Buyers Beware

lindarhead

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if I'm posting this on the correct board but hopefully if not admin will move it to the correct one. I wanted to warn anyone out there wanting to buy a new laptop or similar not to buy from an online company called Geek Depot.co.uk. They do not deliver! I ordered and paid for a laptop on Nov 25th and had the usual confirmation email with dispatch date and tracking number with courier company Advectus.co.uk. I went onto the tracking site on the 27th Nov to see when I could expect delivery and the estimated date was 8th Dec. This was okay at this point as they had said at the outset that delivery would take around 8-10 days. I was home all day yesterday, the 8th, waiting in gleeful anticipation for the delivery.It did not arrive. I checked on the tracking website and my order still said 'in progress', so I thought they were simply behind with deliveries and it would arrive today. I checked again this morning and the tracker had been updated to 'delivered'. It hadn't been ! So now I started to panic. I went onto the courier website...no phone number. Emailed via their contact form, no response. Phoned Geek Depot, very sympathetic, couldn't put me through to customer services as their phones were 'down' but would get someone to call me back. No call back! After several phone calls still no satisfactory info. I was now really panicking having parted with £404.99. I began to suspect that Geek Depot and Advectus were one and the same so checked on Whois.... low and behold both companies were registered by Digital Solutions Direct Ltd on 10 Nov 2011. It turned out that the office address and company registration number belonged to a company who ceased trading this year. The owner of that company is reporting Advectus and Geek Depot to the police for fraud, besides trying to get their websites shut down. Fortunately I paid via PayPal and they assure me I should get my money back, so I wait , fingers crossed, in the hope that I do. But please, anyone out there, take heed, and learn from my mistake.

Linda

paulsad

website seems to be offline! Looks bad news.

pip_9

I hope you get your money back

maninthestreet

How did you pay? If it was by CC, the CC company are equally liable as the 'merchant' for any failures to keep to the contract.

EDIT - I see you paid via PAYPAL.

donnabrown33

Sadly we have fallen foul to the same thing. We paid through our credit card and they only deal with disputes during the week so we'll have to wait until tomorrow to take any action.

Ibinscammed

Hi All

My situation is exactly the same as in the main post. I placed my order on 26 November and tracked it on Advectus delivery site. It said estimated delivery 8 December but it wasn't delivered. The. The tracking o. The delivery site said it had been delivered!! When I phoned Geek Depot the customer service number just rang and rang. Now I see Geekdepot.co.uk website has disappears as has the Adextus delivery site. I've reported it to the police as nothing has been delivered yet the transaction appears on my credit card bill!!!

There seems to be another site now "pixel" something that has a reference to Geek depot in its privacy statement. Check carefully before you place any on line order.

Happy Christmas guys

wealdroam

Ibinscammed wrote: »

Hi All

My situation is exactly the same as in the main post. I placed my order on 26 November and tracked it on Advectus delivery site. It said estimated delivery 8 December but it wasn't delivered. The. The tracking o. The delivery site said it had been delivered!! When I phoned Geek Depot the customer service number just rang and rang. Now I see Geekdepot.co.uk website has disappears as has the Adextus delivery site. I've reported it to the police as nothing has been delivered yet the transaction appears on my credit card bill!!!

There seems to be another site now "pixel" something that has a reference to Geek depot in its privacy statement. Check carefully before you place any on line order.

Happy Christmas guys

Good heavens!

It's only 11 December today.

So your parcel is only one working day late and your are reporting it to the Police?

Amazing!

George_Michael

wealdroam wrote: »

Good heavens!

It's only 11 December today.

So your parcel is only one working day late and your are reporting it to the Police?

Amazing!

Given the circumstances, I think that reporting it to the police is the corect action to take.


The tracking site is showing that the laptop has been delivered but it hasn't.
Their phone isn't being answered.
Their website is no longer working.
And as stated by the OP, it appears that something fraudulent has been going on with both the retailer and the shipping company.

Why wait to report it?
If there is nothing wrong then no harm will have been done, but if it is a scam operation then the sooner it's reported the better.

gbo1976

Hi ,

I have also ordered from geekdepot. My order was placed on the 21st November, first delivery date was 30th November then I received an email on the 28th stating that there was a problem with the courier company and the new date was the 2nd December. I also got a new tracking number.

To date I have heard nothing, the items did not arrive, I spoke to sales arm of geekdepot but could not get through to the customer support team and I have emailed them with no response. I paid via paypal and have raised a dispute with them.

It does not look good now as both sites are down.

Ibinscammed

wealdroam wrote: »

Good heavens!

It's only 11 December today.

So your parcel is only one working day late and your are reporting it to the Police?

Amazing!

Wealdroam,

Don't comment unless you have something useful to say.

As you will see other people are having the same problem and I wouldn't have realised that this might be a potential scam without the aid of this blog.

It's about alerting people about potential problems and to be careful before placing a purchase.

I'm sure that, if like me, you had ordered something worth hundreds of pounds and the company you ordered it from has now disappeared completely off the web you would be suspicous too.

Despite your negative comments I do wish you and your family a happy christmas and I hope that you don't have to go through what I and (it appears) many others have gone through where our christmases have potentially been ruined.

Think before you write next time.....

wealdroam

Ibinscammed wrote: »

Wealdroam,

Don't comment unless you have something useful to say.

As you will see other people are having the same problem and I wouldn't have realised that this might be a potential scam without the aid of this blog.

It's about alerting people about potential problems and to be careful before placing a purchase.

I'm sure that, if like me, you had ordered something worth hundreds of pounds and the company you ordered it from has now disappeared completely off the web you would be suspicous too.

Despite your negative comments I do wish you and your family a happy christmas and I hope that you don't have to go through what I and (it appears) many others have gone through where our christmases have potentially been ruined.

Think before you write next time.....

But it is only one day late.

Merry Christmas to you too. :beer: