I think I mentioned a possible scam several days ago and I have since been attempting to get my money back from them.
On 3 May I ordered one of those ‘steering wheel trays’ which clips on to the car steering wheel so you can work or eat in the driver’s seat (though not when you’re driving of course).
My own stupid fault: it was advertised on Facebook by a company I’d never heard of, but I thought, ‘It’s only £20 so I’ll risk it’.
On 8 May I received a message from Hermes: ‘It’s on its way’. Great, but when I looked on Hermes’ tracking number it said ‘Unknown’.
To cut a long story short, I contacted the vendor who initially addressed me as someone called ‘Ann’, then assured me that their orders commonly take 5-8 days to arrive but due to Covid ‘we’ve been experiencing some minor delays’.
After I queried it, the vendor told me that the item would be delivered to me within 10-14 business days.
On 14 May I discovered that the company had changed its name from ‘AutoTray’ to ‘WoofyWhiskers’! ‘Hello’, I thought, and the penny dropped!
On 21 May I demanded a cancellation of the order and a full refund on the grounds that they had failed to deliver within the advertised period. I had also discovered that this company had ordered the tray directly from China - no wonder it was taking so long to arrive. The seller had not mentioned any of this and had clearly been lying to me.
I also emailed Hermes and instructed them to cancel the delivery and return the item to the sender.
Finally, I contacted PayPal to whom I had paid from my credit card, and informed them of my decision and requesting that they refund the payment. They agreed to hold the payment until they had investigated.
On 23 May, the seller emailed me apologising that she cannot process a cancellation as the item is already in transit, admitting that they manufacture and process their items in China and apologising for not making that clear.
Nevertheless, having looked at all the evidence, PayPal emailed me on 2 June stating that ‘the case has been closed in your favour’, and that they have issued a refund of £19.99 to my credit card.
I could have just left this and put the loss down to experience, especially as I was daft enough to fall for what I realise now was an obvious scam, but I’m like a dog with a bone.
I’ve also now bought a similar tray from Amazon for the same price, post free, which arrived the next day!
Much better than a month!
The company to avoid is called either ‘AutoTray’ or ‘WoofyWhiskers’ (or possibly even something else by now), and the person I was dealing with is named ‘Jessica Andrews’ and trades from ‘Bell Yard’ in London.
