My reason for starting this is my recent experience with buying via the internet from companies in the Far East .
Some years back , when these companies were trying to establish a market , their help services were exceptional , advice being freely given and a general show of trying to please the customer was quite apparent .
This now seems to have changed to the extent that I have removed certain sellers from my "people to buy from" list .
The latest disappointment came when a claim for the non-delivery of an item was refuted by the seller who gave as the reason a tracking history which showed the item had been delivered . In the process of answering my complaint to them , the delivery time shown changed three times , and they could not (would not?) provide the name of the courier . (Paypal quoted the tracking info as the reason for rejecting my claim . I have no argument with Paypal because they did try to resolve the issue .)
The company also suddenly could not understand English , left emails unanswered , asked the same questions when they bothered to reply and generally obfuscated anything to do with the transaction .
What upset me most was that I have only ever asked for Paypal/Ebay help three times in the last few years with problems associated with non delivery , today was the first time my claim was refused , leaving me to feel cheated , but more importantly feeling that there is now a black mark against my name . Being disabled , I do most of my shopping via the internet , mostly by Paypal/Ebay (including weekly groceries) so you may imagine I have a long record of transactions .
The result of this latest problem is that I am now reluctant to shop by internet except with proven firms , and rely on personal shoppers getting items for me from shops .
I doubt this will affect the market in general , but if the blatant dishonesty gets known about , everyone will suffer .
I am now actively cautioning people against dealing with some companies , regrettably big name ones who now seem to have lost the plot . I have politely informed the companies involved and have not received any reply which in itself is questionable .
I am not asking for help here , but I would like to caution people thinking of buying from Far East companies .
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