The company's reputation is significantly marred by widespread customer dissatisfaction, primarily due to deceptive practices surrounding membership fees and hidden charges. Many customers report unauthorized deductions from their accounts for annual memberships, often without prior notification, leading to feelings of being scammed. Additionally, issues with order fulfillment, including unexpected shipping costs and poor customer service, further exacerbate frustrations. While there are no notable positive aspects highlighted in the reviews, the overall sentiment leans heavily towards caution, urging potential customers to avoid engaging with the company due to its lack of transparency and support.
This summary is generated by AI, based on text from customer reviews
When I decided to purchase a product, I registered with my email and linked my payment card to complete the order. During checkout, I selected the "+Pro" option, thinking it simply activated free delivery — there was no clear indication that it was a paid subscription, let alone an annual one with automatic renewal after a trial period! I was shocked to later find a large amount charged for a yearly subscription I never knowingly agreed to. All for a so-called "free delivery service" throughout the year — but what if I don't plan to order again? Why force me into a full-year commitment? When I contacted customer support, they offered to refund less than a quarter of the amount — which I completely refused, as I have every right to a full refund. Even worse, when I insisted on my full rights, and told them I willl make complains they told me to cancel the small refund offer altogether if I continued to push for a full refund. This is unacceptable behavior from any company.
I purchased an item form desert cart and somehow desert cart sneakily signed me up to an annual membership which costs 699 dirhams. They do this by offering you free shipping but the catch is that you are signed up to this PRO membership. I'm usually very wary about such things but it even caught me out. They down right refuse to refund as soon as they have your money, that's it. This scheme with desert cart isn't one I have heard of yet so sharing it here to help others out.
Unauthorised deduction money from your bank please do not trust to give your card information… after they are not responding I change my card
This is a total scam company, they register you in a pro membership trial with out mentioning the fee and send a lengthy welcome email that no one reads and has the amount within it. They totally know how to fool people and sure that no one will read this email because no one will agree to purchase a useless membership for $185! They charged me this amount and refused to refund. Someone should sue them and close this scamming company.
Do not fall for the free trial desertcart offers. I was an idiot doing it so no I'm taking the time to warn others about it.
I tried to cancel it online before they charged me the full amount of nearly 700 aed. I thought I could trust the App and that I won't get charged after trying to cancel it.
After speaking to the helpline they informed me that they do not do any refunds.
Companies like this do not deserve to be supported amd I would urge you to spent your wellearn d money somewmer else with a company that looks after their customers
I order a golf bag and I signed up for their PRO like they suggested! When making payment the price says it's inclusive of customs and delivery cost and everything basically. NOWHERE is it stipulated there could be possible additional charges. A week later with no communication or updates from Desert Cart I reached out to find out where my order is and I am told that due to the size of the product I have to pay AED986 more for delivery. I said no because this is more than the product itself and why was I not informed in any way or manner? I told them to then cancel the order and refund me only to be told the order can not be cancelled so basically you pay the delivery fee or lose the product and your money.
WHAT?! That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard and then the chat agent Mohammad just said thats the way it is basically and ended the chat!
If I could rate with 0 stars, I would!
I recently placed 2 orders.
1 item had not been deliverd, despite the delivery being scheduled with imile. When reaching out to desertcart (for the 3rd time regarding the delay of this order) they told me I need to get in touch with imile. When reaching out to imile (for the 2nd time), they told me the order had been recalled and will not be delivered.
The second item was apparently oversized and when I reached out to desertcart the day after the item was supposed to be delivered, they informed me that the item was oversized and after re-measuring they will ship it.
Instead, I received an email with the information that I need to pay an additional fee of 270 AED in order to receive the shipment. They justified it by saying that this would be mentioned in their T&Cs. But, their T&Cs are not loading. At no point was it mentioned during the order process that an additional fee might apply for the delivery of an oversized item.
Today they just cancelled the order!
Also, the manner in which the customer service was handling the inquiries about the orders was more of a "push the matter towards someone else".
Both items were christmas gifts for our kids! Very disappointing!
I absolutely do not recommend desertcard!
These scammers kept using my card without authorization
Had to permanently block it
Typical scam
Avoid them
Please don't use Desertcart they will take your money and you will NOT get your item.
Even worse, they will take money from you bank account for a so called membership.
Don't touch this site or you will regret it (I know this by a bad expensive experience)
Take a look at Trustpilot 1* reviews these are true and are the experience I had with this company (SCAM). The 5* reviews are fake and completed in the last few days/ weeks to keep there good reviews high. Believe me, you will lose money if you purchase from Desertcart.
I made a one off purchase from Shopbop and then found that I had been signed up to Desertcart and because I didn't cancel this unsolicited, unwanted and unknown membership £179 was taken from my bank account for an annual membership. Scandalous misrepresentation
Stay away! It's a Fraud!
