Beware of companies that appear to operate from Europe

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I ordered some ‘adult’ clothes for my missus the other day from a seemingly UK store (.co.uk domain). Normally parcels get delivered within 2-3 days but this was taking longer. When checking the package tracking link, I noticed that it’s coming from the US and that’s why it’s taking a lot longer than I expected.

Lesson learned: I need to check the FAQ, help, etc. pages and fine prints for information about the origins of stuff I’m about to order. :/

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from a seemingly UK store (.co.uk domain)

Might I interest you in some organic British-grown mangoes, dates and avocados? You can find them in my shop at real-british-mangoes-dates-and-avocados.co.uk ! The TLD is .co.UK, so you know I’m not lying! 🫣

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Diddly Squat Farms, is that you?

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OP

Oh wow, thanks! I’ve ordered a few tonnes of them. :)

Joking aside, the TLD wasn’t the only thing that was UK specific, its contents and language (British English) are also very convincing.

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I had a similar issue, also with a company that looks like a UK store but ship directly from China.

It took a while to arrive, the products looked fake and with no CE marking, we have to ship it back to China to get a refund.

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It’s called Dropshipping and it’s been around for ages.

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Dropshipping simply means the seller does not hold stock and ships directly from the supplier after the sale. The supplier can be just as British as the seller.

If a website presents itself as British but does not clearly state that the product ships from California, that is misleading.

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I had this happen to me with “mykitsch,eu”, the whole website was localized (even the images!) and I thought it was a shop based in my country. Turns out they are an american company and the shit I purchased was flown in from california. After I purchased I began to receive email spam on the address, so they probably sold my data too.

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I hate it. It has forced me to do a massive background check whenever I order something online which sometimes takes an hour or more, but now I kinda enjoy it so yay I guess 🤷‍♂️

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Honestly, foreign companies with local domains is common practice since …. So long, Can’t even remember….. (Still good advice)

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