ValueBasket.com - any experiences?

50Twuncle

Chino wrote: »

What "central funds"?

From the link you provided:

"Also, there are no guarantees your card provider will be able to get the money back for you, particularly if the trader has gone out of business."

What I meant was "funds other than the original company" - especially when we are talking about an overseas company
And - this company has NOT gone out of business !!

Finlondon

I placed an order on 20th June 2015 on valuebasket.com and paid 302 pounds for a HTC one M8 mobile phone, but the goods never arrived. During the process of chasing them, their customer service sounds polite, but just lied to me again and again.
I placed the order because I trusted Google search result, valuebasket together with its sister website simplyelectronics.net are listed on the top search results on Google. And with very good customer reviews which I realised later that they are all fake.
After chasing valuebasket for about 2 weeks, I realised that my purchase might never get to me after waiting for 20 days, I decided to to cancel the order, but they send me a fake confirmation of delivery which had no tracking number, no information of courier, no information of their company in the invoice either.. I started becoming very suspicious. I went online and found out lots of other customers who had the same experience with me and couldn't get a refund at all.
I called valuebasket.com again today to chase the refund, but they just asked me to wait. they even don't disclose where their business is registered. The customer service said she could only tell me that it's HongKong based, but as for their registered address it's their business privacy!
I chatted with an online agent on Action Fraud and was informed that what I have experienced with valuebasket was a scam.
I have reported it and also contacted my bank to try to get my money back.
Please don't use this website. The reviews on Google are all fake. It seems simplyelectronics.net is its sister website.

Chino

50Twuncle wrote: »

And - this company has NOT gone out of business !!

The point I was making is that chargebacks are taken from the merchant's account with the merchant acquirer. If a merchant is no longer in business then the chargeback will fail - the funds will not be taken from "funds other than the original company" (unless the customer's issuer volunteers to make an ex-gratia payment to the customer).

50Twuncle

Chino wrote: »

The point I was making is that chargebacks are taken from the merchant's account with the merchant acquirer. If a merchant is no longer in business then the chargeback will fail - the funds will not be taken from "funds other than the original company" (unless the customer's issuer volunteers to make an ex-gratia payment to the customer).

I have succesfully used charge back on my Nationwide Debit card for reclaiming a £250 payment made to a defunct company !!

olorunnishola

Bobpu wrote: »

I cancelled an order before they had prepared the goods for despatch. They went ahead and despatched anyway and made no attempt to recover the goods from the courier. I contacted the courier and told him to return the goods to Value Basket as I would reject the delivery if it reached my door. This took about 5 MINUTES on the phone when VB had claimed that their Logistics Department had been trying to do the same thing for 5 DAYS. Alarm bells ring!!!
They then told me I would have to wait until the parcel was received in their Hong Kong warehouse before they would start processing my refund. Once again their Logistics Department appeared incapable (or unwilling I suspect) of processing the return from the courier.
To cut a long story short, I have a chain of 78 emails, 20 phone calls from me, 2 letters to their CEO and General Manager (if you want the addresses let me know) and complaints to Hong Kong Consumer Council and Consumer Affairs, Victoria, Australia (where payment was taken by VB Australia).
Finally I made a chargeback claim under section 75 of the credit card regulations and my bank refunded my payment then pursued VB for recompense. Today I was advised by my credit card company that they have recovered their money from VB.
This saga has run from 29/05/14 to 11/07/14, and I dread to think how much longer it would have taken if I had not made the Chargeback claim.
The only advice I can offer is that if you can't afford to lose the money don't even consider buying from them. The costs of chasing them are higher than the money you may save on their cheap quotations, and they supply grey imports to the UK so I suspect that trying to get repairs under warranty will mirror my experience.

Please i would like to get the addresses of value basket CEO or any top level staff

50Twuncle

olorunnishola wrote: »

Please i would like to get the addresses of value basket CEO or any top level staff

The CEO and company are based in China - why would that help you ?
Do you intend to send the debt collectors round ?

