An elderly man in Singapore placed an order online and paid for a 32-inch Xiaomi television after being enticed by the cheap price, and getting scammed by the seller.
The 61-year-old, Mr Shen Ruiqiang who works as a train engineer, saw a listing for a 32-inch Xiaomi TV being listed for about USD$138 on Lazada.
He then placed an order for the television straight away.
After waiting 4 days for his parcel, his excitement soon dissipated after he noticed a small pink package had arrived at his home in Chai Chee.
He then immediately realised that he had been scammed.
Shen looked through the shop listing once more and noticed that there was something off about the brand logo, it was listed as “xiao-miss’ instead of Xiaomi.
He said that he had been looking forward to going home that day and finally watch TV at night, but all he got was a small packet of tissues that weight less than 400 grams.
Shen reached out to Lazada’s customer service to request a refund but was told that he had to wait for the seller to agree to the refund and for the platform to evaluate whether it was eligible for a refund, and then go through the whole refund process.
Each step of the process could take about 3 to 5 days and ultimately up to 2 months for him to get his money back from the platform.
Shen then went to the police for help and he was told that he should wait for the platform to refund him, but if he didn’t get his refund then he can report the case.
Lazada has since responded that they have suspended the seller from their platform and that although they detect fraudulent sellers, they also encourage customers to check the price, product and customer reviews before buying anything.