Stuck with Fake item. where next??

Kyley_Wyleykat

Hi, I have bought a microphone from a site using paypal. I have had help from trading standards, the genuine company, 'SHURE' and their brand portection agency. We tracked down to whom the domain was registered etc and, to cut a long story short the company/website SOUNDSGREATUK.COM is chinese, it doesn't seem as if anyone can do anything to stop the selling of these fake goods as there is no address or phone number on the website to return goods to.
This was not an ebay transaction so paypal will not act.

The mic has been verified as fake by SHURE altho I knew the signs to look for before it arrived as I was suspiceous as soon as my payment went thru and I saw the sellers name.

I'm not sure now if there is anything else i can do. I cannot exercise my rights as I cannot return the goods.
ANy help gratefully received I cannot now afford to re-buy the mic

neilmcl

There's nothing you can do, it'll just have to be an expensive lesson.

esuhl

If the company are based in China I would just give up to be honest. Do you speak Chinese? The Chinese authorities really aren't likely to care in any case.

I once bought fake Shure earphones from a Chinese eBay seller. He was living in the UK at the time, so I emailed him to say that unless I got a refund pronto I would inform the local police, Trading Standards and Shure. I had a full refund the next day!

In future, always make sure the website you're buying from has a registered address and UK phone number on their website. And look up their address (via the Post Office, Google Maps, Companies House or just a web search) to make sure it's genuine if you're in any doubt. Dial the number and make sure that it goes through to the right company.

Anyway, it looks like you may be able to raise a dispute with PayPal despite the mic not being an eBay purchase. Have a look here: https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/safetyadvice/BuyerProtectionOffEbay.htm

stef73

I bought my wife some GHD straighteners using paypal (not through ebay) the site looked like a real GHD site . These when registered turned out to be fakes from china . I contacted paypal who said basically you didnt buy through ebay we wont help . I contacted paypal every week complaining about this 6 months later i was refunded . So when they say they wont help dont give in just keep at them .

I_Love_Shopping

stef73 wrote: »

I bought my wife some GHD straighteners using paypal (not through ebay) the site looked like a real GHD site . These when registered turned out to be fakes from china . I contacted paypal who said basically you didnt buy through ebay we wont help . I contacted paypal every week complaining about this 6 months later i was refunded . So when they say they wont help dont give in just keep at them .

I had/still have the same probelm... I brought my GHDs via a seller on Ebay, it was over 45 days since purchase though and Ebays reply didn't seem too concerned for the £70 I basically put in the bin. How long was it before you contacted paypal about the fake GHDs you brought?

Apples2

If that site looks like it sells genuine items to you.......then you really need to put the keyboard away and NEVER buy things online again.

Aside from the truly tacky 5 minute built website, a 10 second search on Whois would have revealed:

Registrant:
Jack Jun
Jack Jun
flat304
huren street
beijing
beijing
10110
CN

stef73

I_Love_Shopping wrote: »

I had/still have the same probelm... I brought my GHDs via a seller on Ebay, it was over 45 days since purchase though and Ebays reply didn't seem too concerned for the £70 I basically put in the bin. How long was it before you contacted paypal about the fake GHDs you brought?

I did it as soon as they arrived and tried to register with GHD

sally1981

I ordered what was advertised as genuine Australian UGGS from what looked like a legit site. After I had ordered I needed to check something and tried to phone the number on site and it was an invalid number. As I ordered and paid with credit card, I immediately cancelled my credit card. The boots turned up eventually in a battered box and they are obviously fake . I cannot return these as the address is in Chinese. So beware these Official Genuine UGG boots sites. Once bitten, twice shied. Always try to phone before ordering.

esuhl

sally1981 wrote: »

I ordered what was advertised as genuine Australian UGGS from what looked like a legit site. After I had ordered I needed to check something and tried to phone the number on site and it was an invalid number. As I ordered and paid with credit card, I immediately cancelled my credit card. The boots turned up eventually in a battered box and they are obviously fake . I cannot return these as the address is in Chinese. So beware these Official Genuine UGG boots sites. Once bitten, twice shied. Always try to phone before ordering.

It's always a good idea to check who you're buying from. If the website doesn't have a geographical phone number and UK address, I would think twice about ordering. Once you have the address, you can use Google Street View to check it out: is there a big warehouse with the same logo as on the website... or is it a small boarded-up terraced house...?

You can also check who the domain is registered to with a WHOIS lookup. If the contact details on the WHOIS record, Yell.com entry and the website itself are significantly different, that should set off alarm bells (although some legitimate companies might have several subsidiaries or use a third-party to manage their website).

It's also a good idea to do a web search for the name of the website and the word "scam" or "complaint" or "refund", etc. to see how many results you get.

Just remember that anyone can set up a legitimate-looking website, and it can have the appearance of being UK-based, maybe even with a .co.uk address, but it could belong to a 14-year-old Chinese con artist!