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I'm a Chump
Old 02-18-2018, 02:53 PM   #1
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I'm a Chump

Yup, I was taken and fell hook, line, and sinker. What a chump!
I saw a pair of boots I wanted to buy at a great price on a store website, but they didn't have my size. They were also available at a couple other store sites, but again not in my size! Then I found them in my size! I typed in my shipping information, credit card information, and placed the order immediately in the heat of the moment with a sigh of relief. Done, and I got my dream boots!

Then, a nagging feeling. Looked back at the website--no phone number to contact them. No e-mail with confirmation came. Chinese company with glossy website. I typed in the company name in google and a host of complaints about a sham company who takes your money and never ships the product.

My credit card was immediately charged. I cancelled the card and am disputing the purchase. But I am mainly shamefaced about being played a fool in a moment of sartorial greed.
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Old 02-18-2018, 02:57 PM   #2
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Not a chump at all. You did the right things after the mistake. We all make mistakes, some costing a h*ll of a lot more.
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Old 02-18-2018, 03:04 PM   #3
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We all make mistakes, some costing a h*ll of a lot more.
Yup, I married the wrong girl in 1978. That cost a lot more than any pair of boots!
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Old 02-18-2018, 03:08 PM   #4
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You did not have to cancel the card. Legally, you do not have to pay for anything you did not receive on a credit card.
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Old 02-18-2018, 03:10 PM   #5
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It was probably wise to cancel the card. Since it appears that the company is a sham, canceling the card will prevent anyone from making future charges to it. Now she won't have to deal with that too.
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Old 02-18-2018, 03:18 PM   #6
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Something similar just happened to DW. She ordered directly from some outfit in China. She actually got the product, but it was misrepresented. She paid with PayPal and they said she could get her money back if she returned the product...wait for it...to Uruguay! The postage would have been almost as much as the product.

So it's a cheap lesson learned....order only through places that have a reputation system and only order from those who have a good reputation.
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Old 02-18-2018, 03:28 PM   #7
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I felt like a chump not long ago on two transactions. First, I went on a site and tried to make an order but in my haste tried processing but realized the site was not secure (no https padlock). But The transaction didn't even go through probably to bad site design. The other time, once again in haste, I ordered a remote control where after ordering, did some research and saw a host of complaints against the seller the purposely said the remote is no longer made and instead gave a cheap substitute.
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Old 02-18-2018, 03:36 PM   #8
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No you are not! A chump would not have done the actions you did. You took charge of a bad situation, when I w*rked that was called some happy BS words. 😁
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Old 02-18-2018, 04:50 PM   #9
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As others have said, you are not a chump. Thanks for the reminder to watch who and where we order items.
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Old 02-18-2018, 04:58 PM   #10
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You are not a chump. We've all done things like that after searching and then finally finding what we were looking for.
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Old 02-18-2018, 05:02 PM   #11
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It feels like the Wild West on the Internet some days! We have to be so vigilant.

You took the necessary steps to protect yourself and avoid charges, so you are definitely not a chump.

I'm very leery of internet sellers. I tend to only buy from a selected few, and research any new sellers carefully. Each year it seems to get worse in terms the swindles out there.

Even with sellers though Amazon you have to be super careful. Some reviews detail scams or knock-offs when it's a third party seller, even sometimes when fulfilled by Amazon.
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Old 02-18-2018, 05:29 PM   #12
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No worries, that's why we have credit cards. Whether you do this on your own or someone stole your card and made a bunch of purchases with it, the end result would be the same. You will owe nothing and it will become the credit card companies problem. No big deal at all.
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Old 02-18-2018, 05:30 PM   #13
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Yup, I married the wrong girl in 1978. That cost a lot more than any pair of boots!
I made the mistake also in 1972. I would have been out in 1992
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Old 02-19-2018, 07:30 AM   #14
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Two recent "chump" events, maybe others can learn from:

1) Don't Trust eBay/PayPal!!

eBay removed the seller shortly after my purchase. Since I had no way to contact the seller (their only recommended recourse) I called. They said PayPal wouldn't allow them (eBay) to refund my purchase price. I called PayPal. They also wanted me to contact the seller, first. Otherwise, they couldn't do anything for 30 days, after which I had to file a complaint with them and follow their dispute resolution process.

Note that this was AFTER eBay had removed the seller for fraud!

2) Don't Assume Your Credit Card Company Will Protect You!

An internet merchant sent DD a phone worth a fraction of the one she'd ordered (and paid for.) They refused to issue a refund, and wanted to charge a 20% restocking fee plus shipping. She disputed the charge and got a provisional refund to her account.

