The Wholesale Forums

[Arcadia UK]

I dont know if this should be here but i personally think this is an ideal peace of text that will help people get their cash back with many suppliers, including chinese scammers so hopefully this could be stickied.

i have beenscammed by many sites, however, 95% of the time i have gotten my money back as the ways i have taken are quite daunting and extreme. Here is some of the steps to go through to make sure you get your money back and make sure the other person goes down.

1) The Bank - Fairly Obvious. Every bank has a dispute phone number of credit card transcactions. Phone the dispute number up and explain to them that you have been scammed. They will try their best to get your money back. Be sure to check your bank statement regularly however.

2) Paypal - This is the easiest way to send money but the worst possible support out there. Instead of helping you fix the situation, they find the easiest way possible to end the dispute, majority of the time making you lose your money if it isnt an ebay payment. If you paid money via paypal to a chinese supplier and have not recieved goods, then you can simply dispute, however, situations get very complicated when they have supplied a tracking number but its goods that you havnt paid for (fakes etc). then you maybe in trouble as paypal will take the chinese suppliers side as they provided the minimum evidence. If you lose a dispute, you can take matters further into the bank and do something called "charge back" which will deduct the cash from the chinese account (under the chineses paypal account) and the bank will decide who shall get the cash. Ways to make your support even more secure is phoning paypal and telling them the goods are fake, arranging a meeting the bank manager and explaining the situation and showing physical evidence that the goods they supplied was fake. The problem with is that this can take upto 4 months even on the smallest of items.

3) IP Address - If you are capable of finding out the domain supplier of the website, you maybe able to track their IP Address down by phoning up the domain company. Tell them that the person of that site has scammed you and you would want details to pursue further actions. They may provide an IP Address, or an actual Physical Address. If the Physical Address is fake or is owned by someone else, you can request for an IP address. If they refuse, take your matters to the police and they will get it for you. You can then take this IP Number to the police to locate the address and they can sort the situation out for you. Provide physical evidence of the payment that has been done, possibly show them the site, and let them deal with it. This is only beneficial if you live within the same country though. No use getting an IP Address if you know theyre outside your country

If you believe you have been hustled on this site from a particular member, the mods should be able to help you too. Some sites i have been on allow you to request the IP Address of that scammer so you maybe able to do so here, but this should only be a last resort if the matters are out of the mods hands.

4) Suscription Payments - Unauthorised money been taken out from a suscription you canceled long ago? Follow number 1 and you will be fine. If you have proof of email that you asked to cancel a suscription, then again, you are fine and entitled to get your cash back. The bank will ask for you to Fax or Email that email just to solidify your situation.

5) Trading Standards - If all the above fails, your final bet is to file a complaint to Trading Standards. To make your case more serious, if you see other members under the "bad supplier" section talk about the same supplier you had problems with, then you should PM them and ask for details, so if Trading Standards ask if you have any witnesses of proof of the supplier being a fraud, you can provide witnesses from this thread. The chances of getting your money back is 50/50. The bank maybe able to get your money back if your trading standards can sort your mess out.

for future reference, be aware of who you buy your products off. To make sure you are dealing with a genuine seller, make sure you "trial an error" by buying the cheapest product on the site for yourself and see if it works. Last thing you want to do is list a whole load of items worth over £3k and finding that the opposing dropshiping site is a hoax. If you dont get it, tell your bank. Simple! Take up some responsibility for yourself and you will succeed in the long run

To secure a validity of a company, the company should be able to produce the following details:

The name of the service provider must be given somewhere easily accessible on the site. This might differ from the trading name and any such difference should be explained – e.g. "XYZ.com is the trading name of XYZ Enterprises Limited."
The email address of the service provider must be given. It is not sufficient to include a 'contact us' form without also providing an email address.
The geographic address of the service provider must be given. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would. If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included in any event.
If a company, the company's registration number should also be given.
If a company, the place of registration should be stated (e.g. "XYZ Enterprises Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567") though this is a requirement of the Companies Act as from 31st December 2006, not the E-commerce Directive.
If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided.
If the business has a VAT number, it should be stated – even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions.
Prices on the website must be clear and unambiguous. Also, state whether prices are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.
Finally, do not forget the Distance Selling Regulations which contain other information requirements for on-line businesses that sell to consumers (B2C, as opposed to B2B, sales).

For further details, check out http://www.out-law.com/page-431

I have this information has helped you and i hope anyone whos been scammed gets their cash back

[jamestyrer]

Nice post - i think you have covered most of the angles here. That said, despite the originatly of a Company set up, they can still be dodgy. But the above will help most ppl, and all new comers should take note!

[Arcadia UK]

Originally Posted by jamestyrer

Nice post - i think you have covered most of the angles here. That said, despite the originatly of a Company set up, they can still be dodgy. But the above will help most ppl, and all new comers should take note!

Thanks

True say, some people are very clever, they can provide all the above and still scam people. Its just a matter of nagging these suppliers and getting every bit of detail from them.

Just to clarify further, if the supplier quotes a company number, you can phone up companies house just to confirm that the company number is real and if it matches the company name.