When in a situation like yours, I ALWAYS start a dispute with paypal or my CC company. If they get enough disputes they will suspend or cancel the seller's access to their services. As you had all that evidence they would have ruled in your favour no matter how much stalling the seller does.
exactly, dont waste with seller, start paypal/ebay claim right away, as any discussion with seller is then discussed through the claim record process. also it starts the timer ticking on the seller to do something.
LOL unless you have a clear record of way to many claims paypal will always decide in the consumers direction its practically automatic. Were you can have an issue is if there is not funds to refund you as in scammer grabbed a bunch of $$ and ran,
The situation wasn't clear until he got the scammy response. That's when I'd have filed the dispute; before then, it could be mistaken for a picking or shipping error, which the store would be the appropriate party to resolve. But absolutely do resolve the dispute through the payment provider, because they could then protect others more effectively than a message like this.
@@tomhutchins1046 no that’s not how it works, you’ll still get a refund even if they cleared the account. Lots of scammy buyers try to file disputes over nothing and don’t always succeed either. But I love laughing at the people who try
@@johnandrews9433 Buddy i have used paypal to receive payments for over 20 years. over a million $$$ if you get a refund after they cleared the account it is either a good faith gesture from paypal or they found a linked card or account the tap. Paypals solution is return the item for a refund and they could return a dead rat and get a refund if they don't have a history of scams. Paypal like amazon and ebay almost always side with the buyer. At best they will tell you hey thats the cost of doing business on the internet. And they will note there account. Means nothing they really don't care the theory is there will always be another seller so the buyers come first. They have stated that if you read the policy's
Michael, when my sister asks me if a deal, she saw online is a good deal I always tell her that if it seems too good to be true then it most likely is. I show her how to use the internet to find a site that checks a site and lets you know if something is amiss. Most of the time they come back as questionable. I always tell her to check with me first before buying things online that's not from a known seller like Amazon. Glad to hear you got the issue resolved at least your money back since no part was given.
True, glad she has someone helping her on that, I do that with my parents too all the time. There are some quite obvious scams that people still fall for like stuff being 1/10 of the price or so (frankly, sucks to be them for being THAT dumb...), but there are some quite sneaky ones, some with believable stores set up with like 10% lower prices or so, that really make you wanna take the bet. Those are the dangerous ones in my opinion. I've taken the practice of being near paranoid in this regard, which has paid off, any new store you wanna buy from, triple checking individual evaluations everywhere is a paranoid habit I don't think is something to fix.
Yeah, but it wasn't a good deal was it, let alone one too good to be true. It was a high-priced deal that he was prepared to pay for the convenience of local shipping.
Wow, you are one of the humblest humans I have ever subscribed to on youtube, makes me a bit mad to see someone treat you like this. Thanks for watching out for us by posting!
All things considered, seems like a good opportunity to issue a charge back and get a free USB lav mic. That is, if they didn't fold to your demand for a refund.
Thanks for posting this. The best thing is to shine a light on people whom operate businesses with these poor practices. I am going through my own issue now trying to get a company to honour their own price guarantee practice. I bought a graphics card and they put it on sale within the price guarantee period so I contacted them to get the difference refunded. They responded that products with mail-in rebates are not eligible for the price match and included a copy of the guarantee. My response was that their guarantee did not match the price of mail-in rebates but did not prevent items with mail-in rebates from having the price guarantee applied to the main price. It was also pointed out that the mail-in rebate was for the whole month and I had it on my item that I purchased, thus it wasn’t applicable. I wrote this nicely and said that I hoped it cleared any confusion. I quickly received a response that the price guarantee did not apply to “instant rebates”. At this I called them out for their bogus excuses and said that they had a choice of making me a happy customer or I would contact my credit card company to dispute the charge. They never replied nor did they refund the money. They are Canada Computers & Electronics.
Thanks for doing this. A reminder to us all. I often find these scammy sites appear when I'm trying to find something obscure. That difficult to find part.
I've seen this name come up several times when I am looking for stuff. Personally I only use known suppliers. However I'm so glad you have done this so I don't just click them because they have the part I'm looking for. Thanks Michael for bringing this to the attention of others.
A very helpful video, and a good warning !! I'm lucky, I have a great printer and parts supplier here in Canada ( 3D Printing Canada ). I'm not advertising for them, just a customer, but when you find a good supplier, they also need to get noticed !! Anyone can get scammed, not many would make a video about it, so good on you for this !!
Hey Michael. Just watched your comments on scams. Finding out about Trustpilot. Thank you for getting this out there. I have had my say in the forum. Hoping that others don't go through the drama like all of use had too. So once again thank you Michael, your a Champion. Cheers Brad.
When placing an online order, always take screenshots before you click "Place Order". With some sellers, both good and bad, that will be the last time you can take a screenshot of your order before goods are delivered or go missing. I have had email responses to online orders that merely thanked me for my order and the next thing I knew was the goods were being delivered or in one case, a denial that I had ever placed an order.
Good idea, but I'd imagine it's easy enough to argue on the validity and genuinity of the screenshots after the fact. It's obviously very easy to fabricate different information onto the seller's page before taking the screenshot or even simply edit the screenshot itself after the fact. In any case, it definitely won't hurt you.
Funny you made this video given the timing. I am actually about to do one on a scam from an ebay seller where they tried to send out a different product with false tracking calling it a 'gift' and trying to stall me until the refund claim expired. Didn't work.
@@ballsrgrossnuglyPersonally I've been using eBay non stop on regular basis since the early 2000's. Buying international from North America, Europe, China, Japan I've never been scammed mate. Scam sellers don't last long and when you get get scammed you're covered by eBay and PayPal buyer protection. So comparing EBay to a random dodgy site on the internet is exaggeration at its finest.
@@edstar83 My experience is that support is no better than bad AI and their product pages are full of redirects. Maybe get a better virus scanner? Don't know what to tell you. They suck, simple as that. Argue with me all you want, they suck.
I think the element of needing to get the part ASAP played a part too. In hindsight, all the red flags are easy to spot, so I would say if you are trying to rush through an online purchase, take a step back, give yourself time and do some research.
