Is Shipito.com a scam, fraud or a legit service?

Is Shipito.com a scam, a fraud or a legit service? Let's find out.

What is Shipito.com?
Shipito.com allows you to shop in the U.S. and have packages forwarded to you by USPS, Fedex, DHL, Polone Parcel, Shipito Air Mail.

Company information
Shipito
2972 Columbia St., Torrance, CA 90503, USA

Shipito.com services:

• INDIVIDUAL PACKAGES with no monthly or set up fee. $8.50 per package + postage
• VIRTUAL MAILBOX - unlimited size. Consolidation and free storage up to 45 days.
• MAGAZINES and LETTERS are mailed out for just $1. Postage for a magazine is $2.65 anywhere in the world.
• Online account. Details about each package including its tracking number. Select the best shipping method. Email notifications.
• PACKAGE CHECK - they can check content of your package, making sure everything is in good shape and nothing is missing.
• RETURNS and REFUNDS - Help with returns and refunds for products.
• ASSISTED PURCHASES in stores which require complicated verifications or accept only U.S. credit cards.
• Assisted purchases in OFFLINE STORES.

Is Shipito.com a scam, fraud or a legit company?
Several friends of mine suggested me to use Shipito.com. Last year I decided to try it myself. I joined Shipito.com on November 2010. Shipito.com has consolidated 375 my packages saving me tons of money (compared to shipping packages from US shops directly without consolidation).



Moreover Shipito allowed me to avoid sales tax using its warehouse in Oregon. And since the majority of American shops do not offer international shipping, using a freight forwarder (parcel forwarder, package forwarder) was the only option shopping there anyway.

I have sent 40+ packages from Shipito.com using USPS. I have received most of them already and have a tracking number for another one. So far no complaints at all.

Register on Shipito

[yvonneka]

Hmmm......I THINK NOT. seeing as i found this:

Originally Posted by DavidMa

Shipito / Shipito.com
Posted: 2010-02-14 by DavidMa
CREDIT CARD FRAUD !!! STAY AWAY FROM SHIPITO !!!
Complaint Rating:
Company information:
Shipito
2972 Columbia St., Torrance, CA 90503, USA
Torrance, California
United States

Shipito are thieves and criminal, pure and simple. AVOID THEM AT ALL COST !!!

Shipito.com in Torrance, California enticed my fiancée into a monthly membership for $25 and then added an assisted purchase service for which she paid separately $8.50 (plus cost of purchase, sales tax, shipping) and on top of that, they charged 10% commission from the purchase cost, but that wasn't enough... these Shipito scamers charged another 5% pretending to be Visa fees.

When she had to order more items, they kept charging her card for every item they received. She called and cancelled the membership and even paid for an additional month that she didn't use due to their questionable calculations.

Despite this, she continued to be billed $25 a month because of the credit card information that the Shipito scammers got from her membership during registration, which did not cover any assisted purchases. When challenged on these fraudulent charges, the individual introduced as the senior manager explained that the membership was just like buying a car. If you decide to keep it in the garage, you still have to pay for it.

When I explained that according to my own understanding of California and Federal law, Shipito has a right to claim money they feel they may be owed but do not have the right to abuse credit card information or make charges against an account which the owner of that account has clearly stated they do not authorize. Since my fiancee cancelled by email, and has confirmation of the cancellation and since Shipito confirms that the cancellation was due to her stopping the service, they are wrong on two accounts. Firstly, they are charging without authorization citing a membership agreement they have confirmed is closed and secondly as the car analogy is ridiculous since a car is a physical item you own and Shipito is claiming that they should still be paid for existing even though there is no way they could ever provide the services they want to charge for.

One of their useless staff ended our conversation saying that given the economy, they couldn't afford to let anybody cancel their membership and so, by the direction of his boss, whom handles these issues.

I tried to contact them by email about this problems several times with no response. When pressed for the details, they kept sending me to their FAQ page .. Their flustered explanation was to say that the agreement would be in force as long as Shipito decided it was in force, an answer I found rather extraordinary.

