Customs have seized fake goods

morag1202

My DS bought a pair of Ugg boots from uggretail.com on 2/12/08 for around £70. He exchanged 3 or 4 emails with them and was told that the goods entered the UK on 21/12/08

Yesterday, he received a letter from HM Customs informing him that the boots have been confiscated as counterfeit.

Has this happened to any one else? Is there anything he can do to get his money back? The only thing that I can think of is to contact Trading Standards, and I'm not very hopefull.

GeoThermal

The site looks dodgy. Did he pay by credit card? If so it might be worth speaking to them. I know it's meant to be purchases over £100 that are covered but I've read they have helped others on smaller amounts.

morag1202

I agree that the site looks dodgy - but someone he worked with had sucessfully bought boots from them in October.

No, he paid by debit card! He has no debt and keeps it that way only buying with cash or debit card as he is on a low income. I guess he'll maybe learn a few lessons the hard way over this.

savemoney

If its Visa debt you may be able to do a charge back but only Visa

[Deleted User]

I believe that as well as being a brand, 'ugg' boots are also known as a style in Oz.. so the name for an australian sheepskin boot was an Ugg before the internationally branded version came along. Some evidence: http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/pdfs/trademarks/hearings/245662_060116.pdf

So.. how can it be fake? I'd maybe argue to get the boots sent to you

catmiaow

I would ask for a full explanation on why the boots are fake, don't just take their word for it. Have you contacted the company you brought them from? Maybe they can confirm they are genuine.

Otherwise if he used a visa debit card, I have done a chargeback for £15 before, so shouldn't be too much of a problem getting the money back but I say try above first!

savemoney

I wonder if the goods were seized at the docs either way surely the first port of call is the company and then if no joy the Visa route assuming you used the Visa card you have 120 days protection with Visa debt http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/7593369.stm


Visa debit card
A Visa debit card offers significantly better protection for shoppers. Their scheme is called Visa Debit Chargeback and any bank that issues a Visa debit card has to comply with the scheme.
You can claim money back if the goods you buy are damaged, or the product or services are not delivered.
There is no limit on what you can claim. But you have to claim within 120 days of the date you expected the goods to be delivered or the firm going bust.

kirkeastment

Sorry but it looks like the sites been shut down, and its now an advertisemnet place holder(if the site address is correct), which basically uses google ads as redirects to other sites related to UGG boots.

It could be that the site was shut down, because they went bankrupt, or whats more likely is they were selling fake goods, and were as such shut down by their country's trading standards.

Do as above poster has suggested, you should be protected if you used either CC or DC.

The site is registered to an american domain(use whois.com to get the infor for the domain), which upon searching for, has shown up as having multiple spam sites registered under its domain names, when googled.

morag1202

Many thanks to all who have replied. He paid on his Barclay's Debit card which I think may be visa so I'll tell him to contact the bank 2moro. He does intend ringing customs for an explanation and may have already emailed the site. I've never come across chargeback, but will certainly investigate. Thanks

lewt

did the boots get sent from China ?

if he paid on the card you say tell them to do a chargeback

morag1202

kirkeastment wrote: »

Sorry but it looks like the sites been shut down, and its now an advertisemnet place holder(if the site address is correct), which basically uses google ads as redirects to other sites related to UGG boots.

It could be that the site was shut down, because they went bankrupt, or whats more likely is they were selling fake goods, and were as such shut down by their country's trading standards.

Do as above poster has suggested, you should be protected if you used either CC or DC.

The site is registered to an american domain(use whois.com to get the infor for the domain), which upon searching for, has shown up as having multiple spam sites registered under its domain names, when googled.

Many thanks for the heads up on this. The site was working fine at 20.30 last night! We will do as you have all suggested. Thank God for MSE