Wish said in a shareholder statement that it will be working directly with the Post Office to create a more consistent and efficient experience for its customers.<\/p>\n
To test this, I ordered a tablet case from Wish.com and, 14 days later, the package arrived at the Post Office intact and, to my surprise, containing exactly what I ordered.<\/p>\n
A search for “Wish.com” on Youtube will see hundreds of videos reporting fake, broken or simply incorrect products arriving from an order on Wish.<\/p>\n
However, there are also reports of people getting really good deals on great products through the online shop.<\/p>\n
Sure, Takealot offers quick shipping times, local product support, and an efficient returns system, but if you’re willing to risk a few rands, Wish.com has a vast range of products at impossibly low prices.<\/p>\n
When I placed my order on 23 June, I gave a conciliatory nod at my screen after seeing “Arriving by 07 Oct 2021” on my order confirmation page.<\/p>\n
To my surprise, 3 days later, I received an email from Wish stating that my order was on its way.<\/p>\n
This boded well for an early arrival, though I did not discount the possibility of my order shipping on 26 July and arriving as late as 7 October.<\/p>\n
Wish ships from all over the world and, as a customer, you don’t see where your item ships from. Additionally, Wish does not provide shipping progress updates, so you can’t estimate when your product may be arriving.<\/p>\n
Yet, on 8 July, I received an SMS, pictured below, stating that an item had arrived at the South African Post Office (SAPO), and it could be none other than my Wish order.<\/p>\n
Working through the Post Office means that your customs duties can be paid upon pick-up instead of via your courier, as it would be when ordering directly to your door.<\/p>\n Working through SAPO also means that you have to drive to the Post Office indicated on the SMS – in Greenside in my case – and hope that there aren’t any hurdles in the process.<\/p>\n My first attempt at collection failed, as a few minutes after I walked in – at 13:30 in the afternoon – a voice from behind the counter yelled that they wouldn’t be helping any further customers.<\/p>\n I stood perplexed for a moment, and the lady walked around to the front to escort me out, stating the reason for their closure as: “There is a situation”.<\/p>\n My next collection attempt the following day was successful. I showed the attendant my SMS, gave them my ID, paid the customs fee, and walked out with my package in hand.<\/p>\n Below is what the package looked like:<\/p>\n The packaging wasn’t exactly elegant or well-protected, but I didn’t expect much else.<\/p>\n Inside the black plastic bag was my package, somewhat weathered, but intact nonetheless:<\/p>\n So, did I receive what I paid for?<\/p>\n Yes, I did. And it works surprisingly well, considering it cost me roughly R410, including shipping and tax.<\/p>\n This is what the tablet case looks like:<\/p>\n The Bluetooth keyboard is straightforward to set up and actually works very well. It connects to magnetic strips in the case itself, and it’s easily detachable.<\/p>\n The keys are responsive and have a nice click to them, and all of them work. The keyboard also has different functions for Android, iOS and Windows devices.<\/p>\n All in all, not a bad deal for the money spent.<\/p>\n So, my package arrived 14 days after ordering, which is in line with Amazon’s Priority Shipping times to South Africa.<\/p>\n Working through the South African Post Office wasn’t horrible, barring the “situation”, and I received exactly what I paid for.<\/p>\n Wish.com has a reputation for delivering goods that don’t quite look like the picture and the Post Office has a reputation for not reliably delivering \u2014 we put their partnership to the test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341065,"featured_media":406226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[35,22355,69491],"class_list":["post-406052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","tag-headline","tag-south-african-post-office-sapo","tag-wish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341065"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406656,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406052\/revisions\/406656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"wish](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/wish-sms-640x269.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"wish](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/wish-packaging.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"wish](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/wish-package.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/wish-case.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNow read: Takealot vs Amazon \u2013 Pricing and delivery in South Africa<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"