Once you're caught out the learn how the world works. These sites are VAR selling agents who's business model revolves around the premise that the website suggests its a local warehouse. Some are okay - one company trading by the same business model was from the UK and the experience was excellent but as far as China goes - Ali Express direct or bust. At least in Australia they will refund if there is a dispute and returns are handled through the local (Aussie) supply chain for free - at least in my experience. One thing I have noticed with Ali Express however is some smaller sellers seem to dish out false tracking and delivery information - so it pays to screen shot your tracking page periodically before it's arbitrarily altered. Outside of that, check to the company details (about us) before committing to a purchase. If there isn't a local address or phone number present then I'd personally avoid them.
What I’ve noticed is the “fake” tracking is usually do make it look like they shipped it quicker and then they update it to the actual number once it’s actually moving. They’re just trying to keep their metrics good in a scammy way
I don't bother reading 5-Star reviews anymore due to way too many fake reviews. I always want to see what issues people have. As a person who have been building and repairing computers and electronics since I was 10 I know (most of the time) if the issues are a crappy product or the buyer has no idea how to use the item. It's funny how many 1-Star reviews I've seen where the buyer had no clue how to use the item or they gave it a rave review yet left 1-star with nothing to indicate they didn't like the item. I've been scammed on eBay, Amazon, Newegg, Facebook and others.
You can even find this on Amazon these days! I ordered a "New" Artillery genius Pro printer from a store that was not Artillery thinking the lower price was a good deal but upon arrival I received a heavily damaged and used printer. Thankfully amazons return process isn't too bad most times
Got my 1st 3d printer on couple months ago. Asked for a refund due to faulty fan and other issues they kept prolonging the after sales process. Got offered "You keep printer and partial refund" and when I asked for more specifics on partial they didn't reply. I bit the nail and just agreed which was my own fault and got back $20. It wouldn't have covered the shipping I would of spent to send it back. So now it's seen as refunded so I don't believe warranty/aftersales apply to me unfortunately. I've since fixed the issues, bought a flsun sr and ender 2 pro, designed my 1st 3d model will continue to 3d print. Just now I avoid voxelab like the plague just from personal experiences, though I still love the aquila x2 as it being my 1st 3d printer. Lesson learned. Thanks again Michael for always thinking of the consumer 1st!
Heck, the Canadians are really getting bleeped over in this scam. The price is $22.89 Canadian and $22.09 Australian yet the Canadian dollar is worth $1.10 Australian! With that exchange rate the Canadian price should be $20.05.
I had something similar - except I used it to scam the scammer. The page was a similar "sells everything" type - and I purchased an LCD screen for my Pi - the reviews said it had no HDMi- but it claimed HDMI on it - which was th eproblem for most. For me, this wouldn't be a problem as I planned to connect directly to the GPIO anyway. I review the order and sure enough it was all "the thing I searched for" not what they really sent me. All confirmations said this - and then when it arrived, to no surprise to me thankfully, it was a GPIO connection only lcd display. Of course I contacted them, giving them a chance to correct it (which, if they did would actually be a slight problem for me - as I didn't have Hdmi cables for it anyway) but they stated the whole "give you 40% back" - i fought this though, and got a full refund. When asked if I needed to send the product back, they stated "no" - so. Free LCD for me. To them it's really no loss, it was probably some obscure made/old inventory that did nothing for them anyway - but for me, it's a LCD I can use with my pi. Dishonest of me, yep, but when these scammers get so many honest people, I feel the need to strike back when I can. I don't do this with honest sellers, and I always give a chance to correct, just in case it was an honest mistake, but once that "keep it and we will give you 40% refund" type stuff happens, I know I am not really dealing with anyone honest. Especially when I point out specifically the site has changed or in my case, the description stated HDMI capable, the product shown (image) was HDMI - and no where did it indicate in any way that it would not be HDMI capable. After getting my refund, and having the screen still - I checked the site, and sure enough - it is STILL listed as the same HDMI capable LCD, with images of an HDMI capable screen. They didn't change a thing. All I can really say is read the reviews, most of them, if not all of them. If anyone gives a story like this - consider buying elsewhere, or, consider buying from them, knowing you can get 40% cheaper for a 'different thing" that you actually still want/need. In the case of the mic- I'd compare it to other mics of same type, and see if it was worth it - even if it wasn't the item I intended to buy when searching for printer parts, maybe I was in need of a USB mic as well, getting it - and then 40% refunded, might have been a decent deal at that point.
I was looking for a dual z upgrade kit for my printer 2 days ago and this site came up. The price was way cheaper then everywhere else and I nearly bought it. Very lucky I didn’t. Thanks for letting us know about these guys. 👍🇦🇺😊
Yeah, and then internet outrage jumps all over a company that just made a mistake and had a translation issue and gets screwed. Vigilante justice isn't actually justice, it's just revenge conducted by evil people who think they're the good guys. It's totally understandable to want to ACT NOW but the only way to be fair is to let the slow dispute systems do their thing. If the company won't help you, file a dispute with the credit card company and let VISA or AmEx's lawyers handle it.
Excellent advise, nicely detailed. I've noticed over the last couple years that more scammers now going thru effort to create a full fake e-commerce websites. More easy to notice if searching for a older product, or part that is not available of specially vendors. Often the pricing will also be dated vs. similar parts/products that are more commonly available. Many also don't list a physical contact address; this more a red flag if not shipping details listed under return shipping section of FAQs. Unfortunately google is still very willing to accept paid ad dollars to list such scammers at, or near top of search results. If this trend continues, it will eventually create an opportunity for alternative search engine providers.
There was a similar scam on ebay a couple of years back when I ordered a plasma cutter. Basically they take your money and send a cheap item, that way you don't complain for a long time because the tracking says the proper item is on the way. Using that method they can keep their store open longer and scam more people before they get shut down. I was so oblivious for so long that about 20 people before me had already complained to ebay, so my claim was cleared straight away.
Tried to buy an nvdia jetson nano on aliexpress. Didn’t arrive even after waiting for about two months. Filed a dispute. Took another 90 days to get my money back. In this circumstance, I didn’t pay much attention to the reviews since there was only a limited number of comments. I do read other’s review before ordering parts and post follow up comments to help others. I mostly come back to the same seller for repeat orders even if they have small shipping fees.
Great video. So many scammers but teaching others what to look for and research is awesome. Even on Amazon I had someone try to scam me for a $30 non-working drone with the same, I'll refund 30, then 50 and 60% after I sent video of one motor not spinning when taking off. I have 7 other drones and know how they're suppose work. Finally got a complete refund but only after many emails.
