Help Pls! 1yr Old DealExtreme Order Still Not Received!

SuperCNJ

Hi guys,

I would like some (legal?) advice on an internet purchase I made on 27/12/2010. I purchased six items from DealExtreme.com (DX), all but one item was not delivered. The missing item did not cost much at $5.80 but I feel it is the principle and is still my money so I should pursue this.

It was not until I enquired about the missing item that I found out that they had actually sold out of this item. If I had not contacted them I would never had known. After 6 months of indirect communications (via their website) their customer service said they will give me a voucher to the value of $5.80 which I can use on my next purchase. I refused, as I did not have anything I wanted to buy and just wanted my money back. This didn't go down well with DX, their subsequent responses were unhelpful and did not commit to providing a refund. Eventually, they closed my case with the status as "shipped" even though I still had an item outstanding. This took place without informing me or with my consent - again I only found out by logging into their website.

Now they have closed the case, I had no means of communicating with them via their resolution centre ( Customer Service Express), so I used their online customer service chat facility to speak with someone called "Star". Star informed me that they had closed my case and have instructed another department to the process a refund for me, Star ensured me that I would receive the refund by 15 January 2012 AND an Email would be sent to me to inform me of this. It is now 10 days past that date and still nothing. As DX are based in China/Hong Kong, their online chat facility only works during office hours in HK - which is very inconvenient for me in the UK.

What annoys me the most about this is that in the past 12 months, there has not been one single attempt to contact me to tell me anything despite having my Email address which they only use for sending me promotional newletters. I have had to go through their convoluted website/customer service contact facility to get scraps of false information where not only has the standard of English been poor at best, but also dishonest customer service reps.

Admittedly DX have been fairly good in the past, although delivery has always been very slow, their prices are good.

I'm not really sure where I can go with this now. Nothing seems to get their attention, particularly as they are not a UK company and based abroad there doesn't seem like much I can do. I'd like some advice or opinions on this. My thinking is that ideally, a letter/Email from a solicitor would probably work but seems a little extreme for $5.80.

Any advice on this would be much appreciated!

mattyprice4004

They would bin it, someone practicing law in the UK means nothing over there.

Their law applies, and a letter from a UK solicitor won't do anything.

Just chalk it down to experience and move on.

Quentin

SuperCNJ wrote: »

My thinking is that ideally, a letter/Email from a solicitor would probably work but seems a little extreme for $5.80.

Any advice on this would be much appreciated!

Your thinking is out of all proportion.

A solicitor's letter over 6 dollars is ridiculous. To a firm in China it's laughable!

You have done your best to get revenge by posting here.

Give up on this (and you never know a refund mught still turn up!)

somethingcorporate

Some things are worth kicking up a fuss and involving a lawyer. $6 is not one of those things.

Hintza

SuperCNJ wrote: »

their customer service said they will give me a voucher to the value of $5.80 which I can use on my next purchase. I refused, as I did not have anything I wanted to buy

SuperCNJ wrote: »

Admittedly DX have been fairly good in the past, although delivery has always been very slow, their prices are good.

You could have had at least some sort of settlement from them and it looks like you shop with them occasionally and this was not a one off.

Pick your battles with care.

arcon5

SuperCNJ wrote: »

I'm not really sure where I can go with this now. Nothing seems to get their attention, particularly as they are not a UK company and based abroad there doesn't seem like much I can do. I'd like some advice or opinions on this. My thinking is that ideally, a letter/Email from a solicitor would probably work but seems a little extreme for $5.80.

Any advice on this would be much appreciated!

I'm not really sure why people think a solicitors letter from a consumer is scary :huh:
It's like the people that turn round and say 'my husband/brother/friend is a lawyer and I will get him to deal with it' -- well who cares, he/she can't do anything that you can't, and good luck convincing a judge to award you legal costs of a consumer rights issue!
9 in 10 times they are a bluff. Companies know you won't go to court over trivial amounts, especially if your on rocky grounds -- in this case being they're in China!
It's when the solicitors get involved and you owe £15k that your heart really sinks into your stomach, knowing the £200/hr fee is being added to the bill :eek:

Give it up and vote with your feet!

Shim

I tried to purchase some bike lights from them for $80, they never arrived, I tried incessantly to contact them and eventually, through the website I managed to request a refund. They emailed me back saying they had tried to give me a refund but paypals response was that it was out of date, I told them that they still owe me the money and they must send it back immediately and their response was a duplicate email of what they had previously said however I now have no way of responding or contacting them!

Does anyone have any better ideas? Would be much appreciated.

ColinFishwick

It can easily take a month for goods to come that said. I complained about a defective torch soon after xmas and they sent a replacement one for free last week so took 3 weeks to come. They did reply to my email the following day and apologised. Maybe contact them

Shim

I have tried and tried and tried, do you have an email address or any form of communication? when I look at my order online it says shipped even though they admit it wasnt

wealdroam

Shim, investigate your card company's chargeback scheme.

You have probably read it already, but maybe MSE's Chargeback article will help.

There are time limits, so get moving.

SuperCNJ

I take the points about $6 being a small amount of money, I realise this as I tip waiters more than this. But it is the principle and the total lack of customer care and attitude towards helping you that disgusts me. We in the UK don't like to complain, but companies like DX need to be told and shouldn't be allowed to get away with such poor practices.

Obviously its a bit extreme to pay a solicitor to write a letter but at the very least, surely the regulating authority for retailers in Hong Kong needs to know about it and possibly investigate.

After some googling, I found this site: http://www.consumer.org.hk

Shim, I think you're experiencing the same problem as me but with a larger amount. They've designed their website so that it's really difficult to contact them directly. All the communications are dealt with on their website, so you don't get any Emails telling you they have responded or you cannot keep copies of the communication. For me, they have closed my case, so I've lost all the communications that had taken place. It's a really furtive way of working. I think it's been designed tactically to give them the upperhand in disputes.