The first time I used DEX-I, it was non-peak season and there were no issues with them. They got my stuff delivered to me in good condition and relatively fast. However, maybe this time round it was the busiest day in the entire year, so one of my item actually went missing! This particular item also happened to be the most expensive of all my purchase (about S$40).
After placing my order, I will check on the status of the items I bought almost every day. This item was one of the first few to arrive at DEX-I warehouse. The item's status was updated to 'arrived at the warehouse' on 14 Nov. When the status showed that, it usually means you can start to cart your item to be delivered to you i.e. international shipping. However, I waited for a few days but the option to cart did not appear and it still show 'pending arrival at the warehouse' on the 'items I bought' page.
I went to message DEX-I and they told me they will inform their warehouse team to search for it. I waited for a few days, no reply from them and my item still showed up as 'pending arrival'. I decided to cart the rest of my purchases and have it delivered to me first since they have a policy of having to pay for items storage at their warehouse after 20 days.
I decided to message them a second time. They told me they did not receive the item and asked me to obtain a proof of receipt from the courier. I asked the seller of the item for help and she wanted to call me but I said I am using a forwarding agent so I am unable to answer any queries regarding the receipt of the item. Instead, I asked her to help me with getting the information from the courier. She did so, but the image quality of the receipt was bad. DEX-I said the image is too blur to make out anything. I told DEX-I to get whatever information they need from the courier themselves and they said ok. Having heard no news from them for a few days, I asked about the progress and they showed me the conversation they had with the courier and courier said they will check.
A few weeks had passed and I had already given up hope of getting my item. I went to Taobao to do my usual surfing and happened to go to the 'items I bought' page and to my surprise, the missing item had the 'ready for international shipping' status. Wow! They actually found my parcel and secretly change the status. They did not inform me that they have found my parcel and if I had not went in, I won't even know my parcel's there. Luckily there was still 4 days left before the end of the 20 days free storage if not I might have to pay more to have the item sent to me.
Moral of the story, if they say your item is missing;
1) Check with them on the discrepancy between the statuses on the item page and the 'items i bought' page
2) Identify the local courier used and the tracking code. Go to the courier website, key in the tracking code, and they usually will have a copy of the proof of receipt. If you are not sure how to do this, ask the seller to provide you with the receipt.
3) Show DEX-I the proof of receipt and ask them to check with their warehouse
4) Check back on the 'items i bought' page every now and then.
