It all started with an Anki Cozmo Robot. A viewer named Molly wanted to buy the hot techie toy for a Christmas donation.
“I went online. It was the cheapest price. I clicked it in Google. I went to this website I had never gone to before. I went ahead put it in the cart and immediately I got an order confirmation,” explained Molly.
She paid $139.99 for the robot at a site called: babydiapersmart.com. She used her credit card through PayPal. When Molly didn’t get a shipping confirmation for the robot, she reached out to the company.
“I emailed the email address and asked for a shipping date or when could I expect it and that came back undeliverable,” said Molly. “ So then that was my red flag. I called my credit card and told them I think this is a scam. Right away they credited my account and said you won’t have to make this payment.”
About a month later, Molly received a letter from her credit card company, refuting her chargeback. It said that PayPal had argued that the transaction was valid. She notified the credit card company and PayPal that she never received the product and again asked for a refund.
Molly also did a little detective work.
“I called the phone number on the website and it went to a lady’s personal address in New Jersey. She was sick of receiving all these phone calls,” said Molly. “I called Cape May, New Jersey Consumer Affairs. They sent police to the address. It’s not the business.”
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Molly filed a complaint with the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs. She found similar complaints about babydiapersmart.com on the Better Business Bureau website, where the company gets an “F” rating.
And she contacted NBC 10 Boston Responds for help.
“It’s frustrating that other people are out there getting scammed,” said Molly.
We contacted PayPal and asked them to take a look at the situation and they responded immediately.
PayPal tells us: “Customer service and the positive resolution of buyer and seller issues are an important focus for PayPal. Purchase protection covers all eligible purchases where PayPal is used, as well as payments made through our website. PayPal will terminate relations with any merchant or customer if fraudulent activity is detected.”
Although the PayPal option still appears on babydiapersmart.com, PayPal tells us the website can no longer conduct transactions.
Molly was credited $139.99
“When I got that phone call to me from the PayPal executive assistant -- that’s magic,” said Molly. “I had no waiting on the phone. She called me to say, 'sorry there was a misunderstanding, We aren’t going to be arguing that charge. It’s going back on your card.' It made it really easy so I was really appreciative, really appreciative.”
PayPal recommends that customers take the time to research merchants that they are buying from. They say products that are hard to find or expensive, such as electronics require extra caution. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Beware of sellers offering very low prices or large quantities of hard to find items.
