UK Worldwide Technology Limited

Buyer’s Nationality:
United States

Seller:
UK Worldwide Technology Limited

Seller Website:
http://www.worldwide-uk.com

Seller Address:
Flat 14, 12/F, Wah Wai Centre, No. 38-40, Au Pui Wan Street, Fotan, N.T., Hong Kong, China

Initial contact with the supplier:
Online Supplier Directory

Type of product(s) being purchased:
Laptop RAM and Processor

Value of the Purchase Order when the incident occurred:
Under 1,000 USD

Destination market of order in question:
US or Canada

Type of Complaint(s):
scams & other unethical activities

Stage of relationship with the supplier at the time of the incident:
Initial Order

User Experience:
I have been working with “Ellen Wu” – sales011ellen@gmail.com from UK Worldwide Technology Limited in order to purchase some Laptop RAM, a Processor (CPU) chip, and a SSD Hard Drive. I originally contacted her through Alibaba.com in regards to SSD Hard Drives in order to get a quote. I was sent a long price list of everything they offer and we talked back and forth for quite some time until we worked out all the products I wanted to order from them. She even sent me photos of the products I wished to buy for clarification to make sure I was ordering the correct items. She made an invoice for me and gave me a total price with
shipping.

However, when it came time to pay, I was concerned since she would not accept PayPal for payment and would only accept Western Union. We had a lengthy discussion back and forth about payment options and I voiced my concerns about paying for anything online with Western Union. She tried to convince me that this is how all business is done in China and no one uses PayPal because it costs too much and no one likes to use it. They are all used to using Western Union or T/T (wire transfer) for payment. So, finally we worked out a deal that seemed agreeable to both of us. I agreed to send half the money through Western Union up front and then once they shipped out my order and I received it, I would send them the rest of the money.

However, once she got half of the money, she suddenly said that her “boss” wouldn’t allow my order to be shipped out until I paid the rest of the money. I don’t understand why she would have accepted a half down, half on delivery agreement though if her “boss” would not allow that or it was against their company policy or something. Something didn’t seem right about it and that is when I was really worried that I had been scammed. I have tried several times to get her to ship out even half of my order that I already paid for and I keep getting the same seemingly copy and pasted response back from her saying that her boss says they cannot ship out my order until I pay the rest of the money. I have asked for a refund of my money then and at first she said they will give me 70% of my money back and when I told them to do that, then they went back to “now our boss says you pay the rest of the money and we will ship your order”.

I seem to be at an impasse here with her. I cannot get her to ship out the items that I have already paid for and I refuse to send them more money as I believe I am being scammed. She won’t send back the money I have already paid either, even though she initially said she could refund at least part of my payment. Now it seems no matter what I write to her in E-mail that I keep getting the same copy and pasted response back to pay more money.

I went to their website (http://www.worldwide-uk.com) to try to see if there is someone else at their company that I can contact to resolve this matter. However, all of the E-mail links on their website are bogus – the accounts do not exist. The only way to contact them is through the contact form page on their site and that just forwards to the same E-mail address above. I have also tried contacting them at the phone numbers they have given me and they are no good either and are disconnected. The ONLY way to contact them is via E-mail it seems, which also has me believing that this is a scam and not a legitimate business in China.

The biggest problem I have with this is that they have “6th Year Gold Supplier” banners all over their website for Alibaba. So, when I checked out their website before I ordered, it seemed like I was doing business with a trusted supplier on Alibaba. Now I believe that to be a complete hoax.

User Recommendations:
DO NOT BUY DIRECT FROM CHINA! They just try to scam you for money. Do not pay with Western Union or T/T for anything! If they won’t take PayPal, then just walk and do business elsewhere where you will be protected. If you keep trying to work with them, they will give you a deal that is too good to be true and before you know it, you will be out money. I kept trying to get them to accept PayPal and they kept saying no one in China uses PayPal and they all use Western Union. I was still reluctant, so they offered that I could pay half down up front and then just owe them the other half once I received my product. I stupidly did so and sent them half the money via Western Union, then they kept telling me that their “boss” was upset with them for making a deal like that and they wouldn’t ship out my order until they received the rest of the money. That’s when I knew for sure that I had been scammed! I asked for a refund and they told me they could only give me a 70% refund, not a full refund. I said fine, just give me my money back then. Then they said they couldn’t do that and they could only ship my order when I sent them more money. They kept getting twisted up in their own words and would say one thing to try and make you feel more comfortable, but then when you ask them to do what they promised, all of a sudden they couldn’t do that anymore. Classic bait-and-switch.