Duty Free Depot
Reviews and Complaints

you can save a lot of money and get a regular supply of cigarettes discreetly and inexpensively shipped to your personal address. I've placed 2 orders so far. The first order was delivered in 2 weeks! Part of the second order got lost or stuck in transit. Dfd corrected the problem and resent the missing cartons after I contacted them AFTER 28 days, which resulted in the whole order taking an additional 7 days to complete. Considering the money I saved by shopping with Dfd, this minor aggravation was worth the expense. Also, I received replies to my emails and spoke to live human beings, so I think some of the negative comments on the Web about Dfd are from their competitors. I will definitely order again soon. Thanks Dfd :)

I've been ordering with them for a very long time and when my order never arrived I was on the phone and e-mailed their Support/Sales Departments I asked for a refund on that order because this wasn't the first time it happened. This was after their shipping methods changed in which they started Charging Customer's an outrageous amount and using USPS who we all know are also incompetent. So after my order never came I asked for a refund. Then I receive the message below

Here is the exact e-mail from DFD. Your request for a refund has been forwarded to our billing department and it was issued on 813.
Please note that it may take up to 15 business days between the time your refund is processed and the time it appears on your bank statement.
Unfortunately our VP cannot take time for these types of issues and so we are sorry as your account was refunded and your account is now closed.

Because you ask for a refund, they close your account and refuse to do business with you again unless you pay them $50.00 to reopen your account. Sounds like Extortion to me.

You have requested a refund back into your credit card/bank. Unfortunately, it is our policy that customers who are refunded will not be able to order with us or any affiliated company of ours again as refunds hurt our working relationship with our bank.
As your account was refunded, you may not order with us again. You may however pay a $50 fee to reopen your account, that is the only way we will be able to proceed.

This company advertises as a "duty free shop" offering authentic international cigarette brands at bottom dollar prices. Don't be fooled! The cigarettes you will receive will be illegal counterfeits smuggled out of china. These fake cigarettes are illegal and extremely dangerous to your health. Scientists who have analyzed chinese cigarette knockoffs have found elevated levels of toxic heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium and lead, as well as human feces, saw dust, mold, insect eggs and rat droppings. These crooks operate out of israel and are therefore beyond the reach of any international law enforcement agency.

I received 2 cartons of marlbo reds from these unscrupulous crooks that were sold as "made in switzerland" and "made in philippines" but whose appearance was identical to several photos of counterfeit cigarettes posted on the websites of chinese cigarette counterfeiters like liwong.com. Not only that, but the labeling on both the carton and individual cigarette packs showed obvious pixelation, which demonstrates that were, in fact, printed using a scanned computer image. It goes without saying that the official manufacturers do not do this!

I later realized after doing some research that all of the products they sell are indeed counterfeit. The quality of the reproduced cigarettes varies according to brand, but none of them are authentic! See for yourselves! Check out liwong.com and compare them to the photos on their sites. Don't make the fatal mistake of believing these israeli gangsters when they tell you that they only stock authentic products. It is an unequivocal lie!

I have been defrauded to the tune of nearly $2000 dollars by this company! And the entire time they have exposed me to the toxic cocktail of chemicals and compounds present in their illegal chinese cigarettes manufactured in underground complexes, with absolutely no concern or compunction for the health and welfare of those who end up unwittingly inhaling these lead and feces-laced chinese toxic waste dumps masquerading as factory fresh european cigarettes.

And I have been devastated by the discovery!

If you buy anything from this company you are simply promoting poison cigarettes and international gangsterism.

I repeat, the cigarettes sold by duty free depot and their affiliates are definitely fake. I know because i've gone through more than a few cartons and can confirm the crudely counterfeited labeling and horrific taste and smell of these products. These aren't "eu" cigarettes (I've had plenty of those), they are pure, unadulterated fakes, filled with all sorts of toxins and extraneous chemicals you'd never find in any eu or american mass produced cigarette. The people involved with this operation are connected with organized crime in israel and couldn't give a lick about the health consequences for the unwitting smokers who consume them. If you value your health at all, then I highly recommend you do not under any circumstances order cigarettes from places like duty free depot. Perhaps there are some legitimate sources of discount imported cigarettes, but this is clearly not one of them! A big caveat emptor folks!

Dutyfreedepot is terrible, don't deal with them. My order never came and the customer service I received was awful!

I placed an order May 19th for a carton as a gift for my mother. On checkout the website promised delivery in 7-10 business days. The package never arrived!

I emailed them in mid June to ask why I hadn't received it. They claimed it was lost in shipment, and they could ship me a new one. I called the next day to have them ship a new one, but they said they were out of stock. I asked them to order one from a different supplier, but they said no.

