Merry meet all,
November, in my opinion, is an extension of October’s magic. A bird just landed on the cedar tree branch outside my window. It is around 3:30 in the afternoon. The sky is still blue. It gets dark early here. It’s my birthday on the 27th. Instead of feeling excited, I am more like thinking that it used to be fun getting older. Now I am and I don’t even want to think about it.
I’m sipping a hawthorn cordial. Lovely drink, really. This post is about scams. I recently fell victim to yet another scam. I really want to warn you all to be so careful. There are so many of them out there. The scams can be so unpleasant to deal with. At first they are so nice and everything seems so innocuous. You pay for a dress or a book online. Then the evil face of the scam reveals its true self. You never know till it hits you.
I even get texts from the evil people running the scam they would offer me money. They try to copy and look just like a real email from Canada Post, Canada Revenue Agency, Royal Bank of Canada or Canadian Tire. The reality is those genuine organizations would never ask such things from you like your personal banking information and such. I once fell for the scam and had to renew my bank card. It was such a pain.
The scam I had trouble is was when I bought a cape from Ubocae. They are the worst scam EVER. Run from them, don’t walk. I give someone money, I damn well expect to receive what I pay for. They had the nerve to send me a ring. A ring. I paid for a beautiful purple cape. Then it all began. They sent weird confusing emails. I had to push them into sending the tracking number. Then I got these emails like about when the item would be sent, and I could finally see two weeks later the item was sent. They told me some crap excuse that the ring was an early gift. Yeah sure and I am Mary Poppins. The item would be sent later if I was patient. They sent me a tracking number which was the tracking number for the ring. Then I pushed for a refund. Keep in mind we’re dealing with a company in Southeast Asia. It is no surprise I am having a hard time. They asked if I wanted a partial refund then asked me if I wanted a 70% refund. I said yes and then they sent me a few days later a second email asking me if I wanted a 70% refund. I think the emails are computer generated. That may be why there is the lack of positive communication. So no cape and no refund. I am never ordering from them again or ordering from anywhere outside North America again. I am researching the company up, down and all around first.
I have new standards for ordering online now. The company has to one I am already familiar with and have had positive results in the past with. The company has to be genuine and honest. The company has to offer reviews of their products, offer a tracking number openly, and have a good transparency to them. I will only buy from within North America now. Total transparency.
I encourage you all to exercise the same caution with your own online purchasing. It save you grief, not having to renew your bank cards, and time and your precious money. I really loved that purple cape. Instead I got a ring which I threw away. I couldn’t even sell it at a pawn shop. I will never get my money back from that unreal company. I just never want to have anything to do with them again. I doubt I can get the real purple cape I paid for now. I am sure no other store sells it and I don’t know if I can trust an online company now. The company Ubocae also has bad reviews online as well. I am not surprised.
The online stores that I still trust are Amazon (though not lately much), Killstar, Holy Clothing, and Chapters. I will continue to deal with them and that’s pretty much it. I hope you all never have a nasty experience like the one I had. I wish you all the best and please be careful. It is your time and money. Value it.
Blessings, Spiderwitch
