I ordered a hard-to-find Monster High doll from this website at a good price — so good, that I ordered a second one a few moments later, along with a Barbie I had been hoping to buy.
The money came right out of my account via PayPal debit card. The transaction seemed legitimate, as I received order confirmation emails immediately. I did the transactions via my cell phone, something I normally would not do, because I had become desperate in my search for this particular doll, who was impossible to find in stores or online at retail price.
I had an uneasy feeling, maybe because I did it from my phone, or maybe because it was just too good to be true, so I looked online when I got home. My orders each had a link to Account Status which said "Payment Accepted".
Nervously waited for a couple of days and checked the status frequently, which never changed. Then I googled.
Turns out, a former employee/consultant of another company affiliated/owned by the same person was so outraged by the conduct at this other company (officesupplystore.com I believe) that he launched an expose-style website.
I did not act, because I was hoping this was just a disgruntled employee. I kept waiting.
-Sent several inquiring messages via web form (no response)
-Attempted to call the phone # on the paypal invoice (straight to generic voice mail with "The mailbox is full" message... Annoying)
-Emailed the address listed on the paypal invoice (bounced back)
-Thought "maybe it's a typo" and fixed the email address to what it would be logically, still a bounceback.
A further google search of the phone # and website name came up with almost NOTHING... Except for some rather dubious domain name registration information, which freaked me out further.
I contacted PayPal and began the claim process.
Eventually, I was able to recover my funds via PayPal, even though I was not logged into my PayPal account, only my debit card, so that is fortunate. I filed a dispute a week after placing my order and PayPal took another 10 days to "rule in my favor".
I never heard anything from the company and my order still shows "Payment Accepted"!!!
BUYERS BEWARE!!! Moms & Dads, please don't make the same mistake I did and become easy prey!
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