TL;DR I waited a month for an order that never arrived, and they offered no help to replace it.

dutyfree has taken their payment then gave me a tracking no. that was 13 digits long and i was told to track on registered post in GB.
royal mail informed me that no. was for israel and there no. was 14 digits when i asked dutyfree about this they said they knew and could not give me a proper tracking no. why did the give me any no. at all if they knew it was wrong. feel I have been scammed. My order was sent on 21st jan. so they say!.
no delivery to date.

I been going back and forth with their complaint department. Two orders were placed. One in aug and oct. I received oct delivery but not aug delivery. They for some reason keep refering to the tracking number for oct. The tracking numbers are ee006770885il and lx270327795il for aug. Never had an issue with before but since they hiked their shippings rates then now seem to have issues.

As I have explained many times: this is not a credit card. It is a debit card. Any refund from you should go directly into my checking account from which dfd had absolutley no problem removing these funds in july. Please stop telling me you have refunded to a credit card which it is not! I have checked yet again and there are no pending refunds from you on this card. The checking account shows no refunds with your descriptor. Please find out why I have not gotten this refund. It certainly has not been deposited to my checking account since the date of issue: 9/7/2015 at 1:42:06 this is turning into an endless circle of you say, I say. I can only assume dfd is a scam. Db from: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com sent: november 9, 2015 3:13 am to: [protected]@hotmail.com subject: re: re: re: refund approval at dutyfreedepot.com dear diane baker, your refund has been issued on 9/7/2015 at 1:42:06 pm to your visa credit card ending with 5438. Please double-check it with your credit card company. If you have any questions or problems please let us know. Regards, dfd customer support. Toll free (Us) - [protected] check out our new contact us page available in your account. Simply log in and go to my account. www.dutyfreedepot.com I have no credit pending on this debit card and no credit with your descriptor to my checking account associated with this debit card. Initially, it took just a few days for dfd to take the money from my checking account on this order. Why is there a problem re-imbursing me? Db from: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com sent: november 8, 2015 5:59 am to: [protected]@hotmail.com subject: re: re: refund approval at dutyfreedepot.com dear diane baker, your refund has been issued on 9/7/2015 at 1:42:06 pm to your visa credit card ending with 5438. Please double-check it with your credit card company. If you have any questions or problems please let us know. Regards, dfd customer support. Toll free (Us) - [protected] check out our new contact us page available in your account. Simply log in and go to my account. www.dutyfreedepot.com re: duty free depot order #727368 - refund it has been a month (Since this last email) and I still have no refund. Could you please update me on why it is taking so long? Db from: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com sent: october 11, 2015 9:43 am to: [protected]@hotmail.com subject: refund approval at dutyfreedepot.com dear diane baker, your request for a refund has been forwarded to our billing department, it will be taken care of asap. Please note that it may take up to 15 business days between the time your refund is processed and the time it appears on your bank statement. Regards, dfd customer support toll free (Us) - [protected] check out our new contact us page available in your account. Simply log in and go to my account. www.dutyfreedepot.com I have confirmed with my bank that there has been no refund. Nor any refund pending. I checked my account 5 minutes ago and there has been no refund with your descriptor since the date you quoted that the refund was issued: 9/7/2015 at 1:42:06 pm. This needs to be resolved soon. Db date: wed, 7 oct 2015 15:48:52 +0200 from: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com subject: re: re: duty free depot order #727368 - refund to: [protected]@hotmail.com dear diane baker, we have confirmed with our billing dept. That the refund has been issued to you directly. Please contact your bank and confirm with them that you received a credit for the stated amount with the same descriptor name that we charged you with. If you have any questions or problems please let us know. Regards, dfd customer support. Toll free (Us) - [protected] check out our new contact us page available in your account. Simply log in and go to my account. www.dutyfreedepot.com I have checked: this is a debit card (Not a credit card) and is directly linked to my checking account from which the money was originally withdrawn. Do you need a screen shot of the account activity to prove that I did not receive the refund? If so, I will need an email address to send it to. If dfd intends to send a cheque directly to me, it will have to be in canadian dollars as I do not have an american dollar account. Db date: sun, 4 oct 2015 12:46:17 +0200 from: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com subject: re: re: duty free depot order #727368 - refund to: [protected]@hotmail.com dear diane baker, please make sure that you check the statement for the correct visa credit card (Ending with 5438). If you have any questions or problems please let us know. Regards, dfd customer support. Toll free (Us) - [protected] check out our new contact us page available in your account. Simply log in and go to my account. www.dutyfreedepot.com I have been in touch with my bank and they have checked that there is no pending refund. They also said that it should have only taken 3-5 business days for this to go through. The amount charged on my debit card on july 30th was cad223.32. I guess you will need to re-issue this refund because I have not received it. Db from: [protected]@hotmail.com to: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com subject: re: duty free depot order #727368 - refund date: wed, 30 sep 2015 09:00:53 -0400 thanks for getting back... Can you give me the cad amount that was refunded... There is nothing to indicate that any refund was received in my account on or around that date, so a dollar amount would be useful to know. Thanks. Db date: wed, 30 sep 2015 04:19:11 -0700 from: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com subject: re: re: duty free depot order #727368 - refund to: [protected]@hotmail.com dear diane baker, your refund has been issued on 9/7/2015 at 1:42:06 pm. Please double-check it with your bank. If you have any questions or problems please let us know. Regards, dfd customer support. Toll free (Us) - [protected] check out our new contact us page available in your account. Simply log in and go to my account. www.dutyfreedepot.com well, it's been 14 working days and I have still to be re-imbursed. Could you please find out what is happening? Db from: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com to: [protected]@hotmail.com cc: subject: duty free depot order #727368 - refund date: mon, 7 sep 2015 13:41:43 +0300 dear diane baker, just wanted to give you a heads up that we've refunded your order. It may take up to 14 business days to show up in your account, but you'll probably see it before that. If you have any questions, we're always available. Email: [protected]@dutyfreedepot.com toll-free number: +[protected]. Thanks again, enjoy your order! www.dutyfreedepot.com

