So one day I placed an order from this website http://sweetvegan.co.uk/store/ for some vegan marshmallows (because normal marshmallows contain animal gelatine) and I'm vegan. I was happy until three weeks later my order never came. I tried to contact the store using every means whether it be email, skype or phone and no matter how many times I tried there was still no response. I even contacted the post office and waited another week and still no avail. They didn't even know nothing was sent in the first place!
I phoned PayPal and they said I should sort it out directly with the seller which I then mentioned that there was no response no matter how or when I contacted them. Eventually got my refund because PayPal have a policy where you can claim your money back within 45 days of purchase and if it wasn't for that I don't know what I would have done! They also started an investigation on the seller and even marked their balance as negative just to give me my money back.
How to spot a fraudulent website
Now taking a look at their website you'd think it's pretty legitimate but take a closer look and you'll find on the contact page it doesn't have any address to a physical location. When I reported them to the Office of Fair Trading they told me it's illegal and means that if any problems arise or if you wanted to report them, you wouldn't be able to because a physical address is needed to track them down.
Also another way to find out whether the website is legitimate is to contact them by any means you can and see if they respond. It can be anything from a phone call, email, Facebook or any other means of contact (except a letter) because the idea is to see whether you can get an instant response. If they don't respond, it's a bad sign and you shouldn't even think about buying anything from them. If you get nothing but voice-mail every time you call why should you invest your money in them if they can't invest their time in you?
Refunds
You as the consumer are legally entitled to a refund if a product or service doesn't meet your needs. In this case a website shouldn't make you think otherwise. After looking at the refunds section of this website I was absolutely appalled at what I saw!
Once I placed my order I thought there was no hope of me getting my money back until I contacted the Office Of Fair Trading which is who you should contact if you ever have any problems with any seller. Just make sure you know the physical location of the seller if you ever have any problems and your issue can be resolved.
Tips
- Do your research. If you are in any way curious or suspicious about a website then I recommend checking their ratings. This is a sure fire way to make sure you're getting value for your money and be as cautious as you can. If a majority of people have had a negative experience with the seller then steer clear. Here are some examples:
This post backs up my statement about having no contact whatsoever. The customer states sweet vegan haven't replied to their emails or phone calls. http://veggies.co.uk/2012/11/08/sweet-vegan-marshmallow-taster/
What certainly rings alarm bells is this post from a blog actually warning people about buying from sweet vegan. http://vegetariankids.co.uk/vegetarian-marshmallows-review/
- Like I said earlier contact the company by every means. If you can't get hold of them instantly by phone or within a week by email, don't buy anything from them.
- Use a protected method of payment. By this I mainly mean Paypal because they are a well known method of secure online payment so by buying through them you are protecting yourself from any scams as long as you phone Paypal within 45 days of purchase for a refund if anything goes wrong.
- Don't forget to mention extra details like the fact the seller is not responding to any forms of contact e.g. phone, email etc. This is because Paypal will tell you that you must contact the seller directly and if you leave it, you will not get your refund and justice won't be served!
By the way...
If you're looking to buy vegan marshmallows online from any seller I highly recommend Need Sweets they are amazing. I had a craving for sweets and when I placed my order I got it in two days!
I couldn't be any happier and their service is great because they respond to your tweets immediately so click here to check them out on Twitter.
I couldn't be any happier and their service is great because they respond to your tweets immediately so click here to check them out on Twitter.
I ordered a variety pack of marshmallows, an original smore and a toasted coconut smore and all of them were heavenly!
Toasted coconut smore
I even toasted my coconut smore in the oven and it was delicious!
After this whole experience, I decided to make a video about it so click here to see it and subscribe to my channel while you're over there :)
I really hope you found this post useful and now know what to do if you ever get stuck in this kind of situation. Thanks for reading my post this week I'm glad you came over. So tell me, do you know of any fraudulent websites? or have you ever been scammed? Tell me about it in the comments below and I'll be sure to read them.
Happy shopping!
Nina x
Happy shopping!
Nina x
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