Red Flags: Online Shopping Edition

What is your stress reliver? For me, its only shopping. Sometimes I don’t even do the actual purchase, I just scroll through items and create an imaginary scenario in my head where I own all of them. My own version of retail therapy.

On the off chance that I do purchase something, I mostly insist on picking it at a pickup point in the CBD then pay, or on payment on delivery.

The only places I haven’t had an issue paying prior are the online stores or brands like Jumia, Ramtons, name them. But anything I purchase on Instagram; I do my due diligence. Most of the time.

I am an extremely untrusting person, clearly.

An untrusting person who got conned? How you may ask.

Here’s the thing, on extremely rare occasions, I go in blind. Which is what happened to me the other day.

While trying to work from home one day, I noticed I couldn’t concentrate so I went on Instagram and got lost in the reels for a while. Then I bumped across a post of a lovely sweatshirt.

Guys, just look at this….

I immediately inboxed the guys and asked if it was available. I was aiming for a buggy size, so I asked for a large. The guys got back to me hours later. When I opened the message, I noticed I had previously contacted them on a different item and just never got feedback.

That should have been my first red flag.

We talked a little and they said they can deliver the item to where I was. So, I decided to take two, one was going to be a gift to someone else.

They sent me detailed instructions to pay to an airtel line. What stood out for me in the instructions, was the insistence on not copying the number, but typing it directly.

That should have been my second red flag.

While chatting, I kept going back to their profile just to see the other lovely items there, and noted they didn’t have deliver instructions anywhere, and had indicated they allow returns and refunds. Most Instagram shops do not do that.

That should have been my third red flag.

In the middle of our conversation, the person on the other side of the chat mentioned that they would dispatch the parcel at my convenience.

Online shops don’t talk about your convenience as a buyer. They have specific drop off days.

That should have been my fourth red flag.

Anyway, I went ahead and paid.

I know. I know. I paid. Despite all the red flags, I paid.

Here’s my explanation though. I was not in the right state of mind. I had one of the worst weeks of this quarter. I was unwell, in extreme pain, and highly medicated at the time.

I mean have you guys ever had a problem where even taking water hurts you? Water?! I mean water is life!

Anyway, I paid and waited for my delivery the next day. Somewhere deep down, I knew there was no way it was going to be delivered. I mean the cost of delivery was a bit too cheap for where I was.

At what point did I know for certain I was not getting the items I paid for? Five hours before I started writing this article, which is basically 3 days later.

All my messages up to that point were not being responded to, then when I checked their page, I noted there were no posts. Then I used my other account to also check their page, and guess what, all posts were there!

 

I texted them using that account to alert them that I know of the scam and that I will report the page, and let people also be on the lookout for them. They have also blocked that one.

I expected to be mad about all these. I really did. But somehow, I’m not.

So what did I do?

  1. I reported the number to Airtel.
  2. Reported the account via Instagram (before I was blocked on the second account).
  3. And now here I am warning you guys.

My work here is done.