Another Lazada Ripoff

[fusion58]

Was issued a refund for an item which was said to be out of stock. Refund was marked as completed in my order history. However, I never received the refund. I contacted customer support, and was advised to wait until next billing cycle, which had already come and gone, to see a credit to my account. I was further advised to contact my bank or credit card issuer to confirm receipt of refund. When I informed the customer support rep that I had already taken both of these steps, he/she simply continued to repeat the same aforementioned advice and scripted responses over and over again. When I asked if there was a supervisor or a number for Lazada’s corporate office I could contact, the agent abruptly ended the chat. Caveat emptor. 

[The Fugitive]

Could it be a genuine 'staffing issue' and they've not got enough staff to process quickly enough? Possibly your refund will appear on the next but one 'billing cycle'. Agreed it's very poor customer service but maybe the employee is acting under instruction to put people off as long as possible to 'buy time'?

[CharlieH]

If you were using chat you were morethan likely talking to a bot, not a person, hence repetition loop.

My suggestion, phone them.

[transam]

They owe me 117bht, will take up to 30 days to put it in my bank...????

[MJCM]

2 minutes ago, transam said:

They owe me 117bht, will take up to 30 days to put it in my bank...????

They owed me 1930 THB because of the seller (in China) not knowing that the product I ordered from them was out of stock. ????

 

Normally I pay via COD, but this time COD was not available, so I used my Credit Card. Order cancelled on Saturday and received the money back in my account the following week on Tuesday.

 

This is what the Customer Service send to me

 

 

[Crossy]

Yeah, I've had a couple of refunds to card take rather a long time, but they've arrived eventually.

 

[NE1]

51 minutes ago, fusion58 said:

Was issued a refund for an item which was said to be out of stock. Refund was marked as completed in my order history. However, I never received the refund. I contacted customer support, and was advised to wait until next billing cycle, which had already come and gone, to see a credit to my account. I was further advised to contact my bank or credit card issuer to confirm receipt of refund.

Just check that the money did actually leave your account. I had the same thing happen to me , same as you and the answers they give you , then I checked my account and because it was cancelled so quickly , the money never left. It's worth a shot.

 

[transam]

19 minutes ago, MJCM said:

They owed me 1930 THB because of the seller (in China) not knowing that the product I ordered from them was out of stock. ????

 

Normally I pay via COD, but this time COD was not available, so I used my Credit Card. Order cancelled on Saturday and received the money back in my account the following week on Tuesday.

 

This is what the Customer Service send to me

 

 

Yep, I had one of those...

[MJCM]

20 minutes ago, transam said:

Yep, I had one of those...

And this order was the first order (this year) that I did not do COD because it was not available ???? and it failed ????

[HappyExpat57]

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS chat with the vendor to make sure they have the item in stock.

[MJCM]

12 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS chat with the vendor to make sure they have the item in stock.

I will DO DO DO that from now on as well ????

 

So now 2 things to ask the Vendor

 

1- Is the item REALLY in stock?

2- Which shipping Company you use to send the stuff

[Andre0720]

29 minutes ago, MJCM said:

I will DO DO DO that from now on as well ????

 

So now 2 things to ask the Vendor

 

1- Is the item REALLY in stock?

2- Which shipping Company you use to send the stuff

Well, for me, I always always always order if COD is available

[eisfeld]

COD opens yourself up for fraud. See for example https://aseannow.com/topic/1270403-scammed-on-lazada-no-refund/

 

Better be safe and use a card. Even if it takes a couple weeks to be credited back, so what? You can always go to the bank and do a chargeback. At least you'll get your money back.

[eisfeld]

2 hours ago, CharlieH said:

If you were using chat you were morethan likely talking to a bot, not a person, hence repetition loop.

My suggestion, phone them.

Lazada Support Chat is not bots. I always talked to a real person. I assume the OP is a bit exagerating. Would be interesting to see the chat transcript.

 

Maybe there was a misunderstanding with the Lazada support and they thought he paid by credit card while it was debit? Debit is much more common in Thailand. Then it can take up to 30 days and the OP has not mentioned how long it has been since the refund was supposedly issued. Also with credit cards it can take more than the next billing cycle if the new billing cycle was just around the corner.

[CharlieH]

8 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

Lazada Support Chat is not bots. I always talked to a real person. I assume the OP is a bit exagerating. Would be interesting to see the chat transcript.

 

Maybe there was a misunderstanding with the Lazada support and they thought he paid by credit card while it was debit? Debit is much more common in Thailand. Then it can take up to 30 days and the OP has not mentioned how long it has been since the refund was supposedly issued. Also with credit cards it can take more than the next billing cycle if the new billing cycle was just around the corner.

Well next time you ask ! In my experience its been bot eveytime unless  you specify to the bot "agent".

[eisfeld]

57 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Well next time you ask ! In my experience its been bot eveytime unless  you specify to the bot "agent".

Just tried it. They indeed have this "CLEO" thing now but you can get rid of that one and talk to a real person. It's like an automated initial menu. Maybe OP thought that that system was a customer rep? No idea but it's pretty clearly just a menu system.

