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Not sure if this has been talked about before but a few months ago I bought a fancy looking bar bag for £30ish off a FB ad . It appeared to be a copy of a very expensive new product made and sold in the USA recently so I thought as I could pay by PayPal it was worth a punt.Anyhow ..after a long wait and several emails, which were aimed at reassuring me about the delay (as well as a weird tracking number) I became suspicious. Eventually a horrible cheap and nasty bar bag turned up nothing like the one in the ad which was worth perhaps a tenner.
I immediately complained to the vendor through PayPal Channels and was totally ignored by the vendor. I then requested paypal themselves step in and force the vendor to reply. That he/ she did and simply told me to send it back to China for a refund. It was originally advertised as coming from the UK .
Although PayPal have a system where they pay up to a certain amount for returns ,the amount was not enough to cover the return quotes and to track the return was even more prohibitively expensive.
I wonder whether the Chinese vendors are now deliberately exploiting this issue as they themselves pay so little to ship items (but know the costs to return) and so are banking people will decide it's too much hassle/ too expensive so they make a tidy profit as a result of supplying a crap product that costs so little.
In the end it seems I was extremely lucky as PayPal did give me a full refund without having to return it after extensive emails and complaints but after posting a thread on FB I learnt I was the exception to the rule and most people received nothing .
Had a family member order about £90 of clothing from china off the strength of some good social media ads.
It was horrendous stuff. See through fabrics, wonky cut etc. Got into same situation as you.
Unbelievably M&S credit card reimbursed them. Couldn't believe it tbh it very much seemed one of those caveat emptor situations. So worth a shot but morally when you're trying to buy counterfeit goods from China to save a couple of quid it should be viewed an idiot tax.
That bar bag scam is quite a popular one.
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/02/route-werks-handlebar-bag-scam/
Yep I fell for one recently. Entered a comp got a voucher for the mystery box $19.95 shipping. Cursory look at website stemmed genuine, Santa Cruz tops etc.
Shipping codes arrived all Chinese shippers no codes ever activated.
Package arrived just some shit stickers and a cheap neck tube thing.
Looking at website it's clearly a rip off site. The Santa Cruz top is made by shanun.
Had the same issue with 4x Cyclingcore disc brake alignment tool.
Ended up £52 out of pocket. PayPal sided with the seller because the return address in my opinion did not exist and I would then lose that postage.
I complained that the website only listed uk addresses and warehouses, but no,the return had to be China, the seller then gave me an option of a 2nd fake 'local' morroccan address.
If you fill in an affidavit saying they scammed you and postage is more than the item paypal
fully refund you.
I just had this with a plastic welder. Again said uk based company bit wasnt on a fb advert.
Good scam though, sell items under 20 quid. Send something worth pennies thats over 20 quid to return.
Thanks for the link re the scam article podge. Made me laugh though when the designer told cycling tips he'd invested 4,600 hours on designing the bag . I could come up with something similar in a day. He must be including hours spent drinking cocktails in a Taiwanese hotel in between talks with a manufacturer.
I could come up with something similar in a day.
I think you bought that version.
I bought what was advertised as a measuring tool for mitre saw. You ran your timber under the measuring wheel and it told you how much timber you had pushed through.
Think it was £17.95 so i took a punt but was skeptical.
Received a small yellow 1 metre long measuring tape 🙄
I wonder if anyone ever used the business model they came up with in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to make money 🤔🤣
Re the 4600 hours 4 folk working from conception to working prototype as well as IP work would burn through that time quite quickly.
143 days if 8 hours a day.
On the other hand some of the stuff you can buy is just staggering value for money. I needed a lower bar, a rack and a bag for my Brompton. Nothing suitable on EU sites (or even Uk) so I took a punt on some AliExpress stuff. I checked the reviews in different languages and all were well written so it looked legit and was. The only thing that shocks is that the things cost about 1/5 of what I'd consider fair and there was no tax to pay.
The only thing that shocks is that the things cost about 1/5 of what I’d consider fair and there was no tax to pay.
And of course all manufactured in an ethically and environmentally sound way...
And of course all manufactured in an ethically and environmentally sound way…
Not everything from China is made by killing small children with asbestos.
Not everything from China is made by killing small children with asbestos.
True, but a lot is & it all goes to help finance a regime whose principles I don't agree with.
On the other hand some of the stuff you can buy is just staggering value for money
This a true statement, but yeah, it's definitely "on the other hand" when someone is talking about getting scammed! ie. it's totally irrelevant.
I could come up with something similar in a day.
🙄
I was on your side until that comment.
*Don't buy anything through a face book add - Google the item first and you'll find 99% of the time the same item can be bought through reputable sellers for 1/3rd of the cost.
*The scammers know that it'll cost a significant amount to send it back (that's if they exist by that point).
*They also tend to keep items cost below the chargeback threshold for banks.
*Facebook themselves take no responsibility for scam adverts.
I agree with you Dickyboy. I worked out that the handlebar being sold on Ali at 4e50 was the same as the one for 55e from London something or other so whereever I bought it was being made by the same people under the same regime. Same shape, rise, lenghth and range of anodised colours in the same photgraph.
Some things are simply unobtainable as "made in EU". We make the effort (both in terms of research and expense) to buy EU or failing that from the least objectionalble régimes, but there are some things that Europe no longer makes that are really quite useful.
Yes it would be nice if Brompton offered a range of bar heights made in UK. They don't, there's achoice of two with 140mm between them. I don't know how accurately you like to set your bikes up, I like them to be comfortable.
My trail shoes, socks, underwear and some T-shirts are made in France. Stopped buying made in China guitars and stuff.
I"m aware of the issues but still have a made in China phone, computer and a few bike bits.
Ring Paypal and explain.
If no luck ring your credit card company and request a chargeback. Always pay with credit card.
The Chinese state subsidises postage, basically they pay for the postage to stick it on the plane, when it lands here its royal mail's problem. Under £15 or whatever theres no import duties to pay.
Theres no UK middleman or storage to pay.
Thats why stuff is so cheap on aliexpress.
https://www.ft.com/content/3af8bfb8-ad3a-11e8-94bd-cba20d67390c
“Royal Mail is subsiding Chinese resellers. People have no idea the scale of what is happening. It is cheaper to get something direct from China than for us to deliver it from the UK,”