Returning an on-line purchase - any advice please.

My DH is a sucker for Facebook advertising and I keep reminding him to go on trust pilot and normally the company has rubbish reviews .

I have posted warnings about these Chinese scammers several times as recently as last week.

They have also been featured on Watchdog a few weeks ago.

I don’t understand why Facebook allow them to post.

MayBee70

petra

singingnutty

When I commented 'Oh dear' I was not mocking - more kicking myself for being naive. And I am pleased to know now that there are sites where I can check on the legitimacy of on-line sales. But I think commenting There are no excuses now as to why people get scammed. There are numerous sites where you can check the legitimacy of a company is a bit of a slap on the wrist that is uncalled for.

I give no apology for my remark. I can’t begin to tell you how many hundreds of hours we all spent gathering info to present to FB to get these sites banned.
At that time there were no sites where you could go to check how good/ bad a site was. That’s where we spent hours tracking down who exactly they were.
At one time we had a list of 260 Chinese companies all owned by one man.
Disgruntled customers would sent us photos of rubbish they had received. We posted these on FB.
I think it might have been a financial comment I made about Mr Zuckerbergs wife that put the tin hat on the warnings.

But I'm on facebook all the time[[until I got locked out of my ipad account that is] and have never seen a facebook site that I can go to to check if a company is ok. I do try to check on companies I use but, as I said earlier I still get caught out. If these companies weren't so clever they wouldn't exist. I don't think that those of us that have been caught out by rogue companies are somehow lacking in the brain department...

Could you imagine Mr Zuckerberg allowing a site that slags off a company that pays him to advertise on his site 🤷‍♀️

They don’t do anything about those awful men who say how interesting you are and how they’d love to be friends with you either…

Trust Pilot.
If Martin Lewis states that the above are useless and unhelpful you know something is amiss.
I knew this when I was on my quest to ban the Chinese sites.
I’ve put this up many times before but I will carry on stating the truth about the above.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6584893/trust-pilot-can-they-be-trusted

MayBee70

They don’t do anything about those awful men who say how interesting you are and how they’d love to be friends with you either…

Big difference. Those men aren’t trying to sell you something. Although they will probably try to fleece you further down the line if your fool enough to believe that the pic they put up of a dashing pilot is them and not the poor prisoner ( because that’s what they are) locked in a room in a huge complex in Asia.
Funny enough the above has a huge Chinese involvement.
Look up the film Catfish. Shocking 🤬

No problem with the men one click of your finger and they’re gone

Check out the oinline selling regulations. They can not refuse a refund if you informed them in good time. Ask me how I know. I ran an online business.

This is a well known scam, and I don't believe you can trust Trustpilot any more. If you haven't heard of the company, you need to do extensive googling to find out, I find Reddit quite useful.

Everyone makes mistakes and this one was not as costly as it could have been. Do your research on PayPal - if you use it in preference to a credit card you will lose your rights under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. This protects you when you spend over £100 so wouldn't have helped in this case unfortunately. Look at Money Saving Expert for their advice on PayPal vs debit/credit cards.
Some companies charge for returns like Cotton Traders.
Spread the word among your friends and online. Ask someone to show you how to post reviews - lots of older customers don't do it.
Even a fiver is annoying to lose but it's a lesson many of us have to learn - young people fall for it too - even more than older customers actually but they know how to kick up a stink on social media.

Contact them again and quote the Consumer Rights Act which says that "When shopping online in the UK, you have strong consumer rights. You can cancel an order and get a full refund within 14 days of receiving the goods, even if there's nothing wrong with them. This is known as the "cooling-off period". For faulty goods or items not as described, you have additional rights under the Consumer Rights Act. " If you still do not get anywhere, then contact the bank through which you purchased the item and request a chargeback (credit or debit card), explaining the situation. Good luck

singingnutty

It was not clear that the dress would come from China, and I didn't think to check reviews. Oh dear!

I got caught by one of these scams once, when my favourite and very expensive trainer brand appeared to be selling their products at ridiculously good sale prices (duh!). Needless to say, I’ve been ultra-wary ever since. But on social media ads etc, in my experience the more “British” a company name sounds – and/or the more you’re expected to believe that some lovely family firm is urgently selling off all stock because it’s reluctantly having to close down – the more likely (by which I mean virtually certain) it is that this is yet another Chinese scam. As for Trustpilot, I always check out unknown websites there in order to weed out the baddies, so I know how ridiculously misleading it is. Even famous brands sometimes seem to have terrible review scores – but when you look into it you find they have more than one Trustpilot page, and the one you’re looking at paints an entirely different picture from the “real” one. Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you get duped, you just have to put it down to experience and move on.

