A few months ago, I got an email from Lazada Malaysia offering bloggers a special voucher worth RM150 for purchases above RM400. Unfamiliar with Lazada, I browsed their site to check out what the fuss was all about and was glad to find that Lazada Malaysia was a new online retailer based on the famed Lazada online store in Germany.
With little hesitation, I ordered the Canon SX40 Powershot IS, a camera which I have been aiming for for months. The camera boast of a 35x optical zoom, and could easily produce a shot such as below.
Anyway, my order went through, and I made my payment using a credit card to enable me to earn credit card points. After numerous times, my card was rejected, prompting me to call both Lazada Malaysia and my bank to resolve the issue. After hundreds of tries, I finally managed to purchase the camera at RM1349, which is way lower than the normal retail price of RM1699. Note that I was using the bloggers RM150 voucher to get such price.
Since I was already purchasing something online, I decided to get an 24″ LCD TV from Toshiba. The price stated was over RM500, but I got it for a little over RM350 thanks to the bloggers voucher. At this point, I was able to use the voucher twice, and I was having fun purchasing electronic items below market price.
The delivery guide on Lazada Malaysia’s site said that the items would arrive within 7 days, so I waited.
A week passed, and nothing came. No news, no nothing. So I decided to call Lazada Malaysia. They said my item was being processed and that they were currently under-staffed. This buddy named Syed was cool enough to dig in and out to help me.
Understanding enough, I waited… another three days came, and still nothing arrived. I was starting to get nervous by now, and started ringing up Lazada Malaysia yet again. The operator whom answered looked puzzled why my order was not processed. She tried her best to help, but it was with no avail. She couldn’t figure out what went wrong but promised to get back to me.
Days later, a girl named Vivian from Lazada Malaysia called. She politely explained that my items were not sent out because the bloggers voucher was only supposed to be used once by one particular person. I was baffled, and argued my case that such terms never existed when the voucher was offered to me.
She then said that they had a meeting before she called me, and that the committee has agreed to release the items as I paid, and it shall be shipped in a couple of days. Unsure what to believe, I said ‘Okay”.
Two days passed, and GDEx, the official courier called saying I had some packages from Lazada Malaysia. Happy, I wasted no time to get the packages from them and soon was taking out two items which I bought from Lazada Malaysia.
To make the deal sweater, Lazada Malaysia threw in a free Canon camera bag, and one 8GB memory card for my camera. The surprise gift definately gave me smiles as purchasing both items would cost me at least RM100 outside. Not sure if this was their way of apologizing for the late delivery, or was it already included in the package.
With that said, Lazada Malaysia does offer good rates for many items. The electronic items with their discounts are indeed attractive. However, the duration needed for them to send out the item needs to hugely improve if they are interested to stay around.