Hope everyone enjoyed a ful and restful Christmas. Here's wishing you all the very best for 2022!
As expected, given our routine-heavy circumstances here, Jen and I spent a quiet Christmas together. Pretty much just like any other day really. Apart from one scenario which I'll spill the beans on....
While surfing YouTube on Christmas Day evening, I watched a very glossy and persuasive pop-up advert for a series of 1/3rd scale, all-metal, working engine model kits. The ad offered 4-cylinder, V2 and V8 variants. Super looking things. If you haven't seen the ads from various e-retailers on YouTube or any other online platforms, they are so cool and definitely worth checking out. There are even YouTube videos of these things being independently reviewed and assembled, including an awesome stop-motion vid showing one of these engine kits magically assembling itself. But take my word for it, if something looks too good to be true, JUST DON'T PART WITH YOUR MONEY like I - and it turns out many, many others - were foolish enough to do. Yep: this is a classic Far Eastern 'Bait 'n Switch' scam. These crooked sellers have absolutely zero intention of shipping you what you think you've bought and paid for.
I sprung for the working V8 engine model, and paid via PayPal. Within hours I was sifting through online reviews of these engine kits when I started seeing warning messages from folks who were giving a heads-up about being scammed. The most concerning of these was on the 40Plus site, and a guy there had posted details of his sorry saga dealing with these Far Eastern crooks. Replies to his post from umpteen others who had been similarly scammed made me realize I had joined their club too! So I immediately e-mailed the seller - in my case Saltdays, but the list of sellers changes frequently as is often the case with these types of scam - telling them I wanted to cancel my order for the all-metal, working V8 model engine kit and requested a full refund. Seller replied on Boxing Day saying their resin(!!!) engine was presently out of stock due to high demand and it would take 15-20 days to restock. Said I could wait and receive priority shipping after they fulfilled back-orders, or I could get a full refund. I said gimme my refund. Later that day I e-mailed Saltdays again, pointing out they had actually admitted they intended sending me a resin engine, not the all-metal engine kit I had ordered and paid for, and told them under no circumstances did I want their resin tat. I said I was onto their 'Bait 'n Switch' scam and given that the item was out of stock, I wanted a refund.
Next day, Saltdays replied, inexplicably requesting me to photograph the item I'd received and mail it to them so they could address the quality control issue. I responded, saying how on earth was I supposed to photograph something they hadn't even shipped to me yet! Saltdays next response was even wackier.. a brief message said 'due to Covid, they couldn't receive my package, so could only offer 50% refund'. I told them to Eff that, said I'd had enough of their runround tactics, and would involve PayPal in an effort to get my money refunded, which I did on Dec 28th. After escalating my complaint to a full claim with them, PayPal were quick to respond, and I provided them with details of the convos I'd had with Saltdays. Later that day I received an e-mail from PayPal confirming they'd contacted the seller and were awaiting their response. Today, Dec 30th, Saltdays sent me an e-mail saying they had refunded my money and it would take a couple of days to reach my account. Hmmm...I'll believe it when I see the funds safely there. But I won't hold my breath. In reality, I'm expecting (more like hoping) any refund to come back to me direct from PayPal themselves. Watch this space....
The pics below of the 4-banger engine are lifted from the guy who posted about being a victim of such a scam on the 40Plus site. First pics shows what was advertised and what he was looking forward to building... the assembled working model built from a kit of several hundred metal components, powered by an electric motor. Second pic shows the one-piece resin 'ornament' he received
BUYER BEWARE!!!
Here's hoping the New Year gets off to a better start than how the old one ended. HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!
As expected, given our routine-heavy circumstances here, Jen and I spent a quiet Christmas together. Pretty much just like any other day really. Apart from one scenario which I'll spill the beans on....
While surfing YouTube on Christmas Day evening, I watched a very glossy and persuasive pop-up advert for a series of 1/3rd scale, all-metal, working engine model kits. The ad offered 4-cylinder, V2 and V8 variants. Super looking things. If you haven't seen the ads from various e-retailers on YouTube or any other online platforms, they are so cool and definitely worth checking out. There are even YouTube videos of these things being independently reviewed and assembled, including an awesome stop-motion vid showing one of these engine kits magically assembling itself. But take my word for it, if something looks too good to be true, JUST DON'T PART WITH YOUR MONEY like I - and it turns out many, many others - were foolish enough to do. Yep: this is a classic Far Eastern 'Bait 'n Switch' scam. These crooked sellers have absolutely zero intention of shipping you what you think you've bought and paid for.
I sprung for the working V8 engine model, and paid via PayPal. Within hours I was sifting through online reviews of these engine kits when I started seeing warning messages from folks who were giving a heads-up about being scammed. The most concerning of these was on the 40Plus site, and a guy there had posted details of his sorry saga dealing with these Far Eastern crooks. Replies to his post from umpteen others who had been similarly scammed made me realize I had joined their club too! So I immediately e-mailed the seller - in my case Saltdays, but the list of sellers changes frequently as is often the case with these types of scam - telling them I wanted to cancel my order for the all-metal, working V8 model engine kit and requested a full refund. Seller replied on Boxing Day saying their resin(!!!) engine was presently out of stock due to high demand and it would take 15-20 days to restock. Said I could wait and receive priority shipping after they fulfilled back-orders, or I could get a full refund. I said gimme my refund. Later that day I e-mailed Saltdays again, pointing out they had actually admitted they intended sending me a resin engine, not the all-metal engine kit I had ordered and paid for, and told them under no circumstances did I want their resin tat. I said I was onto their 'Bait 'n Switch' scam and given that the item was out of stock, I wanted a refund.
Next day, Saltdays replied, inexplicably requesting me to photograph the item I'd received and mail it to them so they could address the quality control issue. I responded, saying how on earth was I supposed to photograph something they hadn't even shipped to me yet! Saltdays next response was even wackier.. a brief message said 'due to Covid, they couldn't receive my package, so could only offer 50% refund'. I told them to Eff that, said I'd had enough of their runround tactics, and would involve PayPal in an effort to get my money refunded, which I did on Dec 28th. After escalating my complaint to a full claim with them, PayPal were quick to respond, and I provided them with details of the convos I'd had with Saltdays. Later that day I received an e-mail from PayPal confirming they'd contacted the seller and were awaiting their response. Today, Dec 30th, Saltdays sent me an e-mail saying they had refunded my money and it would take a couple of days to reach my account. Hmmm...I'll believe it when I see the funds safely there. But I won't hold my breath. In reality, I'm expecting (more like hoping) any refund to come back to me direct from PayPal themselves. Watch this space....
The pics below of the 4-banger engine are lifted from the guy who posted about being a victim of such a scam on the 40Plus site. First pics shows what was advertised and what he was looking forward to building... the assembled working model built from a kit of several hundred metal components, powered by an electric motor. Second pic shows the one-piece resin 'ornament' he received
BUYER BEWARE!!!
Here's hoping the New Year gets off to a better start than how the old one ended. HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!
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