I orered a new strimmer for my grass, I chose it specifically because it had wheels and was offered as weighing only 2.8 kilos. As I have arthritis in my shoulders and wrists that suited me. I knew it was made in China but despatched by a UK company. It arrived in less than a week. I opened the box and whilst checking on how I would have to put it together and read in the instructions that including the battery it weighed 3.5 kilos. I immediately used their returns instructions and they sent me a returns label which stated that I had to pay return postage. I immediately emailed back and asked why I should have to pay postage for something that wasn't as described. Less than an hour later I received another email stating that they had processed the return payment and that I needn't return the item and could dispose of it as I saw fit.

Having had awful responses when returning items previously I was very impressed with their Customer Service.

Happened to my daughter a few years back , same sort of scenario, looked like legit site in UK but what arrived was a very poorly made dress from China.We were offered 5% then 10% back as wouldn't let us return (was more cost to them ). Eventually got a chargeback from her bank , so worth a try .

Exactly the same thing happened to me Granto1 I didn't get my money back but fortunately not a great outlay. My card was also hacked at the same time so had to get a new card, number etc. My card was frozen for a time which was inconvenient.
Keep well away from FB adverts is my advice, lesson learned for me.

I got similarly caught out by Harper London. I noticed that Milford Manchester sold similar clothing. If you look at Trust pilot they both have dreadful reviews. They both trade from China despite indicating its UK based. The returns payment means it's too expensive to return. I put it down to experience but it was very disappointing.

Singingnutty - I think the bit that said 100% Happiness guarantee might have been a clue Also, unusually large discount; and lack of product information eg fabric composition are other good signals.

The sites do get better and it is harder. I do think that the only reliable thing is to stick to companies that you know or are recommended to you. There are plenty of established UK businesses selling online.

Of course the product may well still be made in China would’ve been through some kind of quality control before it gets to you.

The trouble is that these sites appear to be UK based. My OH bought shoes from a company with a Cardiff address. They arrived (took a long time so we were both suspicious) and the quality was very poor.

Same story, return to China (Cardiff address was a sham) or keep them at a 10% discount. Furious my OH phoned his bank, who reversed the charge. There is "small print" on the bank website that explains this option - its "Goods not as described" or similar.

My OH is usually very savvy - but so are the scammers.

Attached is the "small print" for the bank to reverse the charge.

I went through this for a different company, Mint London, where I purchased an item for £40
I kept declining their offers of refunds till they reached 60% and then went through the hassle of returning it to China (which was successful). So in the end I got some money back and forced a refund. I now will not buy any clothing from Amazon or Facebook but am forced to shop on line due to mobility issues. I stick to well known brands.

I was looking online for a dress recently and came across some lovely ones, all in cotton or linen. They were not very expensive so I started to check out the companies, many complaints similar to that of the OP regarding he fabric, etc. They were all dodgy Chinese companies, which basically lie in the item description and then create mountainous hurdles to try to get a refund. Search engines such as Google should be weeding them out. Found a lovely dress on Seasalt instead.

This is why I rarely buy stuff on-line, never clothes or shoes...

I buy most things online (apart from groceries) and can't say I've ever really had a problem.

I was caught out once. A pair of shoes. They did arrive but were nothing like my size. I gave them to a charity shop. These ads are quite easy to spot once you know. Look up their returns procedure. You will be told you have to email them. Sometimes they pretend to be well known companies like Marks and Spencer's or Sketchers or they are a traditional family firm going out of business and selling off their stock. The outrageous thing is that Facebook don't remove these ads. People are pulled in by getting something that seems cheaper than it should be. Like people in the old days selling jewelry in pubs. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose. No need to avoid buying on line. Just Google your retailer of choice and go into official sites.

When buying from an unknown company online, it's always a good idea to check out the reviews. Often, they'll be enough of a warning that you don't even bother. I had a similar experience with a dress that was supposed to be 100% linen but turned out to be cheap t-shirt fabric. It went to a charity shop and I decided it was a learning experience. Good luck another time!