I told them that I didn't think that the California or Federal courts would not be sympathetic to that interpretation, to which they outright scoffed and would continue to charge whatever they thought was a proper fee.

Shipito.com has gone beyond mere predatory contract practices and is engaging in outright criminal activity. Do not trust these people with your credit card information as they have proven that they will take credit card info from one agreement and use it to charge for another one. Further, the only cancellation policy they can clearly define is not even existing.

On a personal note, the most annoying aspect of this is that these people arrogantly show you that they will continue to submit credit card charges for which they know they do not have legal authorization to charge (if by no other means in that they themselves confirmed the original membership cancellation) for services they fully admit they are incapable of providing in any reasonable manner.

Shipito are thieves and criminal, pure and simple. AVOID THEM AT ALL COST !!!

Shipito has 60'000+ clients, so you will definitely see negative reviews. They have a great forum, so you can easily find out feedback from many other users. And if you visit other forums, you may notice that Shipito is recommended more than any other freight forwarder.

A couple of comments about the "review":

Originally Posted by DavidMa

Shipito / Shipito.com
Shipito.com in Torrance, California enticed my fiancée into a monthly membership for $25 and then added an assisted purchase service for which she paid separately $8.50 (plus cost of purchase, sales tax, shipping) and on top of that, they charged 10% commission from the purchase cost, but that wasn't enough... these Shipito scamers charged another 5% pretending to be Visa fees.

I've paid $50 for my yearly membership. If you don't need package consolidation, you won't pay a monthly fee at all (by using the Individual Packages plan).

Shipito does charge 10% for assisted purchases, but you don't have to use this service from them. There are plenty of online stores that can ship to Shipito warehouses including Amazon.

Shipito charges the 4.13% bank fee if you fill in your account via a credit card or paypal. But you can use a wire transfer to avoid this fee. Then you will pay $16 only. Wire transfer might be the best solution if you use assisted purchases.

Originally Posted by DavidMa

When she had to order more items, they kept charging her card for every item they received. She called and cancelled the membership and even paid for an additional month that she didn't use due to their questionable calculations.

Despite this, she continued to be billed $25 a month because of the credit card information that the Shipito scammers got from her membership during registration, which did not cover any assisted purchases. When challenged on these fraudulent charges, the individual introduced as the senior manager explained that the membership was just like buying a car. If you decide to keep it in the garage, you still have to pay for it.

I don't really know how to comment this. You fill in your account first, and then the money from your account (deposit) is used. This comment is either too old, or it was written by someone who had never used Shipito at all.

If you continue using your Shipito account, but don't receive any packages, you should probably downgrade your account to a free one (the Individual Packages plan). Otherwise you will obviously be charged. However if your deposit is not sufficient, you will be switched to the Individual Packages plan automatically!

Originally Posted by DavidMa

I tried to contact them by email about this problems several times with no response. When pressed for the details, they kept sending me to their FAQ page .. Their flustered explanation was to say that the agreement would be in force as long as Shipito decided it was in force, an answer I found rather extraordinary.

I contacted their support by e-mail dozens of times. I was getting replies very fast.

I also raised many questions in the forums, and never had any problem there too. I may think they should do some things differently, but don't expect them to do everything I possibly want.

Originally Posted by DavidMa

I told them that I didn't think that the California or Federal courts would not be sympathetic to that interpretation, to which they outright scoffed and would continue to charge whatever they thought was a proper fee.

I wish I could see a court decision from this user.


Bottom line:
The review by DavidMa you posted doesn't look trustworthy.

I've been using Shipito since November 2010. They have processed 244 packages for me and sent 33 packages to me. And I have 6 more packages to consolidate in their Oregon (Tualatin) warehouse. Although I'm don't have a Gold or Silver status now, I'm still pretty satisfied with the company and plan to continue using it.

[alexthunder]

Never had any problems with Shipito too.

As for this "review", it is a well known false complaint. John from Shipito replied about it long ago:

Originally Posted by John

I honestly don't know, but it really bothers me. There are people who write false reviews and now false complaints against Shipito. The said part is they never even been our customers. They never tried our service. They have a basic information about service wrong. It is basically just lies with the goal to damage our company.

