There are many online stores out there that claim to sell genuine products from established brands, but how well can we actually trust them?
Malaysian Samantha, reached out to WORLD OF BUZZ to spread awareness about Instagram and Facebook scam pages after allegedly getting scammed herself.
On 11 April, she came across an online store on Facebook that sells ‘original rejected sneakers’ and went to Instagram to look for them. She said she felt she could trust them and made an order that cost her RM299 – which she thought was relatively cheap for an original reject.
However, when Samantha asked the online store for ‘real shots’ of the product, they told her that they don’t have it because they claimed the sneakers are ‘pre-ordered’.
“All the photos of the products they posted could be found anywhere online,” she said.
“But because I was naive and really eager for that shoe, I chose to make an order which cost me RM299.”
Two weeks passed but Samantha did not hear from them. She asked them for an update and they told her that they will give her a tracking number by that week. However, she still did not receive anything from them and continued to ask them for an update on her order status.
When they finally gave her the ‘tracking number’, the link brought Samantha to an error site, but they told her to give it a ‘few days to generate the result’.
After several more inquiries about the order, they told Samantha that the courier site was under maintenance but ‘promised’ that her order was on the way.
“I went on to track for my package, up until today it isn’t available and they lied saying that the system is under maintenance which is impossible for it to be under maintenance for six weeks,” she said.
Samantha even tried contacting the courier that was supposed to deliver the package, but the number that the online store gave her was unavailable.
The conversation between Samantha and the online store went on for a few weeks and they refused to give her any solid details on her order. Instead, they made up excuse after excuse on why she wasn’t getting her order which made Samantha more and more suspicious.
Fed up of the whole ordeal, Samantha told the online store that she would like a refund. But they told her that they cannot refund her the money once the order is processed.
It has been about two months since Samantha placed the order and she has yet to receive her sneakers. She said that they even blocked her on Instagram after she kept asking them about her package.
“Moral of the story, do not buy anything from unauthorised dealers. Even if they say they are trusted because they have many followers,” she said.
“First, I highly believe that what they sell are fake and not as what they said – ‘original rejected’.”
“Second, they have been lying about the shoe/tracking status since day 1 as I have called the courier and they said their website was never under maintenance.”
“Third, even if they are innocent, they should refund when I did not receive my parcel within the time frame they have mentioned.”
Samantha reaches out to the public to let them know that there are such online stores on social media and urges them to be careful when placing orders for products that seem promising.
Also read: M’sian Girl Asks Local Gym About Their Prices But They Respond Rudely & Post Her Pics On Instagram
