Online store never sending the ordered goods

X-Y-Z

Hi,
I bought some electronic parts for about 390 USD from an American online store.
I paid with a wire transfer after receiving a pro forma invoice from the shop.
The shop never sent me the item I ordered; I called and emailed them a number of time and every time they were promising to ship the order ASAP. After some 3 months I asked them to transfer the money back because it was clear they were not going to ship the item. This request was ignored.
Are there any ways of retrieving my money at all now?

Cheers,
X-Y-Z

Nody

None, hence why you should never, ever, use wire transfer but credit card, secondary Paypal or similar with potential option of a refund if things go sour.

jor el

99.999% positive it's a scam. Wire transfers are final, nothing you can do, and practically no business uses them for customer payment. Any business that doesn't accept credit card (or at least Paypal) is one you should be very wary of.

Were these electronics goods unbelievably cheap, by any chance?

X-Y-Z

Thanks... that sounds bad.

The ordered item was not extremely cheap, but it had some properties that were much better than what's generally available on the market.

I'm a bit surprised by this behaviour because the company says they've been existing since 1983. I suspect they might not have that product ready yet, although they're advertising it. Or they are just a 100% scam, as you're suggesting.

Is there anything I can do to make a complaint now? I issued a complaint to the American Federal Trade Commission, but they don't take any actions on individual claims - they will only react if they receive a number of complaints on a particular business. I haven't found anyone else complaining on this company online yet though. Maybe they just treat non-American customers like this.

Shaneod21

Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing you can do.

When buying online if you don't know the company, do a quick search. Usually the company name + scam is a good way to discover this.

Never do wire transfer. Always use reputable online merchants and payment systems like paypal. At least if you used your credit card you could do a chargeback. You should probably make a claim on the rip off report and it will help others to avoid making this mistake.

Wire transfer is not always a scam, but you have to think of it like this. Why would a company want to make it more of a hassle for their customer to pay. This inevitably reduces their sales.

Although there is not much you can do at least you will learn from your mistake.

jor el

X-Y-Z wrote: »

I'm a bit surprised by this behaviour because the company says they've been existing since 1983. I suspect they might not have that product ready yet, although they're advertising it. Or they are just a 100% scam, as you're suggesting.

News flash, scammers lie!

Can't know if it's a scam without knowing the site, but you paid under the odds and by cash, for an item that may not exist, and the shop is not answering any of your emails. That's never a good sign.

X-Y-Z

Shaneod21 wrote: »

You should probably make a claim on the rip off report and it will help others to avoid making this mistake.

Do you mean this report: http://www.ripoffreport.com ?

Red Sleeping Beauty

Would X-Y-Z have been covered by EU law if the website was hosted or located in the EU or had an EU connection or well anything?

What's it called? Distance selling...

X-Y-Z

jor el wrote: »

News flash, scammers lie!

Can't know if it's a scam without knowing the site, but you paid under the odds and by cash, for an item that may not exist, and the shop is not answering any of your emails. That's never a good sign.

Here's their address:
http://www.datahunter.com/

Nody

Alan Rouge wrote: »

Would X-Y-Z have been covered by EU law if the website was hosted or located in the EU or had an EU connection or well anything?

What's it called? Distance selling...

That would make no difference as that only allows him to send the goods back and get a refund but since he never got any goods in the first place...

mossy2

Hello There
From their website they are in Huntington Beach CA, 92649 USA. It wouldn't do any harm to ring the local police there and ask them to go around and ask them to either send you the stuff or refund your money.

jor el

mossy2 wrote: »

Hello There
From their website they are in Huntington Beach CA, 92649 USA. It wouldn't do any harm to ring the local police there and ask them to go around and ask them to either send you the stuff or refund your money.

That would be a waste of time, and a waste of Police time. They're not there to follow up on Internet purchases.

jhegarty

Looks legit , the website has been registered for over 10 years.