I’ve shopped with Sasa.com twice now. The first time was a breeze. I sang their praises and lauded them as an alternative online store especially for Asian brands, with good prices. So, when I placed my second order, I didn’t think too much of it.
On October 5, 2010, I placed my order at Sasa.com and with work and life going a bit crazy, I forgot about it. At the back of my mind, was the niggling thought that I was expecting a package… but when?
So about 10 days down the road, I checked the status and was amazed to see that it still said “Packing” which according to the definition on the website means “Packing” i.e. your items are not yet dispatched.
Alrighttt… I thought. What’s up? So I checked around the website and buried deep in the recesses of the page hierarchy was when then I came upon the announcement on Oct 6 that Sasa.com was moving warehouses and all shipping was suspended for 2-3 weeks! Interestingly, this notice was not shown to me upon checkout – I might have changed my mind if I had known earlier.
Anyway, 2 weeks later with no package in sight, I wrote Sasa.com an email via their contact page on October 20, 2010 to query when I might expect them to ship out my stuff. No reply. I got a standard “Thank you for your query” email but no reply.
A week later, I wrote them Email #2. Similarly, there was no reply. The auto responder email stated that an email would be sent to me when my package was dispatched so I can track it. I did not receive any such email.
On Oct 31, 2010 I checked the Sasa site again on a whim and was gratified to see that the status of my package was now “Dispatched” instead of “Packing” which had been mocking me for weeks. Interestingly though, there was no email notification sent to me till today.
On Nov 2, 2010, I finally received my items – 3 days shy of a month after I’d placed my order and made full payment on Oct 5, 2010. I couldn’t cancel my order then because it was marked “Packing” and besides, I did want the stuff I ordered. Since I was busy anyway, time flew by, and I did eventually receive my items. No extra gifts by way of apology, no explanation, no emails.
Apparently, if you made your order after Oct 6, they offered “free gifts” by way of compensation for the delay. Because my order went in on Oct 5, I was not eligible, although I had to wait just as long, or perhaps longer. Make sense? I don’t think so.
Would I shop with Sasa.com again? I’d be hard-pressed to. Perhaps if they have something I really really want, at a really really good price, I might suck it up and get it from them. They are still one of the better places online to find Asian or Japanese cosmetics and skincare after all, sadly enough.
So you do the math! If you want to shop with Sasa.com, I’m not telling you not to. I still might in the future. But I’d tell you to please be aware because they can and will hold up your packages without explanations or compensation and without notice. So be prepared to sit and wait and don’t place an order if you need it “urgently”.
I’ll be fair to them. They sent everything well wrapped in bubble wrap in a large box filled with packing peanuts so your items do not move around, and everything arrived safely, considering it was mostly liquid. I cannot fault them for their packing, but they should really do something about their customer service, which is non existent.
Over to you: Do you have a Sasa.com story (good or bad) to share?
Paris B
yup. got the same thing. i got an email from them though asking me if i want to still continue waiting while they’re changing warehouses or if I want to cancel the whole order altogether.
what confuses me is that how do they have all the other purchases going through and people getting their stuff, but then I’m sitting here waiting on like 2-3 items.
order date for me for haul #2: 21 Oct 2010 07:40:49
today is Nov 15 2010, so a month is approaching around the corner and it still hasn’t been dispatched. And then I’d have to consider the time it would take to ship here so I probably wont get it til December…
i’ll still order from them, but I’m just really disappointed of their warehouse change and yet many other people still are receiving packages but me. Maybe it’s just the particular items I ordered? I dont know =/
Glad you got your shipment though! I hope I get mine soon 🙁
Wow another person in the same boat. At least you got an email informing you of possible delays. I had absolutely no notification and had to find out the hard way. I think that’s what bugged me the most. I’m sure you’ll get your shipment soon. Hang in there!!! 😀
I had the same experience and I am on the waiting list too~~~! Nearly a month still can’t receive anything. I just wondering if I make a complain to the Hong Kong consumer council is that worked. I really cant understand how can they still running the online store with unaffordable order
I’m not sure how or if it’ll make a difference. I reckon they should have closed the store or at least notify customers before checkout if they had a delay
I ordered Oct 13th also no compensation >.< But I guess I mostly feel the same way you do. I'm still gonna shop sasa simply because of the deals and variety but if in any way I can find an alternative seller that can offer the same products at similar prices, I'd switch over completely.
Hey! at least its shipped now! 😉 And I’ve looked online and there aren’t many online stores that have the selection and prices Sasa.com has boo! Strawberrynet is always the other option but they do more Western brands compared to Asian brands. Other online stores that have Japanese stuff price their products higher and shipping is more expensive too. I guess we’re stuck with Sasa.com and their inefficiencies 🙁
OOO… Thanks for the warning! I’ll be careful when I shop with them.
