I ordered two pairs of Opening Ceremony Cici Classic shoes from hmomastery.co.uk, which sells “designer” shoes and clothing at drastically reduced prices. They usually cost around £200 a pair. I paid £122.38 on 29 September by Lloyds debit card. On 3 October the money was taken from my account by retailer DESIGNER ONLINESHOP in Beijing. Eventually, a pair of shoes – the wrong ones, Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 trainers – arrived from China with no delivery note. I’ve been advised they are from Kanye West’s expensive label, but are in fact counterfeits.
I complained by email asking if I needed to return them to China at my own expense, and received a reply saying I should keep them. Further emails requesting the supply of my original order have led to an offer of a measly 15% refund and them telling me that the trainers in my possession are “valuable”. Should I simply put this down to experience and warn others? PJ, Twickenham
All items on the website are reduced. Listed prices, for what must be counterfeits of popular branded items, are quite bizarre – a pair reduced from £95.81 to £60.05, for example. Both your email replies were written in poor English.
As trading standards always says, if something looks too good to be true it probably is. We contacted the website but have yet to get a reply.
Your best bet is to try to reclaim your money via your card issuer as a chargeback claim. To do so you will need to contact your provider within its time limit – usually 120 days.
However, as there is no legal obligation for the seller to return your money, the final outcome will be up to your card provider. In the meantime, we would be interested to know from any other readers if they have had dealings with this outfit.
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