EEVblog #1248 - INSANE A 0.02% Process Meter for $9? WTF

[Macbeth]

I got a refund from My Cozy Life Store, and It was very fast because I opted for cancelling the dispute as asked by the seller.
I decided to leave non feedback, nor negative nor positive, just NO, because this story has exausted all my patience.

As has already been mentioned, not only do you not get your full remittance back, but you incur the paypal fees. Ok, 10% of fuck all is 10% of fuck all, but you are being forced to beg them and go through blatantly false procedures to "resolve the dispute". When they are asking for "friends and family" they are not referring to the non-commercial paypal scheme, they are asking you to use your friends or family instead of your own paypal so they can then use the commercial paypal scheme which incurs the fee on your end and best of all, they then get to put in a claim later and get a refund after AliExpress declare the dispute resolved! 

I ordered the meter just because I was curious, but this adventure took too much of my time.
I've found other sellers on AliExpress who have shown respect for me as a customer and have done their best to solve problems, so it's not AliExpress' fault, and I will buy there if needed.
Best regards

Nobody is saying it is AliExpress' fault. They know that Cozy Life are absolute scum but also they have to let them "save face" because China. So the blatant chicanery and false deliveries are allowed to run their course. I prefer to reward 1* even if I fail to get my $9 back rather than be a cuck. It's less work too.
It will be a hit to AliExpress if they allow this kind of mail tracking scam to go on because most of us will stop using them altogether. It's always been a bit "Wild East" compared to ebay and Amazon but this is taking the piss

I'm more interested in how the EMS tracking scam works - how do they have this whole charade of text updates that all end up with a destination country customs clearance, "Out for delivery" (on a Sunday - NOT!) - and then a "POD" a few days later (at an ungodly hour no Universal Postal Union worker works) - while all along AliExpress still have it in their system as never having left China? and destination countries (UK Royal Mail here) not having any record of the tracking number? 

[wilfred]

I got a refund from My Cozy Life Store, and It was very fast because I opted for cancelling the dispute as asked by the seller.
I decided to leave non feedback, nor negative nor positive, just NO, because this story has exausted all my patience.
I ordered the meter just because I was curious, but this adventure took too much of my time.
I've found other sellers on AliExpress who have shown respect for me as a customer and have done their best to solve problems, so it's not AliExpress' fault, and I will buy there if needed.
Best regards

I won't be taking a paypal refund from Manbo Life Store. I'll forfeit the cost if necessary and leave negative feedback regardless of whether AE eventually give a refund. Yes it was a waste if time which is a shame. But at least not a costly one.

[IanB]

I asked the seller to refund my credit card. They said that as they had already received payment from AliExpress they couldn't, as only AliExpress can do credit card refunds. They offered a refund by Paypal, which I declined.

I filed a dispute. The seller once again offered a refund by Paypal, which I continued to decline.

Within a few days AliExpress said that since I couldn't reach agreement with the seller they would refund my card. Refund received.

[wilfred]

I asked the seller to refund my credit card. They said that as they had already received payment from AliExpress they couldn't, as only AliExpress can do credit card refunds. They offered a refund by Paypal, which I declined.

I filed a dispute. The seller once again offered a refund by Paypal, which I continued to decline.

Within a few days AliExpress said that since I couldn't reach agreement with the seller they would refund my card. Refund received.

You've been luckier than I have. I'm still waiting.

[SantaClaw]

You've been luckier than I have. I'm still waiting.

Have you tried the live chat? They took like 3 minutes to resolve it for me.

You just need to find the "talk to a representative" button after chatting with their bot for a while

[Macbeth]

Have you tried the live chat? They took like 3 minutes to resolve it for me.

You just need to find the "talk to a representative" button after chatting with their bot for a while

Please provide the script walthrough, SantaClaw-senpai 

[SantaClaw]

I guess I was lucky, I am not able to replicate it now 

but I just kept clicking and the button appeared

[maginnovision]

Eva
15:55
Not receive goods


2 in 1 Digital MultiMeter High Accuracy Mulitifuction Process Calibrator
Ships From : China
No，I have not received my order

Sorry, I cannot provide an answer to your question, but I am working very hard to improve.

Dispute progress


2 in 1 Digital MultiMeter High Accuracy Mulitifuction Process Calibrator
Ships From : China
No，I have not received my order

After checking, the dispute is awaiting for you and seller's response now.

The responding time will end on 2019-11-17 22:24:02PST(Pacific Standard Time). After the responding time ends, the dispute agent will handle it and you will get result within 48 hours.

Your feedback makes us better!

15:58
Our agent will be with you shortly...

Camilla

customer service consultant

Our agent is now in the chat.

Hi! This is Camilla from AliExpress Customer Service Team.

Hi.

Here was my path through the text adventure. The support person says this should be the last time I'm told to keep waiting... I don't believe them but at least a human actually looked at the evidence.

EDIT: Also left thumbs down feedback when prompted by automated system for usefulness.

[IanB]

You've been luckier than I have. I'm still waiting.

I waited until the transaction was closed before filing the dispute. I don't know if that helped. It was more than a month after placing the order. As evidence for the dispute I included the seller's statement that "sorry, due to problems we cannot ship", and I included the tracking information showing that the package had not left China.