Dude, If it's only broken solder tracks, send that thing my way! I have a hot air station and all the bells and whistles. If that's all it is I could have saved you a lot of pain a long time ago man!
Michael, thanks for sharing your story. Unfortunately, paying for tracking number is not always a safe bet. I purchased an item from Aliexpress with tracking included. Like you said, my mistake. It was such a good deal that I did not bother doing my research. They "shipped" the item with a fake tracking number. When contacted the carrier (DHL) they said that the tracking number provided did not match any of my shipping information. Aliexpress refused to refund because according to tracking information, the item had been delivered. My mistake and I hope others will learn from it.
@@Zeldur Yeah I did... It just takes forever. I promised myself to not purchase from those websites anymore. I could be saving a few dollars but in reality, it is just a gamble.
For SSRs there's yet another scam you gotta be careful about: fake/counterfeit SSRs. Michael has also made a part about that in his video about mains powered heated beds: ruclips.net/video/1VyFejiKkSQ/видео.html since he fell for that one as well.
I too, got cheap lavalier mics from an Aliexpress order. Switcharoo. Do they think they will get away with it? As long as you stay within the buyer protection time frame. Aliexpress has been excellent getting refunds. So other than wasting your time, I haven't lost any money with Alie.
@Cthulhu My experience, and mind you these are lower cost "3D printer" type items. When I have not received an item by the deadline, or a tracking number says it was delivered to a different address, or they sent me child's hair clips instead of TMC2209s, I open the dispute, and have received a refund in a few days. I don't know the process if it was an item greater than $30.
I had money deducted from my AliExpress refund because I had received an item, even though it was not what I ordered, and I had no use for it. Seller didn't want it returned, so I got deducted. On another occasion, I was refused a refund because I wasn't willing to pay for return of a damaged item which would have cost me more to return than the value of the item. Seller required tracking on the return so I couldn't claim it was lost in transit. I did get a "full" refund on an item that was claimed as "delivered", but I could prove wasn't as the tracking number provided was fake. I say "Full" because I did lose out on difference in exchange rates, and foreign currency costs by my CC provider. So AE refund system may be good, but is not a certainty either.
Dealing with an aliexpress scam seller right now, and aliexpress is basically defending a scam seller. Definitely a good tip is to check reviews, check how many items the seller has sold. Make sure in this field they are a tech seller only. If they also sell jewelry, stay away.
for what it's worth, the site looks like quite a dodgy drop shipper site. They don't actually have any inventory of their own and use inventory of companies offering drop shipping services. Chances are their data entry is mediocre and one of their suppliers did offer the screen at some stage but sloppy work lead to the listing being for the microphone instead. Pretty sad response to throw the blame back on you though. Typically when I'm looking for parts locally I look for an ABN or a physical address before ordering lucky enough to have not had to deal with these situations because of it.
The inventiveness of some of these scams is remarkable, and so sad. I just stick with my trusted suppliers, and so far I've been lucky ( except for some porch pirates aka thieves ).
Thank you for the warning Michael. I have had similar through wish. Yes I have made mistakes with their Chinglish (Chinese to English translations) but the past couple of times I took screen shots of the sale and have noticed they change it a bit later.
This website popped up in my search quite frequently, their products are unusually cheap, glad I smelled something fishy and have never purchased from them.
Ebay is a cesspool, I recommend not using it. Don't feed the scammers, they run that site. If they didn't they would give a crap about every 2nd sale page being a scam.
Grandado is worldwide, been caught by them as well. My trusted suppliers didnt had what i needed so i kept looking on the web, ive found the things i needed on Grandado. 4 Euro and i was willing to take the bet. After A LOT of emails for them sending the wrong item ( came even from china ) i got 1 euro back. It wasnt about that 1 euro for me anymore i just wanted to make sure they haddend any profit on my spended 4 euro by letting them WORK to correct the isseue. Grandado seems to be a company that stands between a sort of cheap Aliexpress knockoff.
Some Florida 3d printer company tried to pull a fast one on me sending me an "all metal" hotend that was just another stock hotend with steel nozzle. At least that got fixed.
I fell for something similar. Facebook had an ad for a REALISTIC looking werewolf with real hair and glowing eyes for $70. It wasn't just pictures, it had a video of some guy wearing it. It took 3 weeks to get it and what i got looked like it came from the halloween store and cost maybe $12. It arrive 2 days before halloween so i was screwed. After 4 weeks of back and forth with them, start off with $5 refund and you can keep it, then ended with a $55 refund. So they still made a tiny bit of money from me. CHINA is the most devious of them all. I will not order anything i cannot find on amazon. Though some have had problems with items from amazon, Amazon has easy return and refund policy. Besides that, most of those problems are from amazon returns quality control and damaged\missing part items get put back in with retail items.
it seems like such an obscure thing for them to choose to sell as scam.. maybe they have some kind of amazon scraper that harvests out of stock items and lists them as scam items...
Not necessarily a scam (but probably), I had a very late delivery from China on an Ebay purchase. I chatted with them about it, and they offered to send the package again (which gave me alarm bells). I waited some time longer, then made a Refund request (before the 30-day Ebay limit) and they repeated their suggestion, I dismissed it, and then I *got* the refund. I used a different supplier to reorder the item and that delivery worked out fine.
I have used the Swedish version of grandado 3 times in 2020 but got what i ordered and never got scammed. They are however just a front for ordering cheap stuff from wherever so super long deliveries and extremely poor service to be expected.
Hey Michael. great video, its great you called them out and admitted your mistakes. Just curious did you ever find a replacement, i do have an old Anet screen from a A6 printer and the main board if you would like it, at no charge, i have no use for it and would be happy to ship it to you. Please hit me up if you are interested.
Got scammed on E-bay buying two 3D Printers online, honestly believed that E-bay would be the best method of guarantee, but not at all. E-bay refused to refund any money after many emails back and forth, despite asking them to do so a few days after placing the initial order (something felt off)...the scammer sends a box of stickers or rubbish and posts the tracking number, Ebay considers the deal to be legitimate...since then we have stopped using E-bay
I don't ever worry about what or where I order drom online, I simply use a form of payment processor that will protect my interests if I can prove I've been scammed. Paypal for instance.
Had a similar experience where a seller sent the wrong part to an address in my zip code to show it was delivered. I got my refund, but it took some major detective work.
