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Posta Plus vs Aramex’s Shop & Ship

postaplus

I tend to be very loyal to the brands I use and like, and Aramex Shop & Ship is no exception. I’ve had a Shop & Ship account with them since 2001 (thats 15 years!) and although I use other similar US mailbox forwarding services (like MyUS.com) for some packages, Aramex has always been the service I use for the majority of my items.

But recently I’ve started disliking Aramex since they weren’t being honest and transparent with me. Packages from my Shop & Ship mailbox used to take around 7 days to get to me once they shipped but with my last three packages it took twice as long. In fact, they’ve been spending around 7 days just to get from Bahrain (their regional hub) to Kuwait! I kept pressing them for a reason, I just wanted to know why suddenly things were taking twice as long and nobody would give me an answer. I harassed them on twitter, I harassed them over the phone and using their live chat service yet nobody would tell me. They just acted like it was business as usual when it clearly wasn’t. So I posted about my frustration on the blog and thats when the guys at Posta Plus contacted me and asked me to try their service. At first I replied back thanking them for emailing me but that I was loyal to Aramex. But then I thought to myself, why the loyalty? I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dinars with Aramex, I’ve been a customer for over 15 years, I was one of their first Shop & Ship customers in Kuwait and yet I have the same benefits of a customer that would sign up today. So if I’m not important enough a client for Aramex, why should I be loyal to them? So I decided to sign up to the Posta Plus US mail forwarding service called MyBox and give them a shot.

Other than a few quibbles which I’ll discuss below, I’ve decided that I will be using Posta Plus from now on instead of Aramex for a number of reasons.

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The Good Stuff

– Posta Plus is considerably cheaper as you can see in the shipping cost comparison above.

– You can get a hold of their customer support instantly. Their hotline is very simple, you call, it asks you what language you prefer and then you’re connected to the support person who in my case picked up the phone instantly as soon as I pressed “2” for English. If you’ve ever tried calling Aramex for support you know how difficult and how long it takes to get a hold of someone.

– Like Aramex, Posta Plus also charge KD1 custom clearance fee. But, unlike Aramex, if you have a number of packages arriving at the same time, you have the option to consolidate them during the customs process and that way you’ll pay KD1 custom clearance fee for all the packages combined.

– In case you don’t want a package to be delivered, you have the option to “Hold” that package one package from within your Posta Plus dashboard so you could go pick it up yourself.

– Their delivery guys contact you before they head over to deliver the package to make sure you’re home.

– Their delivery speed is much faster than Aramex. So far the two packages that I shipped using Posta Plus, the first one was delivered 4 days after it left the States while the second one took 5 days. Thats 3x faster than my last few shipments with Aramex!

As I mentioned earlier, I did have a few issues with Posta Plus, none were deal breakers to me but I’ll mention them anyway.

The Not So Good Stuff

– I ran into an issue when signing up to their service. I went through the sign up process to setup an account but when it came time to pay my card got declined. I then couldn’t try again with another card since there was no try again option. So, I went through the processes of setting up the account again but it told me I couldn’t because the email was already in use. I tried logging into my account but their website told me the account didn’t exist. So I was stuck not being able to create and account because their system thought I had an account which in fact didn’t exist. I had to contact support to fix this.

– Right now you can’t pay for your packages online (it’s cash on delivery), but they’ll be offering this service soon. I really prefer paying for my stuff online with Knet.

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– You can only track your Posta Plus packages via their website. I usually track all my packages with the “Deliveries” app on my iPhone and Mac (pictured above) but the app doesn’t recognize Posta Plus tracking numbers. It recognizes Aramex on the other hand.

– This next one could be a plus for some people but was a negative for me. They notify you constantly by email and SMS on the status of your packages. You get an email and SMS when your package arrives to your mailbox, and then an email and SMS when it ships from your mailbox, when it goes to clearance you get an email and then when its out for delivery an email and SMS. The issue I had is there is no way to turn on or off the notifications and it was annoying to get an email and an SMS telling me the exact same thing. What made things worst in my case was I was getting two or three duplicate emails from their server by mistake. After complaining to them about it I think I don’t get any notification at all now which is also not something I want.

