SINGAPORE: A woman was shocked after receiving several staples when she placed an order for the Apple AirPods Pro 3 from an online shopping platform. The seller claimed to be from the Apple Flagship store, which makes the package even more confusing.
Case details showed that the 24-year-old victim bought the earphones as a birthday gift for her boyfriend, and they were priced at $349 on Apple’s official website. However, she noticed that these were only sold at a lower price–$279—on the platform, which made her decide to purchase from it instead. With discount coupons, she only needed to pay $254.
The woman claimed that the store was recommended, and that she checked the store first before even placing her order. The 100,000 followers and more than 9,000 reviews of the shop made her decide to purchase the earphones on the platform.
Unfortunately, when she received the headphones, she was surprised when a bunch of staples tied together arrived. What made her even more confused was that the tamper-evident seal on the case was still intact, indicating that the item had not been opened. The woman immediately contacted the store and requested the earphone’s serial number, and she also applied for a return and refund.
Case under investigation
A spokesperson from the online shopping platform confirmed that they have received the feedback and immediately launched an investigation. Fortunately, the victim also successfully returned the goods and received a refund.
"We have completed our investigation, taken appropriate measures, and are reviewing relevant regulations to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Providing customers with a safe and reliable shopping experience is always Shopee's top priority,” the online platform admitted.
Due to this experience, the woman said she would no longer buy such products online and might decide to go to physical retail stores next time to avoid the inconvenience and to make sure that the products were authentic.
In other news, a man successfully fooled a mobile phone store when he pretended to be a customer wanting to buy a phone, and eventually snatched an iPhone 17 Pro Max in front of everyone.
The loss is estimated to be nearly $2,000.
Read more about the news story here.