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The following chargeback document contains a brief note to Lazada, at the beginning, advising them that if they could muster the simple professionalism to locate a missing delivery, and either deliver it, or, if they can't find it, refund for it, then the entire problem would be solved. But that's far too complicated for Lazada.
The concept is dog simple.
Lazada need only read the document, understand it, and then solve the very, very simple problem of a missing delivery.
If Lazada is not able to do that, then on January 12, 2024, the VISA card chargeback goes into effect and we will forcibly remove the finds from their merchant account.
We said it was simple. It is. Or it WAS.
Now it's a mess.
We had tried to contact Lazada for weeks regarding this issue. Their message menu system will not let us speak to anyone but a bot because the item is listed as officially delivered and there is no recourse. We shall see.
Repeated phone calls left us on hold forever.
Lzada's phone menu system is worthless and we feel that is by design, because Lazada doesn't WANT to be bothered solving problems that their stupidity and incompetence creates. They want the victim to give up and go away, and they will go to obnoxious lengths to make sure that happens.
In a "real" country, much of Lazada's policy would be patently illegal, and the FTC would shut them down. Lazada is lucky to be doing business in Third World countries. These are the only countries that will tolerate their scammy bullshit.
Below is the note to Lazada (first page), then the lengthy letter to VISA.
We're almost hoping the chargeback is disputed, so we can bring Lazada into real court here in Manila. God knows, they desperately need it. Their arrogance is far too much to tolerate.
The URL of this page is:
https://www.truth-or-consequences.com/lazada_still_sucks/index.html
Be sure to view the video near the end of this page, for a glimpse into the REAL Lazada.
Stupid is as stupid does.
TO: Lazada
Lazada Philippines City Office
Marajo Tower, 312 4th Ave, Taguig, 1434 Metro Manila, Philippines
Note this has been or will be hand-delivered to your office as I live only meters away. It will also come to you via courier and require a delivery signature. This is also posted to your Facebook, your Twitter, and every other social media account we can find. This will be included as one of the court documents in our lawsuit against you. The pending VISA card chargeback document appears, in part, below.
DO NOT CALL US. We believe this will end up in court in Manila; we need all interaction in writing for the court.
Use our regular email address: LAZADASTILLSUCKS@GMAIL.COM
You have two choices:
Refund or Deliver by January 12, 2024, or suffer a chargeback or lawsuit.
We are too tired of this BS with Lazada to give you any breaks. We want to make an example of this case and disseminate it publicly far and wide. Enough is enough from you people. Enough bad service, enough dishonesty, enough incompetence, enough unprofessionalism, enough missing orders, enough wrong items delivered, enough empty boxes delivered, enough items delivered weeks late. Enough. Enough is enough. You have finally made us angry enough to undertake this action.
Hand-Delivered to Lazada Corporate (address above) on January 2, 2024, at [NOT DELIVERED because Lazada refused to accept it]
Photographic proof of attempt on record (see video at end of this web page:
https://www.truth-or-consequences.com/lazada_still_sucks/index.html
Chargeback details below:
TO: VISA
VISA Chargeback Department; DISPUTES
FAX # 727-571-4598 PHONE 888-918-7322
Chargeback dispute:
VISA Card ending in 4997:
Re Lazada order number 761436384360XXX, placed from BGC, Taguig, on 12-12-2023, in the amount of 3985php ($71.52usd) tendered to my VISA account on 12-16-2023.
Courier was LEX PH, driver Christian Emil John Clarete, Tracking #MP0718804XXX, The Lazada store was USA Health PH. (If this outfit operates in the USA as well, then we have a special procedure just for them).
This order was placed on Dec. 12. I was in the hospital. I was home by Dec. 21 and noticed the item was marked as delivered. Even though my Lazada file tells all drivers to NOT deliver to the ridiculous “Secure Box” system that has been installed at this building, the drivers put my deliveries into that absurd box system anyway, and this causes many problems. The drivers must send you the “code” to open the box; often they do not send the code and you must track them down to get the code. This can take days. Sometimes the boxes do not open. Sometimes the code doesn’t work. Sometimes when you do open the box, it’s empty. Sometimes it contains the wrong item, or someone else’s item. Sometimes, when there is nothing in the box, it will be delivered days later, and the drivers blame the Lazada system. To say this new box system is a nightmare would be a gross understatement. If this is a Lazada idea, then it all fits. This is the kind of nonsense Lazada would think up.