I had a similar issue with another website trying to order a 30# Propane tank for $65. Instead I got something like a sock holder. Luckily I disputed with my CC company and showed that their website completely disappeared and went to something completely different also the money ended going to some other company. Definitely many online scams. Make sure you keep all confirmation emails and Screen shots of the webpage. At least you got a reply, I didn't even get a reply tot he support email.
I have seen some of these dodgy companies online and rejected them. The only time I got caught was when the company was supposedly Australian but was just an Australian mailing address. Fortunately I paid with PayPal and received a refund through them.
Another little red flag was the SKU on the product; it's a random number with way too many digits. Normal stores have lowish numbers (maybe 5-6 digits on larger chains), or quite commonly, SKUs that are a partial description of the product.
We have grandado in the netherlands as well, and they are either just buying from ali straight to you, or scamming you like shown here. Never used it personally, but some friends have placed orders, with bad experience.
If you pay with PayPal and contact them they will refund your purchase. I bought an air fryer online and received a dodgy pair of sunglasses and the website I bought it from wouldn't return my email so I contacted PayPal and they started a dispute and after a few days I had my money back.
I always use PayPal when buying online. I had this happen to me a few times and I used to contact the seller which caused nothing but problems and sometimes ended up not getting my money back. Eventually I would just ignore the wrong item that showed up and just file a claim on PayPal as if the item never showed and I always got my money back that way. Always check reviews, avoid websites on google searches with ad written to the left of the website and try to pay in a way that you know you will get your money back easily without having to do a chargeback or just forget the money altogether.
One very, very, VERY important point that I don't believe you covered is if you're even slightly unsure always use a payment method such as PayPal or a credit card where there is the option of a chargeback. Even on Aliexpress and Banggood i only use a credit card just incase the seller tries to pull a fast one.
On Aliexpress I get quite a discount if I pay through my bank's transfer system that Aliexpress supports for e-commerce here, and I've only ever once had a problem with disputes not working, which they eventually conceded on the support channel. I've definitely had my fair share of bad experiences there tho, most of them just waste of time tho from a seller that pretended to send something only for it to be a fake tracking code that when expired I get a refund from "abnormal tracking". Frankly, I don't get it why the sellers just don't cancel the order themselves already.
Big Tree Tech, or more specifically Biqu pulled the same crap with me. Description and title listed the printer I had purchased came with a different mainboard than what I received. After I emailed them but before they replied, they terribly photoshopped the website images to reflect what it really came with. When they did reply, Biqu offered a $5 refund… Naturally I refused, they then offered for me to return at my cost to China even though it came from a US warehouse. Yeah, that wasn’t happening, that’s nearly the cost of the printer in shipping… PayPal wouldn’t work with me either so I closed my account with PayPal and I refuse to ever do business with Biqu/BigTreeTech again. Absolute scam.
Yeah fell for one of these, ended up with the item i didn't order, they were willing to refund aslong as i sent the item back with tracking, insisting i'd pay nearly the worth of the refund on the shipping alone, I didn't go ahead with it cause it seemed like too much effort to try and extract money out, that i would of already had spend on shipping, so i just went around and warned people about the site
Well I was scammed by creality recently. My mainboard bricked itself during printing and creality blamed it on the LCD cable. They claimed that the cable itself is magnetized and thus stopped working even tho it's working just fine with a replacement mainboard...
that sucks man. I even wonder if the microphone that they sent to you even works or is it one of those cheapo ones. Either way you would think google would notice that the company was fishy and shouldn't had put that product at the front of the line unless google is taking their money too.
Thank goodness I don’t know about anything more than my Ender 3 Pro to ever get on a high enough level to need a part such as this (probably). Regardless, I’m sorry this happened!
Only one word: CHARGEBACK! Don't forget about chargeback! You can always file it with your bank and get your money back. Scammer will not only pay your money back, but also will pay additional fees. That is why they decided to refund 100% in this case.
We need more brick and mortar stores that offer competitive prices, I don't mean as cheap as online, but fair ones. I thankfully have that here for PC parts, and it's been my company of choice for almost every PC part for ~10 years and now the PCs from the company I work at. Then there's the shopping center stores that charge ~2x for everything and wonder why they close doors left to right.
When in a situation like yours, I ALWAYS start a dispute with paypal or my CC company. If they get enough disputes they will suspend or cancel the seller's access to their services. As you had all that evidence they would have ruled in your favour no matter how much stalling the seller does.
exactly, dont waste with seller, start paypal/ebay claim right away, as any discussion with seller is then discussed through the claim record process. also it starts the timer ticking on the seller to do something.
LOL unless you have a clear record of way to many claims paypal will always decide in the consumers direction its practically automatic. Were you can have an issue is if there is not funds to refund you as in scammer grabbed a bunch of $$ and ran,
The situation wasn't clear until he got the scammy response. That's when I'd have filed the dispute; before then, it could be mistaken for a picking or shipping error, which the store would be the appropriate party to resolve. But absolutely do resolve the dispute through the payment provider, because they could then protect others more effectively than a message like this.
@@tomhutchins1046 no that’s not how it works, you’ll still get a refund even if they cleared the account. Lots of scammy buyers try to file disputes over nothing and don’t always succeed either. But I love laughing at the people who try
@@johnandrews9433 Buddy i have used paypal to receive payments for over 20 years. over a million $$$ if you get a refund after they cleared the account it is either a good faith gesture from paypal or they found a linked card or account the tap. Paypals solution is return the item for a refund and they could return a dead rat and get a refund if they don't have a history of scams. Paypal like amazon and ebay almost always side with the buyer. At best they will tell you hey thats the cost of doing business on the internet. And they will note there account. Means nothing they really don't care the theory is there will always be another seller so the buyers come first. They have stated that if you read the policy's
It takes a humble man to admit his mistakes. It takes a good man to put that out there for all to see to benefit others. Thank you Michael.
Michael, when my sister asks me if a deal, she saw online is a good deal I always tell her that if it seems too good to be true then it most likely is. I show her how to use the internet to find a site that checks a site and lets you know if something is amiss. Most of the time they come back as questionable. I always tell her to check with me first before buying things online that's not from a known seller like Amazon. Glad to hear you got the issue resolved at least your money back since no part was given.
True, glad she has someone helping her on that, I do that with my parents too all the time. There are some quite obvious scams that people still fall for like stuff being 1/10 of the price or so (frankly, sucks to be them for being THAT dumb...), but there are some quite sneaky ones, some with believable stores set up with like 10% lower prices or so, that really make you wanna take the bet. Those are the dangerous ones in my opinion. I've taken the practice of being near paranoid in this regard, which has paid off, any new store you wanna buy from, triple checking individual evaluations everywhere is a paranoid habit I don't think is something to fix.