For over 3 months I have been in contact with the billing department at dfd. They say the refund was issued, but after 2 months, there is still no credit to my checking account. It took dfd no time at all (Maybe 2 days) to take the money out of my account for the original order, but it has been over 3 months and I still have no refund (Cad223).

I have actually been a customer of Dutyfree for nearly three years now, and had you asked me before I would have recommended them. Since June though I have not gotten a single order without a full scale fight, and the problem is Dutyfree (not the postal service). I have an order from July 8th that has never gotten here, though they keep making tracking numbers for packages that don't exist.

In the beginning of this issue I believed someone at the U.S port was stealing them, and theory Dutyfree was more than happy to run with I might add. The thing is I have had nine packages (not counting reshipped) which have "mysteriously" vanished after hitting the N.Y port. I got so upset I called the USPS office there to explain this mess and see if they could do something about it. A wonderfully helpful woman told me to have it reshipped and she would keep an eye out for that number. I was horrified to learn from her that while a tracking number had generated for the package, no package existed for them to put it to. Hence the reason it never moved beyond the port. Somehow they don't have the cigarettes to ship, but rather than admit this to their customers, they lie to us and blame someone else when they never sent out a package.

Now I go to call them again (10th time since August), and the phone number goes straight to an answering service. Anyone who thinks about buying from this company needs to beware. While in the past they have been a great company, something has drastically changed. Until they straighten out whatever is happening here, I will not be buying from them. Cigarettes may be expensive where I live, but this proved no cheaper for me as I'm now out $152.97, with no hope of seeing what I bought in this lifetime.

Back on 3/29 I ordered 9 cigarettes packages for usd 147.37 which eventhough sent under separate mailings never reached me! Complaint was not handled till I got a 9400 points credit from them (About usd90) permitting me to reorder 3 packages which now arrived! Considering the insurance I took it has cost me roughly usd160 to get 3 packages, definetely not a cheap deal, also bearing in mind I just waited on original sendings and did no wrongdoing as to see my usd 147 loweerd to about 90! How can you help please?

I have just received a letter from border force langley telling me my 500g of tobacco have been seized I gave this company a fantastic review about 8weeks ago, why have my goods been seized? On your website you say you comply with the law but obviously you don't, I don't know what you are playing at but I am not loosing out on £70, I cant even phone them, and they will not answer my emails this is a scam but they have picked on the wrong customer this time, if I can take virgin media to court, I can take duty free depot, you aint heard the last of me

order:687748 placed on March 26 / 2015 - This company is fake and I had few of my friends ordering from this place by mistake, I've learnt it after placing order with them myself! What a big mistake! They took money from my credit card straight away, without any delay! After 21 days had no delivery, nothing!

Tried to contact them with no success for over 7 days, left a feedback on a different website and they called me within an hour or me leaving feedback! I've been told by their representative that I will receive full refund within 5 working days, been 3 weeks since, not a penny! I'm also filing police report for online fraud / scam. This business must be stopped and responsible people must be prosecuted! Police already had many complaints about this and they gathering evidence for further prosecution, so help police and let's stop these scam artists / fraudsters!

I WANT MY REFUND NOW!