Got the notice almost a month later that the refund was reversed. No details as to why, just a form with a few lines on which to make a request to re-open the case. Meanwhile, the funds have been taken back out from her account pending the outcome.

Called the CC company. Apparently the seller's card issuer (bank) refused to accept the reversal, based on nothing more than a copy of the shipping label.

The ball is now in DD's court to re-open the claim. Even if there is eventually a refund, it could be months.

Note that the key here is, according to DD's CC company, it's federal law that the merchant's bank can refuse the refund. They claim they can't do anything about that.

Apparently, all a sleazy merchant needs to do is find a sleazy bank.
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Old 02-19-2018, 07:47 AM   #15
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I have found that if you are persistent, both 1) and 2) have a reasonable chance of successful resolution. Not in every case, but much more often than not.

With eBay, it's important to buy from a seller with a very large and positive feedback rating; if there's some seller with only a few sales with a lower price, don't fall for it! EBay's resolution process is slow, but often yields satisfactory results.

With the credit card, keep escalating. You need to keep repeating your case and counter any "evidence". Recently I went back and forth 4 or 5 times, but it was finally resolved in my favor.
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Old 02-19-2018, 07:56 AM   #16
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Thanks for the reassurances, although I still feel like a chump (actually, I just like using the fabulous word "chump").
Although they are disputing the charge, my credit card company wasn't interested in the fraudulent website at all. (If anyone is interested in taking a look, it is Shop Fashion Clothing & Accessories - Official Site). So the question is, should I try to report this website? If so, to whom?
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Old 02-19-2018, 07:58 AM   #17
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Thanks for the reassurances, although I still feel like a chump (actually, I just like using the fabulous word "chump").
Although they are disputing the charge, my credit card company wasn't interested in the fraudulent website at all. (If anyone is interested in taking a look, it is Shop Fashion Clothing & Accessories - Official Site). So the question is, should I try to report this website? If so, to whom?
The Minnesota Attorney General's Office might be interested.

https://www.ag.state.mn.us/office/complaint.asp
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Old 02-19-2018, 08:00 AM   #18
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With eBay, it's important to buy from a seller with a very large and positive feedback rating; if there's some seller with only a few sales with a lower price, don't fall for it! EBay's resolution process is slow, but often yields satisfactory results.
Thanks, I should add that the seller in my case was originally legit, but the PayPal person on the phone implied that they'd been hacked. The scam, apparently, is to take the legit seller's regular merchandise and put a low price on it. Harvest all the money from sales until the account is shut down for fraud.

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With the credit card, keep escalating. You need to keep repeating your case and counter any "evidence". Recently I went back and forth 4 or 5 times, but it was finally resolved in my favor.
Thanks for the encouragement. They promised to mail me the other bank's rejection documents. That should give us the ammunition needed to generate a response.
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Old 02-19-2018, 11:07 AM   #19
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DW had a very similar experience recently. She fell in love with a pair of shoes from an ad on some social media site. Clicked through and ordered them. CC was immediately charged including a foreign transaction fee. I immediately got an email notification from the CC company about a charge to PayPal. I asked her about it and she proudly showed me the shoes. I told her the website looked sketchy but that was the end of it.

Fast-forward 45 days... no shoes, no email, no phone number to call. She sent an email and got a really strange response that must have been a machine translation from Chinese. It basically said, "Don't worry, we are legit, you'll get your stuff, but things are backed up due to a snowstorm." I then Googled the name of the website and *WOW*... nothing but scam alerts, warnings, and fraud accusations.

I called our CC company (Fidelity/Elan VISA) and explained the situation. They immediately credited us for the charge and the foreign transaction fee and are mailing us a form to fill out and return.

I don't think the site is a complete fraud. Some people said they eventually got the merchandise but it took 2 months and was the wrong size and/or very poor quality, with no practical ability to return or exchange. We've had no other fraudulent charges on the CC. Meanwhile, I found almost identical shoes for DW on Amazon with 2-day shipping. So it seems that all has ended well.
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Old 02-19-2018, 03:28 PM   #20
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..They immediately credited us for the charge and the foreign transaction fee and are mailing us a form to fill out and return.
Yeah, same thing happened to DW. Then, less than 30 days later, they "reversed" the refund after the seller's bank refused to honor it.

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Meanwhile, I found almost identical shoes for DW on Amazon with 2-day shipping. So it seems that all has ended well.
I'm sticking with Amazon from now on!
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