Counterfeit Items On Lazada and Shopee
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In the 10 months I've been in the Philippines I've received 392 orders from Lazada and 45 orders from Shopee. I did buy a couple counterfeit items, namely Makita power tools. I was naive thinking that name brand saws are just cheaper here. I was happy to buy a $200 saw for $30, until it broke the 2nd time I used it. I'm a little wiser now and can easily spot the counterfeit products, which leads me to more recent issues.
I brought a top of the line 5.1 speaker system with me and was going to buy an amplifier here because my trusty old Onkyo was 120 volt. I bought a Konzert, which broke right away. Konzert sent a replacement which was broke on arrival so they gave me a full refund. Next I bought a Sakura which was a joke. It was a 5.1 amp but was sending bass to my surround speakers and almost no volume to my center speaker. I'm keeping it to use for outdoor karaoke parties, works fine in that respect. So then I ordered a Chinese amp which had good reviews and all the bells and whistles. The karaoke side broke in a week; I sent it back to Lazada yesterday.
Now I'm thinking how foolish I was not to buy something like a Yamaha receiver/amplifier so I started researching the many, many Yamaha products for sale on Lazada, many or most of which are plainly counterfeit. I contacted Yamaha asking who are the legit Yamaha distributors in the Philippines. Turns out there are 3, but I see dozens on Lazada and Shopee. I ordered a Yamaha receiver from one of the verified Yamaha dealers. But, the better receivers don’t have built in karaoke so I would need a mixer.
Some things seem to be easier to counterfeit and Yamaha mixers must be one of them. There are page after page of Yamaha mixers and many of the models are not clones of a Yamaha product since Yamaha doesn’t even make that particular model. One example, and this is a good one, the “Yamaha MIX-428”. When I read the writing on the device I busted out laughing. It says “4 CHANNEL MIXER WITCH REVERBERATION”. Not with reverberation but witch reverberation. They spelled reverberation correctly but misspelled with. Customers were giving it good reviews. It goes for around P900 when the cheapest genuine Yamaha mixer I found was P10,000 plus.
Lazada has its own discussion forum so I went there and tried to post some well worded questions about all the counterfeit items but the Lazada moderators shot me down. If all the counterfeit items were removed it would really hurt Lazada and the sellers financially so looks like Lazada looks the other way, even though they talk a good game when it comes to policing their market. I did get a PM from a girl who says she is a “Buyer Moderator of Lazada Peers”. I sent her a few examples but haven’t heard back.
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You can only do so much to protect yourself. . . .I use Shopee almost exclusively. . . .If it's a brand name appliance and the price seems to good to be true, it raises doubts with me.
No matter how diligent you are someone is going to get over you on occasionally. Typically on a Shopee search you can find a banner advertisement for a real commercial brick and mortar business.
Now other things I look for on Shopee:
(1) Are they registered in the Shopee Mall?
(2) If not are they registered then are they a Preferred Seller?
(3) Near the top of the page there is a Sort BY: Choose Top Sales.
(4) I also Check Off: Ships from Manila.
(5) I skip sellers that say: Pre-order.
(6) I check their response rate and time.
For definitions of Shopee Mall or Preferred seller, Google Shopee Mall and Preferred seller
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I buy a lot of things from both Shoppe and Lazada most are ok, you have to do some research, as far as tools I do have some AGE made in China but German design, but my secret source for tools are KEN brand made in China,now most power tools are made in China, but the most popular tool used by Chinese are KEN, I have a cutoff saw, a trim router hand grinder, I have been using them quite some time, and to my surprise going strong
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1@Enzyte Bob I like Shopee but there is an issue with my address so I get a lot of "no shipping option" when I put things in the cart. I like the fact that I'm always logged in when I open Shopee on my laptop. Lazada too often has me do a phone or email verification unless I use my phone which I'm getting used to. They both seem to be set up for smart phones more than computers. Shopee won't accept my US credit card and with Lazada it is hit or miss but now I use Gcash and load it with Western Union so no bank fees. I was surprised at what a good exchange rate WU has, and just a $1.99 service fee to load a few hundred bucks on my Gcash wallet.
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@Okieboy Good tip on the KEN tools, I'll keep that in mind. I have a Makita metal cut off saw, angle grinder and hammer drill I bought from Burdette to build the in laws house so I'm good there.
The "Makita" jig saw is a good replica but the speed controller went out right away so I have it bypassed. It now runs full speed but that's OK, I don't use it much. The "Makita" circular saw seemed OK until I tried to use it with a guide. The guide plate was misaligned with the blade so it just smoked the blade if I tried to run it down a straight edge. I was able to shim it with washers to get it aligned well enough that we were able to use it to cut out the inlaws cabinets.
