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Saw this advertised in a money magazine today and heard about it before has anyone used this company in the past? www.theselect.co.uk or is it the usual kind that just take your money and dont really have that many great offers
I suppose the same thing could be asked from the other perspective.
If it is so profitable, why isn't everyone doing it?
When I looked around for them I found loads of opinions. The concensus was that they charge too much to make any kind of worthwhile profit.
There was lots of advice posting link to various other dropshippers.
From what I can see, if a dropshipper supplies iPods among their goods, you will not make much profit. Assume because that is the largest market so most competition.
I spent an hour or so looking into a two of these companies a couple of weeks ago. When you compare prices of items they have for sale, the same items are already selling in 'By Now' auctions for less!! I obviously didn't check every price/item but focused on popular items. Maybe the two sites I looked at were not representative but I was put off by what I found, hence my negative comments.
I, like some people, was sucked into the unrealistic claims made by Theselect.co.uk. on their website and signed up to their 'remarkable' service, as it would appear prima facie to be a potential money making scheme for someone in my position (a full time student).
So excited was i that after doing my calculations and working out the 40-50% discount i could potentially receive, i scoured the selling markets on the net, froogle, ebuyer, ebay, amazon etc etc and thought to myself, yes, with the claims made by 'Theselect' i could be onto a winner.
not to lose out on such a promising business venture, i borrowed the £49.99 subscription fee(i know it sounds silly, but bear in mind i am a student) and took out their bronze package and could not wait to get onto their website to see their prices and get selling and making lots of money,or even some money.
I received my login details and frantically typed them into the 'Agents' login area, my palms were sweaty with anticipation and i was really excited!
Once i had typed in my details i went straight to the area where i could view the prices that i could buy these items for as i clicked, i thought of the potential profits and thought of a nice holiday somewhere (cheap of course, i have a student loan to repay )
I opened one item that i was particularly keen on selling the APPLE IPOD 4GB brilliant i thought everyone wants one of those........oh my life..... my thoughts turned sour and my heart sank....
They were offering the product to me at a price way in excess of what i would pay if i was to buy them directly off the above auction sites!!!
They state that the RRP is £129.99, i do not doubt that at all, if buying from Argos, or any other large retailer. The cost to me would have been an amazing, jawdropping, huge profit making...(not) price of approximately £114 plus carriage on top of that.
I was gobsmacked, i was in shock, i nearly burst into tears. My research on all the other auction sites, show that these items sell, brand new from between £75-110(max)(estimates),(look for yourself).
When i worked out costings and someone paying by paypal, it would have cost me money to order and sell these items!!
Oh well, never fear, I'll just have to look at other products on their site a total of approx 397 products, (so i remained optimistic!) i went through approx 40 other items they list, cross referenced it with the auction sites and no profit could be made, and the claims of 40-50% could not be wholly justified by this company, they may have one or two items that have this profit margin, however, the item would be a novelty gift, or cr*p as it is technically known, and probably others views too, and there would be very little profit on these items overall once fees etc had been paid(auction site fees) and you would potentially need to sell thousands of them the achieve the earning figures they claim because they were low priced novelty goods.
I felt so embarrassed that i had been taken in by this!
Needless to say, i wanted my money back! so i emailed them through their site(restricted to 300 words).
The next morning i received an email saying basically no refund, in accordance with their terms and conditions.....What!!!
So i found their number(01908 821271) and called them.
I was given the usual flannel in relation to the terms and conditions and also told that they could help me in any way whatsoever to assist me in selling( a plus point for them is that they have won an e-commerce award for customer service!!!). I informed them that there is no way i wanted to continue to use them as it was not what i thought it was and could never profit from it in any way etc( a lengthy conversation ensued). I just wanted my money back as their was no potential for me to make money. they claimed that they have thousands of agents across the world, who make good money etc, but i wasn't interested, i wanted my money back. i was told that a manager would phone me back within a few hours.
Later that day i was called back by the same person (Darren) who informed me that they were willing to offer me a free upgrade to the 'Gold' account which in essence would give me an extra couple of pounds off each item(and it was literally an extra couple of pounds). i could not understand what they didn't understand what a full refund meant, i did not want to use their service now, in the future or ever, and i wanted a full refund, What is not clear about that!
eventually i was put through to the MD, Ben Fountain, who i found to be an obnoxious man with no concept of listening to what i was saying to him, i wanted a refund. The conversation lasted well over half an hour, and after going round in circles for so long, i informed him that i would email him, which he agreed to and said he would look at the email, i asked for him to respond to the email within 24hrs.
I then constructed an email to him. It is worthy of note at this point that i am a law student, and at the age of 35 would like to think that i am quite streetwise.
The email consisted of the legalities of him giving the refund to me, common law, statute law and EU law and should this not be forthcoming then i would seek recourse through the courts.
Within an hour of sending the email i received a full refund!
the full process of me signing up to the service, to receiving the refund was less than 24hrs, well done me!(well i think so anyway)
I have read a number of forums in relation to this company(i know, i should have researched it before i took it up) and lots of people appear disgruntled by this company, many share the same view as me and many have not got their money back.
My recommendation and advice:
steer well clear..... i cannot put it clearer than that
I hope this experience helps you to come to a decision as to whether to use this company or not, and bear in mind, i was lucky to get my money back because i like to think i know the law in some respects, but believe me when i say, i would have taken them to court and reported then to the OFT in relation to their terms and conditions.
