Rick L.

Best buy is one of my go-to places for consumer electronics. Although I can easily shop online, I prefer to touch and feel the product. In some cases, I have questions about product capability and functionality.

I DO wish that they had a better selection of truly good software for business.

Best Buy is designed so that everything is easy to find, the store is bright and cheerful. The store has most of anything that I might want in most cases.

There have been a couple of times when a competitor had a lower price and Best Buy easily checked my claim with the competitor's site and gave me a no more questions asked price reduction. It's perfectly reasonable for any retail outlet to verify the competitors price prior to giving the discount and if a price couldn't be verified online or via phone call, I was given the discounted price anyway. In baseball, "Tie goes to the runner" and in this case, "Tie goes to the customer".

The staff have always been friendly and knowledgeable. If the sales person doesn't know the answer, then they seek out answers to help out.

I bought my last 5 eBooks from Amazon and recently downloaded some apps for my android phone.

I like the price and one click purchase ability.

I like shopping at Fry's because of the great selection of DIY computer hardware.

I've occassionally shopped at TigerDirect. They are OK and have good products, prices, etc.

If I think "TigerDirect" I usually associate the name with quality products.

IOffer is basically as scam loaded with fake products that are sold by Chinese trading companies from Shenzhen, China (next door to Hong Kong).

I've never purchased anything from this site and I'll never purchase anything from here.

Look at the web site for iOffer. What information do you see about them? NOTHING.

Can you call them? Maybe someone will pick up the phone, but I doubt it. If they do, what accent will they speak? Midwest? I doubt it. Try Cantonese or Mandarin English accent.

Background:

I'm from the US but I've lived in China for 5 years. I buy from China and sell on other e-commerce sites. Chinese have a huge hyper-market where they all have little shops that are 3 feet by 4 feet and each one specializes in something. They list each other's products for sale (they all ALL fake brands). This makes it look like they have lots of products. All during the day, they make sales, then at the end of the day, they check PayPal for funds. They then go across the isle to their buddies stall and get what they need, put it into a packet and go to a local service that then sends the package to Hong Kong. The USPS has a deal with Hong Kong Post that allows Hong Kongers to send an e-packet to the US for about USD$5-6, but it takes a week or two. The USPS deal with Hong Kong post was meant to work with Hong Kong, not with mainland Chinese sellers of counterfeit goods.

As I said, I live in China. I eat, sleep, watch TV and go out to dinner with Chinese. I go to the "Huaqian Bei" hyper-mart and watch how business is done. I watch people package counterfiets every day. I watch, first hand, the things I just described.

I buy direct from factories, put things on a ship, clear customs, pay sales tax as required and pay income tax.

The Chinese seller doesn't have a presence in the US, doesn't warehouse in the US, thus, NO SALES TAX. Also, since they aren't US citizens and live abroad, they pay no US income tax.

Boys and girls, this is where your job went. First brick and mortar retailers and now China direct into your living room.

I can't afford to manufacture anything in the US and hire one of you because none of you want to pay anything for the product.

Anyone who's eyes glaze over at a super cheap deal and then send money to a seller with no identifying information on a selling site with nothing more than an address and a residential phone number, no email support or any other way to contact them... is a fool.

"When something's too good to be true, it usually is."

Now, go back and look at the iOffer web site. Look at seller pages. What information do you see about the seller? What guarantees? Policies and procedures? Return Policies?

Read the English grammar?

Does it say where it's shipping from?

Now, go look at eBay, Amazon, Sears Market Place, Walmart.

What do you see in these areas?

Again, it's quite foolish not to search for details on such a site as this.

Your only option now is to write off your losses because your seller, being Chinese in China, is both obscure and outside the US legal jurisdiction. Yes, you can probably get your money back from PayPal, but how much is your time and energy worth? Can't get that back.