Yeah, but it wasn't a good deal was it, let alone one too good to be true. It was a high-priced deal that he was prepared to pay for the convenience of local shipping.
Amazon Marketplace is full of Fake USB Stick Scammers and paid reviews. Be carefull on Amazon, too
Wow, you are one of the humblest humans I have ever subscribed to on youtube, makes me a bit mad to see someone treat you like this. Thanks for watching out for us by posting!
All things considered, seems like a good opportunity to issue a charge back and get a free USB lav mic. That is, if they didn't fold to your demand for a refund.
Thanks for posting this. The best thing is to shine a light on people whom operate businesses with these poor practices. I am going through my own issue now trying to get a company to honour their own price guarantee practice. I bought a graphics card and they put it on sale within the price guarantee period so I contacted them to get the difference refunded. They responded that products with mail-in rebates are not eligible for the price match and included a copy of the guarantee. My response was that their guarantee did not match the price of mail-in rebates but did not prevent items with mail-in rebates from having the price guarantee applied to the main price. It was also pointed out that the mail-in rebate was for the whole month and I had it on my item that I purchased, thus it wasn’t applicable. I wrote this nicely and said that I hoped it cleared any confusion. I quickly received a response that the price guarantee did not apply to “instant rebates”. At this I called them out for their bogus excuses and said that they had a choice of making me a happy customer or I would contact my credit card company to dispute the charge. They never replied nor did they refund the money. They are Canada Computers & Electronics.
Thanks for doing this. A reminder to us all. I often find these scammy sites appear when I'm trying to find something obscure. That difficult to find part.
I've seen this name come up several times when I am looking for stuff. Personally I only use known suppliers. However I'm so glad you have done this so I don't just click them because they have the part I'm looking for. Thanks Michael for bringing this to the attention of others.
geez that outro smile was channelling "hide the pain Harold" something fierce
A very helpful video, and a good warning !! I'm lucky, I have a great printer and parts supplier here in Canada ( 3D Printing Canada ). I'm not advertising for them, just a customer, but when you find a good supplier, they also need to get noticed !! Anyone can get scammed, not many would make a video about it, so good on you for this !!
Hey Michael.
Just watched your comments on scams. Finding out about Trustpilot. Thank you for getting this out there. I have had my say in the forum. Hoping that others don't go through the drama like all of use had too.
So once again thank you Michael, your a Champion.
Cheers Brad.
When placing an online order, always take screenshots before you click "Place Order". With some sellers, both good and bad, that will be the last time you can take a screenshot of your order before goods are delivered or go missing. I have had email responses to online orders that merely thanked me for my order and the next thing I knew was the goods were being delivered or in one case, a denial that I had ever placed an order.
Good idea, but I'd imagine it's easy enough to argue on the validity and genuinity of the screenshots after the fact. It's obviously very easy to fabricate different information onto the seller's page before taking the screenshot or even simply edit the screenshot itself after the fact.
In any case, it definitely won't hurt you.
Funny you made this video given the timing. I am actually about to do one on a scam from an ebay seller where they tried to send out a different product with false tracking calling it a 'gift' and trying to stall me until the refund claim expired. Didn't work.
I stopped using ebay a long time ago, just as bad as the scam site he bought the scam part off in my opinion.
@@ballsrgrossnugly That's a bit of an exaggeration mate.
@@edstar83 No, It's not. Good luck with that fresh faced optimism though.
@@ballsrgrossnuglyPersonally I've been using eBay non stop on regular basis since the early 2000's. Buying international from North America, Europe, China, Japan I've never been scammed mate.
Scam sellers don't last long and when you get get scammed you're covered by eBay and PayPal buyer protection. So comparing EBay to a random dodgy site on the internet is exaggeration at its finest.
@@edstar83 My experience is that support is no better than bad AI and their product pages are full of redirects. Maybe get a better virus scanner? Don't know what to tell you. They suck, simple as that. Argue with me all you want, they suck.
Yes, there out there a lot of malintentioned shops that use this method for their profit.
Thanks for the video.
I think the element of needing to get the part ASAP played a part too. In hindsight, all the red flags are easy to spot, so I would say if you are trying to rush through an online purchase, take a step back, give yourself time and do some research.
Once you're caught out the learn how the world works. These sites are VAR selling agents who's business model revolves around the premise that the website suggests its a local warehouse. Some are okay - one company trading by the same business model was from the UK and the experience was excellent but as far as China goes - Ali Express direct or bust. At least in Australia they will refund if there is a dispute and returns are handled through the local (Aussie) supply chain for free - at least in my experience. One thing I have noticed with Ali Express however is some smaller sellers seem to dish out false tracking and delivery information - so it pays to screen shot your tracking page periodically before it's arbitrarily altered. Outside of that, check to the company details (about us) before committing to a purchase. If there isn't a local address or phone number present then I'd personally avoid them.
What I’ve noticed is the “fake” tracking is usually do make it look like they shipped it quicker and then they update it to the actual number once it’s actually moving. They’re just trying to keep their metrics good in a scammy way
I don't bother reading 5-Star reviews anymore due to way too many fake reviews. I always want to see what issues people have. As a person who have been building and repairing computers and electronics since I was 10 I know (most of the time) if the issues are a crappy product or the buyer has no idea how to use the item. It's funny how many 1-Star reviews I've seen where the buyer had no clue how to use the item or they gave it a rave review yet left 1-star with nothing to indicate they didn't like the item.
I've been scammed on eBay, Amazon, Newegg, Facebook and others.
This. star reviews are not trustworthy as well as the possibility people are leaving a 1-star review just from lack of experience.
You can even find this on Amazon these days! I ordered a "New" Artillery genius Pro printer from a store that was not Artillery thinking the lower price was a good deal but upon arrival I received a heavily damaged and used printer. Thankfully amazons return process isn't too bad most times
I always see Grandado come up, never orders from them, thanks for sharing 👍🏼
Can't trust ANY sponsored google results anymore, period.
