ChinaEcarts Complaints, Reviews, & Information

Chumneywarner

Jan 30, 2014

ChinaEcarts

Poor service

Hi all,

This is to make you all aware of the pitfalls I experienced and to let you all know about the poor customer service I received concerning the Chinese web based company stated below, in the hope that you take heed and don’t make the same mistakes as me. Please don’t take this review as a slur on all Chinese companies, as I have dealt with many over the years and have received a sterling service and even when mistakes have been made, they have been fast to rectify them to my satisfaction. Unfortunately, this was not the case when dealing with the company noted here.
This is a long message, but this (along with the attachment), are well worth your time in reading, as they could save you lots of money and considerable heartache.

The website concerned is very professional looking and contains lots of useful information about the items they sell. This, I am afraid, is as far as their professionalism goes.

I will tell my story and list the issues here in the order that they happened to me and at the end of this, I will list a few ‘tips’ that I have since found, which may help in identifying what MAY be a site you probably shouldn’t deal with, if you value your cash, sanity and even liberty that is. Some of these tips are from personal experience and others are taken from other poor individuals who found themselves in a similar situation. There are also pointers from organisations and ‘professionals’ who deal with such matters.

In an effort to prove this company’s ‘unhelpfulness’, I have attached a copy of the email messages that went between us, in the order by which they were sent and received. These have not been edited in any way and are posted exactly how they were sent and received. The only things I have changed are my personal details for reasons of my privacy (these have been changed to question marks).

The Scenario
I ordered a replica Samsung Galaxy S4 mobile phone from a Chinese web based company called ChinaEcarts.com. I did my research about this replica and the reviews I found and the specifications provided, stated that this was a far better performer and better specification than the real S4 and at a far lower price.

After reading the emails, you may think I was a little quick to dismiss their ‘options’ to rectify the issue, but I’m also sure you will understand that I had no guarantee on having their mistake rectified to any reasonable persons satisfaction without risking considerably more cash, or any guarantee I would receive the correct goods the 2nd time around (if I received anything at all). There is also the possibility of having my item seized by customs and having to pay import duties and VAT, negating the benefit of cheaper initial purchase cost (this has happened to me in the past with cheaper items).

My story’s timeline
1/. Ordered the phone via the ChinaEcarts.com web site on the 29.01.2013. Attempted to pay by Paypal (my preferred option after credit card) as their website says they accept it. The Paypal link is dead, so you only have 2 options to pay, Western Union or bank transfer. I chose bank transfer, as I have heard WU can be fraught with problems and their website also states they will give you a 5% discount if you pay this way.
2/. An email was received by me 2 days later, stating that I had paid them $30 short. Luckily I had saved a copy of the transaction receipt, showing I had paid exactly what they had asked for in USD. I also send a copy of my bank statement showing the same info (personal details omitted of course!). Like a fool, I offered to let them keep the 5% discount in an effort to offset their loss. They didn’t ask for the shortfall, but had I not let them keep the discount or been able to prove I had done exactly as they had asked, perhaps they may have done. I believe the shortfall was caused by the clearing banks taking their cut as it passed through the banking system. You would have thought an export company would have known this. I had already paid an additional £9.50 for the transfer, so it wasn’t taken by my bank and I proved it.
3/. I had also paid an additional $19.50 for fast DHL 3 day airmail delivery (it was sent via Swiss Post and arrived 17 bays after placing my order. No apology and no refund offered or received).
4/. Item had not arrived after 7 days. I had the Swiss Post tracking number, but details hadn’t changed from the day they 1st listed it, so I e-mailed Chinaecarts and Swiss Post to find out where my item was. No response from Swiss Post and told to be patient by Chinaecarts.
5/. Item arrived in UK and was delivered to me 2 days later via Royal Mail. Total time from ordering to receiving, 17 days, 14 days more than the service I paid extra for.
6/. The phone I received was an S4, but according to the built in information program, was of a much lower specification that the one I ordered. I immediately sent an e-mail to Chinaecarts. No response. Sent another the following day. Reply received, asking me to provide photos so they could see what I had received. This I did, taking photos of the phones information screen, which clearly showed that this phone was nothing like the specification I ordered.
7/. They agreed it was wrong and said I could either; A). send them another $200 and they would send the right one in about 40 days!!! (I could also keep the phone I didn’t want!), or B). send the incorrect phone back to them and they would send the right one. Despite me asking numerous times, they never made any offer or mention of paying for the return postage.
8/. Numerous emails back and forth, no other offer made by them, no refund, just the request for more money or send the incorrect one back, with the probable problems that could also entail.
9/. Many of the review videos found on places like YouTube for this companies goods, were posted by THEMSELVES!
10/. This phone came with AnTuTu benchmark & information checker installed. Strangely, all the different sections that are tested, showed score readings that were EXACTLY the same EVERYTIME the test was run. Loading up a fresh version of AnTuTu direct from the testers website & running the new program, showed the readings supplied with the phone were FIXED! The processor was actually a 1.2Mhz (not 1.6 as stated), the memory was 2gb ram & 1gb rom (not 2 & 32gb as they stated) & the actual AnTuTu benchmark score was 10326 (not 28222 as they say)! Half the stated sensore were not installed, no GPS, the list goes on. A double specification rip off!! You can pick this spec phone up at your local market for about £25!!!

