I've had some problems with buying things online. Usually it's DHL that lies it has been at your house, but hasn't, has informed recipient of the status of the parcel but hasn't, and then drops off the parcel at some collection point, 20 minutes away by car, after (not) informing the recipient.
But today we're discussing ordering something from China. Well, I did not know I was ordering from China, as I thought I was dealing with someone in the US having crafted a nice drawing tool for circles:
A nifty brass ring with an inox diaphragm for drawing circles. US$18 if I remember correctly, all in all €20.
No I did not really need a circle drawing tool, but hey, it was nearly Christmas, and I thought it a nifty thing and a nice present.
After a few weeks, after christmas actually this is what I received:
Yes, that nasty fluorescent green plastic thing. No nifty brass diaphragm. Oh dear.
Did I pay €20 for a piece of shit plastic worth 50 cents? Apparently I did.
A mail sent to the email address of the seller did not result in a reply, but Paypal has some stronger ways to communicate with unwilling sellers.
"We are very sorry, but the plastic tool you received is what we sell"
Ah. Ok. Well, I'm not happy, and this is not what I expected, given the advertisement. Oh, that Facebook advert was now gone, but I could rescue image above from the cache.
"We are sorry that you are not happy, you can return the item to our warehouse in China, which is very costly for you, and maybe it is advisable to accept a refund of 30% ?"
No it is not. Please refund the whole amount.
"We are sorry that you are not happy, you can return the item to our warehouse in China, which is very costly for you, and maybe it is advisable to accept a refund of 50% ?"
"We are sorry that you are not happy, you can return the item to our warehouse in China, which is very costly for you, and maybe it is advisable to accept a refund of 70% ?"
No it is not. Paypal, please engage. Paypal answered that I needed to return the goods to the seller, with tracking, and they would refund 100%. I needed to pay for the return though.
Returning the thing was €8. Financially it would have been more advantageous for me to accept the 70% offer, but it would mean they still made a profit of 30%, and I did not want them to earn a single penny. Bloody scammers!
The tracking worked up to Shenzen, where it was out for delivery at some point in time, then vanished from the track record. Hmm.
But Paypal refunded the whole amount immediately when that happened.
The moral is: check beforehand if you are buying from China, and if so don't. And, pay with Paypal, to be able to get your money back from scammers.
China needs to lose its status as an upcoming economy, they can send parcels around the world at hardly any cost. And they need to update their morals.