Got my 1st 3d printer on couple months ago. Asked for a refund due to faulty fan and other issues they kept prolonging the after sales process. Got offered "You keep printer and partial refund" and when I asked for more specifics on partial they didn't reply. I bit the nail and just agreed which was my own fault and got back $20. It wouldn't have covered the shipping I would of spent to send it back. So now it's seen as refunded so I don't believe warranty/aftersales apply to me unfortunately. I've since fixed the issues, bought a flsun sr and ender 2 pro, designed my 1st 3d model will continue to 3d print. Just now I avoid voxelab like the plague just from personal experiences, though I still love the aquila x2 as it being my 1st 3d printer. Lesson learned. Thanks again Michael for always thinking of the consumer 1st!
3:45 another thing I find strange was that the screenshot showed Canadian Dollars, not Australian Dollars.
Heck, the Canadians are really getting bleeped over in this scam. The price is $22.89 Canadian and $22.09 Australian yet the Canadian dollar is worth $1.10 Australian! With that exchange rate the Canadian price should be $20.05.
Should have included the company name in the video title.
I had something similar - except I used it to scam the scammer. The page was a similar "sells everything" type - and I purchased an LCD screen for my Pi - the reviews said it had no HDMi- but it claimed HDMI on it - which was th eproblem for most. For me, this wouldn't be a problem as I planned to connect directly to the GPIO anyway.
I review the order and sure enough it was all "the thing I searched for" not what they really sent me. All confirmations said this - and then when it arrived, to no surprise to me thankfully, it was a GPIO connection only lcd display. Of course I contacted them, giving them a chance to correct it (which, if they did would actually be a slight problem for me - as I didn't have Hdmi cables for it anyway) but they stated the whole "give you 40% back" - i fought this though, and got a full refund. When asked if I needed to send the product back, they stated "no" - so. Free LCD for me. To them it's really no loss, it was probably some obscure made/old inventory that did nothing for them anyway - but for me, it's a LCD I can use with my pi.
Dishonest of me, yep, but when these scammers get so many honest people, I feel the need to strike back when I can. I don't do this with honest sellers, and I always give a chance to correct, just in case it was an honest mistake, but once that "keep it and we will give you 40% refund" type stuff happens, I know I am not really dealing with anyone honest. Especially when I point out specifically the site has changed or in my case, the description stated HDMI capable, the product shown (image) was HDMI - and no where did it indicate in any way that it would not be HDMI capable.
After getting my refund, and having the screen still - I checked the site, and sure enough - it is STILL listed as the same HDMI capable LCD, with images of an HDMI capable screen. They didn't change a thing.
All I can really say is read the reviews, most of them, if not all of them. If anyone gives a story like this - consider buying elsewhere, or, consider buying from them, knowing you can get 40% cheaper for a 'different thing" that you actually still want/need.
In the case of the mic- I'd compare it to other mics of same type, and see if it was worth it - even if it wasn't the item I intended to buy when searching for printer parts, maybe I was in need of a USB mic as well, getting it - and then 40% refunded, might have been a decent deal at that point.
Doing something wrong isn’t made right if you do it to someone you think is bad.
I was looking for a dual z upgrade kit for my printer 2 days ago and this site came up. The price was way cheaper then everywhere else and I nearly bought it. Very lucky I didn’t.
Thanks for letting us know about these guys. 👍🇦🇺😊
Scammers that have websites like that *need* to be heavily DD0S'd and put out of service!!!🙄
Websites are almost always hosted externally, all you will do is make other people suffer doing that. Plus thats illegal in most countries.
Yeah, and then internet outrage jumps all over a company that just made a mistake and had a translation issue and gets screwed. Vigilante justice isn't actually justice, it's just revenge conducted by evil people who think they're the good guys.
It's totally understandable to want to ACT NOW but the only way to be fair is to let the slow dispute systems do their thing. If the company won't help you, file a dispute with the credit card company and let VISA or AmEx's lawyers handle it.
I’ve seen that business quite a few times now and always ignored them because their prices were always well above everyone else.
Excellent advise, nicely detailed.
I've noticed over the last couple years that more scammers now going thru effort to create a full fake e-commerce websites. More easy to notice if searching for a older product, or part that is not available of specially vendors. Often the pricing will also be dated vs. similar parts/products that are more commonly available. Many also don't list a physical contact address; this more a red flag if not shipping details listed under return shipping section of FAQs.
Unfortunately google is still very willing to accept paid ad dollars to list such scammers at, or near top of search results. If this trend continues, it will eventually create an opportunity for alternative search engine providers.
There was a similar scam on ebay a couple of years back when I ordered a plasma cutter. Basically they take your money and send a cheap item, that way you don't complain for a long time because the tracking says the proper item is on the way. Using that method they can keep their store open longer and scam more people before they get shut down. I was so oblivious for so long that about 20 people before me had already complained to ebay, so my claim was cleared straight away.
Tried to buy an nvdia jetson nano on aliexpress. Didn’t arrive even after waiting for about two months. Filed a dispute. Took another 90 days to get my money back. In this circumstance, I didn’t pay much attention to the reviews since there was only a limited number of comments. I do read other’s review before ordering parts and post follow up comments to help others. I mostly come back to the same seller for repeat orders even if they have small shipping fees.
Thank you Michael. I subbed to your channel on the strength of this content. We need more content creators like you.
Great video. So many scammers but teaching others what to look for and research is awesome. Even on Amazon I had someone try to scam me for a $30 non-working drone with the same, I'll refund 30, then 50 and 60% after I sent video of one motor not spinning when taking off. I have 7 other drones and know how they're suppose work. Finally got a complete refund but only after many emails.
It seems to be a dropshipping website, all products are added automatically and they most likely have no idea which products they sell.
Dude, If it's only broken solder tracks, send that thing my way! I have a hot air station and all the bells and whistles. If that's all it is I could have saved you a lot of pain a long time ago man!
Michael, thanks for sharing your story. Unfortunately, paying for tracking number is not always a safe bet.
I purchased an item from Aliexpress with tracking included. Like you said, my mistake. It was such a good deal that I did not bother doing my research. They "shipped" the item with a fake tracking number. When contacted the carrier (DHL) they said that the tracking number provided did not match any of my shipping information.
Aliexpress refused to refund because according to tracking information, the item had been delivered.
My mistake and I hope others will learn from it.
I hope you disputed this with your card company. It's also things like this on why I avoid aliexpress and wish
@@Zeldur Yeah I did... It just takes forever.
I promised myself to not purchase from those websites anymore. I could be saving a few dollars but in reality, it is just a gamble.
