Pay with Protection for Your Loots

As most frequent online shoppers know, the easiest way to purchase and pay in almost all blogshops are through Internet Banking (IB) transfer or Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transfer.

The benefits of using IB or ATM transfer method are simple.

• Almost all Singaporeans will have a bank account.
• Almost all banks offer IB transfers.
• All banks have an ATM somewhere.

Therefore all blogshops provided the same avenues to their paying method simply because they are readily available and the buyers follow.

A huge BUT here!

Just because it is so easy to do a transfer anywhere, anytime turns most of our fellow shoppers blind to most scams.

So does that mean we cannot shop in blogshops anymore? Not quite true.

We can still, but choose wisely on the payment mode.

The most recommended way is to pay thru Paypal. We are in no way affiliate with Paypal and what we are interested in sharing is about some buyers’ protection scheme they have.

1. Paypal never shares your financial information – So why are you going around sharing your bank account number (for some people who took pictures and show their ATM transfer receipts to sellers)?
2. You can pay through credit cards – which does not deduct from your account immediately. More time for you to cancel a transcation if you sense something amiss.
3. If you do not have a credit card, they provide a Buyer Complaint Policy.

Under this policy, you can visit their resolution centre if you encounter a problem with an item you purchased and open a dispute case within 45 days from the date you sent payment. All communications with the seller are all recorded.

If the dispute remains unsolved, you can escalate and file a claim within 20 days from the date the dispute was opened. – in another words, you are protected if you do not receive your loots or the items received are significantly not as described!

I guess I really like the Buyer Complaint Policy a lot.

The only small problem with Paypal is toping up the account as they do not support top-up through POSB/DBS internet bank transfer. If you are holding bank accounts only with them, you will need to do it manually at the local branch.

If you really shop a lot or don’t want to miss out shopping online, you can just top up a sum of money once and leave it until it depletes. Have not heard about other banks with such problem yet.

You can check out more information on their website, www.paypal.com.sg

Conclusion is, don’t wait until you burn your fingers pocket to learn your lesson. Pay wisely.

A Big Gather of Cleocat-fashion.com Part 4 (Last)

After all the feedbacks and comments we have seen and heard, this time round SafeBlogShopper.com analysed their exchange policy.

Quoted from Cleocat-fashion.com’s exchange policy:

Items sold cannot be refunded nor exchanged. We will inspect items before posting out. And postage charges for all exchange to be borne by buyer. Exchanges are only considered for prominent manufacturer’s defects; Note : below reasons are not considered as defects :

SafeBlogShopper’s understanding:

• They will inspect items before posting out.
• Postage charges borne by buyer. Does that mean buyer have to pay postages for both way?
• Only PROMINENT MANUFACTURER”S DEFECTS will be consider for exchange. They should have listed down what is consider as manufacturer defects if some of the following condition is not classified under the fault of manufacturer.

(continued)

a. Personal dislike, change of mind after purchase; (ok, this is fair)

b. Slight colour differences(same colour range or any other minor physical differences), thread fray ends, wrinkles, slight mis-alignment of seams; minor tear on seams which can be hand stitched. 

(slight colour differences are understandable. But wow, minor tear is still not consider as manufacturer defects. So as long as it can be hand stitched, it is not the manufacturer’s fault. Buy needle and thread and sew it back yourself! Might as well, buy some cloth, we piece them together right?)

c. Button loss(replacement of buttons will be sent to you, in the event that the same button is not available, we will send a full set of replacement buttons which will match your clothing);

(If buttons are lost and replaced, should the buyers still pay for these postages?)

d. Minor stains (especially on light colour clothes) eg. washable stains, smudges and dirt will not be covered;

(Same thing, as long as these dirts you can DIY wash them off, it is not their business to cover, ok? Who ask you to buy those light colour clothes? Next time can only buy those dark colours like black and brown. You know why, because even if there’s dirt, you will not be able to spot them easily.)

e. Sizing issues (clothes do not fit, note different batches of clothes may have different sizing hence take note of size measurements stated when making purchase);

(Then what if the measurements provided are inaccurate. Who is responsible for it?)

 f. Claiming that the cutting of clothes is not good;(ok, fair)

g. Deliberate damage of clothes such that it will warrant an exchange.

(How do you differentiate that the damage is deliberate or not? Check records? Item Satin Bow Blouse got a hole of circumference 5cm. Anything bigger than that are considered deliberate damage??)

So, that is it. Despite that they claimed they will inspect all the items before delivery, as long as you can DIY wash or sew, it will not be cover under this exchange policy. Thus, can it be conclude that they inspected the items just to see if the damage can be DIY?

Big question mark here.

So if you think you got yourself a good deal? Think again! For spree organizers who are genuine on their business should re-consider about organizing Cleocat-fashion sprees.

