Blind V.

Tello used to be superb, once of those providers you recommend without hesitation. Great rates, good plans, and a customer-friendly policy (no balance expiration, pay what you use, none of the gotchas like other big carriers).

Then after T-Mobile took over Sprint, something changed. They quietly changed policies and started enforcement without notifying customers (confiscation of unused balance deposited under old terms and expiring dormant # with balance). CS tells you one thing that's contradicted by their terms, resulting in lost of balance or phone #. Random enforcement of terms on some lines, while others are not touched. Policies that work against heavy usage (you don't want to leave too much balance on the line as they expire after 90s days regardless of use), which lead to inability to depend on the line for primary use (have to redeposit for continual use). Very short-sighted.

It's like they want to make up for lost time and anger as many loyal customers as they can.

Still decently cheap and has it's niche, but hard to recommend with the inconsistent haphazard policies.

Site built by scammers for scammers. Game recognize game as they say. You know how most shopping sites protect buyers? Well at DHgate, they go out of their way to protect bad/fraudulent sellers.

This site is a joke. About 1/3 of orders have problems - off-sizing, wrong patterns, and off-colors are common. Sellers' attitude is 'close enough', size L works for size M or XL. Red is close to orange or pink, and brown/tan is same as gold. Many listing photos are of genuine products but fakes are sent so photos are meaningless. Reviews are useless as sellers recycle positive reviews from past products by switching descriptions/photos and use multiple accounts so they 'burn' accounts with bad reviews. You can buy the same product twice from same seller and get two different products/sizes. It's like buying from fly-by-night street peddlers online.

Sellers standard response is to ignore you. They figure if you give up they keep your money and DHgate will never be notified. Half the time DHgate go along with this scam by siding with fraudulent sellers anyway.

This is DHgate's 'process' for various issues:
Got scammed? Don't worry DHgate here to help! Please contact the seller about getting scammed.
Seller ignoring you? Please contact the seller about ignoring you.
Seller won't refund? Please contact the seller and ask for refund (lol).
Seller went out of business and never shipped product? Please contact out of business seller about not shipping the product.
See DHgate so nice! We help you by asking buyer to contact seller!

Yes, every response is 'please contact the seller', even if you've exhausted weeks trying to contact seller. They 'help' you by telling you to deal with the seller directly yourself. Some help.

Customer service experience with a deadbeat seller:
1). DHgate ask you to contact seller (again), and wait a couple days.
2). Then DHgate ask you to file a refund, and wait a couple days.
3). Then DHgate claims since you have a refund request open they can't help, so you have to wait for seller to ignore request.
4). Then DHgate claims you have to cancel the refund request first. So you cancel, and wait for them to take action.
5). Then DHgate claims it's not beyond the 6 weeks shipping window yet, so you have to wait until that passes.
6). Then after shipping window passed, since you opened a refund request, the seller gets 3 more weeks to not ship the product (not mentioned before).
7). Then they blame you for canceling the refund request so you have to wait some more.

By now it's been 2 months with no action taken on the order by seller nor DHgate. Their process is to procrastinate, deflect, and wear you down so you give up on order.

Think dispute process protect you? The dispute process is for show and designed to trip up buyers. Sellers get 5+ days to ignore DHgate (after already ignoring you for weeks), but if buyers don't reply to a surprise middle of the night message sent in a separate part of the website within 24 hours, sellers win automatically (what they call a 'fair solution'). Yes, sellers get days/weeks to ignore buyers, but buyers have to respond IMMEDIATELY or else the case is closed, even for outright fraud. And this requirement/deadline is only disclosed in the surprise message. This is why so many disputes get closed randomly.

Oh you manage to beat their system and responded in time? They'll 'incorrect evidence submitted' fail you. You can only dispute ONE issue by with 4 photos only (AFTER you've ALREADY submitted 1MB photos to open the dispute) via Flash which doesn't work on many browsers. Multiple problems with multiple items? Too bad, pick one. You're not allowed to describe the problems (there's no form). The mediator, unfamiliar with the product, will not understand the problems (try telling a story via 4 photos to non-native English speaker) and close dispute for seller for 'incorrect evidence'.

Oh you manage to overcome those tricky steps? DHgate will pull their trump card - they'll accept 'for you', even if you refuse, a ridiculous resolution offer of a fraction of what you paid 'to save you trouble'.

Example of actual DHgate dispute:
Seller sent shirts with crooked patterns. Photo evidence submitted. Seller responded with photos of genuine shirt (not the cheap quality sent) and irrelevant shipping label with no explanations. DHgate decided you were disputing size instead (wtf?) so 'correct evidence' was not submitted and closed case for seller. Once they close a case DHgate will ignore you just like sellers. There no 'appeal' even when DHgate makes a dispute judgement error.

Arbitration example 2: Seller sent shirt two sizes off. Requested $19.97 full refund. Seller offered $14.70. DHgate arbitrated and decided a $9.70 refund (less than what seller offered) is sufficient compensation for useless shirt and waste of time and accepted refund for you.

Arbitration example 3: DHgate's offer to return defective products for full refund is accepted. Then they renege and 'advise' you not to pick that option (even though they offered it) and accept a low-ball partial refund instead. Even though you declined the partial refund, because you did not reply immediately to their middle of the night email they 'accept' the low-ball partial refund for you ("to save you trouble") and ignored all further messages. Seller gets half your money for junk goods.

You think dispute process is to protect you? Silly buyer, dispute process is just a 'show trial' to to protect sellers!

And beware if sellers offer partial 'refunds' – they'll 'refund' you in coupons to buy defective products again. They'll also trick you into closing the transaction by clicking 'Item Received' before refund. This release funds to seller and finalize transaction so you have no recourse if they won't refund. Don't do it.

Use at your own peril. You're not getting your money back unless you're willing to fight sellers and DHgate's dismissive customer service over and over (and over). They will tell you whatever to get you off the line/messaging as soon as possible. Twice was told case was escalated & DHgate contacted seller but agents found no escalations or DHgate contacts later.

Just file a dispute with your credit card company - you'll save lots of time, frustration and stress and maybe they'll wake up and fix their joke of a dispute process.

You have to be crazy to buy expensive goods on this site.

Edited: lol so their customer service messaged me for the deadbeat order # above. To investigate seller? To help escalate the matter for refund? No, they asked me to... contact the seller! What a brilliant idea - contact seller that's been ignoring messages for weeks! Perfect example of how they handle issues, run buyer around in circles until buyer gives up.