Dodgy online shopping...

[-mermaid-]

Hi,

Recently I bought some jewellery online (nothing expensive I hasten to add!), I have my lip pierced and hate wearing big, ugly, metal bars through it so I buy these tiny plastic 'bio-flex' ones which are a lot less noticeable!

I've used this same website at least 5 times over the past 6 years, and although postage has always been slow & I've sometimes got in touch with them about where my order is, it has always turned up, and on one occasion they even re-sent my order so I ended up with a free duplicate!

I placed an new order using the website on the 12th June. On June 20th I e-mailed them to say I hadn't received my items, and was there any reason for the delay, but didn't think too much about it due to their track record of being slow! On June 25th I e-mailed again but I still haven't received any response or my items! Payment has definitely been taken, via paypal, and I have also tried contacting the phone number on the website but it didn't seem to exist! When I called it the line just beeped and then disconnected me.

Is there any way of tracing this company for my items/some kind of explanation? As usually I have no problems so am quite surprised by it. It's also the only place I can find on the internet that sell the product I'm after so am quite disappointed that things appear to have become a bit dodgy since I last used them!

Any advice on what I should do would be great- thanks in advance!

[jno]

that happened to me once - I used to buy items from a company that was cheap but there were often postal delays and I kept ringing to prod them. But the last time it happened, it turned out the company had collapsed, and I lost, er, nearly £9.

So that could be a reason, though not necessarily. Have you tried googling the company name to see if they've been in the news?

[denis567]

You could try setting up a dispute procedure through Paypal. They are very good at settling disputes, and if they find in your favour, they will ensure you get your money back.

[Goonermatt]

Perhaps they have stopped trading. Definitely raise it with PayPal as a priority, then hunt them down and demand your little bit of plastic and/or your money back.

Have a look on www.whois.com. Put in the web address and you should get all kinds of useful information. Make sure you choose 'Whois Lookup' (it's under the white search box where is says 'Enter Domain Name'.

You should be able to get some names, phone numbers and addresses if you really want to pursue it.

It's brilliant for stalkers. Now, where is my map of Kettering.....

As an aside, if you have had your lip pierced, why wouldn't you want to wear something noticable? Isn't that the idea?

[-mermaid-]

Cheers, this is all really useful information.

Will definitely be chasing it up with paypal today, but can't find any whole addresses or phone numbers on whois, annoyingly, which further suggests they are a bit dodgy!

As for the piercing Goonermatt, when I was 15 and first had it done I'm sure I did want it to be noticeable, but now I'm 22 I still like the piercing, just prefer it to look a bit more discreet- like I'm a professional and not a rebellious teenager ha!