I placed an order on 4/24 and tried to follow up this week in several ways, all of which escalated my suspicions:

1) No response to my emails;
2) My order number is "invalid" according to their order status search;
3) My call to customer service was disconnected when I asked to speak to a supervisor (after the imbecile who answered could not offer me any information).

After I ordered, I was called by a cheery gent named Simon Degeron to confirm that I was a real person and to assure me that my order was placed correctly. Simon, where are you now?

I will contest the charges and advise you to do the same if you are awaiting an order.

Caroline Hanssen

ON ORDER # 645221 DEC. OF 2014 MISSING 3-CARTONS TRACKING #RY901312682IL
ON ORDER #667474 FROM FEB. 1ST 2015 MISSING ANOTHER 3-CARTONS TRACKING #RY901348459IL
I HAVE PAID FOR BOTH IN FULL NO REFUNDS, JUST KEEPING TELLING ME THEY WILL RE SEND.

THEY TAKE PAYMENT FAST.

Just to warn people that you can not buy any Tobbaco products from the USA or even Europe without being subject to charged excise duty and vat which I have been told by UK Customs for a cartoon of 200 cigarettes would be around £70 + the money you paid the company for them. I have requested a refund to the $31 I paid to the Duty Free Depot but some how don't think I will have much luck. Don't get caught out like me, its cheaper to go to Eastern Europe yourself and pay around £20 for 200 than buy them from a Internet company.

i called to check the tracking on my package which has been taking forever keep getting told the tracking will show up on my postal
service tracking its been a week and it still says the samething on my postal service tracking page. but i called in and the person who answered the phone started to yell at me so i hung up i kept my temper and just called back to see if someone else would pick up he said he was mad beacuse he has to work on vday which is ### you work when the company has too. then he calls me a piece of ### yankee and that im a ### and all yankees should go to hell and die and after that i couldnt keep my temper which no one could of but i will never place another order ever from this company they are slow and they talk to you like your not a human. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY! DO NOT!

I ordered 2 carton of cigarettes from this company on 9th October 2013. My visa was charged immediately. It has NOT been seized by Australian customs, and a phone call today, 13th November 2013, to Australia Post provided me with the information that my parcel has NOT arrived into Australia, and therefore has NOT yet been sent from Israel, where it is apparently coming from. Replies to my emails from Duty Free Depot say it was sent on conflicting dates of the 15th and the 21st of October, yet Australia Post tell me it should have well and truly arrived into Australia by now, whether sent on either date.

I don't believe I will receive the order, and I doubt I will receive a refund. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY - IT IS TOO RISKY!

I placed a couple of orders for myself and friends in June, 2012. Payed by e-check. Fortunately, when I started getting e-mails saying my orders were fraudulent and they were ceasing contact with me, I cancelled all but one check. I was told that the first order had shipped. 2 months later, still had nothing and called them back. Explained to them that I had cancelled my checks, except for the first order because I was told it had already shipped. They told me then, that it hadn't shipped and they would refund me. It would take about two weeks for the refund to show in my bank. Now, it's been another month and still no refund. I guess it's my own stupidity. Don't order from DutyFreeDepot.com They act like they care. They seem real nice. They DON"T do what they say!

On October 19 2011 I placed an order for cosmetics with dutyfreedepot.com. That very day they debited my credit card with US$31.99. The product never arrived. I emailed them repeatedly and at once stage this was what they claimed:
Dear Marylin, Our billing department sent you several emails asking you to provide a copy of you bank statement, or a copy of the credit card used and a picture id. They asked for this information since this is your first order with us and we need to make sure that this is not a fraudulent order. You never sent in the requested information, so we never sent your order. We will issue you a full refund since you have not sent in the information. Please wait for refund processing.From, Customer Support.
Needless to say they never did – not that I ever would have provided them with a copy of my bank statement, a copy of my creditcard and a picture id.
On December 7 2011 after I had again contacted them, they sent me this reply: Dear Marilyn, Your request for a refund has been forwarded to our billing department that will process it within 5 business days.Please note that there might be a gap of up to 12 days between the time your refund is processed and the time it appears on your bank statement.Best regards, DFD Customer Support.
It is again needless to say that no refund was ever made.

They will call you to a point that it is harrassment. They have called me 16 times this one year since spring. Every time they call I have asked to have my # off the list and the same thing happens. The last few times, I yelled at the rep "chris" and "tracy" but nothing happens. A company in the u. S. Will stop telemarketing once you ask them to stop but this company is in israel and they function differently. They have call centers in india and the u. S. I have asked to talk to management but they just hang up. I placed and order and cancelled and since then, they harrass me with a sales call every 2 weeks.