Albear28

On the surface, Valuebasket seems pretty legitimate. A quick google search brings up reviews from a 'trusted reviews' website. The results are mixed, almost giving half percentiles respectively for negative and positive.
So I decided to take the plunge and this was before I checked MSE :T.
Bought a Yotaphone 2 on 24/07 and shortly after received confirmation e-mails from VB. I then heard from DPD that my delivery was expected to turn up on 03/08. Friday 31st, I recieved an e-mail from DPD explaining that the parcel had not arrived with them. This is when alarm bells starting to ring and I decided to do a little deeper digging and found many negative views about VB, including from these forums on MSE. A little worried at this point to say the least...
But, it showed up today. Brand new and stinking of that solder/new plastic mix. So I must've been one of the lucky ones. We shall see if it decides to break within a year, then I may not be so lucky!
Not entirely sure what else to think about the seller but from what others have stated here and on a few other websites, I don't think I'll be using their services again until it improves for the better.

Edit: One other thing, the invoice was titled 'ES' no sign of the company Value basket, or the depot name. So no idea if that's meant to be a play on Simply electronics... who knows

thomek81

I ordered Samsung Galaxy S6 on ValueBasket website on 28th June, The delivery times stated were:
- Ready to be shipped: 1 - 2 working days
- Delivered: 3 - 7 working days
That meant the latest time I should have received it would be would be Thursday 9th July. HOWEVER, on 6th July I received this:
Due to unfortunate internal warehouse delays, there was a hick-up which caused us to overstep our promised time frame. We are picking up the pace and your order is currently in the priority queue. With both feet on the ground, our warehouse team is picking and packing all overdue orders as fast as they can.
They informed me that it will be dispatched from the warehouse on 14th July. I was not happy about it but decided to wait but then on 14th July I received this:
Under the present conditions, our logistics team is working to clear out the large volume of outstanding orders with priority. After discussions with them, I am very confident we will be able to fulfill your order within the next 2 weeks.
They were also kind enough to offer me 2% (!) discount which sounds like an insult to a customer (2%? really?).
On that day I cancelled the order and had to wait for money another week. So, basically they wasted almost 1 month of my time and delayed my order all this time. That's why I suggest everyone AVOID this company. They advertise that they have an item in stock which apparently they don't and commit to delivery times which they keep changing.
Tom

852bob

Please do not use this company, check out all the reviews you can. I purchased a Nikon D7100 that came up from Google search, I then checked this company out on trust pilot that produce glowing reports.
How I wished I would have checked a few more sites. My order was placed on the 03/08/2015 and the money taken straight away, but when trying to login to my account I had a problem. I contacted VB who kept sending me the same pre written email telling me to login with information that I was already in putting. After four days, I managed to access my account only to find that my order that was displayed as in stock had only been authorized. Alarm bells started to ring, and I decided to check the other review sites. To my horror, I found anything but raving reviews.
After one week the information changed to handling, and the alarm bells rang even louder. Not feeling comfortable with this company I cancel the order within seven days during the cooling off period. I am now awaiting a refund to my credit card, I have already approached my bank who seem to have found out his company's dealings in Gibraltar. So the plot thickens, to save yourself a lot of heartache, and worry, do not deal with this company. You would get a lot of polite reply's to your requests regarding bad service, but I feel these are just delaying tactics to throw you off the scent. Be safe AND DO NOT DEAL WITH THEM

Clicker65

Felt I had to share my experience of Valuebasket.com. I ordered a Panasonic LUMIX Bridge camera on 31st July 2015 having read a few positive reviews. Paid by Debit Card (something I never usually do as I only ever usually purchase from EBay and pay by PayPal). Money debited from account on Monday 3rd August then nothing, so I emailed on Friday 7th. Reply received Monday 10th advising slight delay in despatch. Thought that I should look for further comments about supplier and came across many negatives on this site which set off some small alarm bells, words like scam didn't help. Wednesday 12th I received an email saying item had been passed to carrier, tried to track and all I got was no update available at this stage. Today Friday 14th August 2015 camera was delivered well packed, all I can say is speak as you find, and I found Valuebasket professional at all times. Maybe they should state clearly tha items will be shipped from the Far East, and that delays may occur in customs but other than that Thank You Valuebasket.