Company claiming be in UK, but isn't!
Discussion
Tricky trying to capture what's going on here in the thread title. Anyway...
- The OH ordered a pet product from a website with a .co.uk address.
- Received a shipping notice with a Royal Mail tracking link.
- Tracking link didn't work.
- OH figured she might have to wait a while for link to be active.
- A while passes. Link still not working.
- OH chases order over the course of a few weeks.
- Supplier fobs her off each time.
- OH loses trust and raises a dispute with PayPal.
- Package arrives from China containing four totally random and unrecognisable items but, crucially, has a reference to pet products on the label, so not just a coincidence.
- OH complains that she's been sent the wrong stuff.
- Supplier now fobbing OH off again with "send photos", etc.
- OH just wants a refund but PayPal process gives supplier until 24 October to sort it.
- Numerous other people have reviewed the company and told a similar story.
Your example does sound very dodgy although I wouldn’t worry as I’ve found PayPal to be very good at solving problems.
But I am starting to see this quite a bit now with websites. I’ve had at least three legitimate businesses that are passing themselves off as being British, .co.uk and only when the product comes it’s obviously not. They have all been in the Eu though, China does tend to be a red flag.
I can’t say I really care where they are based if the product, price and delivery is all good. But it does feel a bit of a con if you can call yourself davesfarmsupplies.co.uk then your garden stuff arrives from Hans in Munich. I’m guessing European counties saw a drop off of uk orders when our media were scaremongering about people being hit with unexpected import tax bills for buying paper clips from the eu post brexit.
But I am starting to see this quite a bit now with websites. I’ve had at least three legitimate businesses that are passing themselves off as being British, .co.uk and only when the product comes it’s obviously not. They have all been in the Eu though, China does tend to be a red flag.
I can’t say I really care where they are based if the product, price and delivery is all good. But it does feel a bit of a con if you can call yourself davesfarmsupplies.co.uk then your garden stuff arrives from Hans in Munich. I’m guessing European counties saw a drop off of uk orders when our media were scaremongering about people being hit with unexpected import tax bills for buying paper clips from the eu post brexit.
This is a typical paypal scam. I hope you get your money back, but when i was stung i didnt.
I ordered a fancy looking camping chair from a website that looked good, listed in the uk etc. Paid with paypal as i thought i was protected. Weeks later a way cheaper item arrived (hammock!) than what i ordered. I discovered that with paypal terms, if the item arrives but is wrong you have to return it. With china being the return address it wasnt worth it. Paypal found in favour of the seller, although with some arguing offered me £10 (item was £30 i think).
I ordered a fancy looking camping chair from a website that looked good, listed in the uk etc. Paid with paypal as i thought i was protected. Weeks later a way cheaper item arrived (hammock!) than what i ordered. I discovered that with paypal terms, if the item arrives but is wrong you have to return it. With china being the return address it wasnt worth it. Paypal found in favour of the seller, although with some arguing offered me £10 (item was £30 i think).
eniacs said:
This is a typical paypal scam. I hope you get your money back, but when i was stung i didnt.
I ordered a fancy looking camping chair from a website that looked good, listed in the uk etc. Paid with paypal as i thought i was protected. Weeks later a way cheaper item arrived (hammock!) than what i ordered. I discovered that with paypal terms, if the item arrives but is wrong you have to return it. With china being the return address it wasnt worth it. Paypal found in favour of the seller, although with some arguing offered me £10 (item was £30 i think).
My Mum had the same with a pair of shoes. Bought from a UK website, wrong size turns up, Mum contacts them, they offer a refund of £10, or return the item. Snag is the return address is China, so just not worth the hastle. She ended up getting £12 out of them in the end.I ordered a fancy looking camping chair from a website that looked good, listed in the uk etc. Paid with paypal as i thought i was protected. Weeks later a way cheaper item arrived (hammock!) than what i ordered. I discovered that with paypal terms, if the item arrives but is wrong you have to return it. With china being the return address it wasnt worth it. Paypal found in favour of the seller, although with some arguing offered me £10 (item was £30 i think).
MitchT said:
Tricky trying to capture what's going on here in the thread title. Anyway...
Had similar with a real bunch of a holes who had the word ‘light’ in longer company name, Uk website, 2 day delivery etc etc all lies. I sent photos proving they sent wrong stuff, then they wanted goods returned to China with me declaring on customs it was a ‘gift’, and at my expense to be reimbursed when it got to their Chinese wh! - The OH ordered a pet product from a website with a .co.uk address.
- Received a shipping notice with a Royal Mail tracking link.
- Tracking link didn't work.
- OH figured she might have to wait a while for link to be active.
- A while passes. Link still not working.
- OH chases order over the course of a few weeks.
- Supplier fobs her off each time.
- OH loses trust and raises a dispute with PayPal.
- Package arrives from China containing four totally random and unrecognisable items but, crucially, has a reference to pet products on the label, so not just a coincidence.
- OH complains that she's been sent the wrong stuff.
- Supplier now fobbing OH off again with "send photos", etc.
- OH just wants a refund but PayPal process gives supplier until 24 October to sort it.
- Numerous other people have reviewed the company and told a similar story.
In the end I just called PayPal and told them I would keep calling and calling til they (PayPal) refunded me, I had in writing they wanted me to commit Customs fraud I had proof wrong goods sent etc etc . Then refunded me and 50 quid more for all the bother.
