60 replies to this topic

[Drev]

For anyone still reading this thread: I am in the process of ordering the foam. The company is being very slow about this and I have been trying to order for the past couple days. It should be ordered in the next two days and then it will probably get to my house by late August/earl September. Sorry for the delays and thank you for being so patient. If you have any questions, please pm me or email me at Drev453@gmail.com.

[Drev]

The foam has been ordered. We now will have to wait for it to get to me and then I will make a new thread in sales with information for shipping and for anyone who wants to buy it that didn't pre-order.

[Drev]

Well, it turns out the a scammer hacked the chinese foam company and intercepted our emails. They had me send the payment to the wrong place. They were pretending to be me and pretending to be the foam company. The foam company is completely legitimate, but since I am losing money, I will not be able to sell the foam anymore. I have everyones money still in PayPal and I will everyone back hopefully by tomorrow morning. Sorry for holding on to your money and if I can do anything to make this better or more clear, just ask. I am deeply sorry.

[Zorns Lemma]

For future reference, if you aren't using a payment system where you can easily get your money back (credit card, paypal) you should always use an escrow account.

[Drev]

'Zorns Lemma', on 22 Aug 2014 - 05:43 AM, said:

For future reference, if you aren't using a payment system where you can easily get your money back (credit card, paypal) you should always use an escrow account.

I did us PayPal, but I doubt I'm going to be able to get my money back and track the hackers/scammers down. If I ever did something like this again, which I am extremely hesitant to do, I would definitely use an escrow account.

For everyone else, I have payed you all back and if I haven't gotten to you or there are any problems, let me know.

[Langley]

'Drev', on 22 Aug 2014 - 1:25 PM, said:

I did us PayPal, but I doubt I'm going to be able to get my money back and track the hackers/scammers down. If I ever did something like this again, which I am extremely hesitant to do, I would definitely use an escrow account.

You should definitely be able to request a chargeback on grounds of fraud.

The whole situation sounds pretty sketchy, someone was intercepting the emails and was in contact with the actual supplier? Thus you were able to get real samples and information but the 'hacker' was able to insert their payment info. I guess that makes sense, but it still sounds weird. I'm not saying it sounds suspicious on your part, but at the very least it sounds suspicious on the seller's part.

[Drev]

'Langley', on 22 Aug 2014 - 3:36 PM, said:

You should definitely be able to request a chargeback on grounds of fraud.

The whole situation sounds pretty sketchy, someone was intercepting the emails and was in contact with the actual supplier? Thus you were able to get real samples and information but the 'hacker' was able to insert their payment info. I guess that makes sense, but it still sounds weird. I'm not saying it sounds suspicious on your part, but at the very least it sounds suspicious on the seller's part.

Yeah, I agree it does sounds suspicious on the seller's part. I ordered from them before and it was just fine, so I thought everything would be ok. Thanks for the advice too. I will be trying multiple ways to try to get the money back.

Edited by Drev, 22 August 2014 - 05:21 PM.

[KaneTheMediocre]

Unfortunately, bulk Chinese foam suppliers don't necessarily take credit cards or Paypal. I know when I ordered foam, I had to do it by wire transfer, which is famously fraud-prone. To make matters worse, the bank has a policy to refuse any sort of receipt for the transfer--Not even a "Paid XXX dollars from account number Y to account number Z". I managed to get an internal bank document in lieu of a receipt when I made the first down payment, but for the second (and final) payment I was refused and told that it was against bank policy. The guy even went so far as to press me as to who had given me the document in the first place, which I pretended not to remember as the guy had done me a favor. Fortunately, the right company got the money and provided foam as promised.

As many of you know, most of the foam was out of tolerance and not saleable without extensive sorting (and not selling 75-80% of my stock) , which is another potential pitfall to beware of with a faraway unknown supplier, but step 1 is not to get scammed. I achieved that with luck rather than judgement or know-how, and am sorry to see you didn't share my good fortune. I was waiting to see how consistent the fit was for your foam, but I had ambitions of convincing you to get some purple and making a trade.

[Drev]

'KaneTheMediocre', on 26 Aug 2014 - 12:30 AM, said:

As many of you know, most of the foam was out of tolerance and not saleable without extensive sorting (and not selling 75-80% of my stock) , which is another potential pitfall to beware of with a faraway unknown supplier, but step 1 is not to get scammed. I achieved that with luck rather than judgement or know-how, and am sorry to see you didn't share my good fortune. I was waiting to see how consistent the fit was for your foam, but I had ambitions of convincing you to get some purple and making a trade.

Maybe one day I could get some purple foam and trade, but that would not be for a long time. I just don't want to lose my money again. As for ordering foam from China, it is a risky process and I'm glad you were able to get it without losing your money, albeit some troubles.

[Draconis]

The company I dealt with in purchasing the small ballistic balls was very helpful and easy to work with. They used Paypal even. Unfortunately, my contact now has gone to work for an e-cig supplies company.

[Chenanio]

Although it probably does not help the situation, I live in China, speak and read Chinese fluently (as well as English mind you), and have a Chinese bank account, etc. In the future, it might be easier to skip the translation issues and 3rd party agents with a contact like myself. I'm interested as to how you all who have made these mass orders from China, and would be glad to try and help.