Getting fleeced by a company that poses as UK-based, but isn't.

[TryingToFigureItOut2]

Hi,

I think I am getting fleeced by a clothing company that poses as a high end UK fashion company in London, but which is really not. I wondered if I could tell you, and also ask if anyone has any idea of how to return the clothes?

I bought some shirts from a company called Ashford of London, after a recommendation from the Style and Beauty forum. After I bought them, I realised that the person who recommended them had never actually used the company and had just googled.

This is the company:
https://ashfordclothing.com/

I don't normally spend a lot of money on clothes, but this was to be special, so I was asking for a recommendation of an upmarket brand. I thought this brand would be good because it said it was a London company.

The clothes didn't arrive for two and half weeks, which I thought was odd. The tracker said they came through customs, so they had not come from London at all. When they arrived, they had a Royal Mail 48 label on, which was pretty weird for a three week journey. The clothes seems to have been made in China and possibly posted directly from there. They weren't nicely packed but were jammed tight into a tiny plastic bag.

The clothes didn't look at all like the ones on the website, and weren't suitable. They were meant to be men's shirts, but looked very like ladies shirts (pink and floaty). I started the process to return them.

The weird thing is that when I tried to return them, the company said I had to post them back to the Netherlands at my own expense (not London). They said that I must do the postage in such a way that they had no customs charges to pay to receive them. If they had to pay any customs charges, then they would reject the parcel and refuse to refund.

I sent the parcel by Royal Mail, stating that it was a "Return", so no duties would be due. I said they were from country of origin Netherlands, since I got them from this company which seems to be in the Netherlands. I figured that that would mean they didn't need to pay customs duties since none should be due.

After about a month, I have just heard that the parcel has been rejected because customs charges had been demanded, and they refused to pay them.

This means I will have no refund and will once again will have £350 worth of shirts, that I can't use, and can't send back. It cost me £17 to ship them before, and I'm not sure it's a great idea to spend another £17 to try again.

I wondered if anybody might have any idea of how to send a return parcel to the Netherlands without incurring customs charges? I really would like to return the shirts, as they are no use to me, and cost a lot of money.

Failing that, I wondered if I could just send out a warning not to take Ashford of London too seriously as a UK company who will play fair on returns, because they really seem not to be very helpful.

Thanks!

Sorry, I meant to post this in chat to get advice from people who know about posting things. Ooops.

It's a follow up from this thread here:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5399458-burgundy-shirts-for-corporate-work-environment?page=1

According to their website they are a German company. How did you pay? Can you do a chargeback on your card via your bank?

There are lots of red flags including them not being willing to participate in dispute resolution. It also looks AI generated.

I was just wondering that actually. I will check. My credit card has been on the fritz as well, so I think used a debit card. For some reason my credit card was just not going through. I will check back

Had a quick look at the site, and the company is based in Germany? The phone number and contact address is German. Definitely not a UK company.

Lots of poor reviews on Trustpilot:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/ashfordclothing.com

I just checked back and I paid by debit card.

At the same time as this was happening, my John Lewis credit card stopped working and I rang up customer services and got stuck in an endless loop talking to loads of robot recorded messages. I never was able to get through to a person so I closed the account and got a Nationwide credit card. While I waited for it, I used only my debit card for payments. The Nationwide credit card also didn't work for several weeks after I got it.

Life with consumer goods is very complicated I think.

Oh wow! That trustpilot website really has a lot of bad reviews for them. I must check that website in future before ordering. Thanks for showing me.

I will add a bad review myself too.

I added a bad review myself. They seem like absolute crooks.

I have bought shirts from Moss Bros instead and they are great. Much easier.

You need to raise a charge back via your bank. Keep all records you have re customs charges and returns details as you'll need to provide them to your bank. You have tried to return them and have no goods and have lost money and its therefore very likely your bank will fully refund you via the dispute process.

Thanks, I will ask the bank about that.

My daughter bought 2 jackets from a similar company called Valenti Mode (I'll bet any money it's operated by the same scammers). They also told me I needed return the items back to The Netherlands at my own cost which I refused as it wasn't specified on their website. I contacted Paypal which was the method I used to pay and they issued a refund. It took about 3 weeks as there's a process where Paypal contact the seller to sort out the situation but the seller didn't respond.

It's worth trying to get a refund via whatever method you paid by.

That's really interesting thanks. Makes me want to start shopping in actual shops again.

It’s a scam company. Try your bank. Don’t waste any more money trying to return them.

A quick look on the website clearly shows Germany. I never order off a company I’ve never heard of without looking on Google for their reviews. An expensive lesson learnt.

No advice at this point, but thanks for sharing your experiences. There's some much of this type of scam on social media, and it won't change until we stop buying from these sites. I'm not having a go as I bought some earrings from a site that I thought was a uk jeweller and turned out to be chinese tat.

So I've decided not to buy anything from the Internet unless it's a company I know or I thoroughly researched/checked Trust pilot.

I had similar after ordering some shoes from a company called Old Monarchy after a recommendation here. Their website says the company is in the Netherlands but it’s really in China

’returns within 30 days no worries no questions’

I had a similar incident a company holding itself out to be UK based/UK return etc asking me to return some clearly fake trainers to the US! They initially offered me a discount rather than me returning. In the end I looked on TrustPilot and did a charge back via my banking app - although I did pay on credit card.

I looked up Ashford London after reading that thread. The site is well done and I saw a couple of coats I liked at a reasonable price. It did look like a German company.

The thing is, these companies calling themselves names like this play to our sense of wanting to spend with "local" companies.
The sad truth is that they are not. Crap goods, non existent customer services, dubious credentials. Clever and cynical marketing.

Once again it took ages to arrive they basically stuck the Royal Mail 48 sticker over the China sticker.

On the phone to the bank right now. Thanks so much for all your advice. I will check trustpilot in future.

It's actually really helpful having that thread about it all. Means I have all the dates for the bank.

Ashford of London, along with Harrington and Hale, Aura and Ivy, Jesse London and other similar really, really dodgy sites have been discussed before.

At best these sites are drop shipping sites selling tat from China so tatty that Shein probably wouldn't touch it. At worst they won't even send the tat. They are covered in red flags and I wish posters would stop suggesting them.

Red flags

1. The home page will show styles of classic clothes which bear no resemblance to what is actually being sold on the website.
2. There will be a waffly, obvious piffle history of their "heritage" - yet nobody has heard of them
3. Masses and masses of stock in all colours and sizes, all random styles and no coherent house style

4 Everything is "on sale" or massive "buy 3 and get reductions" offers.

5.Pick any item and do a google lens search- it will be available on many other dodgy sites.

6.There will be obvious fake photoshopped 'shop fronts"

7.If you Google lens check the photos of the "founders" and "designers" they will be stock Internet photos.

Your best bet is trying a charge back at your bank. There's no way you'll get a refund.

Thank you very much for explaining. I had no idea of any of that. I will make sure to check and check again if I try to buy stuff online. This has been quite a learning experience.

I have been through the whole story with the bank now and they are going to see if they can refund the money.

Thank you very much for your help.

I think I will be buying from Moss Bros every time in future tbh. Much easier, and the shirts are very nice.

Thanks!