Just call PayPal and tell the supplier to do one.
wibble cb said:
Yellow Lizud said:
Wait 'till Oct 24th then PayPal will refund you.
Not a lot else you can do.
Just make sure any messages to seller all go via Ebay messenger. Do not communicate with seller directly.
I don’t think eBay was involved?Not a lot else you can do.
Just make sure any messages to seller all go via Ebay messenger. Do not communicate with seller directly.
In that case, as others have said, the chances of getting your money back are slim to zero.
Plenty of companies and other entities around who just dropship stuff from Aliexpress, etc in China.
You order from them, and they put an order through Aliexpress with your shipping address, and the supplier ships directly to you. The profit the entity you bought it from makes is the difference between what they charged you and what it actually costs on Aliexpress. Often this delta can be significant.
There's nothing outrageously dodgy about it, many people do it as their primary revenue stream. It is just a bit more blatant than a UK supplier receiving stock from China, as all they're doing in this instance is placing an order on your behalf - which you could have just as easily done yourself had you known about it.
The tracking number you get is a format used worldwide, so would work with a Royal Mail link. It would - as you've found out - appear to be an invalid or untrackable code for some time, often weeks, as Royal Mail don't provide tracking for the UK leg until it lands in the country.
If all you've got to go on that they are a "UK company" is a .co.uk website, then as said this is basically meaningless. I own a .es domain and I'm not Spanish.
As it is - it sounds like it's still in the PayPal dispute stage, so until that's exhausted there isn't really much else you can do. It's likely PayPal will side with you anyway.
You order from them, and they put an order through Aliexpress with your shipping address, and the supplier ships directly to you. The profit the entity you bought it from makes is the difference between what they charged you and what it actually costs on Aliexpress. Often this delta can be significant.
There's nothing outrageously dodgy about it, many people do it as their primary revenue stream. It is just a bit more blatant than a UK supplier receiving stock from China, as all they're doing in this instance is placing an order on your behalf - which you could have just as easily done yourself had you known about it.
The tracking number you get is a format used worldwide, so would work with a Royal Mail link. It would - as you've found out - appear to be an invalid or untrackable code for some time, often weeks, as Royal Mail don't provide tracking for the UK leg until it lands in the country.
If all you've got to go on that they are a "UK company" is a .co.uk website, then as said this is basically meaningless. I own a .es domain and I'm not Spanish.
As it is - it sounds like it's still in the PayPal dispute stage, so until that's exhausted there isn't really much else you can do. It's likely PayPal will side with you anyway.
Edited by Durzel on Friday 7th October 10:41
I have even had this from France. I ordered an item from a very well known manufacturer of high end ornaments from their UK website in GBP. I then received a call a week later from DHL asking me to pay import duty and VAT. Manufacturer denied all liability even though I had no way of knowing it was imported and told me to pay. or return the item (at my expense). Fortunately DHL didn't persue me in the end, possibly because it was the early days of Brexit when everything was a bit confused.
petrolbloke said:
Sounds like fraud that PayPal is supporting.
Perhaps if customers were entitled to keep incorrect orders and receive a refund then companies would be more careful about sending the right items out.
The trouble with that is people could say they have been sent the wrong item when it is the correct one, in other words open to abuse.Perhaps if customers were entitled to keep incorrect orders and receive a refund then companies would be more careful about sending the right items out.
If you suspect something isn't right and can be bothered - you could contact Nominet.
Obviously there is nothing to stop someone outside of the UK owning a co.uk domain - Nominet are actually quite strict on contact details for the domain.
If this domain is in use by a "Foreign Organisation" but has been registered to an individual in Bognor - Nominet won't particularly like that.
Obviously there is nothing to stop someone outside of the UK owning a co.uk domain - Nominet are actually quite strict on contact details for the domain.
If this domain is in use by a "Foreign Organisation" but has been registered to an individual in Bognor - Nominet won't particularly like that.
Truffles said:
I have even had this from France. I ordered an item from a very well known manufacturer of high end ornaments from their UK website in GBP. I then received a call a week later from DHL asking me to pay import duty and VAT. Manufacturer denied all liability even though I had no way of knowing it was imported and told me to pay. or return the item (at my expense). Fortunately DHL didn't persue me in the end, possibly because it was the early days of Brexit when everything was a bit confused.
You bought the wing'd horse of chavtat, didn't you? 
I had this a few years ago after ordering O/H a couple of bargain priced handbags. Website looked OK, address was a north London retail centre but the order acknowledgment contained some Chinese characters, just a single line. I dug deeper, saw they were 'off shore', way off shore, cancelled the order and contacted Barclaycard who refunded the full value (no Paypal involvement).
Some time later a pair of Rayban Wayfarers arrived with a delivery note containing the same line of Chinese text. The glasses were obviously fakes but very good fakes. O/H took them to her optician who checked them over and said they were OK to wear - she is very susceptible to light so wears shades almost all the time outside.
Since then I've been very wary of buying on-line, especially too-good-to-be-true offers and always use a credit card, just in case.
Some time later a pair of Rayban Wayfarers arrived with a delivery note containing the same line of Chinese text. The glasses were obviously fakes but very good fakes. O/H took them to her optician who checked them over and said they were OK to wear - she is very susceptible to light so wears shades almost all the time outside.
Since then I've been very wary of buying on-line, especially too-good-to-be-true offers and always use a credit card, just in case.
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