– Every time I log into their dashboard I get a pop up informing me they now have Canada as a mailbox location. I got it the first time, I don’t need to keep seeing the pop up every single time I want to log in to my account. Pop ups are really annoying.

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In Conclusion

Before Posta Plus I was using Shop & Ship for packages I wasn’t in a hurry to get and MyUS for packages I wanted ASAP. I was using Shop & Ship because they were cheaper than MyUS and since I didn’t need every item ASAP, the amount I was saving was worth it. But now I’m going to stop using both Shop & Ship and MyUS since Posta Plus is a much cheaper alternative to Aramex and nearly as fast as MyUS (+1/-1 day). Posta Plus is also a local brand and I like support local brands that are actually good. They kinda feel like Aramex in the early days which is a very good thing. They do have a bunch of issues they need to get sorted and so far they seem to be very accepting of my criticism and willing to improve things.

So if you’re frustrated with Aramex and are looking for an alternative thats cheaper and faster, Posta Plus is the way to go. The sign up fee is KD8 and here is a link to their [Website]

Note: The rate calculator on the Posta Plus website is completely in accurate.

62 replies on “Posta Plus vs Aramex’s Shop & Ship”

Mark, I’ve been using Postaplus for years and here is a few points I want to add:

To register, I recommend going to Markaz AlTaleb مركز الطالب Registeration there cost 3.5 KD they give you a card that you can use when resgitering online.

They use major carriers to ship your item abroad. When I want to return or exchange something I mostly use them vs EMS.

Also they are 2.3 times faster than aramex, specially lately. Since I use Aramex for countries Posta plus currently does not serves in.

Regular Mail is faster than Aramex when shipping from Germany & Italy. we’re not talking about EMS here. regular mail is faster.

The only reason I’m using Aramex now because some sellers do not provide international shipping & because I sell on eBay therefore I use the paypal balance to pay for the Items I ship with Aramex.

I cannot recommend Postaplus enough, true there customer service team is chaos, your package could get lost (had the issue with Aramex) but I prefer them any day everyday over Aramex. But I gotta be honest here, I’m not sure they can handle any more customers. I hope they can grow the team and not become greedy & slow as aramex.

Postaplus owns “Markaz AlTaleb” so they have an ongoing promotion since ever, you can register an account for 3.5 KD Only. through a card they sell, a mybox card.

Similiar To Aramex if go to thier office it is 10 KD, but it is 10 USD Online.

Regular mail is faster than Aramex. (NOT EMS)

Posta Plus uses DHL from US to Kuwait, sometimes Lufthansa others Turkish Airlines. based on the manifests.

I’m just saying posta plus us cheaper, faster and all over better than shop and ship.

Dear Postaplus,

Your service is beyond shitty. I send a shipment on the 13th and Today is the 28th and it still did not reach UAE? are you guys for real? no follow up at all, I visit you again on the 24th and stay an hour to find out what happend to my package… no answer no tracking nothing!!

Why make me wait an hour then? also you guys cannot even handle your own shit let alone you are taking over UPS in Kuwait???

Now i’ve lost a sale because of your failed delivery for a package to the UAE in 15 you hurt my business because of your unprofessionalism.

I have been far more patient and respectful but apparently you lack work ethics. who’s is going to compenstate me of the 200KD sale I made?? of course not you. NOT ALI who told me “khamees will be there” khamees bullshit that’s right.

Since your accounting team can’t figure shit of a package that they is paid fully and yet they failed to move it.

Now to MYBOX. you said no volumetric weight, yet after I ordered a truck cover for my car, I get an email it exceeded 1m therefore I’ll be charged volumetric. I did not sign for this kind of shit really. I’m so done with you guys….

I’d rather spend extra somewhere else rather than being all frustrated with you, PS 7mayat elmostahlek will contact you guys, good luck.