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Andypez, thanks for sharing that. Often people are very quick to show how clever and wise they are, and it's refreshing to see someone stand up and say "Yes, I was duped, here are my experiences".
I then constructed an email to him. It is worthy of note at this point that i am a law student, and at the age of 35 would like to think that i am quite streetwise.
The email consisted of the legalities of him giving the refund to me, common law, statute law and EU law and should this not be forthcoming then i would seek recourse through the courts.
Within an hour of sending the email i received a full refund!
Excellent work, that must have been some email I'm a great believer in the power of the written word.
as requested and for those people interested, this is a copy of the email i sent to the MD of theselect.
Hope it helps, obviously amend the wording accordingly to your circumstances.
...
As discussed in our lengthy conversation today, I am requesting a full refund in respect of the £49.99 subscription fee.
I was going to phrase this email in such a way as to show extenuating circumstances in a number of ways, however i am going to limit it to one avenue, and that is the law of England and Wales, which we are both bound.
Firstly i just want to say, that having come across your website i was initially excited about the opportunities that it could potentially afford me, as currently i am a full time student and looking for potential ways to provide a regular income which your site claims, however i was bitterly disappointed once i had subscribed. The reasons of which i have discussed with you and i do not see it as a potential opportunity for me, however it cost me £49.99 to discover that.
I appreciate you may well have a number of agents selling your items, this is not my issue.
Under the current law, I have an unconditional right to cancel an order (under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations, October 2000).
As well as this, "...By law, customers in the European Union also have the right to withdraw from the purchase of an item within seven working days of the day after the date the item is delivered...."
This means that basically i have the right to cancel my order for any reason, this even includes and is often cited if there is a change of mind by the customer within a 7 day 'cooling off' period.
So therefore on that basis, as the item was delivered immediately electronically, i am still within my 7 day 'cooling off' period, i have changed my mind and entitled to a full refund.
Further to this, it could also be argued that the terms and conditions are unreasonable or unfair under The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. it could easily be argued about the unreasonableness and unfairness by the process which is applied to the subscription requirement. if it is judged unreasonable or unfair, your terms and conditions would have no legal standing.
I look forward to a satisfactory response to this matter, i.e. a full refund, failing that i would have no alternative than to take this matter forward and seek recourse through the courts.
I look forward to your response
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Oh boy, theselect.co.uk and Benjamin Fountain (The MD) are awful. Just out to rip people off.
The prices offered on their stock list are bad, you will be very lucky to make any profit. The price of the subscription is a rip off and you will be very very lucky to get a refund from them.
This company should be taken offline. Theselect makes me very angry, avoid the company or face getting ripped off.
I tried to get a refund from Benjamin Fountain (The MD) but he refused, I have tried for 2 weeks now and still no luck, the consumer needs to fight back. Too many people have been in the same situation as me and I really feel for them people.
Hi all... my husband and I just signed up with theselect.co.uk annual subscription of £299, we were promised up to 80% discount prices on product we can sell in ebay.
We signed up on 22July, after we're in, we found everything just like you all said.
The prices are higher than ebay even than high street.
We didnt research first before signing up, taken by their promises of making some profit.
So, on 27July, (within 7 days of purchase), we requested cancellation and refund. Then you know, they refused, the same people you were all dealing with, Darren and Benjamin Fountain. This was after a very very long conversation, talk, and emails.
Because we paid through paypal, we placed a dispute against this transaction due to 'Significantly not as described'. Then paypal gave us a time for us to resolve the issue with the seller. Of course, theselect refused the refund. So we escalated the dispute to a claim.
Unfortunately, paypal closed our claim because their policy does not cover subscription.
We feel gutted and so angry!, £299 is alot of money! though we should've made some researched first before signing up with anything... including this.
This is now 2009 after 2 years of you all discussed this. I dont know how many people have been tricked so far.
Im willing to take further action by reporting them to Trading Standard Office due to unfair trading practice and violation against consumer protection distance selling regulation.
But if many people report this problem, will make the case stronger.
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Im willing to take further action by reporting them to Trading Standard Office due to unfair trading practice and violation against consumer protection distance selling regulation.
But if many people report this problem, will make the case stronger.
Sorry you've had such a terrible experience, unfortunately Trading Standards are for consumer affairs and in this instance you technically weren't a consumer, this was a business to business transaction (even if you haven't yet set up a business, your intention was to buy goods to resell via this site).
It would probably be wiser grouping several people who have been ripped off together and taking legal advice.
Just to add as a long term trader, there isn't an easy way to break in to buying and selling, you need to do research on both the buying and selling sides.
ok i'm new here and i have been looking to join theselect.co.uk to try a retail website. i have been fore warned by my wife who felt what they promised was too good to be true so i decided to do some research and wow! im still interested in having an e-commerce website and i will like some advice on whether dropshipping is good or if anyone is with any company and can say that they are good and offer what they promise? Thanks
Pls be nice to all MoneySavers. There's no such thing as a stupid question, and even if you disagree courtesy helps. Take care over copyright. Use excerpts and links rather than copying long text. This site asserts copyright on all comments posted on the board.
Pls be nice to all MoneySavers. There's no such thing as a stupid question, and even if you disagree courtesy helps.
Has anyone used www.theselect.co.uk?
I'm a great believer in the power of the written word.
theselect.co.uk
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