They offer their wears on a website called www.dhgate.com - the site looks much like eBay but deals with China wholesalers direct (supposedly). Some of the prices are very expensive - others are very attractive - and tempting enough to get even me in trouble it appears!

Dhgate offer to accept payment via PayPal and then dhgate holds that Money in escrow for buyer safety until the ordered goods are received.

This sounds all good in theory - but try getting your money back when the goods are either not sent or the wrong goods are sent and all of a sudden the system looks far less attractive.

1) You have to go through a lengthy mediation system that can be dragged out for a long period. Long enough to make PayPal and Credit card claims no longer an option.

2) They suggest you can open disputes - but you have to wait until their system updates to indicate delivery has occurred before the dispute option becomes available!? - in the mean time you can only send messages to the seller through the order system not the dispute system.

3) It shows a feedback system like eBays but the tab that allows you to enter a Positive, neutral or negative feedback with a comment does not actually come with a submit button. This again may appear after delivery and after any disputes have been closed?

4) Their support people do not respond. I was lucky though - Linda chased me up as I had placed an order with the first seller but got nervous and had not completed it by paying - she sent an email as a follow up from which I got her skype contact details so via skype she has been very helpful - to a point... now the service contacts that she passed me on to are not replying.

As a result of these 2 failed purchases I have discovered a few things as you will find out if you read through this thread:

1) PayPal offers ZERO buyer protection.

If you receive an empty box then they class that as a completed transaction and will refuse any claims. Based on an empty box becoming a dispute on the attributes or quality of the supplied items, which they consider not worthy of refunding your money for. Order a $1000 item get an empty box and it is all the same to them!?

2) Do not trust anyone - if you can't reach out and slap them for doing you wrong then they most likely will try it on.

Again I am not sure I want to discredit dhgate here just yet - as even on eBay you get some bad sellers - but all the web reviews I have read on dhgate have mostly been negative.

Even though I gave their system the benefit of the doubt - I am now not sure that was the wisest thing to do. I had hoped it was just a case of those who complain - do so more often and louder than those who praise. Guess I was wrong here.

I will update this though if Dhgate comes through with a refund before my credit card charge back process is finalised.

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