Once I arrived home from the hospital I was confined to bed. I checked for the item on the Lazada app and it showed as delivered.
Showing as delivered and BEING delivered by Lazada are two vastly different things. The Lazada app said that as of Dec 23, the item would be considered “officially delivered” and I would lose the option of disputing it if it wasn’t actually delivered. However, there was an option to click a graphic, and then choose to have one more day in which to confirm delivery. We clicked that graphic but it didn’t bring up any option to extend the delivery confirmation time by one day, or by any days. This was a dead end, which Lazada seems particularly adept at leading its customers into.
To the VISA Chargeback folks, I know for a fact you process thousands upon thousands of chargebacks for Lazada’s nonsense, and I know you are as tired of Lazada as everyone else. When we were in the merchant account business, Lazada was a running joke among most of the personnel.
As of Dec. 23, therefore, we had lost any option to get more time to go down to the Secure Box and check to see if anything had actually arrived. This item was automatically declared as delivered with NO INPUT FROM ME, and as far as Lazada was concerned, that was that. If it was NOT actually delivered, we were completely out of luck to despite it (let’s see about that).
Bear in mind, it was marked as delivered on Dec 19, and only two or three days later, we lost the option to make a claim if need be. This is one reason this box system is a total failure. I needed one to two more weeks to recover enough to comfortably go downstairs and check this item’s delivery.
But with help, I did go downstairs. I retrieved a number of other deliveries from this stupid box without incident, however, this item was NOT in any of the boxes with the items that did arrive. IT WAS NOT DELIVERED.
I immediately went back upstairs and tried to fish through the nebulous, confusing, dead-end Lazada settings to declare this item NOT DELIVERED, but Lazada had closed the window for any dispute. No matter what I clicked, a popup would simply say the item was delivered and that was that. No further discussion would be allowed. Remember, this is only two or three days after Lazada claimed it was delivered. Clearly, Lazada wants to terminate the option to dispute a non-delivery, as quickly as humanly possible, because, after all, that’s just how Lazada works in absolutely every way. They DO NOT CARE about right or wrong, fairness, good business – those are abstract concepts that Lazada is incapable of understanding and, I dare say, would not matter to them even if they could understand basic good business practices.
This is no exaggeration. Check just one of hundreds of global review sites. TrustPilot is as good a place as any to start:
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/lazada.com.ph
Lazada gets 1.5 stars and it’s been like this for decades; TrustPilot’s official rating for Lazada is “BAD”, and this reflects the status on any other review site that Lazada does not control. Lazada is tied with AliExpress for the two worst online retailers on planet earth; that’s our conclusion after over a decade of suffering with these imbeciles.
It can barely get any worse.
After reaching dead end after dead end trying to declare this item missing through Lazada’s labyrinth of buttons, we decided to file our objection with the courier. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to EVER find a way to contact them through the Lazada interface. This is probably by design, as Lazada clearly seems to go out of its way to frustrate and thwart any attempt to file any kind of complaint.
We then went to the business itself, USA Health PH, and we began a dialogue with them.
This path lead down Alice’s Rabbit Hole, as we expected. Numerous attempts to try to get them to understand the problem were met with such stupidity that it eventually caused us to conclude that USA Health PH understood the problem perfectly well, but was purposely trying to obfuscate and feign non-comprehension in order to….what? Make us go away? Of course that had the net effect of cementing our resolve to such an extent that we will be happy to invest 100,000php in getting these idiots into a regular court trial right here in Manila. Something, and someone, must finally show these types that they will NOT get away with this.
We suggested USA Health PH take care of the matter themselves because we were unable to reach Lazada in any meaningful way, not by email, not by their app reporting systems, not by phone. Again, it’s clear to us, this is by design. This is how Lazada and their sellers roll – always has, and always will, unless and until some intelligent competitor comes along. Amazon could crush them in 6 months flat.
In every case, USA Health PH said they were “unable” to help. We countered that THEY were the ones who ultimately collected this money and THEY were the ones we would ultimately take the money back from. But they just kept replying with stupid nonsense, even though we’re positive they understood the problem perfectly. We found USA Health PH to be beyond worthless. Beyond worthless.
