Jones & Smith "scam" - do not order til you read

There is also an American woman called Maggie McGaugh who posts on Instagram, can't remember her account name but her vids always start with "I knew this was fake but I bought it anyway".

Worth a watch to see the utter shite which people buy online.

Ordering from a company you've never heard of, which advertises on social media, which has a name which is quintessentially British, having a closing down sale or other huge reductions, with a dodgy site - IS ALWAYS A SCAM.

Seriously. Sites like Trustpilot exist for a reason. As does reverse image search. These scam sites are ten a penny and set up by the same chinese tat merchants who flog their cheap shite on Temu and the suchlike.

To be fair to them, they have a clear policy on their website, so it’s hardly what I’d call a scam!

jonesandsmith.co.uk/policies/refund-policy

I got caught by the colour changing lipstick one, and yes I checked TP! The company is Fenvio. 100% guaranteed if you don't like it etc. First the payment screen is terrible, you can't actually tell the payment has gone through. I clicked again, still no confirmation, so i abandoned it. Nothing in emails. But I checked my junk folder and there it was and because I'd clicked twice I got double order (2 for one). Tried to cancel, because I didn't in theb30 minute window my order has been shipped. But I could return the order, only there us an £8 restocking fee. And id have to pay postage. The stupid things came almost a month later, from China obviously not the UK as said. So 4 lipsticks. They arrived etc, so i dont know if i can do a charge back, just because they lied about origin or the dodgy website or the unfeasible return policy.They do the job although its a weird bluey pink on me.
Glad you started the thread, we all do silly things so its good to warn others.

Do you? I understood that credit cards offer protection as it is the creditor, not you, who paid for the item, whereas debit cards don't as you paid yourself. DH always insists on putting everything on CCs not DC, for extra security.

The 2* reviews are a bit of a giveaway. The fact that it says customs fees include in price and the delivery times also make it obvious it's not being sent from the UK. There's so many of these random websites that pop up and the reviews are always rubbish.
Best to stick to reputable brands.

I have never heard of them so would never use them, but thanks anyway. At least if I come across them, I can make sure I avoid them.

Yep, seen similar about a lady retiring and selling off all her jewellery stock. All complete BS.

Where did you see the ad @LemonLass- was it social media? Seems like a never ending stream of ads for clothes that look amazing but the so-called brands are just fronts for drop-shipping crap from Temu and Ali Baba.

So many of these scam companies advertising on Mumsnet and other social media platforms. I just ignore them all now. Their photos are often AI produced or taken from reputable shops, so they can be quite enticing.

I was taken in by a whole newspaper article about a brighton lady retiring soon who made glass xmas decorations. absolutely crap plastic arrived.
I’d paid via paypal, who initially wanted parcel proof of return (to china!!) within ridiculously short time (just b4 xmas?), So I found a fbook group about scams where other folk had also suffered same crap & sent an extra load of proof to paypal who gave a refund(haha less p&p!) after about a week.

The Nordic socks, family run closing down sale, are another one.

I thought I was very savvy but fell for that one in the middle of the night when up BFing a newborn.

Returns policy was in line with UK regs, had UK address , etc. basic checks checked out. But if I had done any more research other than on their site I would have found it to be a scam.
I realised the next day when slightly more awake, but was not in a place to sort it out (newborn, PND, etc) so chalked it up to experience and only a £15 loss.

Luckily the socks were just about wearable.

Be very careful to keep an eye on future transactions in whatever payment method you used.

These operations are often just the starting point for unauthorised payments (and often recurring subscriptions) as well as identity theft.

If you paid by card I strongly advise cancelling and replacing that card as the details are now compromised.

My daughter got caught out - she did get a refund from them, but by the time she talked to me about it, a bogus subscription payment had been set up on the account she used. She hadn’t noticed it - and the payment method had no reason to be suspicious as they had all the correct information to set up a payment.

This type of scam relies on things that happen after the annoying rubbish clothing delivery and return struggle.

To be fair, I once panic ordered a fleece for my son from one of these sites without really looking at the site. I was really annoyed with myself when I realised and mentally accepted it was never going to show. After 3 weeks it actually turned up and it was as described (feels a bit flammable and but it's v warm and he does wear it a lot). The Trustpilot reviews were terrible so I must've just got lucky.

I never order anything that advertises on social media. Been burnt once. Never again!
Ive only ordered the mystery who dunnit puzzle. I ordered Manchester and York and got Liverpool free. They are brilliant!!!

I nearly got caught out a few years ago with cute rucksacks that I figured out had to be fake as they were so cheap. The adverts were constant and then suddenly stopped.

These are all over the place- generally they are fronts for some crappy Temu sweatshop somewhere and they rely on the fact that most people just chalk it up to experience when a rag arrives in the post after 3 months. A few tips for spotting them - these dont always apply but often a few of them do.

• Is there a UK phone number and a proper email address rather than a gmail account? Google the registered address- in this case a slightly run down terraced house in Bognor with rubbish piled up outside. Call the customer services number.
• Check the returns policy - is there a UK returns address? If not, don't do it.
• Trustpilot.
• Is the copy on the website a bit shit / sounds like generated by AI or the English is clunky?
• X&Y name- designed to sound posh.

HTH. I am constantly auditing these as my teens put this stuff on their bday/christmas lists.

I never order anything that advertises on social media. Been burnt once. Never again!

OP I could have written your post exactly. I normally check reviews, but instead just checked their website and address and now I have a shit jumper I have to pay to return to the Netherlands. I actually saw the jumper through a link on here, so not FB ( not that where it was matters). I'm cross with myself and really pissed off about losing the money.

There is no set time and it depends on the bank. I did one with Halifax and they credited me straightaway whilst they investigated but my friend who was making the same claim as me with Santander had to wait 5 months!

I almost got caught last year with a Facebook add for a similar name but did a Google lens search of the photo and it popped up on Amazon Italy.
Advert had a "trust pilot" image but it didn't link anywhere. I was very close to ordering before I just thought I would check. (DH got caught by a fake Fat Face sell off site which has made us both more cautious)

This happened to my Mum before Christmas. She saw an ad online for a company called Charlotte Bristol. She asked my Dad to order her a coat for her Christmas gift https://charlottebristol.com/products/emma-check-coat
it took weeks to arrive and when it did it was nothing like the picture, the material was like a thin felt and the check pattern was all out of alignment down the back seam.

My FB is awash with ads for clothing, that I’m sure are scams. They usually have a classy looking name - supposedly U.K. based - and the blurb typically says something about ‘with sadness having to close our much-loved family business…’

The attractive looking clothing, often jumpers, is typically WAY too cheap for what it’s supposed to be! Also, although the business is supposed to be U.K. based, they often use American spellings such as ‘cozy’.

A R4 podcast called ‘The Knitted Cardigan scam’ features one such, and is well worth a listen.

There are constant 'family business shutting down' type ads on FB - complete with fake comments of alleged loyal customers. All scams.

I wouldn't buy a single thing advertised via FB, and certainly not via clicking straight through. They should do more to get rid of this crap - but of course they won't.

This sounds like one of the companies I saw on the news recently. There has been a spate of online shops on social media, always named as if they are a traditional British co (hence Jones & Smith) of longstanding reputation, some even show photos of the founders (usually AI or stolen photos). The clothes seem to take a long time coming, often accompanied by weird emails about flights, clearing customs etc and when they arrive they are of Shein/Temu quality.

I nearly fell for the “owners retiring from the family run knitwear business” one that was on Facebook a while back - so easily done!