Hi,

I subscribed after reading the reviews here. However My first order had the rudest delivery man, there was alot of disorganization i didnt get a call ingorming mw of thw delivery time, I called the call center twice to complainfor my item they told me that they would deal and i would recieve it within an hour and this is after the delivery man told me if I don’t like I can wait till tomorrow.. I’m not seeing much of a difference from aramex

I have been a customer of Posta as soon as they started advertising their services. The only problem that I face with them is that if my package reaches their facilities in the US or UK it takes a lot of time for them to add it to my mailbox and for the order to show up on the website. At first I thought it was a system issue and it took some time for the website to reflect. After a few orders from them I noticed that it was a trend and almost every single time I order something online and send it to Posta I’d have to email their support for them to investigate and then add my package to my box. I complained a few times and every single time they mentioned that they are quite new and they are getting their matters in order and it will not happen again.

Just to give you a better perspective about my last order:

Ordered from Amazon UK 6th of March. to my Posta box in West Drayton, Order as per Amazon website delivered on the 7th of March. My order showed up on my box on the 9th (this is after I called and emailed them more than 4 times.) My box had some activity on the 11th!! with “Under Preparation” description. Order shipped on the 12th and was delivered to my home on the 15th.

Dear Ismail,
Sometimes the shipper doesn’t include the full customer details which causes this delay.
we are working on eliminating this issue as much as possible in cooperation with our teams abroad, to guarantee the speed that you expect.
Thanks for using Posta Plus.

What’s their destroy packages time? I’ve had two packages get destroyed in aramex because they forgot to notify me once and I forgot to check. And the other time I was just really busy and unable to go pick up.

Mark you so crazy…. you didn’t mention the absolute best part of PostaPlus, no volumetric weight!!!!

*exception if (l or w or h) is over 100cm which is a massive package that you will likely never ship.

Unfortunately posta plus have the worst customer service ever, their chat is offline since more than a week, and they do not answer their phones and social media chanells, shipment arrive to US office and it won’t be updated on your account for more than 10 days! When consolidation is closed they do not change its status or put it to be forwarded! They have a lot of technical problems that cause huge unreasonable delay to the shipment

Service is better in what way? Skybox is much more expensive so could you elaborate on what are the advantages over PostaPlus or MyUS? Cuz I’d rather use Skybox over MyUS since they also use DHL Express (or FedEX if you want) and they’re cheaper than Skybox.

I share the same bitter experience with Shop & Ship. I am definitely going to try PostaPlus. Thanks for sharing!

I’m looking for alternative of Aramex SnS. I’m having the same experience as you do which is bad.

I might try Posta Plus but the biggest draw back is no Knet payment! I do not carry cash. Also someone else mentioned that they are slow on processing the package when it reaches their office in US/UK which is a big minus. However, I’m going to try them.

Well in my case, first item arrived in mailbox box March 25th and showed up on PostaPlus the same day. The second package arrived March 28 and showed up on Posta Plus next day on March 29.

I have made two orders from Amazon last week at the same time and both from Amazon Prime. Package shipping through Aramex SnS arrived 5 days earlier! I’m not pro SnS because I’m not satisfied from their service speed most of the time, but they are much faster than PostaPlus. However as you mentioned PostaPlus is cheaper.

Here’s the comparison and details of the shipment track of both orders: https://imgur.com/V75ttWd

It’s not a fair comparison since you ordered two different items so there could be a number of reasons for this discrepancy. My guess is your Amazon order didn’t arrive in a box but a pouch which means it was shipped with the mail which is quicker (usually in kuwait and delivered in 3-4 days) or it was an item that didn’t require customs. Or maybe SnS fixed the issue they had.

My comparison was based on my last 3 shipments and SnS was taking twice as long as Posta Plus. Maybe it was a temporary issue which got fixed but I have no clue since Aramex never admitted there was an issue, they kept saying everything was normal. It used to take 1 day for packages to clear customs and now it takes 7.. yeah thats normal, they’re in fucking denial.

I can confirm that both orders are shipped in a box of the same size. I believe that this is a fair assessment. But I also believe to be more precise is to take several shipments and get the average.

