Tag Archives: Cheap Chinese Garbage

Stung again

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I really, really need to stop ordering things from Facebook-promoted ads. I’ve written previously and copiously about the nature of promoted posts on Facebook, and thought I had learned my lesson; some of these things are pretty enticing, though. Well, shame on me.

But as a word to the wiser-than-I, my latest escapade with a Chinese merchant, one who – not unlike most of them – have all the ethics of a starving honey badger.

This one of many Amazon listings for the item we ordered, although we bought from a company named “blueorxy” – clearly a randomly-generated name. They’re still out there, and I would trust them as far as I could throw a Steinway piano. As soon as we ordered, we started getting notifications from a supposed tracking company; the notifications ended on December 10, and from then nothing was heard.

The package finally appeared on 15 January, with the following label:

The label shows clearly that it was shipped directly from China. The whole series of notifications from “shipping@24hservice.vip” was a bunch of computer-generated nonsense. We paid nearly $40.00 for a cheaply-made, cheaply painted resin piece of garbage that isn’t worth $3.95.

When I tried complaining about the quality and shipping deception, I got this from their auto-bot (no hope of contacting a real person):

～Uh-oh. I sincerely apologize for giving you an unpleasant shopping experience. Please trust your first choice. This product has a high sales volume in our company and has several advantages:

First: The price is high cost-performance.
Second: Customer evaluation is good.
Third: The buyback rate is high.
So it is a better choice to keep it.

Sorry you are not satisfied with our products.
Will it be possible to give others as a gift?
They are superior in quality and reasonable in price.
They have been in top-seller in our company for many years.
Under the circumstance that we did not send the wrong goods, we cannot provide you with return and exchange services.
If you need to return or exchange, we need to report and verify your problem to the after-sales department, which will take a long time.

Therefore, we recommend that you keep this item.

Thank you for your understanding.
Yours sincerely,
Customer Service Team

In other words, “We’ve got your money, sucks to be you.”

The level of dishonesty and deception from Chinese vendors is breathtaking in scope. Learn from my mistakes, and stay away from all Facebook promoted posts or anything that looks like it’s sold directly from China. Amazon, too, is a nest of fraud and trickery, thanks to thousands of illegitimate sellers, and Amazon is not doing anywhere near enough to combat the problem.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Stung by a Facebook Scammer

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Edit: Another example encountered by a friend of mine has been added at the end. Related: Intellectual Property Theft.

Back in August of this year, I ordered something that looked very interesting from an ad that appeared on my facebook wall, by a company called acfantasy:

“The Grand Orrery model of the solar system depicts the correct relative orbital speeds of the planets plus relative orbital movement of Earth’s moon. Historically, a Grand Orrery showed only the “naked eye” planets out to Saturn, as they were developed in the early 18th century.”

Beautiful product advertised

It looked gorgeous and intricate, and I thought I would love to have this on my desk. The total charge to an outfit called “acfantasy” was $48.06.

What I received today, after a wait of two months (shipped, of course, from China) was this:

Fecal replica – nothing moves

To say that I was stunned by the duplicity would be an understatement. True, I actually got something – a lot of these Chinese wankstains will take your money and not bother to ship anything at all – but sending out a cheap piece of scrap metal like this, which is not worth 49¢ let alone $49.00 is stunning in its audacity.

The company has a website (acfantasy.vip) and a contact email; I sent multiple requests for replacement with the advertised product or a full refund, but never heard anything back.

I have ordered things from Facebook ads before and been pleasantly surprised by what I would consider adequate quality and value for the money; this one certainly falls into the “Chinese businesses with all the ethics of a starving honey badger” column.

Facebook needs to do much better in vetting its advertisers. There are far too many scammers out there, about which I have written elsewhere. Despite being careful, I got burned this time. These people can sit on a very fragile glass cactus.

Edit: Sadly, I got stung again by a company called scypg, shortly after writing this; something else I had ordered before the bogus orrery had come.

What I ordered.
What I received.

Cheap-ass bait and switch. Advice found on reddit is excellent; I will definitely not purchase directly from ads found on social media any longer.

Edit: I also emailed this company several times. They finally wrote back telling me that they were sorry I had ordered the wrong product (i.e. selected the wrong option or something). I told them I didn’t. They wrote back a couple of times offering me a 15% or a 5% discount to try to keep me happy. There was no response to my last email telling them that I still wanted the advertised product or a full refund.

From Reddit, confirmed by my own experiences:

“LPT: Never buy items advertised on social media newsfeeds. The majority are either scams, bait and switch, or “Wish” quality products.

Social media sites almost never provide resolution. Instead of following the link in the ad, search for the item independently and buy from legitimate vendors.”Social media advertisements are frequently bots or institutional scams.

It typically results in:

1. Paypal scam where they charge your card multiple times and you end up having to request a new card number.
2. Bait and switch, where you follow the link for one thing and end up ordering something completely different.
3. Low quality item to begin with.

Think “wish” quality products…. Social media sites almost never rectify the issue, and often if you check back later the comments section indicate several hundred other people were scammed (and some fake reviews left as well!).

If you see something you want, search for it independently outside of social media and purchase it on a legitimate vendor. Never follow the link directly from social media.”

“Unsold Amazon Pallet”

This was shared by a friend who got bitten by one of those between-post Facebook ads. He was supposed to get a 50-piece “Unsold Pallet from Amazon” for roughly $60.00 The implication was that there would be DeWalt, Makita or Milwaukee tools (as their photos show), and this is what came. Not a single DeWalt, Makita or Milwaukee tool to be seen.This post from Politifact and this post from Snopes highlight this kind of scam.

An example of this kind of advertisement:

Be very careful out there. A lot of highly disreputable people want your money, and don’t care how they get it.

The Old Wolf has spoken.