18650CANADA.com never shipped order and wont reply to emails!

I had been eyeing his website but button tops were out of stock. Recently his website was updated with new stock. I emailed him December 21st 2021 about pricing. I never received an email back. Regardless, December 31st I placed my order ($150). January 12th I emailed him asking when my order would be shipped, again no response. As of January 15th, no response. I’ve given him two weeks and now I’ll have to try to get a refund with my credit card. I’m disappointed after fellow members on BLF recommended him.

I’m surprised you placed the order after receiving no response from the seller. I won’t order from any seller that doesn’t accept Paypal as it makes situations like this easy to deal with.

Since it was a question about pricing, I assumed he choose to ignore it. Unfortunately he doesn’t accept PayPal.

Paypal is notorious for screwing people over seemingly at random, so I understand why he wouldn’t, but as others have said, it’s more sketchy ordering from those who don’t accept it. I definitely wouldn’t order from people who don’t respond to inquiries, but I guess you learned that already.

Yep lesson learned. I don’t think hes a scammer, more like he abandoned his business. But that doesnt make sense because his website inventory updated. I gave him the benefit of the doubt because after how many positive reviews on BLF.

Comments on r/flashlight (more recent than any recommendations on this forum) indicate your experience is the norm now. It’s a seller to be avoided. They will not ship your order and you will have to dispute the charge.

There are 2 different sites:

18650 canada dot com seems to be in Alberta and does not use paypal
and
18650 canada dot ca seems to be in Ontario and does take paypal

OP: Where are you located? Maybe they only ship within Canada?

Side note from experience (learned the hard way): If you order a restricted-shipping item from Japan, then you will lose your money—they won’t ship and won’t refund (because the small print indicates such). The fines and penalties in Japan are serious and high such that nobody will take the chance.

What items might a person order from Japan that would be restricted?

The main item that we would all want is lithium batteries and cells. Also chargers. i ordered a “lithium battery charger”, but they wouldn’t ship it because it had the words “lithium battery” in the description. Unless you speak their language you are at their mercy; a vendor can be listing items that are okay within japan but not export; they may not understand or know what the item is that they sell, or that there are no batteries inside a charger…

Here is a listing of export restricted items from one trading company,
restricted exports list

Here is a top level summary of the legal system:
export controls in Japan

There are official listings from the Japan Post Office and other agencies, such as what you can’t carry as a passenger on a plane, etc. caveat emptor.
getting started

To get back on topic—maybe Canada has similar export restrictions, does anyone know about this?

Thank you for the very thorough answer, this is certainly something to consider.

I’ve used the .ca website in the past and no issue, but they seem to be out of most batteries. Confirm that they are Ontario based.

Will make sure to avoid the .com site, thanks for the warning.

I’m located in Canada. This shop is 18650canada.com not .ca, a little confusing lol. Yup says he ships from Alberta. Also interesting about ordering batteries from Japan, I didn’t know about that.

i avoid websites that don’t have their mailing address.

A phone # and website will not be sufficient to file a legal claim in the event you get scammed or taken—where do they get served the summons to appear in court. Somebody with a legal background should chime in to correct this if wrong.

Scam sites use real addresses, just not theirs. U.S. law allows you to file claim in yours or their jurisdiction if inside the U.S. For U.S. citizens most District Attorney offices have a hot check division. These have expanded to cover mail and internet fraud. So three maybe four ways to fight back.
1.) File a complaint with your local D.A.’s office. A claim is civil and you have to file it in a civil court. A complaint is criminal in nature and up to the DA to pursue.
2.) File a claim or complaint with the financial institute that you used for payment. Their fraud or loss division can work wonders sometimes.
3.) File a complaint in the companies physical location. This can be done over the phone but needs to be placed with their local law enforcement.
4.) File a complaint with the United States Postal service. It may or may not be in their charter, depends on the bandits methods.

For this Canadian company you can contact Shopify, it’s their support company. Or 18650-Canada | Better Business Bureau® Profile
It’s a home business just looked at the front of the house and an aerial over view. It’s the son who started a company at home.

Their local law enforcement https://lacombepolice.ca

They list a street address on their privacy policy page and on their refund page they have both that and a cheesy Hotmail email address. Terms is generally where you will find the legal address or legal contact with most legit sites but this site is a mess, looks like it was put together with boilerplate templates and minimally modified to suit - not professional work or standard business practice but this is more and more common with tiny operations that just have a small web presence.

If you have to deal with crud, go through your bank/card issuer first. It may take some time but you’re generally protected against fraud and undue losses (some banks are very quick about this, issuing a provisional credit while things are being hashed out, so you’re not out any money unless it’s ultimately decided in the vendor’s favor). Don’t underestimate the powers and long arms of either banks or insurance companies…they have the access and methods to find whatever needs to be found and all the additional framework to handle things. Paypal would be mostly the same and while they have cracked down a little on fraudulent claimants they are still largely in favor of customers if something is fishy. People started to abuse paypal “generosity” the way they often abuse return and lifetime warranty policies, which was hurting a lot of vendors unfairly, so they had to make changes, but if you need their help they’re usually in your corner.

Unless the $ amount is significant, most local agencies and state attorney generals aren’t going to fool with this and it’s a huge hassle for you. Same times fifty if you ever need to do this through the USPS (FedEx and UPS aren’t much better, but a little, depending).

I’m speaking just form a US perspective with in-country transactions. I know Canada is largely similar but things could differ in ways that might be important…and then throwing an international transaction into the mix adds more layers. If you’re held to the terms of the site, then the buyer is held to the laws of Canada, but I don’t know if that’s an absolute.

Unless I know a person/site is legit, I avoid these web businesses that have shoddy sites…if that same business is on Ebay or Etsy or something, I might take a chance with them there, but not direct when they don’t appear standard/professional.

State Attorney General is not the right avenue. Your county District Attorneys Office has a division just for this style of crime. Unfortunately if the offense is in the class C misdemeanor it’s probably dead.

Thank you and everyone else for the great support! I’ll be calling my credit card tomorrow. I didn’t know what BBB.org was and that this had happened to other people. I’ll be contacting Shopify and letting them know whats going on. Once again, thank you.

My goodness - now I find this!
I was so enthusiastic after posting in 18650 cells…
We shall see.
The most I have ever lost
in an eBay transaction was $20.
My most amazing transaction was some computer memory - which was posted bare in an envelope and made it perfectly!
I’m not worried - but I will tell you what happened. Essentially it would be about how well PayPal works.

In your thread here you say 18650Canada .ca

This thread is about 18650Canada .com

I had some confusion about this a little while ago myself.

I never did end up ordering anything, but was reassured that the .ca was a trustworthy site to order from for us Canadians.

My solution (to aquiring some cells) was to walk into a local Vape Shop and asked if they carried any lithium ion cells, and they did.

I found that to be a cheaper way to buy a single cell, but if you need more than one or two, then online prices are better.

Totally my mistake!

For sure I’ll let everyone know what I get with my order. Since the 18650Canada.ca online store goes with PayPal payments, all should be fine.
Up here on the N BC coast, local stores tend to be far more expensive than elsewhere, but I should have checked locally.