Look at the tracking history of both items. Aramex arrived at Kuwait’s customs at the 10th whilst Posta Plus arrived to customs at the 13th. Also Posta Plus office location in the NE of the US is unfavorable as it takes one extra day for item to arrive to Posta Plus than Aramex from the NY Amazon warehouse.

FYI one more thing I didn’t like about Posta Plus is that they marked the item out for delivery at the 15th but it got delivered to my doorsteps at the 16th!!

Also I agree with you that SnS service sucks and takes ages to clear customs then another few days until they bother delivering it from their warehouse. I also do not like them being discreet about shipment and delivery problems and their support team have set of sentences to reply to costumers rather than telling them exactly what;s going on. For me, SnS is the last resort and I’m mostly using other shipment company.

Posta Plus is on point with their customer service. They created a form for teachers that makes shipping our things back home or other countries much easier. I contacted other services and they weren’t nearly as helpful.

mark have u tried ushopweship?
if yes can u make a comparison with posta plus…
i ditched aramex sns long time ago…

I use them still. A shipment that reached my mail box over 45 days back is still lying there. No one answers phone. No one replies to Emails.

The registration is very frustrating. They say your account will be activated within 48 hours. When I call and check they say I need to wait for 48 hours for activation! And after 48 hours when I call, they say they need the last 4 digits of my credit card for processing !! If they had an issue with my registration, why couldn’t the customer care contact me at the earliest and inform me about the same! First impression was not good. Lets see how things go on, or I feel my KD8 has gone waste !

I totally recommend them as all above story and concerns are true. Forget Aramex and start with posta plus. Just they charge for application around 1.250 kd plus custom clearance which is 1 kd. So each time about 2 kd I’m paying more. And the negative point which I saw there is extra grams. Like my package was less than 0.5 but they weight 0.53 but still I’m happy for speed of delivery specially my vape staff

Hi Mark, I always follow your foot steps, and you are always right, except of this Posta Plus thing, which turns out to be 100% crab.

1 – It took 3 days to receive my new address in the US, which takes few minutes for Aramex. I called them twice, and every time they 100% confirmed it will take less than 48hrs !!
2 – They have very funny customer service, if you need to talk with supervisor / manager, you need send him/her email with your contacts, then he/she will call you back. Are you serious !!!
3 – I send them email and never heard back from them

This is really ridiculous, honestly I will not trust these guys to do cheese burger delivery.

So you’re disagreeing with me not because you shipped something with them and you had a problem, but because they take 3 days to setup your address? Good job.

I’m sorry to say i disagree because of the 3 days + very bad customer service !!! it doesn’t make any sense to send email to the manager/supervisor to be able to talk with him/her !!

Or maybe, just maybe you’re being impatient? But in any case if you prefer Aramex because they setup your account instantly then great. I prefer Posta Plus because they’re cheaper and quicker. We just have different priorities which is fine.

The bad:
Worst customer service I ever had to deal with, they don’t care what you say and when I call to ask about anything they want to close the line very fast you feel they don’t care.
I had a problem with a shipment due to a mistake that they made and the guy who supposed to help me called twice and when and then totally ignored my case for one month and it never got solved.
The delivery guy sometimes don’t call and if he came and didn’t find you at home your shipment will be delivered the next day, one time customer service told me my shipment will be delivered today and its with the driver, two hours later I called them and they said its on the way and it will get to me before 5 pm, I called at 4 pm and they said its on the way and I didn’t get it till the next day, they didn’t even bother to call the driver.
The good:
All my shipments got to my mail box on the same day they arrived and shipped the next day to Kuwait and cheaper than the others.

I agree with Eyas, they have the WORST customer service I’ve had to encounter. They sound helpful only for the sake of sounding helpful, and its as though they shit bricks if I want to speak to the CS manager. I had an important document stuck with them for a day, get a confirmation call for a delivery scheduled the next day. When tomorrow came, I got another confirmation call confirming a delivery 2 days later, telling me no delivery has been scheduled and no call was logged in, and so now they’d only be able to deliver it 2 days later. Really infuriating. Took me 4 hrs, 7 calls, and 5 rounds with different CS agents and a lot of fire breathing, to get to speak to the assistant manager, who finally sorted out the matter in 5 mins, with an urgent delivery.
Conclusion, these guys really need to learn the definition of Customer Service.
Cheers to the Asst. manager for actually using some brain to sort it out.