Here’s their last message to us, and our retort back to them:
Quote: “Oh, so you admit that you’re smart enough to confirm the order although you’re claiming you didn’t received (sic) it.”
We replied, “We did not confirm the order you idiots!”
Had their retort been made in person, our reply would have been quite different and not nearly so polite.
Remember, we really DIDN’T confirm delivery of anything! It was done automatically by Lazada’s system. They claimed delivery on Dec 19, and confirmed delivery on Dec. 21 WITH NO INPUT FROM US – in fact, we were frantically trying to dispute the delivery assertion, but no option to do so was available, even though Lazada’s own system said we could get more time in which to confirm delivery! (screenshots available!!).
We tried to file complaints against this seller with Lazada. If your follow their published procedures to do so, you quickly realize that the complaints never go to Lazada; they go straight to the seller. Great system, Lazada, as usual. Stupid is as stupid does.
Lazada gave us TWO OR THREE DAYS to dispute a delivery. That’s beyond absurd.
Bottom line:
We want the product or the money back.
It’s what any customer on planet earth would demand under the same circumstances.
We assume that, after this case goes though the chargeback process, Lazada will cancel our account, and that’s perfectly fine.
We place an average of 300-400 orders per year. If Lazada wants to lose that revenue, that’s fine with us. We don’t trust Lazada AT ALL. Absolutely no one does. No one ever has. And they are not improving. They are as scammy as anything else in SE Asia.
We always marvel that, if Lazada isn’t smart enough to design their own systems, procedures and policies that WORK, and clearly they’re not, well, that’s fine. They don’t really have to be smart enough to do that. But they SHOULD be smart enough to simply copy the systems and procedures in place in competent, professional, intelligently operated businesses (i.e. Amazon), and use those to get their business straightened out. But they aren’t even smart enough to do that either.
People order through Amazon for DECADES and have usually ZERO problems. People order through Lazada and are AMAZED when the correct item actually arrives. It’s a miracle every single time.
We can’t count how many orders we’ve lost through Lazada. For inexpensive items we just eat the loss and never say anything, because it’s not worth it to go through the bloody nightmares required to set the matters straight with Lazada. This is a prime example. We probably have 15 man-hours invested in this already, because Lazada purposely makes it difficult or impossible to contact them, and they will bend over backwards to try and make sure your issue is not solved. Try their phone lines; we dare you.
Years ago we ordered something from Lazada and a box arrived, and inside it contained only crumpled candy wrappers. On the outside of the box, written in beautiful English script, were the words, “Dear ____ (my name), You don’t have to receive this one item.” That was handwritten in four different places all over the box.
We began the refund process. It took 2.5 months and required 32 emails and 36 phone calls and that’s a fact. THAT is the insanity you’re inviting into your life any time you choose poorly, and try to interact with Lazada.
This document will be modified to omit sensitive data and will become more public than Lazada could ever imagine. People have a right to know what they’re letting themselves in for when they try to conduct simple business with this band of fools.
Sorry folks. Enough BS with Lazada is bloody-well enough. This was the last straw.
Remember: This missing item EXISTS SOMEWHERE. It’s probably in a box in some other building or some other locker. Maybe Lazada delivered it to the wrong recipient. Lazada must FIND IT and DELIVER IT and all their problems are over.
This chargeback will be filed on January 12, 2024, failing a refund or delivery.
THIS is the BS you’re inviting into your life when you deal with Lazada, and Lazada is absolutely world-famous for this BS now.
Absolutely world famous.
XXXXXXX XXXXX
______________@gmail.com
Dec. 30, 2023
CC: Attorney; Trustpilot; Facebook; Twitter; others
CC: LEXPH on Dec. 30, 2023 (no reply)
CC: Trustpilot on Dec. 30, 2023 (idiotic reply)
CC: Facebook on Dec. 30, 2023 (no reply)
CC: DTI Fair-Trade Enforcement Bureau: fteb@dti.gov.ph. CC eco@dti.gov.ph, DTI-FTEB
Office Address: UPRC Building 315 Sen. Gil J. Puyat Ave., Makati City, Philippines
BCC:
UPDATE:
On January 2, 2024, at 13:06 hours, we attempted to deliver this document to Lazada’s physical address here in Taguig, Manila, Philippines. I live only meters from it, as luck would have it.
The purpose was to provide this case in its entirety to Lazada. Lazada has blocked all previous attempts to communicate this case to them.
