[Member-Found Deals] andreasy:
Hello everyone.

The past few months I have spent so much time on fighting this case against Simply Electronics that I feel that I have obtained a PhD in their case.

I will try to help anyone who has been cheated by those scams, on how to recover their money back and believe me, it is possible. You only need a lot of patience and effort and time to spend on taking the actions I will outline.

The first, most important step is to avoid them. Don't get tricked by the feedback and reviews that you see because you fell into the same trap that I fell, which is believing that their biggest scam is delaying to send your order. Believe me, their biggest scam is not that they will delay a month to send your order. It's much more complicated. Here is what they usually do to cheat you:

1) Send the wrong model in order to make you return it

2) Send a defective item

3) Their stock is from Asia and they don't come with European warranty. Also, some electronic devices such as HTC phones may be loaded with Asian firmware which cannot be changed even after you unlock the bootloader. That was the case with HTC One X. You could flash a custom ROM but the underlying fw was still Asian.

Anyway, keeping in mind the above, their aim is to make you send the item back and then forget the refund. You get into a complicated procedure by which they usually manage to trick the intermediate services like Paypal, ending up with keeping your money and your purchased item. Don't give up though. Even after months you can keep fighting them and at the end you will win. They want you to get disappointed and abandon your efforts.

A few other details:

They are a Honk Kong based compay but they operate through a logistics office in London from where they dispatch the orders. Hence the delays. In this way all legal aspects get lost between the 2 companies and the European consumer services get confused and abandon. That was their idea I guess in managing their malicious actions.

Steps to get once you discover you were cheated:

As I said, the best way is to avoid them. and there are many reasons for this as I explained above. Even if you decide not to return them any items back, the facts I outloned above should still stop you from buying. If you have already sined, use the advices below:

1) Gather all your documents with the communication you had with them and convert them into pdf files. Also gather any proofing document like post office slips and do the same. Royal mail in the UK can email you the document of receipt showing their signature if you call them on telephone. Even that may not be evidence for Paypal but don't worry, it's more than enough for the police. After you have gathered all those details, get prepared to spend a lot of time on the computer in filing reports

2a) If the payment was made through moneybookers (you will see their name on the email you received from them when you purchased, you are lucky. Even after a few months you can report the case here: www.moneybookers.com and they will return your money

2b) If you have made your transaction with Paypal, open a dispute there. Don't let your hopes with them though as they may be affiliates. They are not better in any way and if you try to speak with them you will start hitting your head on the wall. Most propably you will fail here because they will trick those monkeys easily. I don't know but Paypal either employes 8 year onld kids or talking monkeys. Full stop. After you fail here, or if you have not used Paypal, go to next step.

3) After you fail, you will have 10 days to appeal their decission and provide further details but there is hardly any chance they will help you. Try though but if you fail on teh appeal as well don't spend any more time with them and don't try to communicate with them because you will get very frustrated from their answers. Now, try to find out if you paid from your Paypal balance (if you have money from selling items on eBay like me), or if the money was taken from your Bank credit card. If the money was from taken from the credit card, you are lucky. I was not because I was stupid enough to leave the money in PP instead of transferring them to credit card instead. So, if you were lucky, contact you bank and ask them for the procedure to start a chargeback. Most propably they will ask you to fill in a report and attach all the documents you gathered on step 1. I am sure that your case will end here and you will get your money back in 1-2 months through your bank. After that, Paypal will start running after you and begging you to return the money back otherwise they will close your account. Don't pay much atention, I did it 2ce and they haven't closed my account so far (I don't know what will happen with this case now though). If they do so, ignore them. Let them close your account but in the meantime withdraw all your money from your credit card and make sure there are no money there to take back. You don't need them, Trust me. Who needs them if they haven't managed to help you. You only need your bank. Now, if you have been stupid like me and you left all your money in Paypal and paid with that balance, much work is waiting for you:

4) Report to your country's local consumer center. If you are in the EU, then they can push some pressure on them through the EU protocols. Don't expect too much help here as they will get lost with the complexity of their structure. Remember, they are Hong Kong based with UK logisticks but it's the HK company that keeps the money so the legislation says that you have to report to HK instead of the EU. This step and the next, you can do them in parallel. In all cases, make sure to provide all the documents you gathered at step 1.

4a) Report to your local police authority and EU consumer service but again don't expect too much. At those 2 steps, make sure to accuse the UK logistics office who keep the return item and not the HK business for which they have no juristiction.

5) The last 2 will fail but the next 2 will save you. That could be after several months though. Continue sending emails to SE and keep them filed. They will be very careful with their replies because they know that you may be gathering info. Don't waste your time with theratenings like I did because they don't seem to count for them. They only respond to actions and not to cheap talk. Be very careful with your last 2 steps as they are the ones to save you:

5a) File your claim at the Hong Kong police: http://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/index.html

5b) File your claim at the Hong Kong consumer service: http://www.consumer.org.hk/website/ws_en/

Believe me, the HK police and consumer service will take this very seriously so try to be as descriptive as you can. I started receiving emails from them right afterwards and they were keeping me informed with the actions taken. All letters sent to SE were also forwarded to me. They also sent me letters in written at home. Do you want to compare the same report with UK? (right after filing my complaint at UK police and UK consumer council, I received an email telling me not to expect any repl or action from them because they are busy and that my case will just be filed for refference. Now I want to ask you. Who should be more busy, UK police or HK police? think)

A few weeks after this, SE changed their pattern of replies. Before, they were jerking me and telling me to go and ask my money from Paypal. After the police aproached them, they sent me a few apologetic emails and confirmation that they will refund me. I didn't believe them after what I have passed through with them but a couple of weeks later, a manual full refund was received. Ok, I lost some money which were taken as Paypal fees but that was better than nothing. I also managed to take some money from chargeback (the amount that was taken from my card instead of PP balance) and now PP is running after me for this. Now they remembered what is right and what is wrong and they ask me to return the chargeback money. Where were they when they had to play the role of judge and they partnered with teh crooks. I don't care now, let them give their fight and take thm back. I'm not going to make it easy for them. SE has not returned the money because they are honest but because they were forced to do so. I will do the same.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I just realised that it took me almost 1:30 hours to write this down but I hope it will help others. I have seen posts from hundreds of desperate people who don't know what to do and most of them abandon their efforts and lose their money.

Please, if you find any people who need help, point them here. Let's not allow those bastards to cheat any more inocent people.