Although I am in UAE, I will be using Posta Plus since now for shipments which I don’t want to receive fast. It has to be mentioned that:

1. You need to prepare cash and preferably exact change to pay for your goods on delivery. There is no way to pay online.

2. It takes them very long time to update your account once your goods arrive to the US address. Items delivered via 2-day UPS that arrived after Black Friday on 1st of December at 11:58 AM were only reflected on the account on 6th of December evening hours… It means it took them 4 days to update the account which they didn’t even ship out yet! That’s too long.

3. The customer service is good but what’s the point of responsive local customer service if the issue in US, which cannot handle the volume of shipments or there is some logistic issue.

4. They mix up tracking references completely, it looks like the shipments are not yours at all but when you look closer, you will see that you can find all the numbers matching, just some of them will be in the middle, a part will be written the other way around…

5. Volumetric weight is charged above 100cm, I had once a fabric rolled into tube which although thin was exceeding 100cm. I was then charged volumetric weight for this, despite it was very light.

So yes Posta Plus is cheaper than Aramex, but I have never had any problems with S&S. In fact the shipments are posted on account within minutes or hours or next day at the latest. You can also pay online and the whole process is managed by one company – Aramex, from start to finish. While Posta Plus is using different carriers, sometimes Lufthansa, sometimes Emirates, here in UAE parcels on their behalf are delivered by Speedex courier.

There are only two bad points about S&S, that is 1) You cannot consolidate the shipments to save $ and to save a hassle of having a courier knocking your door too often; 2) It may turn out much more expensive if the shop is going to ship lots of items separately…

I have a shipment they received it on this London office at 24th Nov, and now it’s 6th of Dec and it’s still on transit. This kind of delay happens not always but more often than it is considered acceptable.

I think I have to revise me statement about S&S and Aramex above. I ordered something to my DE address and it was posted on account within minutes, but I also ordered something to UK address and it was posted after 48 hours. So I asked S&S if this is normal and they said absolutely yes, that it takes 2-3 working days to have my items posted on the account. The funny thing is they were able to provide me the tracking number of the shipment before it was posted on account, so I wonder where is the delay coming from. Also when I look at the details of UK shipment now, the record was created on actual delivery date, which is 2 days ago…

Anyway, it looks like there is no best solution. I used also Borderlinx and it was definitely the fastest, they shipped the item same day I requested and it was delivered within 48h to UAE. Amazing but due to vol. weight, 2.10kg actual shipment weight became 7kg vol. weight which they refused repacking saying it is packed optimally (few baby clothes cannot be repacked into envelopes, really?).

I wonder if MYUS is a good solution, especially considering the actual dead weight and 20% (Visa) or 30% (Amex) shipping discount. The thing I like with Posta Plus & S&S is that they don’t actually touch things or open the parcels, as they don’t provide repacking and they ship them as they receive it. Also the way payment is done via both is that it is OUTSIDE of CIF (Cost + Insurance + Freight) scope. In UAE it is AED 1000 tax free, above is 5%. With Posta Plus and S&S shipping fees are not taken into account of CIF, whereas in Borderlinx are. It means if I buy items for $200 + $100 shipping, I will already have to pay 5% customs, while with P&P and S&S I wouldn’t have to.

I guess MYUS will be similar to Borderlinx in this case.

Loser company. Please don’t deal with them their employees are incompetent. They think they’re doing you a favor.

Don’t let them fool you. They have internal conflicts between employees and and management. They’re taking out their grievances on your poor parcel. Posta Plus Kuwait.

Don’t let your parcel be the next victim of their incompetence!

