Scam site sent a wrong item, what next?

El_Scot

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help with what I'm best to do here.

I was looking for a new pair of shoes, and decided on a pair I found heavily recommended on travel blogs. I found myself on what I thought was a UK based website selling the shoes. It was only after I paid that I discovered it was a scam site - the money had come out in CNY & the order confirmation had spelled the make of the shoes wrong. 

I contacted the shoe manufacturer to check whether the site I had used was a legitimate distributor, they confirmed it was a scam and told me to contact my bank. I contacted my bank and cancelled the card, but they said I would have to wait 30 days to see if anything arrived from the distributor before I could raise a claim via them.

Surprisingly a package arrived from China about a week later - a wallet (obviously they wanted a proof of delivery for something). The bank told me I needed to contact the seller to request a refund before I could raise a claim.

I've had a few days of emailing back and forth to the seller (had assumed they'd ignore me). They told me I must return the goods to receive a refund, but they offered me a 30% (later rising to 40%) discount to keep the item. I've insisted I'm due a 100% refund, including return postage costs, as they sent an incorrect item. After a few days of pushing, they have finally given me a return address, but cautioned against returning, as "items are often detained by customs", in which case they can only offer me a 40% discount. I can sense how this will go, even if they do receive the item...

My question is, what can/should I do here? Is the best thing is to return via tracked delivery so I can get proof of receipt (cost £12-15 approx) or is that simply throwing good money after bad? Should I just start a claim with my bank now without returning? Will that even get me anywhere?

It is also worth mentioning, the original transaction was supposed to be £76, they later adjusted it to charge me £86, if that might be a better avenue to pursue a dispute?

km1500

yes this is a well-known scam. 

El_Scot

km1500 said:

yes this is a well-known scam. 

Do you know what they advise to do with the item?

born_again

It is also worth mentioning, the original transaction was supposed to be £76, they later adjusted it to charge me £86, if that might be a better avenue to pursue a dispute?

No that is the exchange rate difference. Which is calculated on debit, not when you place the order.

Speak to bank again & say you have proof from brand holder (hope they sent you proof, if not get them to) that they are counterfeit goods. As such card regs say you do not have to send them back. As technically knowing you are sending counterfeit goods can land you in hot water if customs pick them out.

El_Scot

born_again said:

It is also worth mentioning, the original transaction was supposed to be £76, they later adjusted it to charge me £86, if that might be a better avenue to pursue a dispute?

No that is the exchange rate difference. Which is calculated on debit, not when you place the order.

Speak to bank again & say you have proof from brand holder (hope they sent you proof, if not get them to) that they are counterfeit goods. As such card regs say you do not have to send them back. As technically knowing you are sending counterfeit goods can land you in hot water if customs pick them out.

Would this count if they sent a wallet instead of counterfeit shoes though?

Also should explain with the £76/86 thing, the price was always given as £76 GBP, it initially showed as £76 on my bank account, but it rose to £86 the next day despite the exchange rate holding fairly steady between the two days, which is why it seems more like they adjusted it than it being due to the exchange rate.

TELLIT01

Look on sites such as Trustpilot to see if others have reported the same scam.  If they have, the bank may be more inclined to accept that you have been scammed rather than requiring you to jump through all sorts of hoops to prove it.

km1500

El_Scot said:

km1500 said:

yes this is a well-known scam. 

Do you know what they advise to do with the item?

I think the general advice is not to buy from China - but not much use to you now. Assume anything you buy from a strange company is coming from China even if a UK address.

My advice (fwiw) would be to accept the partial refund they offer you, unless you want a protracted battle which will probably not end in your favour.

born_again

TELLIT01 said:

Look on sites such as Trustpilot to see if others have reported the same scam.  If they have, the bank may be more inclined to accept that you have been scammed rather than requiring you to jump through all sorts of hoops to prove it.

Makes no difference with chargebacks. The hoops are Visa/Mastercards. Bank has no say & can not short cut them.

No it is not fraud either 👍

It can be safe to buy from China, what you have to do, as in OP's case is look at T/C & returns info. Especially when looking at a branded item, that you may well have seen a add on social media for.

El_Scot

I've raised a claim through my bank to see what they say I need to do next - I don't want to pay to return the item if I'll never receive any kind of refund, and especially not if there is a risk it'll land me in hot water, but I'll do it if my bank insists it's a step I need to go through.

Murphybear

km1500 said:

El_Scot said:

km1500 said:

yes this is a well-known scam. 

Do you know what they advise to do with the item?

I think the general advice is not to buy from China - but not much use to you now. Assume anything you buy from a strange company is coming from China even if a UK address.

My advice (fwiw) would be to accept the partial refund they offer you, unless you want a protracted battle which will probably not end in your favour.

I buy many things online and when finding a company I’ve not used before I do as much research as possible to find out whether I want to deal with them.  You can often spot a Chinese company from the length of time it takes for delivery.  There are loads of companies which advertise really lovely clothes for silly money but research shows the quality is low and the customer service horrendous.  Customer reviews are usually 90% terrible or thereabouts.

I did have one positive experience.  I ordered some earrings in the shape of lit up Christmas trees and ordered them early as I knew they were coming from China.  They kept emailing me to say they had been delayed and eventually decided they were “lost in the post”.  They refunded the cost immediately which included postage. 

Really funny ending.  The earrings arrived in January.   . They were surprisingly nice and the cost?  80p including postage.  

peter_the_piper

Hope you paid them.