DHgate - CAUTION! - AVOID! Internet

CAUTION! AVOID! DHgate.com

Here's what I learned the hard way dealing with DHgate.com:

Ordered an electronic item through DHgate.com [Beijing, China] from one of their vendors. Paid in full by credit card. The vendor had a 100% satisfaction rating (don’t trust it). Vendor sent the WRONG item and, worse, it DID NOT WORK. There was no manual in Chinese or English. No warranty. No UL approval or FCC compliance rating. How could the United States allow this to be sold and delivered?

Important first step, called my credit card issuer. Filed dispute charge claim. My credit card issuer was the ONLY help I got. If a consumer pays by check, money order, wired funds or money-gram they won't have help. If you have DHPay account, I urge you to go to your bank and cancel it. It authorizes direct wire funds from your bank account.

Next I contacted DHgate customer service. I got the robo-chat "Tang Tang" ... don't waste time. Click to live chat to explain the problem. Though polite, this person texted she couldn't handle my issue. I had to chat with a supervisor. Silence. No supervisor. Chat ended. I read other customers got the same annoying diversion.

Next I sent a message through DHgate member message box to the DHgate Resolution Center. I  received a reply from "Barbie" outlining all the steps I would need to complete a "Return and Refund" proposal form.  There I uploaded my photo/video evidence. My “proposal”: full refund, no return. That’s the last I heard from “Barbie”.

Then I messaged the vendor they had shipped me the wrong item and it did not work. I “proposed” a full refund and no return. I got this message: "This is DHgate Customer Service Center ... we contacted vendor by email, please pay attention to the recent reply." I checked. There was NO reply from vendor. The vendor never once replied to my messages. Vendor can accept or refuse buyer’s proposal. Vendor is not required to reply. When vendor does not reply then your "case" automatically goes into DHgate "mediation".

Do not waste time messaging DHgate customer service. DHgate policy does not allow them to help and they CAN NOT help. All they can do to is send the same polite messages instructing customers to go to chat again or message the vendor again or complete another "Return and Refund" proposal.

I am sure my history with the repetitive "assistance" offered by DHgate customer service has taught me their real "customer" they represent is the vendor, not the wronged buyer. And I believe DHgate Customer Service invests a lot of time and effort protecting the public image of DHgate.

Then a Customer Service Representative instructed me to click "Request DHgate Mediation". Click it and read the following offensive automated reply: "You cannot request DHgate mediation for your dispute yet."

A buyer in dispute with a vendor has no choice. Only conform and submit to DHgate’s fixed system and time schedule. DHgate can take up to 90 days to resolve a case! I was not going away! So I endured their endless loop of messages and forms. I wasn't about to forfeit my money lost to the vendor's scam!

I think they tried to bully me away. A DHgate Customer Service Representative messaged, "All correspondence with our Chat Team are recorded, checked every day. Any misinformation will result in appropriate actions from our management." Doing business with DHgate could mean vendors who send the wrong or defective merchandise can count on DHgate to frustrate and threaten buyers with a complaint! 

I had no more doubt. A DHgate vendor had tried to cheat me in a "China Scam" known by:
(1) sending wrong merchandise or no merchandise,
(2) sending defective merchandise (especially electronics or anything with moving parts),
(3) sending false shipment tracking numbers,
(4) bureaucratic delays in processing orders or refunds,
(5) no returns permitted,
(6) partial or no refund, and/or
(7) no communication or blocked communication.

Then DHgate.com blocked my member message box:
"ACCESS DENIED: You don't have permission to access "...dhgate.com myaccount..." on this server. Reference #184..."  When I was allowed back in I discovered DHgate had deleted all my messages from my message box.

Too late I did a little internet research on DHgate. They are a business-to-business sourcing site. Businesses listed on the web site are independent of DHgate. The buyer is supposed to research the individual company for themselves. Good luck with that. Most are in China. DHgate is not a vendor and is not a scammer, but DHgate enables vendors who are scammers. Vendors who do scam customers have a partner in DHgate who will advocate for their dishonest actions. I learned the hard way that DHgate is not impartial and does not support their customers like Ebait or AmerZone.

