Online shoppers warned: be wary of misleading ads and dodgy outlets

Fair Go reporter Gill Higgins meets some Kiwis stung by misleading online shopping experiences.

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Watch out! That's the advice from Consumer NZ after an increasing number of complaints about online shopping sites that fail to deliver.

That is both products that don't turn up and ones that arrive but are nothing like the photos on the website. Then there are the difficulties getting responses from customer service and refunds that leave the customer out of pocket once return postage is paid.

"Online shopping customers do have rights," says Abby Damen from Consumer NZ. "But these can be incredibly hard to enforce if the company is based overseas or if customer service is really poor."

Kara Coory from Dunedin found out the hard way. Her social media popped up with a suggestion for what she thought was a dazzlingly beautiful lamp in the shape of a turtle. It was being sold by Misterlamp Auckland. The site said it sold goods from its physical store and online. Coory liked the idea of supporting a Kiwi business and loved the idea of the lamps. She bought a turtle and an owl for a total of $120.

But when they turned up, she wished she hadn't. "They were like cheap kids' toys" she told Fair Go, "nothing like the picture on the website". On top of this, one of them had arrived broken.

Coory contacted the company who made it clear that she'd have to pay for return postage, and they'd require a valid tracking number. She might have considered this if the return address was Auckland, but it was a lot further... She'd need to pay for postage to China.

Alarm bells rang and she asked Fair Go to get on the case.

We found the Misterlamp Auckland website misleading. For a start, it's not a New Zealand company. It's registered in the UK, with directors listed as Bert and Egbert Witteveen. The website boasts a beautiful piece of prose about the company's "journey" along with photos of designer products. It talks of the founders' passion and creativity, of luxury and exclusive goods, an eye for craftsmanship and attention to detail. So how does that fit with Coory's turtle? We checked the reptilian lamp out for "exclusivity" along with a few other products we chose at random. Every single one could be bought on other sites such as AliExpress, and for a much cheaper price.

We put these findings to Misterlamp Auckland. It replied that it's failure to accurately depict the turtle lamp was a problem with "editing", and that its lack of details such as the size of the lamp was an oversight, adding it would take steps to ensure a more accurate description in the future. It also said that while it strives to offer unique products, some may be available through other retailers. Some? We checked out nearly a dozen and didn't find a single one that was unique to this site.

Lastly, Misterlamp Auckland said a full refund for Coory could be arranged promptly. Coory accepted. She'd managed to get the company to previously agree to a 30% discount due to one lamp arriving completely broken but feels a full refund is far more appropriate. However, when we advised the company to reimburse her, it said Coory still needed to send the products at her own cost, tracked, to China.

That just adds insult to injury, says Coory. "You fall for the scam and then they bargain on you not complaining." And if you do the cost to return the product can be more than the cost of the product itself. "It's so frustrating."

She's far from alone in her online disappointment. Up country in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, Graeme McNae experienced an internet shopping fail after clicking on an advert on his Facebook.

It was for a portable heater from a company called Ozzi Mozzie. It was promised the heater would lead to massive savings in heating bills while rapidly warming up his home. What's more, he could get a 20% discount on one heater, ramping up to a 50% discount on three. He couldn't resist. "I'd be a fool not to go for that," he says.

But he felt more of a fool once he tried to check out. McNae says additional items were added to his cart and he couldn't see how to remove them. He'd already put in his credit card details. He exited the screen but ended up having $300 taken from his account, instead of the $180 he'd intended to spend. As well as three heaters, he'd apparently purchased items like mosquito repellant and cleaning products, none of which he wanted.

He emailed immediately. Customer service did respond but said the order couldn't be stopped. He asked for just the three heaters to be sent and for a refund for the rest. This led to repeated messaging offering more discounts and extra products. This went on for days, with neither party backing down. At no point would Ozzi Mozzie agree on a refund for the products that McNae says he didn't order.

He contacted Fair Go as he was making no progress. Fair Go used the communication channels suggested by the company, namely email and Facebook messaging. We received responses but they appeared to be automated messages, not directly answering our questions.

Fair Go dug a little deeper. We established that the director of Ozzi Mozzie Pty Ltd is Melbourne-based William Wen Ye Wu, also known as Will Wu. He is co-founder of the e-commerce business WNW Group, along with Paul Niklas.

Ozzi Mozzie Pty Ltd is a drop-shipping company, which means it doesn't make or store its own products. It takes orders and gets the products shipped from other companies. On the subject of drop-shipping, Paul Niklas said in a youtube video "you're not really selling anything you're just trying to make as much money as possible in a short amount of time".

Fair Go tried to make direct contact with Wu and Niklas. We tried every avenue possible: LinkedIn, X, phone call and texting. This was over a period of two to three weeks, but nothing. Or at least nothing back to Fair Go. But there was a very nice suprise for Graeme McNae. "Out of the blue I received an email to say 'we're going to refund the money'."

Sure enough, just under $300 was refunded to his account. McNae was overjoyed. "I'm very, very grateful, enormously grateful that you guys were on the case because I wasn't getting anywhere."

Abby Damen from Consumer NZ has some tips to avoid situations like this.

Be wary of seductive ads on social media: Those adds that flash up on your feed promoting adorable products that seem perfectly tailored to your tastes? They often deliver less than would appear. Scroll with caution!

Check a company out before making any payments. This can be done by typing the company name and the word "scam" into the search bar and seeing what results this produces. For example, Ozzi Mozzie only has a 1.5 star rating on the Australian scam-checking site called Product Review. It's also a good idea to look at independent reviews and read the comments on the company's facebook page. There are hundreds of customer complaints on the Ozzi Mozzie facebook page (which goes under the name Mosquito Trap), while for Misterlamp Auckland the comments section after each post is suspiciously empty. Each post has had comments made, but most can't be seen, suggesting they may have been deleted.

Pay by credit or debit card. Lastly, Damen says if you are sure you want to go ahead with an online purchase, paying by credit card will give you more protection. It enables you to apply for a chargeback from your credit card provider. In simple terms, it's possible to get the money paid to a retailer reversed out of its account and back into yours. You generally have 120 days after the purchase to do this, but time frames can vary.

If this all sounds like too much, you could do worse than taking Graeme McNae's newly-formed advice: "Face-to-face sales are a whole lot better than this online stuff."

Watch this story on our home for news, in-depth and consumer stories TVNZ+.