Well I started by emailing where they say. I’ll go to PayPal next. They only look somewhat like AirPods Max. Phone backs are aluminum, not blue. Headband has a funny up-curve in it. Very clearly not what they say in the PayPal order.
Seller sent email offering a 30% discount and saying how much time and expense it would be for me to return it. So I opened a dispute in PayPal’s resolution center.
This is what he’s counting on the Toady Weasel.
This is an OLD scam. See link below for a 1999-2004 webpage on “passive radar jammers.” Well before that page went up these scammers sold a plastic box with a power switch and light to show when it was on, but nothing functional inside. They may have had an antenna that did nothing or a circuit board with a few irrelevant parts.
The scammers are selling a dream and rely on the hoarders and gift-givers who don’t open packages before the return window closes, and those who know the product is junk but are too lazy to return them. The math works like this, hypothetically:
Retail Price = $100 + S&H
Production cost = $10
Net profit per item = $90
Items returned = 25%, with savings per restocking and/or handling fees
Items not returned due to minor “please keep it” discounts = 25%
Adjusted net profit per item sold = $50 (estimated, depends on overhead, etc.)
https://matt.simerson.net/reference/radar-scam.shtml
With the rise of email, many of these scams shifted to spam and we all learned that the Nigerian government routinely needs people like you and me to handle millions of lost inheritance dollars.
Send him a counter offer of 130% refund to not bother returning it.
I’ll see what PayPal resolution does. There was a reason that I did not use a credit card. When I ordered I figured that if it was a scam, then I’d likely get at least most of my $ back. On quick inspection of the tiny booklet, it does not even mention ANR, so, they are merely headphones that look something like AirPods Max. Haven’t taken them out of the box.
If you don’t get satisfaction, you could send them a message with the following link as a warning about your options as a consumer: Get Help – PA Office of Attorney General.
The bigger issue here is that the seller was selling them as the real thing instead of a copy.
Latest update is full refund (Paypal intervened) but I’m supposed to ship them back to China. But the shipping came from NY state. …
I wonder if I should just go ahead and accept that. I will check shipping costs tomorrow.
I don’t know about US to China but here the cost of shipping would be at least the price you paid for the headphones (I checked recently and it was over $100 to send back a set of IEMs).
I would argue the case that what you were sold was a fake pretending to be the real thing. You are not returning them because you don’t like them. Maybe offer to send the information and website details to Apple and the government agencies listed on this page: Fake Imports Entering the U.S. | STOPfakes.gov - Intellectual Property Rights Resources and Assistance
I don’t think it will actually do any good but it is worth trying, rather than being out of pocket for something that was a lie. I suppose it depends on how much free time you have and are willing to spend on this, in the end, time is money.
(edit: I see the website has now been blocked)
Somehow Chinese vendors ship little $3 or $5 items to the USA for “free.” It takes a month and they often arrived smushed in a simple envelope, but there’s universe of discount international shipping. In my experience these vendors DO NOT want returns and will offer new items or discounts. I now minimize my business and set low expectations for all discount international vendors.
My browser now flags the original website a fraud and blocks access. I’d have to manually override it to get there. It makes you wonder if the Contact Us residents in the 1973 suburban house had anything to do with the scam, or are victims of identity theft themselves.
Remember @pennstac, “We tried to warn you!”
From what I have been informed by various Chinese vendors (as in AliExpress etc), the government funds shipping in order to promote international commerce. However, they only fund it on sales, so returns, replacements etc. come out of the vendors pockets so it works out cheaper for them to send a new product and get free shipping. That is why they don the usual “we will send you a new one, place the order and we will adjust the price to zero (or $0.01)”, that way it counts as a new sale.
Ship DHL and its tracked.
It’s the part about having to pay for shipping back a scam that would irritate me.
All true. The SpeedPak program China uses is free for them by our own USPS to promote commerce. That needs to stop now as the playing field needs to be leveled. There is no program for the U.S. in kind to send products to China and this has been an unfair practice for years. Makes my blood boil.
@pennstac I would ship it back as a picture of the item in an envelope for the cheapest amount possible. Once it is sent out it is no longer your responsibility and when they receive it it will show as delivered and that is good enough for PayPal, :).
Yeah, the site is now flagged which makes me also believe the address was just a random identity grab.
It would piss me off to know end. But these counterfeit operators know what their doing. But sad, that good people get pulled into these scams. The old adage, ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’
Why would you have to return a scam product at your own expense? Can’t they send you a return label.
Will PayPal not refund your money if you don’t return it?
If PayPal have already returned your money I wouldn’t bother with returning them unless they send a return label.
I like that idea. To ship the actual item via DHL is $112.50. And they were deceptive. Plus, the item arrived via USPS, shipped from NEW YORK, not from China. How would you suggest the envelope be sent? It will need some sort of tracking. What will PayPal need?
I note that the address they gave is way too long to enter into DHL.
Room 208, Building 1, Wuzhong Impression Community, Kuancheng District, Changchun City, Jilin 1300051 CN
They said that they don’t have/can’t issue an RMA label. Don’t want to is more like it. Has not yet been returned.
I had the same thing a few years ago with a too good to be true price on an Apple Watch. Same discount offered when I complained. Same return situation when I paid $50 to return via USPS with tracking.
Ended up getting my refund from PayPal. Lost the shipping money and the watch was returned to me as undeliverable a few months later.
It now sits in a trash heap somewhere in Illinois and I’ll never believe a too good to be true price again.