[beanflying]

Try Referring Ali Express et al to this thread if you are in a bind for a refund. Proof of systemic abuse by certain sellers. 

[Brumby]

I included a link to this thread in my dispute.

[wilfred]

You've been luckier than I have. I'm still waiting.

I waited until the transaction was closed before filing the dispute. I don't know if that helped. It was more than a month after placing the order. As evidence for the dispute I included the seller's statement that "sorry, due to problems we cannot ship", and I included the tracking information showing that the package had not left China.

OK, good. I was too quick of the mark. Thanks

[FrankBuss]

One shop, "Sturdy Tool&Lighting Store", showed POD (proof of delivery) for the tracking status, but I didn't get it. I guess they used another tracking number for my order, I can't see any address in the tracking. I started a dispute, seller proposed "No return & No refund", but in the response text offered a refund, probably offsite. I like the smilies, and of course I rejected the offer. I hope Aliexpress will hurt the shop badly when it solves the dispute in 2 days for trying to this tracking number scam



The tracking for the other shop, "Manbo life Store" (I bought it from 2 sellers) just shows that the shipping information was submitted. I guess they printed a label, but didn't ship it. I started a dispute for it as well. Same proposal, no refund so far, offering offsite refund more bluntly:

[Xenoamor]

Both my AliExpress and DhGate refunds have now been processed. Thanks all for playing I guess!

Doesn't seem like that many meters actually ever got shipped?

[rsjsouza]

Just got a paypal refund - but from Aliexpress stepping in, not from a direct interaction with the My Cozy Life store. I also saw my one star feedback on the store page - I made sure to put everything as one star, not just one item or another (there are three items).

I can't fault Aliexpress on anything.

[Kosmic]

For the record, I ordered before Dave's video from 3 sellers and received none. Got refunded for all of them though.

[maginnovision]

I finally got my final refund. 2 received 2 refunded(with 1 star feedback) here.

[FrankBuss]

Got a refund for one order as well:



Seems like Aliexpress is very professional. For the other store Aliexpress responded that I should wait 10 more days, even if the tracking status says "POD" (proof of delivery), which means I should already have it. But I guess they will refund this, too. I asked my local post office if they could check to which address the tracking number belongs to provide proof that they used the wrong tracking id.

[innkeeper]

Just a followup on my DH Gate saga.

after opening a dispute, DH Gate just didn't want to hear or care about the issues with seller and their bad practices and just wanted to issue a refund and sweep it under the carpet.
this is a similar experience to another poster about DH Gate. So i cant say i am surprised, however it does go to show its not an isolated thing.

DH Gate leaves loopholes in their policies so that those bad actors "in the know" can abuse them and stay in good standing. DH Gate has no desire to close them nor investigate such issues.

This creates a breading ground for scammers and those that have questionable practices that might otherwise be kicked off other platforms for the same practice. Definitely a lesson learned.


(edit to fix some typos)

[CheckOne Two]

Just a followup on my DH Gate saga.

after opening a dispute, DH Gate just didn't want to hear or care about the issues with seller and their bad practices and just wanted to issue a refund and sweep it under the carpet.
this is a similar experience to another poster about DH Gate. So i cant say i am surprised, howevr it dos go to show its not an isolated thing.

DH Gate leaves loopholes in their policies so that those bad actors "in the know" can abuse them and martian in good standing. DH Gate has no desire to close them nor investigate such issues.

This creates a breading ground for scammers and those that have questionable practices that might otherwise be kicked off other platforms for the same practice. Definitely a lesson learned.

Almost exact same thing happened here ... I agree a lesson learned ... Just a load of BS policies at DH Gate ... 

[wilfred]

<snipped>
 Definitely a lesson learned.

You got valuable experience and a refund. Not the worst result. You might have got the meter and regretted buying it. Anyway thanks for sharing your experiences.

[rsjsouza]

<snipped>
 Definitely a lesson learned.

You got valuable experience and a refund. Not the worst result. You might have got the meter and regretted buying it. Anyway thanks for sharing your experiences.

Same. Thanks for sharing and warning this entire community to stay away from DHgate.

[blargg]

LOL, I was looking at DHGate's required evidence when opening a dispute, and saw some funny things as example pictures (NSFW).

http://help.dhgate.com/help/buyerhelpen.php?catid=3303&artid=BD4E28A5B7AEEB64E04010AC0B647863&language=en#help_php-listmiddel-2

[Macbeth]

PMSL at the faulty "sex doll" evidence required by DHGate...


As for our Cozy Life Store that seems to be getting some ludicriously favourable chances by the AliExpress team...



Every single one of those "AliExpress proposed a new solution" things was to postpone 10 days each time despite all the evidence that Cozy Life are liars and already offered to refund me many times by paypal and there is clearly no chance in hell that a fake shipment will ever turn up.

Interestingly the last "AliExpress proposed a new solution" has a 5 day timeout. We will see how it goes.

[maginnovision]

I had a similar wait 10 days forever experience. I ended up talking to a real CS representative and it was refunded a couple days later. Not sure it did any good or 5 extensions was their limit but it did get done.