Beware: Alibaba and the Forty Million Thieves

 

The modern version of that famous Arabic folk tale could well be "Ali Baba and the Forty Million Thieves".

Haggling in a dank, shadowy bazaar in Cairo, Istanbul or Casablanca, remonstrating with the persistent merchants has its contemporary equivalent, and I'm thinking that the ubiquitous online bazaar, Alibaba or its equally dubious sibling, AliExpress, is exactly that.

The tricky sleight of hand has a digital equal, known in the cyber world as 'Bait and Switch'.

This is an annoyingly common tactic used by online merchants where an attractive product is displayed at a low price - only when the unwitting purchaser (me, in this case) goes to complete the transaction, an inferior product is delivered. 

Here's what happened in my case.

To me, it's pretty clear that the product I'm looking for has a 'SALE' price of $68.39

When I click through on the individual product to confirm, the price remains unchanged. 

But when the order arrived, I received this product:

So when I queried the apparent discrepancy, the customer service rep was only too happy to point out how I had been duped. (I can almost hear him/her snickering now)

You'll note that even though the image has been switched, the product description remains consistent with the more expensive product. What I had failed to notice (silly me!) was that numerous other products are shown below in little windows and each 'alternative' product has a different price.

When consulting the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) website and other legal websites, it is crystal clear.

Under Section 35 of Australian Consumer Law (ACL), bait and switch advertising is illegal. The law strictly prohibits businesses from engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct, which includes false or misleading representations about goods or services.

So did I make a complaint to both AliExpress and the ACCC? Yes, I did. AliExpress made all the right noises initially, but has failed to respond to my offer of compromise. As at time of writing, nothing from the ACCC, although they have issued me a reference (REF:4749390)

Stay tuned.

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