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Lazada has three segments: LazMart is run by Lazada, so you can trust them. Originally, that was the only thing Lazada did. LazMall is brands’ own official stores on Lazada (or authorized distributors), so you can trust them. LazMall offers 30 days returns, and double your money back if you get a fake there. E.g. Xiaomi has its own LazMall store. Finally, there’s the marketplace, where anyone can sell on Lazada. So in the marketplace, you should only order from someone with a long history on Lazada and high ratings.
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@Moon Dog. . . . I like Shopee but there is an issue with my address so I get a lot of "no shipping option" when I put things in the cart. I like the fact that I'm always logged in when I open Shopee on my laptop.
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Living in NCR (national capital region) I don't have those associated problems. I shop using a laptop ( set up like a desktop, with external keyboard, monitor and mouse), when my browser is cleared I have to reply to shopee with the SMS code they send me in order to log in.
Also I'm allowed to use c.o.d. for all my purchases. But like everything in the Philippines you have to adjust or invent a work around.
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@BondJamesBond Good info on the Lazmall but the high ratings isn’t always a dependable sign of a genuine product. Case in point, I'm looking at a Yamaha mixer on Lazada. The seller has a 4.8 rating and 211 reviews, but the mixer he is selling is counterfeit. So how do I know it is counterfeit?
• It is selling for P2,000 with an estimated MSRP of P10,000. I have to estimate because of the next issue.
• The model is a "MG07BT" and I am unable to find that model on the Yamaha website or on the website of any of the 3 authorized dealers, which leads me to the next issue.
• The seller is not one of the 3 authorized Yamaha dealers in the Philippines so where did he get the mixer?
• One way to spot a counterfeit mixer, according to Yamaha, is when the slides are all the way down the words at the bottom are covered. The slides on this mixer cover the writing when they are all the way down. The slides on a genuine Yamaha mixers do not cover the writing when all the way down.
I did the research because I’m in the market for a mixer and found the vast majority of Yamaha mixers for sale on Lazada are counterfeit. But this is just one item out of thousands.
If photos are approved it shows what I mean by the writing being covered by the slides.
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Update, I took the advice of the person who messaged me and went to Lazada chat, which a robot name CLEO montitors, and typed "agent". Monica responded and I told her about the counterfeit Yamaha products. Her response was basically, yeah well, is there anything else I can help you with? I pushed the issue a little and she asked for a screen shot. I had a screen shot prepared but before I could send it she left the chat.
If you do a Lazada serch for 'Yamaha mixer' you will get 102 pages, vertially all of which are counterfeit. If Lazada isn't aware of that I'm not going to change anything so I'm out. The fake mixers are a fracion of the price of the genuine items and they get good ratings. Hard to blame the consumers.
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@Moon Dog. . . . . . Update, I took the advice of the person who messaged me and went to Lazada chat, which a robot name CLEO montitors, and typed "agent". Monica responded and I told her about the counterfeit Yamaha products. Her response was basically, yeah well, is there anything else I can help you with? I pushed the issue a little and she asked for a screen shot. I had a screen shot prepared but before I could send it she left the chat.
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I had a bad experience like you with Lazada customer service and that's why I use Shopee. Way back when I ordered supplies for my indoor mini farm. I had ordered two Mars grow tents and two set of Led grow lights from Ali Express. (good prices & fast delivery)
Well back to my experience with Lazada, I order additional stuff from Lazada. What I received was not my order but somebody else's that was into Japanese cooking. I went the whole nine yards with the seller and Lazada. The seller was unresponsive. Lazada had be jumping through hoops and mazes. I managed to get a live person supplying them with screen shots on what I received.
I never got anywhere with them about a refund, as everyone knows when you take delivery it's impossible to know or open the package in front of the delivery person, impossible with layers and layers bubble wrap, tape and what have you. I did not authorize payment (money paid to the delivery person held in escrow) After five days they paid the seller.
There lame excuse that I should have inspected my order before signing for it. In my personal life I never do business again with a person or company that screwed me over and there are several. I've had very good customer service with HP & Pure Water Filtration Systems, replacing stuff by phone that was out of warranty.
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1@Enzyte Bob
Depends on a lot, can’t always blame Shopee or Lazada when you get a raw deal. I bought the filter system from the pool I installed from Aquatex on Shopee because it was an incredible price on a better model but when it arrived it was the cheaper model, bait and switch. Not much I could do and it is an adequate filter at the going price for that model and that model comes with a timer which I like, but the multivalve leaked from day 1. Took a month of posting bad reviews anywhere I could to get a replacement multivalve under warranty. Now the pump is making a funny noise and I'm not getting anywhere with a warranty replacement. Aquatex sells on Shopee and Lazada so I can't blame Shopee.