Good bye Aramex S&S, welcome PostaPlus MyBox

Upon reading the original post here and upon suffering with Aramex S&S lately (have been a very loyal customer for 10 years), I decided to give PostaPlus MyBox a try (27/12/2017). I got 10 shipments from USA in 3 months and I am very happy with their service with below particulars:

1- Registration was completely free as they were having kinda promotion (I assume it is still on)

2- There is an additional 20% discount on the listed shipping charges making them 2 & 1.6 KD instead of 2.5 & 2.
So, for 1 kg it is 3.6 kds (which is 40% cheaper than aramex’s 6 kd per 1 kg)

3- I needed a letter from them stating that all shipments delivered to my address are forwarded to kuwait in addition to AWB copies to get tax refund from Amazon (which I used to do with aramex).
First, I suffered with their customer service agents then I made a complaint and requested that a manager calls me. When that happened, I was surprised with the amount of flexibility and willingness to customize a solution for me even if not as per their standards. For anyone who dealt with aramex, that’s like IMPOSSIBLE. They have very rigid rules and 0% exceptions (will refer to again in the next point). Within 24 hours I got the letter and an email I should use to request AWBs for future shipments. And, to make it even better, I get the AWBs the very same day I ask for them (with Aramex it could take up to a week!)

4- I received one shipment that contained lithium batteries, which is considered dangerous goods lately by all shippers. For which, I have to pay an extra charge and it could take 2-3 weeks to be delivered (which I already knew).
I simply requested them to separate the batteries (since they will take longer to ship) from other items so that I may receive the other items quicker. Having dealt with Aramex for 10 years with their very very rigid set of rules, I was expecting a big NO! To my astonishment, it was a “sure sir, we can do that”!
They split the shipment, I received the non-battery items already and am still waiting for the batteries as I write this review.

There are some Cons for sure, like:
1- Web site related: I don’t get to know the weight of the shipment (and hence the charges) till it is out of customs.
2- Customer Service Representatives: Very basic knowledge and can answer only very basic questions (mostly answerable via info on the website). I assume they need more trainings and experience sharing among each others for the cases they come across.

In conclusion, I am very very satisfied with their service, prices, and above all FLEXIBILITY. I hope they keep improving.

Note: I heard they had major changes in their management recently (late 2017) which might be the reason for the upgrade in their services (to my luck if it is the case).

So now in 2020, and for the post lockdown scenario, is it still posta plus I should go for or has there been a change in any of the services (postaplus mybox Vs Aramex Shop&Ship Vs MyUs.com)? Would be great to know from people who’ve recently used all/any of the three.

I have over 1,000 shipment with Posta Plus.

Unfortunately it’s a nightmare:
1- I received shipments that are not mine.
2- My shipments sometimes go to other people.
3- Destroyed shipments.
4- It happens that they take around 30-40 days just to forward the shipments from US facility, the normal period 7 days just to get forwarded.
5- I have shipments that have been over 4 months and didn’t even get forwarded yet.
6- Their customer service are not well knows of the regulations, rules and protocols.

etc.

Please note all of my addresses, account number, name are correct especially in the cases that I mentioned.

After 18 years with Aramex i finally ditched them for Posta plus , not only they are late with deliveries, they lost 3 of my shipments within 2 months period, and they make the round very lengthy and they keep stalling (after denying the the shipment is lost for at least 6 week) i know that the management and the employees have changed over the past years , which made their services SH***TY!

Highly unprofessional, Overcharging courier company and non-existent customer service!!
Use at own risk!

Was a regular customer for their MyBox service for almost over 2 years (2019 – 2021).. never been the greatest services, but were still manageable.
They delayed over 10 of my parcels in late 2020 year for over 2 months without any apology or any outreach to make up for the delay.

The worse service was however around the period of April – June 2021.. They had over 6-7 of my consolidations, which I fully paid in advance online on their portal, as always.
They withheld my parcels (over 30 parcels) citing unpaid dues, which they had applied in form of random charges on each consolidation (around AED50 markup on each consolidation).

Their customer service is non existent, you would never get any response on e-mail or chat. NOTHING IS RESOLVED, EVER!!
Even on the phone, good luck getting any credible useful information.
On disputing the excess charges, they gave random reasons, citing ‘customs’ or ‘handling’ or some other random reason.

Eventually paid them off just to avoid the harassment…
Highly disappointing and a rip off service.

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