My experience with a scam website

Hello everyone! 

So a couple of weeks ago...about 3 or 4 now... I noticed I was running low on contacts..and because I needed to get my eyes re-examined, my prescription was no longer valid, therefore I could not purchase my contacts in the way which I normally do through BJs. So I was like, well why don't I just order them online. I have ordered contacts online beforehand on a site that was run in the United States, but they needed my prescription. So because I didn't have a valid prescription, I searched websites to buy contacts off of without a valid prescription. I found a website that was based in the UK and you know they looked pretty legit to me.....should have took the extra minute to look a little harder. The website is contactforlenses.com.... DO NOT EVER PURCHASE FROM HERE!

So I ordered my contacts and on the website it CLEARLY states that contacts ship out within 3 to 5 business days. I ordered them on December 6. (Looking at the emails) The first thing that caught me off guard is that it took them several days to even process my transaction from a credit card...that's normally like an immediate thing so it was saying on my order that the payment wasn't finished. So on December 8th I looked and it still hadn't processed so I emailed them just to make sure that my order went through and if I needed to do something else to finish the transaction. "Sarah" from customer service emailed me back with a generic, your order is being processed and will be shipped out soon and then when it is shipped I will get an email. 

December 12....still no shipment email...so this is 6 days after I ordered. I was getting a little frustrated, but you know..they're in the UK so I was trying to cut them some slack. I emailed them and told them I had not received a shipment email and that I was on my last pair of contacts and would appreciate if they would tell me the status of my order. "Sarah" emailed me again with the SAME EXACT EMAIL. So then my brain went into...wait a minute...something isn't right. So I started typing in the website in google and "contact for lenses reviews" came up in the suggestions and I clicked it and there were at least 10 negative reviews on there. One person did a full out review like this...and all the emails I had received at that point and even after were pretty much the exact same things they had sent her. There was even a review that said the site was under review of Jersey Trading Standards for fraudulent trading. Pretty much all of the reviews except like two or three, from people that actually lived in the UK, were negative and said that it was a scam website. The one girl who went in much detail(which if she ever reads this thank you so much) said that the person running it was "Andrew" and "Sarah" and that they were the same person. I did end up writing "Andrew" but he never responded. Most of them said they never received the product and they never received a refund. 

Also to even further confirm that the site was a scam, half of the links on the website do not work...such as the security policy link. 

I am not one to start stuff but this is just unacceptable...who the heck does that kind of stuff. I spent 40 dollars on contacts and there was no way I was not getting that back. So I emailed them immediately on the same day..the 12th...and said that I was very angry..I had not received a shipment email and that I wanted to cancel my order and I wanted any money taken out of my account to be returned or I would take legal action. (By this time they had taken the money out of the account.) "Sarah" once again wrote back  saying exactly..."Thank you for your email. We would like to inform you that there is a unavoidable delay from the vendor side on certain shipments because of which your order has got delayed in shipping. We apologies for the delay in shipping the same. Kindly confirm if you would like to proceed with the order or like to cancel it. Apologies for the inconvenience caused." Which doesn't make any sense..I don't care if my order is delayed..I want to cancel it. So I responded once again...I told them I wanted to cancel my order and be refunded or I would get my bank involved. (The girl on the review said that they gave her the refund only because she was persistent and went legal on them...so that's what I did.)

My mom and I actually did call the bank and they said that they couldn't take any more money out of our bank account because it was a one time charge, only if it were on automatic ordering would we have to worry about that. She also said if I don't get a refund, that I can file a complaint with the bank and that normally most companies comply after that.

So back to the emails...December 14 they write back with my order had been cancelled and that I would be refunded within the next 2-3 business days. The girl on the reviews said that they said the same thing to her and they didn't send it. So I made sure that I was checking it to see if they had refunded... December 17, the three day mark.. I emailed them and said I had not yet been refunded and that if I wasn't refunded in the next 3 days that I would be filing a complaint with my bank to assure that my money was returned to me. I even threw in a "thanks for your cooperation." So they emailed me this morning, but I just opened it a few minutes ago...and they said that they had refunded me today and gave me a transaction ID. So my mom is going to check that in a few minutes. 

So after all this long drawn out explanation ... maybe I just seemed crazy, but it was definitely a scam website. I just wrote this to tell all of you people not to be stupid like me and check to make sure of all the privacy and security policies, check if there are reviews for the website, and check if the site is secure along with transaction. I know that it was my fault to begin with because I should have looked closer. I probably won't be buying anything online for quite some time now unless I know for fact I am not going to be scammed. I don't understand why people feel the need to run a business to steal money as such, they could just run an honest business and receive more money. They do apparently have other websites that they run (taken from the review website Review website)

brandedshades.com
brandedglassesdirect.com
bettereyesite.com
lensplanet.com
professionalglasses.com
boostq.com
specspeople.com

So guys...just be careful. 

I did end up going to get my eyes re-examined and getting my prescription renewed. It cost a little more, but I know that I'm not being scammed. Sometimes it better to do things the long way then try to take a short cut out of it. 

I hope this helps someone.

Thanks for reading.

ON A HAPPY NOTE!!! ONLY 8 MORE DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!