Hello everyone. For the holidays, I ordered a watch for someone in my family. I thought I was ordering from the well-known watch company Watch Connection. Turns out somehow I clicked on the site for watch-connection (claiming to be in Canada) instead of The Watch Connection. I found a watch that was reasonably priced but definitely not super cheap or something too good to be true. It was a Michael Kors watch for $300.
I ordered it on Dec 1, and they provided a tracking #. Since December 3, it still says "shipping label created, USPS awaiting item". I emailed the company and get some generic AI generated stall message saying it takes 15-20 working days to ship and customs can delay that. Ok Canada is not far from the US, and even when I ordered internationally, the shipment begins moving at some point. They said with customs , the USPS tracking doesn't always get updated. I told them it says you never even sent the item to USPS, and they said it was "handed over to the courier on Dec 3."
Then I google them, and find out there are tons of negative reviews on trust pilot. Even trust pilot has a disclaimer saying the company is falsely representing itself b/c on their site they post fake reviews and claim to have a 4.8 rating on trustpilot. Yet if you go on trustpilot, they have a 2.5 rating. Lots of people saying they either never received their watch or if they did, it was the wrong one or a fake. Even the legit company Watch Connection has a disclaimer pop up as soon as you get to their site saying they are NOT affiliated with watch-connection.
So PLEASE people, do NOT order watches from them. I am mad at myself for not researching the company prior, but it was because I've used watchconnection before and knew it was legit. They scam you by putting that "-" in the name. Luckily, I've filed a dispute with my bank and it is being investigated. I also used Klarna so I was able to also file one with them and they have paused all remaining payments b/c they are investigating.
I hate that apparently there is no way to get these scam websites down. There are SOO many. Basically any ad you see on FB or Instagram is a scam site. Ask chatgpt before you order, and check reviews and reddit. I learned my lesson the hard way- but hopefully I'll get my money back. These scam companies get people with Klarna too- because they'll usually collect at least one payment before the person realizes it's a scam.
Does anyone know if there is anything we can actually do to get these scam companies taken down? I reported them to the BBB but that doesn't do much.