Hi guys!! So this was an impromptu post as I thought I had discovered a website where we could all shop for Pandora AND Trollbeads at a discount, only to find out that wasn’t the case.
So I made a YouTube video explaining what happened, so if you would like to watch it, it is linked below, however if reading a traditional blog post is more your speed, then read on.
This all started when I received an email from a shop that was closing out on their Trollbeads. I texted my other Trollie friend and we started discussing their prices. I told her I was thinking of getting a fantasy necklace but thought their close out price was too high. So on a whim I googled “Trollbeads Fantasy Necklace,” to check on the original price, and there is where I found that Wal-Mart.com was selling a Trollbeads fantasy necklace for the low, low price of $62!
So what did I do? Of course I had to investigate this ASAP! I dropped everything I was doing and started to “shop.” Now from what I was seeing, this was all too good to be true, charms as low as $10, my jaw was on the floor. I mean it’s Wal-Mart right? Thirty day money back guarantee if I’m not happy, and Wal-Mart wouldn’t sell fakes on their site right? So I decided to run an experiment and buy just one charm, I bought the Trollbeads High Heel charm for a mere $10 with FREE SHIPPING! Extremely satisfied I then continued with my day, anxiously waiting for my charm to arrive.
Well a couple of days later I finally received an email from the shipper to let me know that my bead was on it’s way, and this is where everything went downhill from there. Let me explain: a couple of years ago when I first started collecting Trollbeads I shopped a lot through Ebay and thought I could trust these sellers that sell Trollbeads en masse. I didn’t know much back then, but I’ve since learned. One day as I received a bead I had ordered through one of the sellers I usually went through, I sent a picture of it to the same friend I mentioned earlier (she is a Trollbeads expert btw), and she mentioned that the bead looked off. I didn’t agree with her until we kept talking about it and I did end up noticing the color was off and so was the face. I had ordered the Chat bead and if you’re not familiar with it, it’s cubed shaped, and each side of the cube has a different old school emoticon or emoji on it.
Well one side of the cube didn’t have the correct face on it. I then panicked and made it a priority to get to my nearest TB dealer in order to have ALL of my beads checked for fear of them being fakes! Thankfully they all checked out except for the Chat bead, so as soon as I got home I contacted the EBay seller. I requested a return and refund and they “happily” agreed or so I thought. Now usually it only took between three to four days for my beads to arrive, so after four days I emailed the seller asking if they had received my package and they answer not yet, and not to worry I will get my refund. I waited two more days, emailed again with the same response. So after waiting more than a week I emailed again, only for the seller to once again tell me that they still had not received my package. At that point I was convinced they were lying to me and I immediately contacted Ebay to let them know this seller was selling fake Trollbeads and I wanted my refund. Without exaggeration guys, within five minutes of opening a claim with Ebay, they fraudulent seller refunded my money and sent me an annoyed email about how I didn’t have to open a claim with Ebay, and I was like are you kidding me?! Not only did I give them ample time to give me my refund, but I knew they were lying about not getting my package back. I very politely told them off and have never shopped with that same seller since.
Now the reason why I bring all of this ancient history up is, once I placed my order on Wal-Mart, I received an email from them that contained my tracking number and other vital information but I also noticed something else. The email came from Wal-Mart but it also had the name of the company where I purchased my bead, in this case I thought I was buying from Novo Trading Co, but instead I see the exact same name of the seller that I had bought from on Ebay years ago! Apparently they not only sell on Ebay but also on Wal-Mart! This meant that the bead wasn’t coming from Wal-Mart or Novo, but from a third party seller that used Wal-Mart as their selling point. Kind of like what Amazon does, however the big difference is, Amazon stands behind everything they sell and they make returns super easy. When I looked more closely at the email, I realized that because it was a third party seller, Wal-Mart does not handle the returns or refunds in case there is a problem!
So long story short, it’s not safe to buy either from Ebay or Wal-Mart! The hidden treasure trove I thought I had found did not exist, and you know what they say, if it’s too good to be true it probably is! I will be returning the bead immediately, and decided to turn this experience into one I could share with all of you. This has also inspired me to make a type of video on tips for buying on Ebay if you still choose to do so.
At one point I wanted to make a list of trusted Ebay sellers, but then thought against it as it could harm my reputation with you guys in the future, so instead I’m thinking of doing something else, something that will involve my readers and it’s something that I hope will take off. So stay tuned for future videos and blog posts about this subject, until then Happy Hunting!!
A similar thing happened to me on eBay with a Pandora bracelet being sold as genuine. Pandora have lots of sales atm and I used to use eBay for retired/discontinued charms I was unable to find elsewhere. I happened to see the bracelet and thought nothing more until it arrived. It looked the part but on closer inspection there were differences to mine purchased in store. I couldn’t thread charms on and I took it to my store who straight away evaluated it as a fake and handed me their written evaluation to support my claim. I opened a return and got my money back but as part the process I had to return the item rather than hand to the police so sadly the seller can sell it to someone else – and eBay will let them.) The whole experience made me doubt my collection and, like you, I took other items I’d purchased from authorised established jewellery stores to my official store to evaluate. My store was incredibly supportive and said this happens all the time. Fortunately, everything else was fine. Given the fees eBay – and others like Amazon and Wal-Mart – are quite clearly profiting on facilitating the sale of counterfeit goods – in some cases multiple times over – as this example illustrates – you must return the fake to the seller and there’s nothing to stop the seller from re-listing and selling to someone else and each time these facilitators get a cut from the listing and sale fees.