A few weeks ago, I got an email from them advertising 10% off sitewide, I put in an order, and the discount was rejected as having reached its limit. Huh? What limit? 1 per customer? Ordered the goodies anyway, but opened a ticket questioning that, was told there was a limit of 1500 discounts worldwide, and it “expired”. Huh? Still had the email, and webpage it pointed to, and there was NO mention of any limit, expiration (other than the date, which was days away), exclusion, nothing. They offered me something like 50¢ in GB points.
50¢? Wellp, I reckon now Maw could get that opuration…
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Had a dispute over parts that I never got, but they insisted were delivered. Umm, exact address, delivered to a company, receptionist would even sign for any packages, and guess what? Nothing. First they wanted to split the difference and I’d pay half (to reorder parts I might not get again??), all kinds of wacky deals, ’til I just said I’d dispute the amount and let them deal with all the finger-pointing (carrier 1, carrier 2, mailman, whatever), and then they refunded me the full amount.
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So, point being, they at least tried to make good on the first dealy, even if they fell woefully short, and they did come through in full on the second dealy, even though it was like trying to get someone to donate a kidney. Haven’t been blacklisted, and I still order goodies from them (2-3 orders since).
You’d have to read the offer again, but put yourself in the other guy’s place, and see if that interpretation is reasonable, or if they’re just being jerks.
If you really think they’re being jerks about it, pulling a bait’n’switch, whatever, then yeah, open up a dispute. If you think, nah, maybe they are trying to make good, but I’m being a stickler, they you might just eat it.
Thing is, it takes a while to sink in, but you really do gotta learn the Chinese business-model. That includes doing things like the above. Hidden super-secret exclusions and limits that aren’t mentioned anywhere, throwing in something that fits the “a bag is a bag is a bag” idea and thinking you fulfilled your part, etc. Ie, they ain’t Amazon, and there’s no a-to-z guarantee for anything.