Lawn mowers from overseas sellers

[Ginabob]

Has anyone had any experience ordering a lawn mower from any of these companies,

Elite Power Tool Depot

William Best Tools

Mentari Lawn and Garden

The companies appear to be located in Indonesia. They accept Paypal, but I need to know if they are legit and if not, how much trouble will I have getting my money back through Paypal.

[Dino631]

Has anyone bought some lawn equipment from Mentari in Indonesia?

[roboknave · Accepted solution]

Mentari Lawn and Garden is definitely a scam.  The others are scams to.  The scam works this way:

1. You go to the website and purchase a product.

2. They send you a confirmation e-mail.  Eventually they send you an e-mail with a tracking number.

     (The tracking number may actually be legit, but the one I received didn't take me to anything).

3. You eventually get a company, such as DHL, delivering something to your door.  It will be in a small

     DHL envelope, but will only typically have the country of origin on it.  You will have to sign for it

     to see what it is.

5. You sign for the envelope.

6. You open it to find an envelope from another shipper (the local shipper in the scammers area).

    You open this to find an envelope which contains an international bill of lading for your item (the

    lawn mower).  Congratulations, you just paid and signed for an expensive piece of paper.

7. You open a dispute through paypal.  In this dispute, you claim its a scam and show them how.

8. The scammer claims you signed for your goods, so he sent them, so he's in the clear and should

    get paid.

9. You go around with Paypal telling them you signed for a piece of paper which is not, in fact, a lawn

    mower.

10.  The scammer claims there has been some mistake and that the goods are on their way.  You just

    have to wait.

repeat the last 2 steps until the scammer gets paid and you get stuck with an expensive piece of paper.

I have not finished with my own dispute yet, but I expect this is what I can look forward to.  So, in short,

if you want a lawn mower, use a reputable website, or go in person to the local hardware store or lawn tractor

dealer.

[roboknave]

Update:  Paypal came through and refunded the money.  However, I suspect that whoever is behind Mentari Lawn and Garden got away with $1398.  I'm not sure paypal can actually track them down.  This means that eventually Paypal will have to claim it as a loss and which ever country Paypal files taxes in (likely US, but could be elsewhere) end up not getting the revenue, which means that some group of taxpayers will likely end up eating the cost.  It would be better if the not-so-long arm of the law could reach out and touch these guys.  There will likely always be scammers like this, and they'll always be able to hide from the law (I'm sure there isn't any real law in Jakarta that this guy broke).  Anyway, Kudos to Paypal for making it simple and easy.  And, while it seems the lawn mower I was looking for isn't to be had anywhere (in fact, its very difficult to find a SMALL riding lawn mower), I'm likely going to be buying those type of items in person from now on, like I should have in the first place.

[Carneyperry]

I’m going thru it now waiting on my lawn mower from China

[JayPro1]

I went through the purchasing process with one of these companies but once I clicked on PayPal for payment it was rejected. I phoned PayPal as to why this had occured and was told that the purchased was flagged by them because they were suspicious about this company being in Jakarta and the the lower amount of the transaction and they would not guarantee it. But if I wanted the product bad enought I could pay for it using a credit card. The company in question only accepted PayPal payment. Naturally I declined, because of PayPal's suspicion. If a company in that location is legit I am unaware of it.