I am a keen belly dancer. I am also a qualified and experienced dressmaker, but not in the specialist area of belly dance costumes. Good quality ones are made with much thicker sequins and heavier beads than western clothes, and thicker stronger thread that can't go through a machine, and the finished costumes can weigh several pounds.
So if I want a practice costumes, or a lightweight costume for informal performance, I'll make my own. But when I want a professional standard, heavyweight hand-made costume I buy it. I've had some lovely stuff off e-bay in the past.
This time, I saw a costume on e-bay that I liked the look of. The seller, Mohamed Awad, calling himself "arabiancostumes" described the costume as prefessional standard, heavyweight and hand-made - just what I was looking for. The flowery over-the-top description and given value of hundreds of dollars I put down to poetic license. Wanting it quickly for a special event, I paid the "buy it now" price of $99 plus P&P - reasonable for this type of costume.
What arrived shocked me - the style was nothing like the picture. It was so lightweight it arrived in a cardboard envelope. It weighed almost nothing - barely even registering on my kitchen scale. As I took it out of the envelope, flimsy broken beads and thin sequins cascaded out all over the floor. It was machine made and badly. Lightweight. Flimsy fabric. The give away - the value had been declared on the customs certificate as $5. Useless. I never even tried it on.
A clear rip-off. A good quality item was sold - but a substandard rip-off item sent in it's place.
I contacted the Mohamed Awad immediately, who after some arguing, agreed to a full refund. I sent the costume back untouched. I had to wear something else to the special event.
The refund never arrived of course. I had to enter a dispute with Paypal, ignored by the seller. I escalated the dispute to a claim, still ignored by the seller. Judgement was made in my favour. Due to an admin error, when I claimed 79, I was paid out $79. Paypal cannot now correct the difference, so I am now still around 45 out of pocket. The Mr Awad even disputed the judgement, but I didn't find out on what grounds until later.
Not surpisingly, I entered a truthful (and rather mild) negative comment on e-bay feedback. "poor quality. Overpriced. Full refund promised, never received".
Imagine my shock when the seller then added insult to injury by libelling me on e-bay, saying that I had worn the costume and subsequently claimed a refund, and that he had supplied a full refund as asked. So not only did her rip me off, he also tried to damage my good name into the bargain. This seller clearly wants money at all costs and is not bothered who he hurts in the process.
Full correspondence, etc is available as I saved it all. If you have also had problems with this seller, and need further eveidence to back up a claim of your own, please do contact me.in the meantime, if you want to buy a costume, go for a better seller than this one!
Dancingqueen
Farnham
United Kingdom
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