPS tracking, it showed that instead of the LBC Hayward, CA 94545 zip code, it became 94544. (See image below for reference)

I argued that this shouldn't be a case or an excuse of why this package is missing. This USPS tracking result is probably just a typo or they entered the zip code of the post office where it was held during the weekend. But he insisted that that is probably why this package is missing still. I told him that even if the zip code is different in the tracking info on the USPS website, there is a waybill/shipping receipt plastered on the packages! That contains my name and the shipping info I use for every single US online shop order I sent their way. He still insisted that USPS might have delivered it to the wrong address because of the zip code.

This is where I totally lost it and shouted at him on the phone. I'm sorry, Carlo, nothing personal but the excuse you're giving me is totally unacceptable and ridiculous I even have a name for it in my mind: SHIT. 

How in the world will there be 2 similar 26517 Danti Courts in  Hayward, California? The other one has the 94545 zip code and the other one has the 94544? REALLY?! Are they feeding you well there in the LBC Hotline department? Who would use that kind of logic?

I mean, there are now 7 items missing out of the 8 items I sent to your LBC Hayward office. 

Seven. 

Pito. 

Siete. 

Of all the 7 items that are missing, he specifically picked that one minor detail to use as an excuse to justify why 2 of the 7 are missing??? So, yeah, let's say I believe him. Let's say I'm dumb enough to believe that that package with 2 items were delivered on another 26517 Danti Court with the 94544 zipcode. So what happened to the other 5 items? Did they magically disappeared into thin air because someone might have put the box containing these packages the wrong side up? Or did the dog ate them? What?!

After my long speech over the phone, Carlo promised that he will send a follow up email AGAIN at their Hayward office. Also, he promised that he will also CALL them later to check on this issue. I thought Trisha said they don't have the contact # of their Hayward office? See? This is how 'efficient' they can be with handling your concerns. He promised to call me on Monday at 1pm for the update I am asking for. He said he will. Though I no longer believe him, let's see if he would indeed.

So there. I'm truly sorry for the long post but this is actually a summary of everything that happened since LBC fucked up with my packages at their Hayward office. I was never updated on whether they have my items there. I have to call them just to remind them of the updates they promised. I would've been more patient if they were able to send me a short email listing the items that they received under my name. It would take just a few minutes to send one email. Fuck the photos. Just an email confirming receipt of my items would be enough. I think I deserve that for trusting them so much with the things I bought for my small online business. 

By the way, here's a round up of all the missing packages/items that are unaccounted for by LBC. Note that the tracking status of these items from UPS & USPS all said that they were delivered, received and signed by the front desk personnel at their Hayward office. One of them was left outside of the office last Saturday but I will indicate that on the list so I can refer to it on my next post/update regarding this LBC fuck up.

Currently missing/unaccounted for items by LBC Shipping Cart

Package #1 = 1 item (left outside LBC office on January 24, no one signed for it)

Package # 2 = 2 items (the one with the different zip code in the USPS site, delivered Jan. 26)

Package # 3 = 2 items (delivered Jan. 26, signed by SANDRA)

Package # 4 = 1 item (delivered Jan. 30) See update below dated 2/1/2015

Package # 5 = 1 item (delivered Jan. 30) See update below dated 2/1/2015

I know some of you are here because you are also like me, looking for a convenient and reliable US forwarder that you can use when you shop on US online shopping sites. And I'm guessing that you were looking for feedback for the LBC Shipping Cart because you are considering of using them to ship from US to PH. Well, this is my experience with them so far. I'm not being paid to promote other US to PH forwarders and tarnish the lovely reputation of LBC especially the LBC Shipping Cart service. In fact, I didn't even mention other popular forwarders so I won't be accused of such. 

This is my LBC Shipping Cart experience so far, Hopefully, yours wouldn't turn out worse than mine if you still decided to try them. I will be updating this post next week as soon as I get any update/development with this issue.

UPDATE: 2/1/2015 1:15PM

I checked my LBC Shipping Cart account today and thankfully, the items in Package 4&5 were already posted in My Received Items. 

Still no sign of the items in Packages 1, 2 & 3.

UPDATE: 2/2/2015 1:30PM

Bad news: Still no sign of the items in Packages 1, 2 & 3.

Good news: LBC finally lived up to their word and called me at exactly 1pm. Instead of Carlo or Trish, Voltaire Jose was the one who called me this time. He introduced himself as the LBC eCommerce ***(?). Sorry I forgot your title, Voltaire. 

Anyway, he was very polite and told me that from now on and until my items safely reach my doorstep, he would be the one who will handle my account, especially this issue I'm currently having with LBC Shipping Cart.

He promised to update me later tonight about this issue. It is still Sunday evening in Hayward, CA. The Hayward office won't be open until 1am tomorrow (PH time). He said that he will call the Hayward office as soon as they open later to check the status of my missing items, provide me with email updates and will also call me tomorrow. 

Well, I have to say, I appreciate the way they are handling this issue now compared to last week. This is how problems like this should have been treated since day one. 

UPDATE: 2/2/2015 3:45PM

After being MIA for days, LBC finally found my stuff! They suddenly appeared on my account a few minutes ago. I'm so happy! I'm actually more worried about these 2 packages than Package #1, which is still missing as of the moment, and I'm so relieved that they finally found them. I also got a call from LBC again, this time si Reg, to confirm that they already found my stuff. She said the Hayward warehouse people had a hard time finding these 2 packages because the box # was not indicated in the addresses of the packages.

Okay. Here's what happened there: The site where I shopped at would not accept the address of the Hayward office. Every time I tried changing it to indicate the box number, it would change to a different address. If you've shopped on US online stores, you'll get what I mean. So, what I did was, I put my complete LBC details, including the address + BOX #, on the gift message. From what I know, the gift message for orders were also included on the shipment info form plastered on the packages they ship out. That was why I was confident that they won't have problems with these two packages. Or if they did, I was expecting that it wouldn't be that hard to iron things out with them because I had the impression that it would be easy to communicate with them. Unfortunately, you know how the story went and I had to resort to posting this blog post before I received the attention I deserve as a customer.

But, to be fair, I commend LBC for handling this situation well. They finally resolved the problem and I hope that delays like this won't happen again in the future. It makes customers worry and being told the same spiel every time we would reach out for your help does not help at all. What I really wanted in the beginning is just a confirmation that they received my packages and the items are secured in the Hayward warehouse. 

Thank you, LBC. You've earned my trust and respect again. Kudos to the people who helped in straightening this mess out. 

Re: Package #1

It is still missing as of the moment and Reg told me that they still couldn't find it in the warehouse. She suggested that I contact USPS about it to verify that they indeed left the package at the warehouse on January 24 (Saturday). That is what I've been waiting to hear since last week. I just need the confirmation that they didn't get this item since it was left at Hayward address on a non-business day. If I had known this last week, I wouldn't have held them responsible for this particular package. 

Now I know that this is Amazon and USPS' fault. Finally, there is closure about this package. And yes, LBC, I'm finally letting you off the hook with this package.