Shenzhen Foxell - Dodgy Practices

Sunder

10 MW
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
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Sydney, Australia
Hi Guys,

I ordered some samples of LTO batteries through Aliexpress from Shenzhen Foxell Technologies. The cells were 25Ah. They waited 5 days before messaging me that the cells were out of stock, and would I take some larger 28Ah cells instead for the same price? 99% of the time, you would expect people to love a free upgrade, but the reason I went 25Ah, was that they were 225mm tall, and my space is 235mm tall. The 28Ah version is 255mm tall, they won't fit.

From the looks of Aliexpress, these cells are basically sold by anyone and everyone, so I said if it's out of stock, cancel the order, I can get it elsewhere. They reject the cancellation, and very quickly enter a tracking number in. The tracking number says the the job was booked 5 days before we spoke - the day I ordered the cells. The reason I am suspicious is that Aliexpress allows you to cancel orders that have not shipped, but will not allow you to cancel orders that have a shipping number.

It just seems a little... too coincidental that he doesn't have stock, but as soon as I want to cancel the order, he magically finds stock to send.

So now I'm 90% sure he did that to stop me cancelling the order, but there's a 10% doubt that they booked the courier the day I placed the order (or it's automatic through back end systems), and maybe swapped my order for someone else who was happy to receive the bigger cells, or they did a deal with another reseller just to keep the sale...

I have messaged him to point out the glaring suspiciousness of it all and still pressing for an order cancellation, but what do others think? Am I being scammed here? Is it standard practice to book a courier, but then not send anything out for a week?
 
Just an update on this.

I challenged him on the tracking number, and he said the real one would be updated as soon as he sent the package out. So no, it's not standard practice.

Looking at his feedback, about 5% of the feedback left is negative is that shipping took was extremely slow, and some of them mention that they paid extra for express, and it still took 70+ days.

Lesson learned. I personally will be avoiding this vendor like the plague, even if I get a refund through Aliexpress or voluntarily. If you're willing to game the system, it generally indicates a poor moral ethic.
 
Had similar incident regarding to batteries with a seller named alex.song from China on amazon. There wasn't any updates past the expected delivery date so I decided to cancel the order. Immediately after cancellation got taken money from my account and received message which said that UPS courier has forgot to pick up the parcel.
All of this happened despite positive reviews from other people.
 
Not related to cells (fortunately), I had a similar experience with a seller magically "shipping" my item as soon as I ask to cancel the order (after waiting 3 weeks). I refused the item upon arrival and opened a dispute, since Aliexpress rules forbid sellers to force shipping (by their own terms, send item after customer asked to cancel the order).
End of story I was screwed by AE which ruled I had no claim and there was no problem. It was a 5$ cable so it's not that bad.
If your seller provides a fake tracking number, you could try to open a dispute (since it is against AE rules) but I doubt you would get anything out of it...
Bottom line, if you place an order be sure you will probably have trouble cancelling it.
 
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