Be careful buying online, especially from Lazada

[Lee]

Manila Times      By Rigoberto D. Tiglao             May 26, 2023    

Quote

 

THE Lazada online mall has been a venue for scams, two of which I myself encountered just in a space of a month. With capital of over $1 billion, the firm, owned by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma through Alibaba, isn't even doing anything to boot out these scammers from their website, even after being informed of these swindlers.

One kind of scam is the sale of fake Xiaomi products and, I presume, other well-known, reliable brands at a "huge discount" prominently advertised. I bought from a seller Manila_MALL (sic) " a "Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Cleaner 3 in 1 Intelligent Automatic Sweeping Robot"

What was delivered was not a Xiaomi but an obviously dirt-cheap product with no brand. Worse, it wasn't even a vacuum cleaner, but "cleaned" the floor through a kind of tissue paper stuck on its bottom. The scammer certainly knew tricks to fool customers. Included in the package I received was a cheap obscure perfume. The scammer obviously calculated that a fooled buyer would not complain as at least he got something from the purchase.

I complained to Lazada, sending them images of the fake product that was delivered to me. They forwarded it to "Manila_Mall" which didn't even acknowledge they had sold me a fake item. It had the gall to use the images I sent Lazada to claim that it cannot refund me as I already used the item. Of course I used it to see if there was some device there that functioned to suck the dirt, as a vacuum cleaner does. (It didn't, and conked out after 20 minutes' use.)

Lazada told me I would just have to return it. What? I was scammed and I would have to spend money for a courier service to deliver a fake item to the scammer, which he probably would sell again at Lazada? Other than the huge bother and expense for this, why would I deliver to them a product that could be used as evidence in a suit, or a complaint at a government agency?

I actually had ordered another product, also a Xiaomi, as I hadn't yet received the fake product to be forewarned. Same thing, a fake, but sold by another merchant, a JJ71. Same response from Lazada: Just return it.

What gets my goat is that I complained to Lazada about these two scammers over a week ago, yet they haven't lifted a finger to close these merchants down. Manila_MALL is still selling over 54 products in Lazada. including that "Xiaomi Robotic Cleaner," and several other products claimed to be made by Xiaomi, even nose-hair clippers sold at half its price at that company's official site.

"JJ71" is still selling the kind of Xiaomi product, which was a fake one that was delivered to me. It's still selling different kinds of products. I won't be surprised because of their low prices (a "Xiaomi" mini-drone for P1,271 for instance). This is the e-commerce equivalent of say SM Mall or Robinsons having stores selling fake products.

These scammers have even hacked one of Lazada's purported means to alert buyers of the trustworthiness of merchants' products. Manila_MALL in a blurb on its Lazada stall, says "92 percent positive seller ratings" while "JJ71" has "100 percent positive seller ratings." My foot.

Resist

Lesson: Resist the lure of astonishingly low prices sold at Lazada. Don't buy anything altogether from Lazada.

There's another kind of scam through this online mall, although apparently the scammers — "exotoxin coastal 92ex5" and "aliva" — had been closed down after I complained to the e-store.

I ordered an air-purifier (for P4,200) from "exotocin coasta92ex 5. When it had not arrived after a week, and fool that I was and desperate to get that kind of device, I bought another one of a different brand from a different merchant, "aliva."

When neither of these products had arrived after a week, I checked my account at Lazada, to be shocked that it was marked "Delivered." When I told Lazada that I hadn't received the product, Lazada sent their "Proof of Delivery" photos. After inspecting the photos of the security guard in our subdivision holding the purported package, it was clear — as the package was held up with just one hand, which you can't do if it was the air-purifier — that it wasn't the device that was delivered. After doing some thinking about deliveries, I realized that what had been delivered was a fake mask, whose delivery code was that for the air-purifier I ordered. What a sadistic merchant, delivering not a real room air purifier for which I paid P4,128, but a P10 mask on one's face to purify the air I breathe.

Fooled

They would have fooled a lot of people who didn't have the time or the patience to go through Lazada's user-unfriendly, even confusing, website to complain,

I am not sure if the other dominant e-mall here and in Asia, Shopee (owned by a Singaporean conglomerate), has been hosting scammers as much as Lazada does. My limited experience is due to the fact that I don't order much from it as its payment system sucks: for some products they accept credit cards and for others they don't.

Other than that, I've also had a bad experience with Shopee two years ago. Needing a new TV when the pandemic broke out and lockdowns were imposed, I ordered a 40" TV which was advertised at about two-thirds the price it was being sold for at appliance stores. Stupid of me though, I paid through GCash. Amazing swindlers, when I called the seller a week after, a man with a Malaysian accent apologized, claiming that the lockdowns disrupted their delivery systems. After a week, he had the gall to call and claim that the Philippines had new customs restrictions because of its lockdowns. He said that he needed P3,000 to clear customs, and that I could send the money asap through GCash. Unbelievable, I gave up and charged it to experience. Of course I also asked Shopee to refund me.