And now here I am. Out of pocket, a phone I don’t want and no chance of recouping what I paid out if I attempt to sell it. I feel like I’ve been scammed and deceived 100 fold by this company and to add insult to injury, they thought I was mug enough to fall for yet more of their deceptions and send them more money or send the goods back with no form of guarantee that I would get anything from them worth having in the future.

What I know now (and what you should also know)
1/. Not all .co.uk websites are British. The web address may look like it is, the phone number may look like it’s in the UK, but that’s not necessarily the case. Dig, dig, dig! Drill down all through the website, especially the terms & conditions. If there’s no UK contact details anywhere, no return address, it a better than even chance it’s a foreign based company. Check out the web address on various checking sites like http://whois.net, www.mywot.com, http://whatismyipaddress.com. These can give you details such as when the web site you are interested in was constructed, its home location in the world and a host of other information.

2/. Use the following methods to pay (would seem from a protection point of view, in this order):
A). Pay through Paypal with a CREDIT card. This gives you the protection afforded by the credit card company as well as a bit of protection from Paypal.
B). By CREDIT card (section 75 credit card purchase protection scheme)
C). Pay through Paypal with a DEBIT card. This gives you reduced protection afforded by the debit card bank (when compared to a credit card via the Chargeback scheme) as well as a bit of protection from Paypal.
The following are ‘only if you really really must’ options when sending money outside of the UK or EU:
D). Paypal
E). Debit card (possibly in position D)
F). Bank transfer

Check this out. I wouldn’t bother with any other payment options other than those involving a credit card, as not many offer much, if any, protection. If your money allegedly doesn’t arrive at its destination, that’s it, gone, not much recourse for recompense. Your protection is limited if you pay by any other method other than credit card and even then I’d be inclined to check the terms & conditions thoroughly first.
You will need to look into the nitty gritty of these payment protection safety schemes yourself, as its really not my forte and the information here is my interpretation of what I have found, so may not be entirely correct. The credit card companies offer the best protection. Debit cards come a distant 2nd. Be careful there, as there are lots of rules and conditions that mean you may have little or be entitled to no protection at all. Paypal can only get your money back if the seller has money in their Paypal account. They won’t rush to help (remember who pays their fees, yep, the seller) and will advise that you try to sort it out directly first. Always remember that in certain circumstances you may have no protection at all, check, check & check again. A fantastic source of lots of financial and consumer information I have found is the Martin Lewis web site, http://www.moneysavingexpert.com.

3/. When shopping outside of the EU and certainly outside the UK, you are NOT protected by any of our consumer rules and regulations. The seller may say you have protection in their terms and conditions, but how are you going to enforce them when they are thousands of miles away if things go wrong?

4/. Guarantees? About the same as item 3. as I see it. If they will take it back for repair, how long will it be, will you be saddled with postage, will you get the right item returned and in working order, will you get anything back at all?

5/. Nearly ALL imported items are subject to import duty and VAT. Here the odds are in your favour. I work for DHL and can tell you only about 1 in 15 privately imported items have some form of additional payment required before delivery will be made. You may even be asked for payment on your doorstep before your goods will be left with you. You will only have to pay the various taxes if your items get inspected by HMC&E and are valued at over £15. Import duty can vary depending on the item, but on electrical goods (may also include the value of the postage costs) is around 4.7%, but VAT is pretty much always 20%. Oh and by the way, VAT is worked out on the value of ALL the costs you have paid out, goods, P&P, import duty, etc. If your item is stopped by customs, there is also a handling fee to pay, usually about £8 per item if it’s via Royal Mail (often more if via a courier company). As an example, a friend of mine purchased a pair of boots from the USA for £60. Buy the time he’d paid the various duties & fee’s, the boots cost him about £120. He could have bought something similar here for £100 (is that bargain looking quite as attractive now?)

6/. Clones, replica’s, fakes. ALL WILL BE DESTROYED by HMC&E if found. The following is unlikely, but as the importer, you may also find yourself in trouble. Right out of pocket and a possible fine to boot!

7/. When buying clones, replicas & fakes, there is no guarantee that they will be as good a quality as the original or if all the functions will work. DON’T trust the built in specification readouts. These can be fixed to read whatever the supplier wants. Even if the readouts are correct, then this could be due to overclocking (supercharging) the internals, not a good idea, they’ll just burn out.

8/. Paperwork. On some items, there may be HMC&E declarations & paperwork required. The seller is unlikely to do it, so if the item gets stopped, guess who’s job that could be & guess who may have to pay any fees involved?

This is just what I’ve discovered through a short amount of time since my escapade began. If I’d have known this before, I wouldn’t have bothered. All I can say is do your research & look at worst case scenario, that way, hopefully you won’t have any un-thought of surprises, should the worst happen.

That’s it, ‘Caveat emptor’ as they say (Buyer beware).

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