WARNING: It may be legal in China to swap a purchased item with a similar item of equal or greater value if the purchased item is out of stock! It is not legal to sell merchandise in China that does not work. It seems suppliers change names, get a new business license or "chop", when fraud charges start to mount up.

WARNING: Brand name merchandise are often cheap counterfeits. If you order clothes, jewelry, or electronics you have a good chance of being disappointed when you open the shipment. Some consumers might deal with a reputable company, looks like more than a few DHgate vendors cannot be trusted.

WARNING: DHgate policy may prevent a buyer from opening a dispute with a vendor, especially if the item ordered is a personal product or a custom-made product (wedding dress), or item was received late (“held up in customs”) or order has been closed (the “gotcha”) and payment has been released to vendor.

I have noticed negative posts about DHgate on some web sites get covered over by brief and incredibly favorable "five star" DHgate.com posts. Buyers on some scam alert sites will see many favorable DHgate reviews before coming to an honest negative one. My guess is they are posted by compensated or intimidated DHgate employees.  It speaks volumes to me about DHgate integrity.

Someone in DHgate management should decide it would be better to improve customer service and streamline the refund process rather than risk losing more buyers.

Just before mediation was scheduled to begin, I received a message to send a "more convincing video proof that the item I received from the vendor was not the item ordered". They asked for a video of me as I first opened the shipment box! The best I could do was make a video of my receipt that pictured the item I ordered and then the obviously different item received. They also needed a video showing that the item did not work; that showed that my batteries worked in another device! I think DHgate is counting on a buyer of an inexpensive item to decide not to go through all the hassle. I considered mine a moderately expensive purchase. I not only sent the video to DHgate mediation, but I emailed it to my credit card fraud investigation department. The email also made it clear that “it would be in my favor to remove any negative internet reviews” about DHgate. That is probably very effective in China, but not here in the USA. 

DHgate mediation took five weeks. No communication. No replies. Finally, DHgate emailed me their decision: partial refund in the form of a credit from the vendor I had ordered from. I’ll never use it. No return of the wrong and malfunctioning merchandise. Only a recycler will take it.

The good news is DHgate’s decision did not matter in my case! In the US, buyers who pay by credit card can have their card issuer “chargeback” for items shipped they didn’t order or items that arrive broken. The video I had emailed to my credit card fraud investigation department was enough for them the remove DHgate’s charge. For more information, because there are limitations and restrictions, do an internet search for “chargeback”.

It wasn't over! DHgate was not through with me. Nine days after DHgate mediation had settled my case I received an email from DHgate Trust and Safety Department. Over two months after my credit card issuer had contacted them, DHgate wrote, “we found that you have filed a chargeback via your Credit Card company … tell us more information so that we can look into the case further and help you solve it … send the order back to the seller…” Just to get them current, I emailed the DHgate Trust and Safety Department a copy of the email I received about DHgate’s mediation decision. That was the last I heard from them.

I was not permitted (and I assume other buyers who have a dispute are not allowed) to give an approval rating for the vendor. That’s one reason most vendor approval ratings are high. I do not trust a vendor’s approval rating!

Yes, I finally filed a complaint at eConsumer.gov who, when enough complaints are received, will do something better than collect complaints. If you have been scammed by a DHgate supplier please go to eConsumer.gov and file a complaint.

And yes, I filed a complaint with the FTC. Though AVS. International INC./DhGate.US. in Chino Hills, CA, the DHgate headquarters is in Beijing, so the FTC can offer limited help ... consumer is on their own.

I know how attractive some advertised prices are. I know now not to trust a vendor’s approval rating. I really regret that I did not take time to read reviews about DHgate before I placed my order. I hope some people who read reviews about DHgate will give the advice serious consideration before they place an order.
So CAUTION! AVOID! DHgate.com