By laying out this case to Lazada, we felt that, certainly, someone within Lazada, with more than one brain cell, would fire up BOTH of their brain cells and either go find this missing item, or refund for it. That would save them the cost and trouble and black mark on their merchant account (we used to be in that business). That would save them a very, very prolific and lucrative customer, and settle the problem.
Simple.
All we need do is get the actual case to Lazada, so they could sort it out, and resolve it, and save themselves a lot more trouble down thee road, and possibly even legal action.
Any company on earth would be happy to receive such a document, which gives them the opportunity to save all kinds of trouble and expense.
But we’re talking about Lazada.
Intelligence, professionalism, competence, business sense – those are NOT Lazada’s strong points. In fact, we don’t believe they possess one molecule of ANY of them.
So what did Lazada do when we tried to deliver the above document to them?
They refused to accept it.
THAT…..says all you need to know about Lazada and its employees.
The short video below documents the attempt.
The people behind the concierge desk were imbeciles.
They insisted on reading the document, even though they are not associated with Lazada in any way. Just nosy. I let them read it in the hope they were intelligent, and they would simply allow the document to be delivered.
Instead, they called Lazada, giggled for a moment on the phone in low tones, and then had me talk to the Lazada employee.
Clearly, she was dedicated to trying every trick in the book to keep this document from being delivered.
She didn’t know what it was, except that it was a legal demand document, but she was not capable of grasping that it would save
Lazada a good deal of trouble and some expense. She just couldn’t grasp that.
So she refused vehemently to accept it, and now this case moves forward, at Lazada’s expense. Were I her employer, and I discovered what she had done, she’s be packing up her desk in 3 minutes flat.
Here’s the document in question. Such a small, small, easily solved issue, IF Lazada possessed one gram of professionalism or common sense.
THIS is what it’s like to struggle to do simple business with Lazada in SE Asia. They are this bad in every single country. We know this from eleven years of struggling with these imbeciles. But that ends now.
UPDATE January 3, 2024:
The VISA chargeback has been filed on this date. Lazada COULD HAVE accepted my document on Jan. 2, and almost certainly have avoided this entire fiasco, but the woman at Lazada Headquarters in BGC wanted to be obtuse. So be it. We're sick of that. Now it's game on.
We'll continue to update this all the way through the chargeback process and, if need be, through a formal lawsuit here in Manila.
By God this BS from Lazada must be stopped.
A copy of the government complaint will be appended here when ready.
We can't stress enough that you MUST conduct ALL business with Lazada via credit card (not debit card), because they are anything but trustworthy. You cannot use cash on delivery, because Lazada won't allow you to open or examine the order in any way before you pay. If a business was mostly trustworthy and honest, then this ordinarily wouldn't be a problem. But Lazada is anything but that. Lazada is by a wide margin the worst business we have ever seen, and that includes 2.5 times living completely around the world. Lazada is consistently the worst. Why? We think they purposely hire stupid people. Why? Because they're cheap.
UPDATE January 6, 2024:
This item was mysteriously delievered on Jan. 5, 2024, with no announcement, no replies from the carrier or Lazada or anyone else-- nothing. It just suddenly showed up.
Of course the VISA chargeback had already been filed and now must go through the process.
This could have been 101% avoided had the imbecilic woman at the Lazada headquarters simply accepted my document, read it, understood it, found the package and delivered it. But she was Hell-bent on screwing the foreign customer, and did a very bad thing for her company. She is responsible for this web page. With employees like that, Lazada, who needs enemies?
This utter and insane BS is 100% typical with Lazada.
Shoppee isn't perfect, but it's better.
For expats and anyone who actually wants to receive their order (bizarre concept, we know!), I recommend Amazon US or Amazon Singapore. Stay as far away as possible from Lazada, or ANY Chinese retailer like AliExpress or AliBaba. Absolutely to be avoided.
Often the shipping to Philippines via Amazon is free (FREE!) and often there is no duty tax to pay either. If there is, Amazon takes care of it end to end and you will NEVER have to deal with the thieving louts in Customs. If the item doesn't show up ON TIME, you merely click a box on the Amazon site and it is instantly refunded. Do NOT waste your time, energy, and sanity, on the likes of Lazada. It will send you to an early grave. They don't understand basic business; they never have; they never will. Suck it up and go elsewhere. You be glad you did.