DealExtreme.com and AliExpress.com. BEWARE!

Since we all buy a ton of things online, I wanted to share this story. About a year ago I bought a small pipe or something from dealextreme.com. I never got it because it was sold out, and I never thought about them again. Until this morning.

I checked my online bank statement as I do most days, only to find 2 charges I did not make. One for to dealextreme.com, the other to aliexpress.com. Now I had to call the bank, try to get my money back, get another card, etc. I was pissed and contacted dealextreme.com. Below is the "chat" I had with them. It's hilarious:

You are now chatting with 'James'
James: How may I help you today?
James: order number pls
Bruce : hi
Bruce : look, I have a problem
Bruce : I did not palce an order, yet I was charged 77.54
Bruce : hello?
James: hi
James: Ok Do you have a transaction ID ?
Bruce : no, because I never ordered anything
Bruce : But my bank statement this morning shows:
Bruce : 6/27/2012 WWW DEALEXTREME C $77.54
James: Then pls contact with your bank for thr transaction Id that I can check for you
Bruce : I have an account with you, but NEVER placed an order
Bruce : yea, OK. I'll do that now, but I don't see why you just can't look up my account!
James: because no details in your account
Bruce : ok, hang on
Bruce : my bank does not have the ID yet
Bruce : it's on hold until tomorrow
Bruce : but I want to know how this happened
Bruce : happened
James: I do not knwo either
James: you could fill your prolem in this link pls
James: http://services.dealextreme.com/forms/DXAccount.aspx
James: We will have colleagues to follow within 24-48 hours after you filled.
Bruce : ok, another question. what is the connection between you guys and aliexpress.com?
James: Sorry i have no idea about that
Bruce : really? Because here is the way I see it. I have an account at dealextreme. I ordered something over a year ago that was out of stock. You have my credit card on file. A year later I get this charge, AND on the same day I get another charge from aliexpress.com.
Bruce : and I didn't order from either site
Bruce : so.. see where I am going with this???
Bruce : you are either the same company, or you guys SOLD my card info to them.
James: Ok moment

Please wait while I transfer the chat to 'Frank'.

You are now chatting with 'Frank'
Frank: Hi. Bruce
Bruce : hello
Bruce : I assume you see my chat so far, I want an answer
Frank: Yes. dealexpress and aliexpress.com are not our web site.
Bruce : what does that mean?
Frank: I mean we have nothing to do with the dealexpress and aliexpress.com as you mentioned.
Bruce : look, I have 2 fraud charges this morning. One is from dealextreme.com, the other from aliexpress.com
Bruce : why did YOUR site charge me when I didnt place an order????
Bruce : dealextreme.com
Bruce : 6/27/2012 WWW DEALEXTREME C $77.54
Bruce : I didnt say anything about dealexpress
Frank: Do you have any order number for this ? Normally, we will send confirmation email for new order.
Bruce : but it's odd that aliexpress.com charged my card the same day you did. AND I DIDNT ORDER ANYTHING
Bruce : I didn't order anything is what I am saying!
Bruce : How can I have an order number if I didn't place an order?
Bruce : why would you charge my card if I did not place an order?
Bruce : this is not that difficult, guys. Just answer my question.
Frank: Maybe someone else used your credit card to place the order. It is better to contact your bank to get the money back. I just checked. There is no order related to your email b*****.com.
Bruce : No kidding, that is what I have been saying. I did contact the bank and stopped the payment. And NO, no one else used my card. I can't believe you would suggest that. I am suggesting you fraudulently charged my card. And probably sold my CC number to aliexpress.
Frank: Dealextreme will not sell private information to other web site as we have declared it in our privacy policy. We would also like to clear this case if you can upload some photo of transaction record at http://services.dx.com/forms/DXAccount.aspx
Bruce : And, please, read what you wrote! "Maybe someone used your card to place the order". THERE IS NO ORDER SO HOW DOES THAT EVEN MAKE SENSE??!?!?!?!
Bruce : how does that make any sense at all???
Bruce : if someone used my card to PLACE THE ORDER, wouldn't there BE an order?
Frank: There are many online fraudulent cases. Could you submit upload some photo of transaction record? We will check and give you an answer. I can not help now without any information from you.
Bruce : there is no way to attach an image through that form.
Bruce : no info from me? are you kidding me?
Bruce : plus that form wants an order number (required). Again, no order, no order number.
Frank: Oh. Sorry. dealextremecs@gmail.com , please send it to this email and let me know your email. My colleague will check and answer you during next 24 hours.
Bruce : there, I sent it. I want answers and I am not going to let this go. So far I would say this whole chat was about giving me the run-around. SO, if i do not here back from your "colleague" we will start this again tomorrow. Only then I will have contacted the BBB, the Attorney General, and have every forum and blog I belong to (and can find online) talking about your company and it's practices.
Frank: OK. We will check on it. What is the email address you used?
Bruce : ……

Fucken' Hell! I would be seething with rage if something like that happened to me. I really feel for you man, this will surely get all sorted out, it will no doubt be a whole bunch of unnecessary hassle but it should get sorted out. Keep us up to date and thanks for the heads up.

Sorry about it all, its shocking the things some companies do. . .

Just FYI your email address is public. I don't know if there are programs that search for email addresses on websites to send spam to, but I would be careful and remove it.

Yea, I was mad, but then it was just funny about half way through. And thanks for the heads up on my email

I've heard before some/a lot of their employees are not very good at english, and therefor use a lot of standardreplies/sentences/forms.