Nope, Shopee said, because I didn't go through their own payment system. Now, how could I know that it housed a scammer which said I could just pay by GCash, rather than going back to my computer to register at Shopee for my payments to be made by credit card? What Shopee is saying is that it can't vouch whether the merchants in its e-mall are legitimate or not, so just be careful and pay only through its system.

Be careful, Shopee's selling over 300 TVs at its e-mall now, many at 50 percent discounts. How on earth could these sellers sell these at those prices?

Incompetent

I find it unfortunate that Lazada management — or maybe just its Philippine branch — has been so incompetent to rid its e-mall of scammers. It is, together with Shopee, getting to be so popular in the country that even revenues of SM department stores and other mortar-and-brick stores are said to have plummeted. The trade department estimates that there are two million merchants selling their wares through Lazada and Shopee and other online stores.

Such negligence borders on criminal neglect. Many poor people buy online,in order to save on expenses commuting to a regular mall. It's so sad that their hard-earned money may have been lost due to scammers in Lazada and Shopee. What's the trade and industry department doing to save Filipinos from scammers in these two foreign stores?

What also makes my blood boil is the fact that it isn't clear how these two online stores are reporting their income for the BIR to collect taxes. I don't see in my purchases having the required receipts, and I wonder if or how they collect the value-added taxes, which are required by two laws.

I am still waiting for information on this from the new Bureau of Internal Revenue head Romeo D. Lumagui Jr., whom businessmen I asked said is one of President Marcos Jr.'s most qualified appointees. I was told unofficially though that the guidelines for such tax payments are still being finalized.

Government must inform Filipinos how — and maybe even if —- Lazada and Shopee are paying taxes here. After all Lazada, whose ultimate owner is the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, and Shopee, owned by Singaporean billionaire Forrest Li Xiaodong, must have been raking it in when e-commerce zoomed in popularity since the Covid-19 lockdowns.

You lazybones at Lazada and Shopee, better stop swindlers operating in your e-malls, or your malls will close down and you'll find yourselves jobless.

 

 

https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/05/26/opinion/columns/be-careful-buying-online-especially-from-lazada/1893115

[Mike J]

28 minutes ago, Lee said:

I ordered an air-purifier (for P4,200) from "exotocin coasta92ex 5. When it had not arrived after a week, and fool that I was and desperate to get that kind of device, I bought another one of a different brand from a different merchant, "aliva."

 

29 minutes ago, Lee said:

I actually had ordered another product, also a Xiaomi, as I hadn't yet received the fake product to be forewarned. Same thing, a fake, but sold by another merchant, a JJ71. Same response from Lazada: Just return it.

Apparently Mr. Tiglao, the author of the article, has not heard the saying; "Fool me once shame on you, full me twice, shame on me".  

I have bought many many products from Lazada over the years and had a total of three issues.  It is not uncommon for me to multiple items during the week.  I do not buy anything that seems to be an extraordinary bargain and I always read the reviews, especially those with 1 or 2 stars.  I will also send questions via the app to vendors if I have questions.  I can only recall three issues in all the years and many purchases via Lazada.

1 - Water cooler/dispenser never arrived, vendor claimed lost in transit.  My credit card payment was refunded.

2 - Ordered color ink cartridge and black ink cartridge was delivered.   I would have to return the cartridge to Cebu City at my expense to get replacement or refund.  I did not do so because of the time and expense in doing so.

3 - Received a TV remote control that was broken.  Took photo of wrapping and device.  New replacement was sent at no charge.

So I will continue to use common sense, do diligence, read reviews, and buy from Lazada.  Eight deliveries and counting so far this month from Lazada with no problems.  And one of those deliveries is an 15 year old single malt scotch. 

 

 

 

[Lee]

We were scammed by a rice seed seller on Shopee a few years back. We didn't buy the seed from them to try to save a $ but because they were the only vendor online or local that carried a particular seed that we wanted. When the seed was sown and planted only about 10% of it sprouted. When we complained to the seller---they simply disappeared.

In the past this seed was pretty easy to find. The gov in their infinite wisdom started buying up all seed (and fertilizer) stocks. The gov stored the seed stock until well after its expiration date and then would hand it out for free to "rice farmers".These farmers (most of which had nowhere to farm) would line up several cracks before dawn to get their share. Most of them immediately went out and sold the seeds for half of what it would be worth if it were new.

This program was somehow going to increase rice production in the PI.

On a bit more humorous note---we got very good results from this hybrid rice seed in the past and that's why we eager to use it for every growing season. When it first came out, a company rep came by and told us that nobody would buy it and that he couldn't understand why. Several months passed and he comes back having now solved the mystery of the slow seed sales. He found out that no one wanted to eat "orange" rice as it was depicted on the seeds packaging. We asked one of our farm guys about this and he thought the same thing---the seed was orange on the products packaging so he expected it to be orange when it was harvested. LOL.