They might have improved, but I’m going to anticipate delays from them from now on
Shucks. I was thinking of ordering something from Sasa.com, along with LeGeeque, but after hearing of your experience with them, NAAAAAAHHH. I’ll just get them back in M’sia. And if they aren’t available, oh well, then I must not have needed them very much! 😛
Haha! That’s true 🙂 they do have a lot of stuff we don’t have in Msia though 🙂
Sigh. The thing is, I placed an order after their first order suspension notice which I thought they are done with their relocation of warehouse. How upset I was to see another notice saying that a further 2-3 weeks relocating their warehouse 🙁
Well, I am darn upset because I bought something for a few good friends of mine as their birthday pressie due end of this week and beginning of next week. Still see “Packing” status and I guess this time I will send them another email, copy to paypal.com
Now I know why some businesses have to close down. They could have done so well till the end but they have no idea that neglecting customer service or even after sales service can bring them down as well in time to come. Just the matter of earlier or later, that is.
Good luck to me huh? 😉 Still not the end of the world yet 😉
I’m sure you’ll get it, just not as soon as you might expect. From what I can see Sasa.com just relies on the fact they have what many want… And they don’t quite care about service! Pretty much the same attitude in store 😛
Thanks dearie 😀
Wow~ You woke up so early this morning? Or stayed up till after midnight 😛
Take care my dear 😉
Haha err its prob a time zone thing 😉
LOL You are indeed in a different time zone, sometimes! 😛
By the way, finally the status of my order at Sasa.com today is “Dispatched” yay!~ 😀
Have a great weekend dearie 😉
Wohoo! Hope you get your stuff soon! 😀
This is a very bad experience. I don’t shop online at Sasa for some reason. I guess we just gonna wait till their warehouse relocation is completely done.
Well some girls are reporting prompt deliveries now so perhaps the problem’s solved 😛
I knew that Sasa has a problem of taking forever to process packages, but this time was ridiculous.. my friend ordered in early September, and still hadn’t received it in late October! Now it’s November and I think she’s still waiting for the package to arrive.. and she opted for “expedited shipping” too.. so bad…
Oh my! I ordered enough to qualify for free shipping and they sent it EMS so I got it quite quickly after I noticed it was despatched but paying for EMS and then not getting your package promptly is robbery!
Omigosh! That’s being ripped off already 🙁
o oops yes she ordered enough to qualify for free EMS shipping, she didnt pay more for it. It ended up arriving in December, after 3-4 mths after ordering 😐 hope its better now
Thanks for the heads up. Till now i still have no confidence to purchase my stuffs from online store outside of Malaysia due to the delivery time framing. But i do love browsing them and compare it with here.
There’s another online store that also offer free shipping, not sure if you have try it though. http://www.cosme-de.com/en/main/main.html
that’s really bad. i hate it when online merchants do not provide me with prompt replies. i have never tried shopping on sasa.com but strawberryNET provides really good and prompt customer service though 🙂
Yup! Strawberrynet is awesome to me so far
I don’t shop with Sasa anymore due to a previous bad experience (charged me for out of stock item, refused to refund me- it took emails from the bank to convince them to refund and they said they only do refunds once a month). But as you say, they have a very wide range of cosmetics.
Oh gosh! Your experience sounds like an awful one! I’d never shop with them again if I had that experience!
That’s so bad! They should better inform their customers that shipping was suspended and reply to email promptly. Their behaviour was so unprofessional. But I’m glad you finally got your package.
I’m glad too but it irked me to never get any emails or notifications from them
It was so great to know this info.I also thinking want to place the order from Sasa.com but due to the current product did not finish yet so I have keep delay to proceed my order.Is around 1month delay :p
This will be my second time purchase from them,the first time is about 4years ago so I don’t know their service already downgrade.Anyway,I think I should purchase earlier to avoid their service delay cause me to buy more products.But so far anyone can answer is that their price is really cheaper alot compare with Malaysia and Singapore ?
Many of their Asian brands aren’t available in Malaysia or Singapore. Some that are maybe cheaper depending on exchange rate or promotions. You just have to know your prices before ordering.
BTW,anyone can provide the website of strawberry.net ?
You just got the website. It’s http://www.strawberry.net 🙂
Its strawberrynet.com or if you’d like to be nice, the affiliate banner in on the right 🙂
Same case, My first order with sasa was horrible due to the same reason, warehouse relocation. i placed my order on the 22nd sept, and was noticed that my one of my items is out of stock and they provided me with a compensation code.they asked me whether i wanted to wait for the replenishment or cancel the whole order, I chose to wait. So after a week of waiting, my item was in stock and the next day (30th sept) I GOT THE SUSPENSION NOTICE!!! It says: “order processing will be suspended for further 10-14 business days. For orders purchased before September 27, 2010 (HK Time: GMT +8) will be processed after October 10, 2010” and left me a compensation gift code again..