Lazada did me a big favor the other day. I mentioned in my OP that I bought a fancy Chinese receiver that broke in a week. It was past the 7 day return period and the seller was ignoring my messages. I opened a Lazada chat with a real person and after my tales of woe she put me on hold for a minute and came back with a J&T Express tracking number. Lazada agreed to take it back, all I had to do is drop it off, full refund and Lazada paid the shipping. Maybe my 370 orders had something to do with it? Credit to Lazada.
I also bought the Konzert amplifier I mentioned in my OP from Lazada. The optical input failed after 2 days. It got elevated to a Konzert rep and they sent me a replacement. I wasn't home when the replacement arrived so they dropped it off anyway and would return later to pick up the old one. The volume control was bad right out of the box on the replacement, I could not lower the volume. Konzert threw in the towel and sent a courier to my house, on an island in the province, to pick up both amps and issued a Gcash full refund. That was best possible outcome for a bad situation but I can't credit Lazada for that since Konzert stepped in and properly took care of the problem.
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I have been retired in Cebu for about 3 years, from USA. At first, I brought everything in via Amazon to a Shipping Consolidator in California. Then I realized that if the product is Made In China, that I could save 50 to 75% via Shopee or Lazada. Generally, I have been satisfied and I get the items much quicker for less shipping costs. Worst issue I had was with Shopee. I ordered a few items from one Seller and only two items were received. Seller agreed, but I was told I had to go thru Shopee for refund. Shopee denied my claim cuz I did not have a Video of opening the sealed package and illustrating that the item was not in the package. Like I am going to video every package that I receive, right? Since then, about 3 months ago, I have been ordering only thru Lazada to Spite Shopee - Like they really care. I guess if I experience similar issues with Lazada, I will toggle back and forth between them. Of course some of the items received from either of them are pure junk. But I just toss them away in the trash, as a cost of doing business. Not worth beginning the hopeless battle with either of them.
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1@talamban Good info, if I get an order with several items I may do the video. I haven't been shorted but I did receive the wrong item once but it wasn't worth the 30 minute drive to J&T Express to return it. A perk I'm getting from Lazada that I haven't received from Shopee is the cash back on some purchases. I have a P400 balance in the wallet now and I've emptied it several times.
I messaged the girl who encouraged me to contact Lazada about the counterfeit items. I told her the person I chatted with wasn't interested so I tried but I'm not wasting any more time on this. She gave me another contact but if Lazada is not interested neither am I. I've posted questions to the various sellers like "why are you selling counterfeit Yamaha products?" or "did you know that mixer is counterfeit?" so everyone can see, but haven't received a response.
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@Moon Dog I load gcash at Palawan no charge , but I only load to pay bills and buy loads
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@Okieboy Western Union surprised me with their 51.8 exchange rate and $1.99 fee to load Gcash. If it comes directly from your bank account there is no fee. Works great on my iPhone with face ID, very fast, and the notice of deposit from Gcash is 1 or 2 seconds after completing the WU transfer, money is there instantly. I used WU a few times in 2006 when I first started sending money to the Philippines but then Xoom came along and gave a much better exchange rate with lower fees. Now WU is probably better than Xoom. Xoom is way down on my list now, I only use it to load my phones.
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I ran across this "Yamaha" F4 mixer today on Lazada. It has 451 reviews, 285 answered questions and a 4.7 out of 5.0 rating. But it's a fake. If an item has 451 reviews how many have they sold? Probably a couple thousand. Something I copied from the Yamaha website:
"Counterfeit products with the Yamaha logo that are not in the Yamaha product line-up have been identified. For example mixing consoles with model names such as F4, F7, CT60S, CT80S, and CT120S are not Yamaha products."
Dinhi lang na sa Pilipinas oi!
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Moon Dog. . . .
To lesson your Pain do a Youtube search for: Lazada unboxing scam and also Shopee unboxing scam. There are a few videos in English but most in Tagalog.
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@Enzyte Bob I watched a couple but I'm not sure what's going on. Is it the sellers stiffing their customers, crafty couriers doing the dirty deed or customers trying to get over on Lazada by removing the item, resealing the package then reopening it in a video?
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Do you fellows not read the customer reviews ? I've placed and received well over 250+ orders from Lazada over the past few years, never would i dare to order anything over a couple thousand pesos without first reading the prior customer reviews before then proceeding to check-out...
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For the fun of it, I went on Shopee and did a search of "Fake Nike Shoes'. One sell described his shoes as "authentic quality" another "Good Fake".
Another said 2X money if fake.
Best of all if you search for "Fake Watch", there are dozens of pages and the sellers saying the watch is fake.
