I found Lot Dealing while looking for a cell phone on Craigslist. I went to their website and found the phone I wanted, a Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III, a very nice phone for $229. The website shows that they only accept payment by Western Union or Money Gram. Now I consider myself fairly intelligent but that was a big mistake, and the sad thing is, I know better! Typical story, the low price was too much to resist, so I jumped in with both feet. I sent the money the same day, friday, 8/3, by Western Union at a cost of $25 and they confirmed they received it the same day. The next email said it would be sent on Monday because of the weekend and would arrive in 3 days so I was excited to say the least. They said they would send an email with tracking info on Monday.
Tuesday I sent an email asking why I had not gotten the tracking. The response was: "Hello friend, we have confirmed your payment and sent the items to the custom for checking. Because the custom are too busy to check out all our items today on time. Your items will go through custom in 4 days. When 10th we can send shipping information to you. After they check your items, we will ship out them and send the tracking number to you."
I decided to try to be patient although I was starting to doubt it was going to happen because 11 days had now passed and no shipping info.
I waited until the 14th and emailed to find out why the delay. I got this email: "Dear friend: Hope you everything goes well. We have contacted the officer in custom today, but there is a bad news for you: Ms. Li Jing has delivered the Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III to HaiDian Custom on August 6th. And our staffs have inspected the packing list.in fact, all formalities they have handed in all professional and clear, but according to the new regulation, we have to charge 115 USD for additional exporting tax.
They asked 115USD for the additional tax as penalty because your price is lower than China market. According to the new regulation, you need pay for 115 USD to clear custom as soon as possible. I am sorry that we could not know it early! Please be considerate and check the invoice from custom. You should pay the tax to us as soon as possible so that we can clear customs for you quickly. Have a nice day!" (They attached a phony looking email supposedly from customs stating that this is a good company and they hope I can cooperate, blah, blah, blah...)
They asked me to send them another $115 plus the cost of Western Union and I refused. I told them that there policy as stated on their website is that they will send an invoice that included ALL costs including tax and shipping. They sent that email to me so I was shocked when they asked for more money. I would never have spent a total of $419 on ANY phone, I can't afford that.
Ok, so without boring you with all the details, I sent numerous emails trying to get them to send the phone. I let them know that I would use every website available such as complaint and others and the FTC and the Chinese Consumer Protection Agency to warn people of this problem.
As you can guess by now... They never sent the phone and I am out $254... Not happy! I think they are a scam, and even if they are ligitimate, they are wrong for not sending me my phone for the agreed price including all shipping costs as stated on their own website. To come back after they have my money and ask me to send more for ANY reason is wrong. I asked for a refund and they said no, so the only recourse for now is to make sure no one else gets ripped off like I did.
Bottom line: #1 DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH LOT DEALING UNLESS YOU LIKE THROWING AWAY MONEY! #2 Never, ever, ever send money by Western Union or Money Gram to China or anywhere else. You have no recourse like you would with a credit card or Paypal.
There are plenty of good websites in China where you can purchase products without getting ripped off such as Chinavasion or DHgate. They have a rating system like ebay and they guarantee your money back if you have a problem. The phones cost more but nothing is more expensive than getting NOTHING for your money. These are hard times and most of us are trying to save money but I wish I had thought this one through. Fool me once and shame on Lot Dealing, Fool me twice... Not gonna happen!
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