Ubuy Madagascar Review : reliable or Scam ?

Ubuy Madagascar is an e-commerce site that takes Amazon products from several countries such as the USA, China, Japan or South Korea to offer them directly to you. Ubuy.mg is just a showcase of the main site with an adjustment of currency and shipping costs, but these are only an estimate.

When you take a look at the reviews of users in other countries, then it is generally negative. I’m always on the lookout for sites that allow you to buy online, and I’ve already mentioned Aliexpress or Shop and Ship (the latter has horrible delivery times).

Basically, Ubuy is a Kuwait-based company, created in 2012. They are not exactly sellers, but a kind of intermediary company. They have “borrowed” the entire catalog from Amazon in several countries and they actually have their own storefront. Basically, they buy for you and ship the product to your country.

No physical presence in Madagascar

At first, all products are originals. No risk of falling on fake ones like on Wish or Aliexpress. The problem is that Ubuy Madagascar does not have any physical presence in Madagascar. No office or contact, nothing at all. Basically what they do is they buy for you and send it to the carrier and you get by with it. In many countries, DHL or the Post Office takes care of it and this is where it gets stuck.

When buying a product, keep in mind that you will have to shell out 3 or 4 times the price of the product and again, that may not be enough. We will take an example. Since I am rich (which I am not, but imagine anyway) I want to buy the Ryzen 5950X processor. So, very high end. Ubuy Madagascar will offer it to you without any problem. Small positive point, the site is admirably designed. Whether it’s to place an order and navigate, we go straight to the point.

Note: If you buy electronic products on Ubuy, on the US store, then pay attention to the voltage. Because Americans are completely stupid and always do everything wrong with the rest of the world, their standard is 120 volts. Almost all appliances are 120 volts, so check carefully this criterion if you do not want to create an unintentional barbecue in your home. You can use a power converter to overcome this problem.

Lies about customs tax and shipping cost

The site is also perfectly optimized for mobile. So, for the Ryzen 5950X, Ubuy Madagascar posts a price of 3,696,498 Ariary, or around 947 dollars. On Amazon, it’s around $ 794, a difference of over $ 150. But that’s it, that’s the base price.

Because for it to come to you in Madagascar, you will have to pay 2000 or 3000 dollars in total. If we look at the shipping costs and other taxes, then Ubuy offers us the following price for this processor:

• Weight – 0.5 Kg
• Price – 3,696,498,00 ar ($ 947)
• Shipping – 74,100 ar (18.97 dollars)
• Gateway charges and customs – 431,028 ar (110.33 dollars)
• Total: 4,201,626 ar ($ 1,077.34)

There are already several issues with this calculation and the important thing with Ubuy Madagascar is that these are estimates, not the actual cost. You can use standard or express delivery. The example uses standard mode. And in many countries Ubuy uses DHL, but considering the shipping cost, it would be amazing if DHL were so cheap.

Ubuy Madagascar is only an intermediary

Clearly he is using standard post office to ship the product. And so, several months of waiting in perspective as the site promises a maximum delivery in 10 days. Then the customs are miscalculated. The customs tax in Madagascar is 49% for most products. And so, it should be around $ 450 and not $ 110.

When you read user reviews, then you realize that Ubuy is just an intermediary. Its role is to buy the product for you and give it to the carrier. It is the latter who will contact you subsequently to ask you to pay the real customs taxes.

And when DHL asks for customs tax from recipient, then it is going to be full tax and it will ruin you. We could accept it if Ubuy Madagascar were transparent on it. He might just say to us: We buy it for you and you have to take care of all the other formalities.

Total lack of transparency

The concern is how he justifies the $ 110 customs tax when you have to pay the real tax afterwards? You don’t get your money back on that $ 110, so it’s one more scam. In fact, this is the problem with these sites, which have a global ambition, but do nothing to have a presence in the countries they serve. They had to calculate the tax online with very rough estimates which misleads the buyer.

Ubuy offers very little information on what to do about litigation. Its delivery and refund page is legal jargon whose main purpose is to clear the site without any useful information for the buyer.

But is Ubuy Madagascar still worth it? If you are rich and find yourself telling yourself that you really want a particular product no matter what the price, then why not. Ubuy is typical of companies in the Middle East and we have seen it with Shop and Ship of Aramex which is also in this region whose main objective is to allow the inhabitants of the golf countries to buy abroad and their purchasing power is much higher than what we can have in Madagascar or other countries.

The difference between Ubuy and Aramex

The big difference with Aramex is that it is a recognized carrier around the world. It has an office in Madagascar and all parcels go through its network. In fact, I could buy the same Ryzen 5950X processor from Amazon providing my Aramex address and it will cost me $ 22 (since this carrier charges $ 22 per kg).

I would have to pay the customs tax on top of that, but I have used Aramex before and it has always happened with home delivery. Its main problem is the delivery time which can take up to 5 months in the worst case!

It can also be useful for expats and the wealthy, who are only looking for original products. In fact, the shipping costs and customs taxes of Ubuy are so chaotic that even a small product like headphones costs you hundreds of dollars. But the only way to tell if Ubuy Madagascar is a serious site is to test it. To make a purchase on it and see the whole process.

If I ever get the chance, I would make a test purchase to see how it works. Knowing that the site itself recommends small purchases to test early. The problem is that the fees and taxes are so high that we will use this site only for large purchases, especially products that we will not find on Aliexpress. This last ship in Madagascar, the shipping costs are correct and we know how it works.