I actually googled for an SSR today and saw the same site. I've checked now and the description doesn't say anything about an SSR.
For SSRs there's yet another scam you gotta be careful about: fake/counterfeit SSRs. Michael has also made a part about that in his video about mains powered heated beds: ruclips.net/video/1VyFejiKkSQ/видео.html since he fell for that one as well.
Hey Michael ! Thank you for this video ! This happens way to often! That is why I only buy my parts from known sellers...
that website pops frequently on my search results, clicked a few times but instantly closed it
That common Shopify template is a dead giveaway that it's a scam.
Great Video on how to not get scammed and what to do if you do! I find your videos very informative and educational! Thank so much for doing them!
I too, got cheap lavalier mics from an Aliexpress order. Switcharoo. Do they think they will get away with it? As long as you stay within the buyer protection time frame. Aliexpress has been excellent getting refunds. So other than wasting your time, I haven't lost any money with Alie.
@Cthulhu My experience, and mind you these are lower cost "3D printer" type items. When I have not received an item by the deadline, or a tracking number says it was delivered to a different address, or they sent me child's hair clips instead of TMC2209s, I open the dispute, and have received a refund in a few days. I don't know the process if it was an item greater than $30.
I had money deducted from my AliExpress refund because I had received an item, even though it was not what I ordered, and I had no use for it. Seller didn't want it returned, so I got deducted. On another occasion, I was refused a refund because I wasn't willing to pay for return of a damaged item which would have cost me more to return than the value of the item. Seller required tracking on the return so I couldn't claim it was lost in transit. I did get a "full" refund on an item that was claimed as "delivered", but I could prove wasn't as the tracking number provided was fake. I say "Full" because I did lose out on difference in exchange rates, and foreign currency costs by my CC provider. So AE refund system may be good, but is not a certainty either.
Dealing with an aliexpress scam seller right now, and aliexpress is basically defending a scam seller. Definitely a good tip is to check reviews, check how many items the seller has sold. Make sure in this field they are a tech seller only. If they also sell jewelry, stay away.
for what it's worth, the site looks like quite a dodgy drop shipper site. They don't actually have any inventory of their own and use inventory of companies offering drop shipping services. Chances are their data entry is mediocre and one of their suppliers did offer the screen at some stage but sloppy work lead to the listing being for the microphone instead. Pretty sad response to throw the blame back on you though.
Typically when I'm looking for parts locally I look for an ABN or a physical address before ordering lucky enough to have not had to deal with these situations because of it.
All parcels in Australia have tracking from the lowest cost to the highest. Good vod
Well done you Michael, I have been caught out twice now and learnt a harsh lesson. So now its Research Research Research, if in doubt stay clear....
AND screenshot the full product page(s), checkout, and Order Confirmation pages! You'll be glad later that you made the extra effort!
The inventiveness of some of these scams is remarkable, and so sad. I just stick with my trusted suppliers, and so far I've been lucky ( except for some porch pirates aka thieves ).
Thank you for the warning Michael. I have had similar through wish. Yes I have made mistakes with their Chinglish (Chinese to English translations) but the past couple of times I took screen shots of the sale and have noticed they change it a bit later.
Sorry for your troubles. I don’t understand why Google allows some many scam ads.
This website popped up in my search quite frequently, their products are unusually cheap, glad I smelled something fishy and have never purchased from them.
I've had this happen a few times on eBay. They say it's for a more popular part and the refund half but it's still a profit for them.
Ebay is a cesspool, I recommend not using it. Don't feed the scammers, they run that site. If they didn't they would give a crap about every 2nd sale page being a scam.
Grandado is worldwide, been caught by them as well. My trusted suppliers didnt had what i needed so i kept looking on the web, ive found the things i needed on Grandado. 4 Euro and i was willing to take the bet. After A LOT of emails for them sending the wrong item ( came even from china ) i got 1 euro back. It wasnt about that 1 euro for me anymore i just wanted to make sure they haddend any profit on my spended 4 euro by letting them WORK to correct the isseue. Grandado seems to be a company that stands between a sort of cheap Aliexpress knockoff.
Some Florida 3d printer company tried to pull a fast one on me sending me an "all metal" hotend that was just another stock hotend with steel nozzle. At least that got fixed.
I fell for something similar. Facebook had an ad for a REALISTIC looking werewolf with real hair and glowing eyes for $70. It wasn't just pictures, it had a video of some guy wearing it. It took 3 weeks to get it and what i got looked like it came from the halloween store and cost maybe $12. It arrive 2 days before halloween so i was screwed. After 4 weeks of back and forth with them, start off with $5 refund and you can keep it, then ended with a $55 refund. So they still made a tiny bit of money from me. CHINA is the most devious of them all. I will not order anything i cannot find on amazon. Though some have had problems with items from amazon, Amazon has easy return and refund policy. Besides that, most of those problems are from amazon returns quality control and damaged\missing part items get put back in with retail items.
The way back machine site might even have a cached version with the old picture on it!
That sucks Michael. Glad you eventually got your money back. Cheers, JAYTEE
it seems like such an obscure thing for them to choose to sell as scam.. maybe they have some kind of amazon scraper that harvests out of stock items and lists them as scam items...
Did you end up getting the part you needed?
great video as always 👍
haven't we all bean there. Sign.
thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍🙂
Thanks. Granado is a thing here in Denmark as well.
Not necessarily a scam (but probably), I had a very late delivery from China on an Ebay purchase. I chatted with them about it, and they offered to send the package again (which gave me alarm bells). I waited some time longer, then made a Refund request (before the 30-day Ebay limit) and they repeated their suggestion, I dismissed it, and then I *got* the refund. I used a different supplier to reorder the item and that delivery worked out fine.
I very nearly ordered from this exact site, it just didn't seem right so I stopped before checkout. Very glad I did...
I have used the Swedish version of grandado 3 times in 2020 but got what i ordered and never got scammed. They are however just a front for ordering cheap stuff from wherever so super long deliveries and extremely poor service to be expected.