A Big Gather of Cleocat-fashion.com Part 3

After Cozycot, another thread was found on Flowerpod forum regarding on their credit system. The user’s sister transferred SGD$100 to them, and have emailed several times but yet no replies nor credits were updated into the account.

“Unfortunately I do not rule out the possibility of fraud, mainly because they’ve conveniently ignored our emails, plus, I’ve bought from them twice before and honestly, their service has ALOT of room for improvement.

I understand that their business is growing and stuff but honestly, it’s been more than 1 week since my sis has transferred the money. I believe it’s more than enough time for them to get back to us. As sellers, they should be more responsible esp when it comes to sensitive issues involving payment and money.”

~blu_, 8 Jan 2009, Flowerpod

” agree their most of their clothes are of quite poor quality. and their measurements doesn’t make sense.
quite a few times when i ordered 2 different design who have the same measurements as stated there, but yet when i received the items, the measurements doesn’t telly at all!

and few times we received torn or frayed or even burnt clothings. haiz…”

~yorimichi, 30 Apr 2009, Flowerpod

You can read more on

http://flowerpod.com.sg/forums/Cleocat-fashion-t72218.html

We also found out some members actually provided the CLEOCAT company profile from ACRA. Due to privacy issues, click here for the information.

On the nutshell, few common main points of the feedbacks are:

1) Cheapskate packaging – Crumpled stuff in a big red plastic bag or wrapped in a brown paper.

2) Inferior goods – Colour and material used was a total turn-off and it did not even look 85% similar to the picture as shown on the website, not to mention running threads and fallen buttons.

3) Poor customer services – Absurb charges and postages, slow in replying emails or no replies at all.

4) Wrong information – Wrong measurements were given.

5) Possible of scams – Credits were not updated in the system even though money has been transferred.

(to be continue… Analysing Cleocat’s exchange policy)

Complaint Filed: shopaholic-addiction.blogspot

Updated on 26 Aug, reported by the same person:

This blogshop supply many blogshops. However, they suddenly MIA and let a lot of people wait.

I feel that being a blogshop owner, you should not MIA. and you should both equally concentrate on blogshop and studies too.

If you cannot concentrate, then why set up. Being a blogshop owner is like a part time job.. Is Permanent. Hence, you cannot anyhow MIA.

Reported Blogshop:: Adam. Corrina. Edeline

Reported Blogshop URL (if there is):: http://shopaholic-addiction.blogspot.com/

Goh CY wrote:
I just gt a message from christina of shopmorethanever.blogspot.com that her supplie MIA…. hence she is also a victim..

Read more

Blogshop woman jailed – Straits Times

Remember the very first blogshop scam article that we posted in April was this K-Sayuri case?

Well, the justice has been done. Read below for the article by Straits Times.

**
She gets three months for not delivering goods after pocketing $1,000
By Serene Luo & Teh Joo Lin

A YOUNG woman hawked branded accessories and handbags at bargain prices on her blogshop.

But Diana Koh, 21, never delivered the bags, even though she pocketed over $1,000 in total from close to 40 women who responded to her online offers of bags, jewellery casings and make-up pouches.

Yesterday, Koh was jailed for three months for cheating 37 victims in March.

A district court heard how one of her victims had ordered bags from her via the website, k-sayuri.blogspot.com

The site has since been shut down.

In early March, the victim had been drawn to the website while surfing the Internet and ordered five bags. Koh promised to mail them to her home.

The woman went on to transfer $87 to Koh’s bank account but the bags never came. Her subsequent attempts to contact Koh were unsuccessful.

When contacted, another victim, a 24-year-old who bought a handbag from Koh for $19, said other sellers had priced it at almost $50. She said Koh claimed she was selling it at a discount as she had to migrate to Australia soon.

Asked if she had smelled a rat, the woman said: ‘Yes, I did suspect at first. But human beings are greedy and since it’s not a huge sum, I decided to try my luck.’

Koh is not the only one who has been jailed for an online scam involving the purchase of branded goods. In March this year, the police arrested a woman who went off the radar after collecting over $30,000 online from buyers to make bulk purchases of branded Coach and Kate Spade handbags. She was later jailed.

Read the full story in Friday’s edition of The Straits Times.

From: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_416606.html

**

If you are thinking of scamming through blogshops, think again.

Cheers everyone!

About kiyuns.blogspot.com (2)

Not long after I published Could it be another scam? kiyuns.blogspot.com, the owner of the blogshop emailed me with her clarification.

The motto of SafeBlogShopper.com was never to pull down any of the sites with any ill intentions. We only hope to shop freely and happily. Thus, we are very happy to receive her clarifications and explainations for this whole matter.

We respect the privacy of each and individual and therefore we can only reveal a certain portion of the email.

(Click to view the full picture)

In the meantime, she has also promised that she will be clearing up the orders and reply to everyone’s email as much as possible. As such, we have decided to remove her from the Unsafe Blogshop list temporaily.