This really bothers me. I don’t mind handling issues from real customers. But what do I do with outright lies? It is great that Internet gives power to customers to voice concerns, but what about false complains on anonymous websites?

Why I know that review is false?

Shipito never ever saves any customer credit cards! We have no technical ability to charge customer cards. This is basically not possible with our system.

Customer must come to our website and submit new payment. Otherwise it is not possible to pay for virtual mailbox fee. In case customer doesn't have any deposit on his/her account and doesn’t submit a new payment only one thing happens. His/her Virtual mailbox plan is switched to Individual Packages plan. Individual packages have no monthly fee. So that is all what happens. There is no contract. Nothing like buying a car or other bullshit someone wrote in the article.

Why are we doing it like this?
The main reason is security reasons. We don't want to save credit cards due to the security reasons. We don't want customers credit card information to be compromised. And the best security is not to save it at all.

The rest of the facts in the article is also incorrect. But I just wanted to focus on the main fact that the person who wrote this knows nothing about our service! Couldn't even try it.

[stv9007]

im a customer. ive ordered 20 packages. all my dhl and usps packages got here. 9 packages i used their shipito airmail, of those ive only received 4. the oldest two were mailed november 9, 2011. never use their shipito airmail. they couldnt care less if they lose them. since they dont have tracking its like a license to steal. ive contacted the california attorney general. the ag replied and they will let me know how it goes. always use services with tracking. period.

[alexthunder]

Shipito is not ideal. For example, you may read the following complaints after 18 months of using Shipito. But still I haven't found anything better yet.

[dvdvu]

Most happy customers don't write reviews. It is those who have problems try to tell about them all over the Internet. No wonder the most popular companies get lots of negative reviews. So it is better to find real customers among those you know, if you really want to get a recommendation you can trust.

[stephan]

Avoid Shipito they are scammers. They have my package and I paid over 220 USD for the sending, but they do not want to send the package. They now say they have a 150 USD spending limit for credit cards. However they did not mention that when I made my payment of an amount larger than 150 USD. They do not want to refund my money either and are keeping my package hostage.

There cannot be any worse package forwarding company. Do not use this company!

[Stream Ripper]

Originally Posted by alexthunder

Never had any problems with Shipito too.

As for this "review", it is a well known false complaint. John from Shipito replied about it long ago:

Originally Posted by alexthunder

Shipito is not ideal. For example, you may read the following complaints after 18 months of using Shipito. But still I haven't found anything better yet.

So good or bad review from you?

[alexthunder]

Originally Posted by stv9007

im a customer. ive ordered 20 packages. all my dhl and usps packages got here. 9 packages i used their shipito airmail, of those ive only received 4. the oldest two were mailed november 9, 2011. never use their shipito airmail. they couldnt care less if they lose them. since they dont have tracking its like a license to steal.

Personally I don't like shipping without a tracking number. Moreover I don't want to ship without insurance. I think that Shipito Air Mail should be used for cheap items only. I used it once for shipping a magazine and I got it without any problem.

Please also note that Shipito offers new Air Mail. Insurance is available for the new Air Mail. But their recommendation to use it only for small, light and inexpensive items remains the same.

Originally Posted by stephan

Avoid Shipito they are scammers. They have my package and I paid over 220 USD for the sending, but they do not want to send the package. They now say they have a 150 USD spending limit for credit cards. However they did not mention that when I made my payment of an amount larger than 150 USD. They do not want to refund my money either and are keeping my package hostage.

Scammers with more than 100 thousands clients? Really? Can you prove that you're a client of theirs by posting a screenshot of your package, your monthly spending limit and your current verification status?

They have a monthly spending limit. But it is very easy to provide 2 IDs and a utility bill to increase the limit significantly. The notarized 1583 form will increase it even more. And you can also do a wire transfer to fill in your account, then you will be able to spend thousands of dollars.

Even if you don't want to use Shipito anymore, you can send your package to any other parcel forwarder (package forwarding company, shipping forwarder, freight forwarding service). Shipping within the US will be much less then 220 USD. Or you can trash your package for free and get a refund (by check, paypal, wire transfer).