Hey Michael. great video, its great you called them out and admitted your mistakes. Just curious did you ever find a replacement, i do have an old Anet screen from a A6 printer and the main board if you would like it, at no charge, i have no use for it and would be happy to ship it to you. Please hit me up if you are interested.
thank you Michael
Got scammed on E-bay buying two 3D Printers online, honestly believed that E-bay would be the best method of guarantee, but not at all. E-bay refused to refund any money after many emails back and forth, despite asking them to do so a few days after placing the initial order (something felt off)...the scammer sends a box of stickers or rubbish and posts the tracking number, Ebay considers the deal to be legitimate...since then we have stopped using E-bay
I don't ever worry about what or where I order drom online, I simply use a form of payment processor that will protect my interests if I can prove I've been scammed. Paypal for instance.
Had a similar experience where a seller sent the wrong part to an address in my zip code to show it was delivered. I got my refund, but it took some major detective work.
Some people specifically look for those listing's.
Wrong listing equal free items plus refunds.
Just 3d print a "raised" panel that covers the old display holes and houses the new display, don't even try to cut new holes in the metal case.
That au. at the START of the URL makes me think it isn't Australian, but the AU portal of a site with tons of them for different countries.
I had a similar issue with another website trying to order a 30# Propane tank for $65. Instead I got something like a sock holder. Luckily I disputed with my CC company and showed that their website completely disappeared and went to something completely different also the money ended going to some other company. Definitely many online scams. Make sure you keep all confirmation emails and Screen shots of the webpage. At least you got a reply, I didn't even get a reply tot he support email.
I have seen some of these dodgy companies online and rejected them. The only time I got caught was when the company was supposedly Australian but was just an Australian mailing address. Fortunately I paid with PayPal and received a refund through them.
Welcome to the internet. Enjoy your stay.
Another little red flag was the SKU on the product; it's a random number with way too many digits. Normal stores have lowish numbers (maybe 5-6 digits on larger chains), or quite commonly, SKUs that are a partial description of the product.
hey i have an old anet A8 if you need the LCD, it works fine last i checked
We have grandado in the netherlands as well, and they are either just buying from ali straight to you, or scamming you like shown here. Never used it personally, but some friends have placed orders, with bad experience.
Stuff like this really grinds my gears. Oh wait! That's the printer. BRB
If you pay with PayPal and contact them they will refund your purchase. I bought an air fryer online and received a dodgy pair of sunglasses and the website I bought it from wouldn't return my email so I contacted PayPal and they started a dispute and after a few days I had my money back.
This video is vampire family friendly. Thank you Michael 🤫🤫🤫
I always use PayPal when buying online. I had this happen to me a few times and I used to contact the seller which caused nothing but problems and sometimes ended up not getting my money back. Eventually I would just ignore the wrong item that showed up and just file a claim on PayPal as if the item never showed and I always got my money back that way. Always check reviews, avoid websites on google searches with ad written to the left of the website and try to pay in a way that you know you will get your money back easily without having to do a chargeback or just forget the money altogether.
One very, very, VERY important point that I don't believe you covered is if you're even slightly unsure always use a payment method such as PayPal or a credit card where there is the option of a chargeback. Even on Aliexpress and Banggood i only use a credit card just incase the seller tries to pull a fast one.
On Aliexpress I get quite a discount if I pay through my bank's transfer system that Aliexpress supports for e-commerce here, and I've only ever once had a problem with disputes not working, which they eventually conceded on the support channel.
I've definitely had my fair share of bad experiences there tho, most of them just waste of time tho from a seller that pretended to send something only for it to be a fake tracking code that when expired I get a refund from "abnormal tracking". Frankly, I don't get it why the sellers just don't cancel the order themselves already.
That is why i always use paypal - never had a problem getting my money back or getting a seller to get their finger out and post my purchase .
It was an inside job by The Architect with the 3D Printer in the Powder Room
Sir i have a question regarding elgoo satern s printer , is it able to resum print after power failer like an fdm printer?
Big Tree Tech, or more specifically Biqu pulled the same crap with me. Description and title listed the printer I had purchased came with a different mainboard than what I received. After I emailed them but before they replied, they terribly photoshopped the website images to reflect what it really came with. When they did reply, Biqu offered a $5 refund… Naturally I refused, they then offered for me to return at my cost to China even though it came from a US warehouse. Yeah, that wasn’t happening, that’s nearly the cost of the printer in shipping… PayPal wouldn’t work with me either so I closed my account with PayPal and I refuse to ever do business with Biqu/BigTreeTech again.
Absolute scam.
Yeah fell for one of these, ended up with the item i didn't order, they were willing to refund aslong as i sent the item back with tracking, insisting i'd pay nearly the worth of the refund on the shipping alone,
I didn't go ahead with it cause it seemed like too much effort to try and extract money out, that i would of already had spend on shipping, so i just went around and warned people about the site
Well I was scammed by creality recently. My mainboard bricked itself during printing and creality blamed it on the LCD cable. They claimed that the cable itself is magnetized and thus stopped working even tho it's working just fine with a replacement mainboard...
that sucks man. I even wonder if the microphone that they sent to you even works or is it one of those cheapo ones. Either way you would think google would notice that the company was fishy and shouldn't had put that product at the front of the line unless google is taking their money too.
Nice you won over the scammers!
Well done. Thankyou.
Grandado forgot to change the page URL as well.
thx for revealing.
I don't get it, that screen is worth like $10 and they sold it for $50 and yet they need to send incorrect item?
The high price likely is there to make you think the seller is legit even if it isn't a good deal
@@infernaldaedra It being sold at least for twice more is not really legit.
Design and print a faceplate adapter for the "new" lcd wide enough to cover all the holes in the metal plate
Ngl I would have just modded the metal plate to accept whatever screen is good and cheap for the main board.
Thank goodness I don’t know about anything more than my Ender 3 Pro to ever get on a high enough level to need a part such as this (probably). Regardless, I’m sorry this happened!
Same
Only one word: CHARGEBACK! Don't forget about chargeback! You can always file it with your bank and get your money back. Scammer will not only pay your money back, but also will pay additional fees. That is why they decided to refund 100% in this case.
There is an inherent risk when buying online. Whenever possible, I prefer in-person shopping. (Thank goodness I have a local Microcenter)
We need more brick and mortar stores that offer competitive prices, I don't mean as cheap as online, but fair ones. I thankfully have that here for PC parts, and it's been my company of choice for almost every PC part for ~10 years and now the PCs from the company I work at.
Then there's the shopping center stores that charge ~2x for everything and wonder why they close doors left to right.
I've been scammed out of $100 with a similar scam. I wish google had a way to report this so it gets removed from their suggestions.
We all need to be a bit more patient and purchase from a legitimate company for products like this.