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Do you fellows not read the customer reviews ? I've placed and received well over 250+ orders from Lazada over the past few years, never would i dare to order anything over a couple thousand pesos without first reading the prior customer reviews before then proceeding to check-out...- @kristopherryanwatson
I'm not the one being scammed, I'm posting for the benefit of others and using Yamaha karaoke mixers as an example. In my previous posts I showed an example of a mixer that has over 400 favorable reviews along with a high rating, but the mixer is a fake. Reviews don't mean much when a horde of reviewers are oblivious to the scam being foisted on them. If it is a name brand item and you want to verify the authenticity of that item, you have to ignore the reviews and contact the manufacturer directly, which I did. In many cases you don't even have to contact the manufacturer to verify a name brand item if it is so obviously a fake, like 99% of the hundreds of Yamaha mixers sold on Lazada and Shopee. Easy fake identification methods:
- Is the price dramatically lower than the genuine item? Practically all the "Yamaha" mixers on Lazada and Shopee are selling for between 1,500 and 2,000 pesos when the cheapest genuine Yamaha mixer I've found is over 10,000 pesos.
- Does the manufacturer even make that model? Mixing consoles with model numbers F4, F7, CT60S, CT80S, and CT120S are fake because Yamaha does not make those models but there are over 100 pages of just F4 and F7 mixers for sale on Lazada, many with hundreds of favorable reviews and high ratings.
- Is the seller an authorized distributor of the products? There are only 3 legit Yamaha audio dealers in the Philippines, I just bought a Yamaha receiver from one of them.
- Is the manufacturers warranty included with the item? My receiver has all the warranty papers and I registered it with Yamaha, it is real. The fake audio items either have no warranty or the seller takes care of it. The counterfeit merchants don't want their customers contacting Yamaha.
- And last but not least, and this is a good one. If you are in the market for Yamaha wireless microphones they are for sale on Lazada, at a good price, but just one thing to consider before you order, YAMAHA DOES NOT MAKE WIRELESS MICROPHONES!
Items such as counterfeit Yamaha mixers on Lazada are out of control and if you only go by the reviews you will end up with counterfeit merchandise.
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@Moon Dog I have given up on Lazada and just assume what I order is counterfeit. Therefore only order cheap throwaway items from Lazada. I would never make a serious purchase there. You are right. Lazada does not care if the items are inferior counterfeits.
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As someone who is using this forum as a planning tool, and grateful to all of you for your insights, my question is this. Would it be wise for me to simply purchase my electronic items before I come there and have them shipped to me via Balikbayan box once I am there? I plan to retire in either Baguio or Dumaguete and still am about 2 years out. Baguio is my preferred option, but I am concerned by the lack of an airport.
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It would be safer to buy from a trusted source if you can match the voltage. I sent a couple 120 volt items in BB boxes such as my HVAC vacuum pump. I use a converter to run the vacuum pump but I wouldn’t want to use a converter on anything I’m using daily.
My comments were mostly about Yamaha mixers mainly because virtually all of them sold on Lazada are fake. I did buy a genuine Yamaha receiver on Lazada but I did a lot of research and bought from a dealer verified by Yamaha. Yamaha is getting hit hard by counterfeiters, I’m curious how much the other name brands are losing?
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@Moon Dog said: I sent a couple 120 volt items in BB boxes such as my HVAC vacuum pump.
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I also sent many 120v items in BB boxes. I has several outlets wired by contractor when building house to 120V. It's a simple job to change 240V to 120V. Originally had the contractor do this, but had to change one outlet back to 240V. Cost me $10 usd for knowledgeable handyman to do this.Like
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Guest295824 Guest
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@Moon Dog Lazada isn’t the worst actually. I’ve gotten a few decent things from it. I have two cardinal rules when ordering from Lazada.
1. Make sure the price is right. If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.
2. Under no circumstances order a Lazada product that ships from mainland China. That’s usually a red flag for a factory defect. Order things that only ship from inside of the Philippines.
I also message the vendor directly and tell him to make sure he’s sending me something that is not broken and make certain the vendor has a good rating. Not a bunch of complaints.
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1Guest295824 Guest
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@Moon Dog I have given up on Lazada and just assume what I order is counterfeit. Therefore only order cheap throwaway items from Lazada. I would never make a serious purchase there. You are right. Lazada does not care if the items are inferior counterfeits.
- @Glen Adkins
Yeah I would never trust Lazada for an expensive purchase. I would go directly to Divisoria in Manila if you just want cheap stuff or Chinatown in Davao. (Careful, they don’t always appreciate it when you look at an item too closely in Chinatown). 😂
For expensive electronics and appliances Mall of Asia. SM, Abenson, Ayala, etc. And get a warranty.
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