Yea, I get that. It wasn't the lack of English skills that was funny/annoying. It was the fact they kept talking about "the order", but of course, there was no order!

Tstat, your OP reminds me of that old skit, "Who's on First?"

Exactly! That's why it just started to crack me up. "Maybe someone used your card for the order." "WHAT ORDER?" LOL. And look, I'm not racist and don't expect everyone to speak (or type) perfect English, but if you are in customer service, at least have a clue, in any language!

I hope you were able to get this figured out. I had a similar issue with Apple. After a bunch of back and forth they reversed the charges while implying that they were doing me a rare favor. I'm certain it was a result of their own poor security.

Anyway I noticed this thread getting a bunch of hits. It seems to currently be the #2 search result for "aliexpress" in Google.

vtac said:

I hope you were able to get this figured out. I had a similar issue with Apple. After a bunch of back and forth they reversed the charges while implying that they were doing me a rare favor. I'm certain it was a result of their own poor security.

Anyway I noticed this thread getting a bunch of hits. It seems to currently be the #2 search result for "aliexpress" in Google.

Click to expand...

Hmm, for me its #7 (last link before the 2nd page)

Wonder if thats a result of search results being filtered based on individuals.

Wow that blows! Thanks for the heads up, hope you get your situation settled.

Tstat said:

Since we all buy a ton of things online, I wanted to share this story. About a year ago I bought a small pipe or something from dealextreme.com. I never got it because it was sold out, and I never thought about them again. Until this morning.

I checked my online bank statement as I do most days, only to find 2 charges I did not make. One for to dealextreme.com, the other to aliexpress.com. Now I had to call the bank, try to get my money back, get another card, etc. I was pissed and contacted dealextreme.com. Below is the "chat" I had with them. It's hilarious:

Click to expand...

DealExtreme is like buying straight from the streets of China, I've only ever used Paypal with them so maybe that's why I've never had a problem?

I can totally see some DX employee (or their kids or some stranger, who knows how secure their "office" is) finding your un-filled order for a single pipe and thinking "Oh this pothead won't notice if I use his card a bit..."

Paypal man, they screw you on some stuff, but they're lifesavers for ebay and other shady sites

I've purchased a lot of orders from dx over the past few years. I always use paypal. Sometimes it can take forever to get your order and sometimes the item is complete junk but I enjoy shopping there. Their led flashlights are fantastic.

Never trust escrow. it's just a scam attempting to emulate the Paypal system. I searched everywhere online for a discontinued precision tool set. I was willing to pay shipping from anywhere. I wrote emails to sites in Brittan and Germany just to receive a reply saying stock is sold out and item discontinued.
Then a magic man named Sunshine Work
Trading Company through Aliexpress magically had some stock left. I payed him and awaited my precision tools. He sent me a 1$ set of exacto knives from the nearest dollar store. I attempted to contact Aliexpress about the scammer but buying from the streets in China is just as risky as you would think it is. The escrow system is just a scam same as everything in China. I would suggest if they don't offer Paypal move on. Remember A days scamming producing 5$ of stolen money is a very good living for a Chinese thief.

No disrespect intended for the person that posted this, but I completely disagree with how you handled this situation. I was a bit surprised at the way this situation was handled. Perhaps you wanted to waste their time and yours, because they accepted an order with your information, but certainly DX cannot be blamed for what happened. DX is a completely different type of website than alixpress and your suggestion that they might be the same or that DX sold your info is a bit wild. Alexpress has thousands of sellers on it and its appearance as a charge on your CC is due to a purchase from 1 of THOUSANDS of sellers. DX is an online retailer and aliexpress is an e-commerce website. On the face of their respective websites it is very easy to this so how you thought they were related, or the same, is beyond me. To accuse the two of being the same and saying the only alternative is that one sold the other information is very wrong.

Your thought process here makes me think you might have traits that lead to your CC information stolen and used on those websites to order items. How could you think they are the same? How could you blame DX for your stolen Info. If you did not have the aliexpress purchase then I would have said MAYBE DX did something, but the aliexpress purchase points at one single conclusion, your info was stolen from you, and usually when this happens it is the carelessness of the person whom had their info stolen. Malware, easy password, etc. could have led to the person using your info. Your confrontation of the DX rep was inappropriate. Maybe you were blowing off some steam and if that is the case I understand, otherwise, this was a big waste of your time and the rep's time. YES there is an order number and YES there is an order, whether you made it or not, there is an order, with your information, case closed about that. Obviously DX charged you because they received order. You keep talking about there is no order, but there is, you just do not know about it. Since your ID was taken, you change passwords, check your credit report, and tell your bank to issue a charge back based on ID theft, but all this talk about DX is to blame, and they sold your info to aliexpress, and there is no order, is unnecessary and silly.

If anyone is in the same situation, this is the right way to handle this: Hey Dealextreme please cancel this order I did not place it someone stole my identity...call bank... hello bank, someone has my info, charges X and Y are fraudulent please issue a chargeback immediately..... change your info.... done.

This long convo with DX, unnecessary, wrong, and a waste of your time and theirs. Lastly, there IS AN ORDER NUMBER, and an ORDER, because your ID was jacked, and used, and an ORDER was generated.

The first time I ordered from dealextreme, additional non-approved charges were made to my account.

I'm done doing business with them as a result.

How much do you want to bet the guys name really isn't Frank?