Delivery "insurance" surcharge following order placement

JVN01

Interestingly the prices on the website show for me in GBP, it looks like a fully cloned website from somewhere...

I did notice the Manchester phone number when I was digging a bit over the weekend but these days with virtual numbers etc it's hard to know what numbers/service providers companies are using half the time...

km1500

Yes - be careful. Glad we got to the bottom.of it - at least you know HOW you were scammed now ! 

TadleyBaggie

Found a Canadian site that looks like the same showroom pictures named Alberta Small Engine Services. Not sure if that fake too or genuine!

https://www.albertasmallengine.com/gallery/57375#showroom-009

Nearlyold

JVN01 said:

Interestingly the prices on the website show for me in GBP, it looks like a fully cloned website from somewhere...

I did notice the Manchester phone number when I was digging a bit over the weekend but these days with virtual numbers etc it's hard to know what numbers/service providers companies are using half the time...

The prices show in GBP on the "trading" part of the website but if you scroll down the About Us page, you'll see a photo of a palatial showroom where the info and price tags on the machines show the prices in dollars, they've presumably lifted the photo from a genuine US dealers website.  

4justice2

And their "blog" advice pages for 2022 apparently written in 2019 (and they refer to "gas" rather than petrol chainsaws)......

Casskale

Small Engine Services are located in Bridport and we a Global garden machinery expert.

"We a Global garden machinery expert"?

You've been had, my friend.

Jumblebumble

JVN01 said:

Nearlyold said:

There's some worrying anomalies in the details. Small Engine Services Bridport appears to be a small "hands on" repairs spares and sales business in modest premises - they don't have any website details just E-Bay and Facebook where their main trade would appear to be used parts and repairs with a local Bridport phone number.

The about us info for smallenginesmachinery.com has a picture of a palatial showroom with a large floor display of machinery with prices in dollars - whilst the address given is Bridport the area code for the phone number is Manchester.

Yep you're correct, it appears their brand name/website has been cloned/sproofed after all. I just had a reply from their eBay outlet 20 min ago (whom I tried contacting over the weekend) to say they are aware of a fraudulent website operating under their name and that I should contact my bank to report the fraudulent activity... So I spoke to the bank and cancelled my card and will hopefully get a refund in due course...

Not sure what I could have done differently to avoid getting stung like this, but at least I caught it in time before any further charges were made to my card.

Cheeky feckers

Thanks for the advice anyway folks! Be careful out there...

2 big red flags
A business that claims to be Global has a gmail address and is not using their own domain
A business that clearly states on their website that they do not abide by the CRA
Also what is   Money Guarantee 3 Day Money Back  all about?

tightauldgit

Jumblebumble said:

JVN01 said:

Nearlyold said:

There's some worrying anomalies in the details. Small Engine Services Bridport appears to be a small "hands on" repairs spares and sales business in modest premises - they don't have any website details just E-Bay and Facebook where their main trade would appear to be used parts and repairs with a local Bridport phone number.

The about us info for smallenginesmachinery.com has a picture of a palatial showroom with a large floor display of machinery with prices in dollars - whilst the address given is Bridport the area code for the phone number is Manchester.

Yep you're correct, it appears their brand name/website has been cloned/sproofed after all. I just had a reply from their eBay outlet 20 min ago (whom I tried contacting over the weekend) to say they are aware of a fraudulent website operating under their name and that I should contact my bank to report the fraudulent activity... So I spoke to the bank and cancelled my card and will hopefully get a refund in due course...

Not sure what I could have done differently to avoid getting stung like this, but at least I caught it in time before any further charges were made to my card.

Cheeky feckers

Thanks for the advice anyway folks! Be careful out there...

2 big red flags
A business that claims to be Global has a gmail address and is not using their own domain
A business that clearly states on their website that they do not abide by the CRA
Also what is   Money Guarantee 3 Day Money Back  all about?

3rd big red flag - the website has clearly been written by a non-native english speaker and not checked by anyone who is. 

RS2OOO

And the message section of the website asks you to "write us" which is not a British term.

Further, main phone number is redirected to a mobile number that is switched off.

Scam websites are getting more convincing, and with every scammer now signing up to chatgpt, it will become extremely difficult to tell which websites are legit or not. I have a habit of checking the company registration numbers for any new site I buy from, and still almost got caught out once where the scammers were using the registration number of a legit company with the same name. I only sussed it out when I called the phone number and it didn't exist, then I did a whois on the web address and found the site had only been up a Month, but the company who's name and logo they'd used had been established for decades.

Money_Grabber13579

The team involved at small engine services look very familiar from this website…

https://www.salisburygardenmachinery.co.uk/about-us/meet-the-team