Been ripped off - Kicking myself :(

[amandacleggart]

I'm so angry with myself

I fell for one of these special offers (***non ebay related***) where you buy a voucher for an item which gets you a really big discount at a separate store.

I bought a voucher for £17.99 from 'GoGroopie' for a dash-cam for my partner's birthday. I thought what great value. The dashcam was priced at £69.99 and I was going to get it for £17.99 + £4.99 p+p.

So I bought the voucher from 'GoGroopie' , redeemed it and purchased the item from the company 'eBuzz'.

All fine I thought, then I decided to check out any reviews on the item (I know I should have done this all BEFORE going through with the purchase). That's when I discovered that I had in fact bought an item only worth about £10. Cheap **bleep**!!! I've been ripped off basically. I feel so stupid.

So I have quickly attempted to cancel the order with eBuzz before it has been processed and try and sort out a refund on the voucher from 'GoGroopie'. So two different companies to deal with.

No phone number for the company eBuzz, so alarm bells ringing already. I've sent an email cancelling my order and hope they sort it BEFORE they process the order and dispatch it.

I then go to see if I can refund the £17.99 with GoGroopie but their refund terms and conditions only apply to when you haven't redeemed the voucher. They don't explain what happens after you have redeemed it. Grrrrr!!!!

So I have gone straight to PayPal to open a dispute. Only problem is they don't have a box to tick for when you think you have been scammed, only for when you haven't received the item or if it is damaged. So I clicked on item not received and put in an explanation as to why I want a refund.

I have emailed GoGroopie to tell them I think they have scammed me and that I have opened a dispute with PayPal, but I will close it if they refund me straight away.  

I know I ought to have waited to see what their response was before opening the dispute, but I feel that time is of the essence and I don't expect their customer service to be quick in such matters.

Sorry this is so rambling. Just wondering if anyone has had a similar situation and how it turned out.

[ed_blackadder_1]

Sorry no, but I hope you get it sorted out.

[mustard-tree]

For future reference (and I know you have heard it before)

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

[amandacleggart]

Yes I know!!! And I usually look into these things before committing. Not sure why I fell for it!

I suppose I never exprected something like that to only be worth £10!

[captainbovine]

well....we all make them don't we? it's the only way to learn isn't it? I saw some nice clothing for big gals on FB, but I read the reviews first...ooooh steer clear of that site was the reply so I did.

hope you get it sorted xxx

[2017clearout]

I hope you get it sorted too - but it's not so much that you've been scammed but that you fell for the advertising: as you've redeemed the voucher, you may have problems, unfortunately.

I don't really use those sites any more after 2 bad experiences: one groupon - an osteopath who, when I turned up at the appointed time, had closed his surgery at that site months before, and never answered his 'phone again (groupon's response - sorry, no-one else has complained they couldn't redeem the voucher: no refund) and the other kgb deals.  Knowing the issues with SD cards on ebay, I bought two 32GB ones on offer, because I was going on a trip with the students to China - turned out both of them were total duds, and from the 750 photos I thought I had taken, only 30 were actually saved to the cards, because they were only about 512mb in reality.  KGB said deal with the company - and after a couple of months, I lost the will to live... (Also no refund, but more peeved about no pictures as I can't see I'll ever go to Beijing again)

A lot of the "shopping" offers are just rubbish on these sites - unbranded knock offs, and those advertised at inflated prices so that the deal seems a good 'un - but you could try telling them that you are exercising your right to cancel under the distance selling regulations (or whatever they are called) where you have a 14 day cooling off period?  

If that doesn't work, call the CAB for advice - you can't call TS direct any more as a consumer, but CAB can put you in the right direction, and if TS have enough complaints, they'll do something.  None of this is much use to you now - but hopefully, they'll just refund you without too much drama as you've bent over backwards to let them know: good luck!

[amandacleggart]

So ebuzz decided to ignore my messages to cancel my order so that I didn't have to go through all this palaver and have dispatched already! I only ordered it last night. There was no way to cancel the order other than sending them a message.

Doubt I'll ever see the refund on the p+p.

Can I actually refuse to accept the delivery? Never had to do that before. Or would it be better to go through their returns process?

[amandacleggart]

Finally had a response from eBuzz. They have indicated that the order is in process and can not be cancelled and if I refused the delivery they would deduct the return postage from my refund.

Absolute nonsense!

I told them that was rubbish and that according to distance selling regs a customer can cancel an order at any time as well they know!

...I have since discovered that the distance selling regs have been changed to the 'Consumer Contracts Regulations'.

This states...

• details of any right to cancel - the trader also needs to provide, or make available, a standard cancellation form to make cancelling easy (although you aren’t under any obligation to use it).

eBuzz had not such facility on their site.

• information about the seller, including their geographical address and phone number.

eBuzz do not display their phone number anywhere!

I reiterated that I would not be accepting the delivery and that they wouldn't be able to deduct anything from the refund as I only paid for delivery anyway due to the voucher I had used.

Useless company.

[2017clearout]

In all honesty, I'd just follow their returns process, and send it back by the cheapest manner possible - anyway, legally they can't deduct your postage, I think.  Trouble is, they make it a nightmare in the hope you'll just cave in...  Might be worth seeing if they have a twitter or facebook account, if you use either of those, and shaming them there?  Seems to get more response sometimes.  Also, I think if they don't comply with trading regulations, you actually end up with more rights - call consumer direct or whatever they are called these days, and rat them out: you won't be the only one. I'm certain.

[aernethril]

Still report this to CAB and ask them to escalate it to TS and state the parts of the regulations which the company are non-compliant with.

I'd refuse the item too and if you cannot put in an email that you even cancelled this order before they despatched it, which they have ignored, then add that to the list to pass to TS.

[amandacleggart]

Hi aernthril,

As matter of fact I reported both companies earlier on tonight with Citizen's Advice. Even though it's not huge amounts at stake, I hate bullies.

I've decided I won't be accepting the item when it arrives. I'm just not prepared to lose any more money over this blatant scam.

They haven't responded to the paypal dispute at all yet. Early days though.

[dr-whos-assistant]

There are quite a few of these discount companys around , groupon wowcher etc .You always need to check the prices before you buy anything sometimes you can get a great deal other times not so good.

[ginap.123]

I've bought many things on wowcher and most things have been well worth it (100 photo prints £1 from snapfish etc), not seen anything on there that couldn't be considered a bargain

[amandacleggart]

I'm not disputing the bargains to be got from these sites.

My argument with them is that in this case they are trying to pass off an item as being worth £69.99 when it can bought elsewhere for £10. They MUST know that they are misrepresenting the true value of that item.

Not only that, they make it impossible to cancel the order if you realise you've been had! Sorry but that screams scam to me.

[chribart-6aalvr]

I purchased a voucher from gogroopie for a king size bed from a company called Durest beds..169.00 plus 29.99 delivery service..the driver arrived on the day with no bed on board..I made him call durest beds and was told the bed was damaged so it never went on the van...I told the head office I wanted a full refund but was told I had to contact gogroopie..this I did but that was over a week ago..no reply from them and when I call Durest they don't answer..I had to order another bed so I'm now hugely out of pocket...gggrrrr

[sexilillou]

I am currently fighting this company on behalf of my mother who got a faulty bed and she returned the bed out of her own pocket and they will not have any of it to refund her for the bed even though she no longer has it ! It's so wrong