[Jollygoodfellow]

More so my partner seems to have something from Shopee almost daily, well seems like it and l do have some things l buy too. We don't use Lazada but I don't recall any issues yet with Shopee. 

[RBM]

45 minutes ago, Mike J said:

 

Apparently Mr. Tiglao, the author of the article, has not heard the saying; "Fool me once shame on you, full me twice, shame on me".  

I have bought many many products from Lazada over the years and had a total of three issues.  It is not uncommon for me to multiple items during the week.  I do not buy anything that seems to be an extraordinary bargain and I always read the reviews, especially those with 1 or 2 stars.  I will also send questions via the app to vendors if I have questions.  I can only recall three issues in all the years and many purchases via Lazada.

1 - Water cooler/dispenser never arrived, vendor claimed lost in transit.  My credit card payment was refunded.

2 - Ordered color ink cartridge and black ink cartridge was delivered.   I would have to return the cartridge to Cebu City at my expense to get replacement or refund.  I did not do so because of the time and expense in doing so.

3 - Received a TV remote control that was broken.  Took photo of wrapping and device.  New replacement was sent at no charge.

So I will continue to use common sense, do diligence, read reviews, and buy from Lazada.  Eight deliveries and counting so far this month from Lazada with no problems.  And one of those deliveries is an 15 year old single malt scotch. 

 

 

 

We have a policy of COD only. Expecting a new Samsung 5G fone next week, I shall check the 5 G before paying, if no charge the delivery man must wait until some charge is completed.

[Joe LP]

We only use shopee.  Tina just ordered some LED light strips to use for some event center pieces that she has and wants to add new dynamics to.  When she got the order it was missing one of the 5 meter long strips.  She went to shopee to complain(I buy a lot more than her from shopee and only twice been scammed, and in both cases won my case and ended up better in both than I started).  They did their normal "talk to the seller" thing.  The seller told her to order it again.  

We ONLY do COD.  Sadly, one of the workers paid for it because Tina failed to tell them not to as the seller, in the shopee communication setup stated she wouldn't have to pay for it.  So now she was still short the item she ordered, and and paid for, then paid for the order to fix that issue.  She went to shopee and showed "the receipts" for everything.  All shopee does, in each of these setups is give you site credit(shopee wallet funds).  But, we use it enough to make that worth it.  

I use to use Lazada, but got burned twice and lazada did nothing to help fix the issues.  So we dumped them a while ago.

[jimeve]

CASH IS KING. Everything I buy from on-line COD only. Only had one dispute with a courier I thought he was going to kill me.

And that was with Facebook. Bought a grass cutter supposed to be a German brand  STIHL  48v . What I got was a cheap Chinese 12v 1 battery. which lasted 10 minutes.

I told the courier I'm not accepting it but he got angry so I paid it 4.500 peso. Live to fight another day. So lesson learned I wont buy anything from Farcebook again at least you can tell lazada to go to hell.

Edited May 26, 2023 by jimeve

[Kingpin]

3 hours ago, Mike J said:

I have bought many many products from Lazada over the years and had a total of three issues.

I've had zero delivery issues, the only problem has been an inability to order unless I remove the free shipping coupon, which makes me want to nuke them because they refuse to even understand the problem let alone do anything about it.

 

 

[hk blues]

We use both equally, Lazada and Shopee.  I was late to the party on Shopee which seems to be slightly cheaper for delivery on cheaper items - it seems the product costs are similar on both platforms.  Scammed once but only 250php so no sleep lost.  Annoying that sometimes the identical product can have a big price difference (common to both platforms) so you do need to shop around before ordering.  Like most, I only use COD.  I would definitely hesitate to order anything costing above 10k php and never if COD wasn't available - I have noticed a correlation between sellers who don't accept COD on Lazada and poor reviews/too good to be true prices.  Can't comment for Shopee as they seem to have more sellers who don't accept COD.  

For me, it's pretty obvious to spot a scam using the age old adage 'If it sounds too good to be true then it is.'  I do get a laugh sometimes about the reviews - comments that the product is "perfect" - 1 star!  or "terrible product, a crock of s***" - 5 star!

I read the article re. scams - I guess the writer had a heads up about those specific sellers rather than accidentally coming across them.  He does raise a very good point ref. tax - I wonder why the BIR have not tightened up on the 2 platforms despite clamping down on private individuals.

[Freebie]

Bought over 100 items from Lazada over past 5 years including an Ipad... never had a problem. Always use Gcash as cant be bothered waiting to pay. For me, the  products are what I pay for and delivery is usually fine. Stopped giving reviews long ago. Buy what others are buying and never buy from someone who hasnt already sold that product.