We hope she will be able to clear up her orders and we wish the best to her.

We are on Sunday Times!

We were not informed that The Sunday Times, 9 Aug, is going to mention us.

But then again, we are still mentioned!

Though there are only a few lines, it still mean a lot to us.

We hope as more people get around and know us, more words will be spread around about how SafeBlogShopper.com can benefits the online shopper and blogshop sellers.

Thanks to Ms Elizabeth Soh who has written this article, Mr Soh who got the picture on the right for us, Ms Zhang for keeping the newspaper article for us and skiving from Cozycot who have helped to mention about us on the forum.

Thank you all and Happy National Day!

A Big Gather of Cleocat-fashion.com Part 2

Previously, on A Big Gather of Cleocat-fashion.com Part 1 we have a spree organizer who detest their services, made a report on her own blog. The fire continues to burn from May 2008 till now.

Cozycot has a thread on “Bad Experience with Cleocat-fashion” too.

A user Chelrac Cantu who posted in Dec 2008 starting with 5 missing items from her 16 orders. Cleocat refused to refund and insisted on a one-to-one exchange.

Another user from the same thread commented that 5 out of 35 pieces are defect, torn or missing buttons. After requesting for one to one exchange, Cleocat insisted her to order another 10 pieces of clothing in order for that 5 pieces to be deliver.

“The worst thing is, the measurements are all wrong! Theres this skirt that i bought and there is this 8cm difference in length than wad was stated! Which is quite alot and I cant wear it becos its so short! The dresses and other tops also had like 3-4cm difference in measurements. Theres this dress which is shown as dark red on the site and the dress came and its like bright pink! lolol very disppointed!

Their prices are cheap though so maybe that explains the quality… “ 

~ appleator, 28 Dec 2008 from CozyCot.

“Secondly, my items came in 2 different packages, wrapped only in thin brown paper! Very very very bad packing service.

Thirdly, they charged S$1.50 shipping per piece, total 15 pieces = S$22.50 shipping fee. Guess what? They only use $2.50 for postage. Even if this $22.50 includes scotch tape and brown wrapping paper, I don’t think the additional $20 contributes to the amount of scotch tape & wrapping paper used!

Furthermore, the items they mail out to me, are not the same as the pictures they use! 100% false representation. Quality was bad, even worse than those I’ve gotten from Taiwan.

Requested for refund, but was just plainly ignored. WILL NEVER EVER BUY FROM THEM OR RECOMMEND THEM!!! “

~ daphn3, 15 Jan 2009 from Cozycot

“out of the clothes i ordered, only 3 are wearable.. and they smell. So how the material used emit a weird smell that is still persistent after washing many times and spraying with Fefreze.

My only advice is: DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM. “

- 30nster, 30 Mar 2009 from Cozycot

It was reported that the measurements provided can be of a difference up to 10cm!! 

You can read them all on

http://forums.cozycot.com/apparel/34834-bad-experience-with-cleocat-fashion.html

(to be continued…..More about Cleocat, stay tune…)

A Big Gather of Cleocat-fashion.com Part 1

Cleocat-fashion, not a stranger to most of the online shoppers. It offers like what they say on their ad in facebook: “Latest Korean and Japanese inspired ladies fashion at unbelievable rates. Our clothes prices are the lowest in town.” And is true.

SafeBlogShopper.com went to have a look. Very tempted to make a purchase due to its low costing. The most expensive item may cost $16.90 for a bag and the cheapest item can cost about $10.80 for a decent tee.

No minimum number of designs required as long as each order consists of at least 15 pieces of items. And that is the reason for been able to give a cheap pricing because it offers the so-called “wholesale price”.

15 items. Not a lot. Get a few of your friends, combine order, or join a spree and immediately you can enjoy this good deal. But it seem too good to be true. SafeBlogShopper.com believes that there is no free lunch in this world. Before you jump into it, always do ample of background research on the site.

And, Google is an amazing tool.

The earliest we found was reported in May 2008 from thesuper-girl.livejournal.com. This appeared huge when we entered.

The owner was a spree organizer and ordered 15 pieces of clothes as per mentioned.

“Oh? 4 working days did he say? Yeahh we received the clothes today, but only TWO FREAKING PIECES out of the 15 we’ve ordered, in an almost torn, crumpled envelope and 2 pieces of dresses haphazardly squeezed into the envelope!!” quoted from the site.

Subsequently, a few email contents were shown on the site. Apparently, Cleocat actually charges SGD $1 per item for the postage. It was mentioned that $1 incorporated the GST and import tax. And poor spree organizer paid SGD $15 for the postage but the real postage could be only a maximum of SGD$7.

At that point of time, this post invited more comments. Some of the extracts below or you may view all of them at thesuper-girl.livejournal.com.

Click to see the full picture

(we have more reports on Cleocat-fashion…stay tune for part 2)