 

They also prominently show the hotline. I suggest using that. I've always had a really good experience with it.

[peterfranks]

1 hour ago, CharlieH said:

Well next time you ask ! In my experience its been bot eveytime unless  you specify to the bot "agent".

I type 'live agent' and I will get a real person.

 

Much worse is the Kerry Express chat, which after you enter live agent, you will get a bot pretending to be a live person.

 

Worst chat service I have ever experience.

 

Once I managed to get a call back, they let the phone ring 3 times.

 

Calling their 1217 help line isn't better, as you will get an options menu to press, spoken in English of which no word is understandable.

[fusion58]

4 hours ago, The Fugitive said:

Could it be a genuine 'staffing issue' and they've not got enough staff to process quickly enough? Possibly your refund will appear on the next but one 'billing cycle'. Agreed it's very poor customer service but maybe the employee is acting under instruction to put people off as long as possible to 'buy time'?

Actually, the same thing happened once before, i.e., about six months ago. I never received the refund. Got the same runaround from customer support. I just let it go on that occasion because it was a small sum.

[fusion58]

1 hour ago, eisfeld said:

They indeed have this "CLEO" thing now but you can get rid of that one and talk to a real person. It's like an automated initial menu. Maybe OP thought that that system was a customer rep?

I'm familiar with the system as I've used it to chat with live agents on numerous occasions re: many other problems besides refund issues.

[UWEB]

Just forget Lazada Customer Service, they are good for nothing and don't help at all. Have had heavy argues with them to get my refund paid back. Meanwhile they have blocked my Telephone Number so I can't call them anymore.

[The Fugitive]

55 minutes ago, fusion58 said:

Actually, the same thing happened once before, i.e., about six months ago. I never received the refund. Got the same runaround from customer support. I just let it go on that occasion because it was a small sum.

Totally unacceptable in that case. Thanks for the clarification. 

[fusion58]

4 hours ago, NE1 said:

Just check that the money did actually leave your account. I had the same thing happen to me , same as you and the answers they give you , then I checked my account and because it was cancelled so quickly , the money never left. It's worth a shot.

 

I used a CC, and my card was charged. My order included two items purchased from the same seller. After I placed the order, I received an email indicating the two items would be shipped separately. The first item arrived within the delivery window, but not the second item. About one week after the aforementioned delivery, I received another email indicating the second item had been cancelled because it was no longer in stock. Mind you, this was after the charge had posted to my account and after I had already made the payment to my CC. It has been more than thirty days since I received the notice from Lazada which indicated that a refund had been processed.

[fusion58]

3 minutes ago, The Fugitive said:

Totally unacceptable in that case. Thanks for the clarification. 

This experience strikes me as all the more odd inasmuch as I did receive a refund from Lazada on another occasion (same credit card) and it only took about one day.

 

I'm wondering if the fault lies with the payment gateway? These always seem to be hit-or-miss, no matter which bank.

[eisfeld]

37 minutes ago, fusion58 said:

I used a CC, and my card was charged. My order included two items purchased from the same seller. After I placed the order, I received an email indicating the two items would be shipped separately. The first item arrived within the delivery window, but not the second item. About one week after the aforementioned delivery, I received another email indicating the second item had been cancelled because it was no longer in stock. Mind you, this was after the charge had posted to my account and after I had already made the payment to my CC. It has been more than thirty days since I received the notice from Lazada which indicated that a refund had been processed.

Then I would ask your bank to issue a chargeback for the missing amount.

[MJCM]

10 hours ago, Andre0720 said:

Well, for me, I always always always order if COD is available

I think you should read this

 

I always order COD, but it wasn't available for this one!

[Andre0720]

2 hours ago, MJCM said:

I think you should read this

 

I always order COD, but it wasn't available for this one!

Well, what I meant is that if an article is not available through COD, I simply do not order it. I try to find an alternative, be it doing without the article...

[Dionigi]

the problem I find with Lazarda are the number of vendors who are using drop shippers, these are usually the ones where the item is out of stock as they do not keep up to date on the availability from their shippers. This happens regularly when you pick the cheapest option available as the item has been on sale for a long time and the price is out of date hence the shipper requires a larger amount than the vendor has quoted for the item. Lazy selling by people.

[Surasak]

Have you checked the WALLET! I know we are not allowed one but I had this same problem a few weeks ago.

I would suggest you phone and give the details, they will send you an email with instructions of how to make the claim.

Its not a scam, just the merchant doing what they would normally do with an item they cannot supply.

The phone number....02 018 0000

They have been very helpful in the past with my requests.

[Issanman]

My refunds show up in my Lazada wallet within minutes and are available for me to spend right away.  

Those that think they cannot use the Lazada wallet because they are not Thai are incorrect.

[Old Croc]

I recently ordered a small light fitting and specifically went for a local supplier despite the overseas (China) distributor being significantly cheaper. I wanted it quickly.

Three weekdays after ordering it was still marked "to be packed". A warning sign that they were sourcing it from China themselves and I was likely to have both the long wait and higher price.

I cancelled and ordered elsewhere. I'll see how long it takes for the refund.

There is no compulsory truth in advertising in Thailand and seemingly no consumer protection.