3 months after the purchase, they have charged me with £179 membership fee with no prior communication!
Refused to give a refund despite the 14-days cooling off period law! Reported to UK Consumerline
I had placed an order on Desert Cart for Sony MDR XB850BT Over the Ear Headphones for AED 724/- on 11-Oct-2023 at 10:46 a.m. which was duly accepted and processed by Desert Cart on 11-Oct-2023 at 12:05 p.m.
Very conveniently after 2 whole days on 13-Oct-2023 at 7:05 a.m. the seller cancelled the order on their own stating the price has been changed. Desert Cart customer support is giving all blatant excuses and refuses to accept the flaw in their business model itself. Now the price has conveniently increased to AED 899/- and assuming that I still go ahead and place this order, there is no guarantee that desert cart / seller will honour the order processing.
As above kindly beware of this malpractice from Desert Cart and sincerely feel that as consumers we should not accept this...
They secretly save your details if you purchase anything from them and then they sneakily wait a month then deduct £179.00 from your card or PayPal account, the director James Goodhand has filed tax returns that make not sense last year and this. We will be reporting him to the UK tax authorities too. Luckily PayPal refunded me as i sent them links to all his company dealings.AVOID
Customer service of this company is below average, communication from their side after you raise a complain is poor, overall experience horrendous
Aside from their known trick of trying to hide a pro membership of AED 700 while you checkout, they have other fraud schemes up their sleeve. First of all, please note that is almost impossible to cancel or modify and order with those guys even if your try this 5 minutes after placing the order, they will tell you that they will try but then your card will get charged nonetheless and you will get a message that the order has been processed. Secondly, they will cancel half of your order for "item not available" reason and still charge you the same rediclulously high shipping charges that were meant for the full order. Their customer support is an absolute joke and will waste your time in meaning less chat for hours without fulfilling any of your requests. In short, use at your own risk!
We placed an order and we were billed for shipping fee a huge amount, after few days again we get an email that since the item is bulky, there would be extra AED 260/- shipping charges, in case we choose to cancel the order, we will lose the earlier advance paid shipping charges. I am going to make there cheating viral and i will insure that its on every social media. They are thief.
You cant even call them as they have closed their Dubai customer service lines and moved everything on live chat where they dont help at all. I need my full money back.
Be aware that once you use this platform for few purchases, you will definitely fall into their scam. All of a sudden you will see a +800 AED deducted from your account for a 1 year pro subscription that is totally non-refundable, even of you haven't used any benefits form it. It is not only me who fell in their trap, go visit their Instagram account and go through the comment to see what I mean
Exercise caution when dealing with Desert Cart, as there are possible indications of fraudulent practices and falsified reviews. To authenticate this claim, you can check their Trustpilot reviews, which have a low rating of 1.3. I personally experienced a concerning situation with Desert Cart. Initially, I found a badge on their application priced at 53 AED, but upon selection, the price suddenly spiked to 699 AED. Despite my suspicions, I proceeded with the purchase to investigate the price change. Unfortunately, the transaction went ahead quickly because my card details were saved. I reached out to Desert Cart's customer service through their chat option since they don't have a contact number. I was assisted by an agent named Harry, whom I explained the situation to and requested a cancellation and refund. Harry assured me that he had sent an email to the relevant department to initiate the refund process of 699 AED. However, feeling uneasy about the situation, I contacted them the following day, and another agent named Shiva informed me that the refund was in progress. Despite this assurance, 12 days have passed without any communication or refund. When I sought further clarification from Desert Cart, a person named Abdelrahman Ahmed unsympathetically informed me that they will not be refunding my money because I allegedly chose the Pro service. However, I explained that I never intentionally chose the Pro service, but rather the price changed automatically to 699 AED when I selected the item. His response was that he couldn't do anything about it. I am certain that the price change is intentional, likely to charge customers the higher amount of 699 AED. This incident serves as a firm warning against making purchases from Desert Cart, as their actions strongly suggest fraudulent activities.
This company operates in a very dishonest and trustworthy way. I would strongly urge people to avoid using it and seek to use a more reputable, reliable and transparent retailer or outlet.
At Desertcart, we are working with a target to break the international shopping barriers for our local customers and make such products available globally for them and deliver directly to their doorsteps in the UAE.
Desertcart is proud to call itself the largest retailer of consumer products in the MENA Region, showcasing millions of products and their variations from many major brands.
We aim to provide items at prices that put your everyday retailer to shame.
Ranging from electronics to apparel to your toddler’s toys, Desertcart does its very best to provide you with all you want and need in the UAE, straight from the U. S, UK, China and Turkey.
We make sure all our products are compatible with the UAE region, and our returns and exchange policy are unrivaled in the UAE region.
Desertcart provides a seamless and secure shopping platform with 100 million+ products from around the globe delivered directly to your door.
Enjoy your shopping at Desertcart!