[Blackmores Official Flagship Lazada Store Review] My Shopping and Returns Experience

It's been a while since I reviewed a store, mostly because I haven't been purchasing as many things online as previously. It's a good thing, trust me. 

So, my parents are getting older and as such, have started requiring more supplements in their diet to keep their bodies in tip-top condition.

To make a super long story short, we've been purchasing a lot of Blackmores supplements and while most of them are readily available in stores, some are out of stock quite often. In addition, I don't like leaving the house, so purchasing online is a better option for me. 

It's something I'm not going to do again anytime soon. Let me tell you why. 

It's because some sellers think that since you can't see what you're buying, they can just clear off expiring stock with you. Exhibit A: Blackmores Flagship Store Lazada. 

I'm not even going to link them because I don't want to give them the traffic. 

First though, since this is a review, I'm gonna share my experience purchasing from them. 

Blackmores Flagship Store Lazada

Guardian and Watson also sells Blackmores, but I thought to myself, hey, official flagship store on Lazada means they would have newer stock and I wouldn't end up with expiring things right? Right? Wrong. Half of the items I received from the store expires in May 29, 2019, which gives me 6 months to finish it. Honestly, if it was one of those 30 tube supplements that my parents would probably finish in a month, that's fine, but no. They're 360 capsules with the recommended dose of 2 per day. I got two of these, so it's 720 capsules + another two bottles of 30 each so that's 60 +720 = 780 capsules. 

The Blackmores Official Flagship Store in Lazada was having a launching promotion during the time and had a free gift event for orders above RM180 and RM250. I was getting enough to reach the RM250 threshold and could use the free gift, which is the Blackmores Evening Primrose Oil + Fish Oil tube of 360 capsules. Good deal, right? Wrong. You've probably guessed it. This is one of the items that's expiring in six months. It's a free gift, so I'm going to forgive this, but I've purchased the EPO and Fish Oil tube separately in a different order because I don't like leaving the house and I don't really see this sold elsewhere and buying more means I get to leave the house less. Lo and behold, it has the exact same expiry date. 

That's 720 capsules of EPO and Fish Oil that Blackmores is expecting me to finish within 180 days. The only way I can even get closed to finishing this is if I take 4 pills a day like an EPO/Fish Oil addict. Nobody needs this much essential fatty acids in their diet, okay?

In retrospect, I should have checked the other reviews, which have stated that this is a common occurrence with the Official Blackmores Flagship Store.

Shipping & Packaging

I made my order on 20 November 2018 and paid for it on the same day. Package is processed on 21st and packed, shipped out, and subsequently delivered on the 29th November 2018. That's a 9 day delivery time, which is five more days than I'm used to because I've been a shopee supporter for a long time and they use poslaju that ensures shipping and packaging doesn't take too long. Still, it's not too bad lah. I'm just used to faster delivery. 

As for packaging, the bubble wrap does a pretty decent job of keeping the glass bottles from breaking, so I have no complaints there. However, they do seem to have a problem with underwrapping items and causing those to shatter in transit. And, from what I'm reading in the reviews, it appears that they mark this off as a loss and hope the buyers forget about it since you can't really return shattered glass, can you? Can you? Huh. That would be interesting. From what I can see, Lazada does not have an option whereby if you received items that are not to expectations (arrived broken, ect), you can open refund straight. In Shopee, the payment doesn't go through until the buyer has checked the contents and confirmed items are received in perfect condition, whereas in Lazada, the items are tracked and once it's delivered, it's no longer their problem. 

You wish lah. You're a seller with responsibilities and I intend to hold you accountable. 

Solving The Problem

The item listing for the product is gone. I wished I had taken a screenshot, but the reason why I had proceeded with the order is because a buyer had asked in their Q&A section when the items would be expiring and they reassured the buyer that all items shipping from their store would have reasonable expiry dates.

6 months is not a reasonable expiry date. 6 months is clearing stock. 

Never mind though, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and check what they can do about it. I took a picture and sent to their customer service on the day I received the item, 29th December. I received a reply yesterday, on the 4th of December. Their solution? Contact someone else. AKA, Lazada customer service. 

Seeing as this is Blackmore's fault, I don't understand why they're redirecting me elsewhere, but it's fine. I'm a reasonable consumer. I can deal with being redirected. 

I went to Lazada CS, which is another load of trouble altogether. Getting an actual human being to response from Lazada is a treasure hunt and an exercise in patience. It's Wednesday and I've already downed two EPO & Fish Oil in an valiant effort to finish it before it expires. 1000mg of Omega-3 and 1000mg omega-6 are pumping in my veins. I've got this! 

After some explaining, Lazada CS tells me that the items are no longer available, so I should open a return and refund request and I'm raging because the entire point of buying things online is so that I don't have to go through the trouble of going physically into the store and now it's just more trouble because I have to return the items in a poslaju and wait for refund once the item reaches the warehouse.

And the free gift after RM250 purchase is a complete loss, since I can't very well request a refund for that, can I? 

Now, I have to decide if I want to catch a grab to return the items to poslaju or if I just want to brush this off as a loss, which is probably what Blackmores Malaysia is banking on. Still, getting a grab and back from poslaju is going to cost money and ugh, not only am I going through all these trouble and won't end up with the products that I actually want, I'm going to LOSE money. 

Edit: I've started a return process after talking to a customers service representative in Lazada and was informed that shipping would be covered by Lazada. So, I've sent the item for return this Monday, 10 December 2018. We'll see how it goes!

What an unnecessary load of headache.

For your information of the eight items I purchased from Lazada Blackmores, 2 expires in May 2021, 2 expires in April 2020, and 4 expires in May 2019. I want to say salted eggs also last longer than the supplements from blackmores, but they don't lah. Blackmores sells supplements that lasts a little longer than salted eggs. Lol. 

Honestly, the entire experience has put me off purchasing from Lazada altogether. I'm not going as far as to delete my Lazada account, but I'm sure as hell never going to buy Blackmores online again (and neither should you).