After 3weeks++ of waiting, I wrote email 1 questioning about my items on the 21st oct! they replied me with the suspension automated email again with the same gift code.Thank GOD, after 2days,(22th OCT) they sent me a dispatched notification email. My product arrive 3days after that (bcz i paid for the ems shipping hoping my items to ship faster and safer!!! ems for 1month shipping!). The items were packed well though… Can’t believe that sasa left me terrible firstime experience…
However, i did continue to purchase from sasa for another 2times, 27th oct and 4th nov..both parcels arrived 3days after with ems shipping. Now waiting for my 4th order with sasa purchased on 8th nov (due to the skII sales) and was dispatched this morning =) Most probably will arrive on this coming Friday!
My conclusion is, i do still trust sasa.com since all my items arrived safely eventhough i’ve waited for a month on my first purchase! the price is amazing, the product is authentic…sasa is reliable… maybe it’s just the warehouse relocation..
opps sorry, my 4th order was on the 12th nov, not 8th =)))))
tips: my last 2 orders was shipped without any suspension most probably due to the “sales items” i bought??? i guess… so they dare not the suspend the sales item (IM A SK-II LOVER n their price was a bargain after discount)? haha..just guessing…
Gosh! Even despite the problems you persevered with them! I don’t think I’ll be buying for a long while 🙂
I’ve had pretty good luck with Sasa so far, but it has taken nearly 3-4 weeks to get my orders from them anyway when there is no warehouse moving. For me, they are the best deal out there for a lot of stuff.
Yup depending on where in the world we live Sasa.com’s deals are really good. Just gotta learn to be patient with them 🙂
talk about being at the right place at the wrong time >.<
are there sasas in malaysia?
Yes there are Sasa stores but they do not stock many brands available online.
AwwWw… Pitty you Paris B. I understand how you feel exactly. I ordered once from strawberry.net before via a friend coz my credit card cannot do online purchase. Sighh it seems that they have problem with credit cards. Sad… also, I do notice that websites from Hong Kong, their customer service is really bad. I too just wished to be notified and get some explanation but seems that you did not get anything. If I were you, I’d feel the same too. Getting wrinkles for nothing! Grrr…
Actually I haven’t had problems with strawberrynet so I’m perhaps not one to talk 😉 I recently dropped them an email and got a reply almost immediately. I do agree that in earlier days they had some problems but its less of an issue now. Still I’m only speaking for myself 🙂
I had to google to see if anyone else was having the same problem.. My payment went through on the 22nd of Sept, its almost the 22nd of November and on my account it STILL says ‘Packing’. I am so pissed off!
I’ve used Sasa for years and made thousands of dollars worth of purchases with no problems at all, so I can forgive them I guess. But 2 months is just too much in my opinion. =\
Yes that is too much! And it sucks they never told you but let you google to find out! I hope you get your package soon
oh i had to google it too and search on twitter.
i ordered 23 sept. wrote numeruous emails, nor reply. finnaly opened a paypal case against them on 3 november to get my money back. and it’s so sad because i ordered with them before and it came 7 days later to London. i ordered second time a bit pressie for my mum before i went back home (many miles away) for a visit. so i stayed at me parents for 3 weeks, came back and my status was still packing. and btw they say on the website the payment is taken after it’s dispatched, but my credit card was charged the same day i placed the order. i’m very sad about this, because SASA is the only place i can get this kind of products.
This doesn’t happen often right? I mean it’s just one warehouse relocation. My first experience with them was very smooth! And my friend ordered from them MANY times and another blogger Lotus Palace buys from them 24/7. I think this is just unfortunate timing and very slow relocation on their part as well as bad notification. (I canceled like 2 orders on them already. They’ve been taking forever!)
I ended up canceling my initial order and jumped on another purchase with Silk Whitia BOGO deal and chose expedited shipping instead. Maybe that’ll work better? I don’t know.
But I did read all their announcements on their webbie and they said that items purchased will highly unlikely be delivered at christmas. In fact it’ll be in January by the time the parcel arrives—I think I read that correctly? Double check their site if they decided to change the info.
blahhhhh i want my stufffff 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
and I had the same problem as Alla. The first order sasa did NOT charge me until I got my dispatch email. But then this time they charged me the money! wtf is up with that. I spend $100 and I don’t want it taken away from my bank account until I get my stuff sent out!
man, i have no idea what to do 🙁