Not received present for DS1 - help!

[Ding123]

I made an online purchase last week (27th October) for a birthday present for DS1. It's something he's been wanting for ages and I was delighted to see it on sale so placed an order. The payment went through straight away and I received a confirmation email that I'd be informed whe order is ready to be shipped. All pretty standard. On the website it says orders are prepared within 24 hours and shipping takes 3-5 days.

However I've been waiting since and not recieved any email never mind the actual order. Nothing in my junk mail. I emailed them on Friday querying it and not received a reply. There is no phone number on the website. A little premature but I'm worried I've been scammed. It seems a legitimate website, but why have they not replied to my query (website says all queries are replied to within 24 hours).

Who can I contact to complain if I don't hear anything or get a refund? Money is tight but I'm more bothered by DS's disappointment. He's had such a tough time recently and his birthday will be pretty rubbish in lockdown even though we will try and make it as fun as possible.

Which website is it OP? Link here or tell me the name and I'll check it out for you. I can spot a scam site in a minute or two as it's part of my job.

What dies trustpilot say?

I would contact your cc company

Website is OfficialGalaxyLights..

I've emailed them once more today, if I don't receive a reply midweek I will contact my bank. I paid by DD. Annoyingly the very same item is available on wowcher for less than half the sale price but DS1 (who is currently being assessed for ASD), was convinced they must be fake and was unwilling to accept it from there he can be quite funny about things.

is it officialgalaxylights.co.uk/ ?
If so looks like a drop shipping site to me. you place an order, then they order it off of aliexpress (for probably a 5th of the price you paid) and have it shipped to you.

It's basically a scam and when it does finally turn up won't be likely to look anything like the photos, I'd try contacting your bank and getting a refund if I were you.

Drop shipping is not automatically a scam Snow however, unfortunately this site does look bogus.

There is no social media with it OP...that's a dead ringer for a scam site. Usually, a proper website will have links to Instagram and Facebook at the very least because these are important in their growth...they use those to manage reviews and drive traffic.

When there are none, it's because they've got something to hide. In this case, it would be tonnes of people saying they never got their order.

I'm sorry you've been had...basically, when buying off an unknown site, you should ALWAYS look for their social media links and visit the pages.

See how many posts there are and how regularly they update...also...READ THE COMMENTS. If there are no comments it's because they delete them...because they're bad.

Report them here OP www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing

From what I can see, the entire site was created on 7th October this year. Speak to PayPal or your bank OP.

Thank you for the helpful posts!

Will sort it once I'm home, contact my bank and report the website. I ended up being rushed to hospital at 5am in labour and had DS this afternoon currently enjoying cuddles and recovering from it all.

@Ding123

Thank you for the helpful posts!

Will sort it once I'm home, contact my bank and report the website. I ended up being rushed to hospital at 5am in labour and had DS this afternoon currently enjoying cuddles and recovering from it all.

Wow. Congratulations! All the stress from the gift I reckon!

@EatTheHamTina haha yes maybe!

How lovely! Congratulations!

Well.. that thread escalated 😄

Congratulations OP

Aw congratulations! Do we deserve a photo of your new arrival?

Well not me because I didn't post anything helpful, but others did!

Wow what an amazing thread this turned out to be.

Thank you everyone! @FunTimes2020 I would love to show you my wrinkly adorable little night owl (he wants to sleep all day and be stuck to boob all night!) but with the forum being so busy and knowing rl people who use it it would be too outing. Back home this evening from hospital so hope to get DS1 refund sorted next couple of days.

Another little update! I contacted the bank this morning who told me because the seller didn't specify a delivery date I have to wait for a 15 day period before taking the next step in trying to recover my money.

Later on that afternoon I have a knock on the door and it's a courier with DS's present! still no email about delivery confirmation or a reply to my queries. But never mind, a happy DS is more important to me than their shite customer service!