I ususally do not do not visit Facebook very offen, but yesterday I logged into my facebook account trying to browse around, I found some interesting comment on Wish.com’s page. (As a merhcant, I have followed wish’s page for quite a long time!). Untill then, wish has got 1,202,438 followers for their page. It looked like the Wish APP (Shopping made fun!) is extramely popular on internet or in people’s smart devices. But when I tried to browse the daily post from their page, the comment & feedbacks from fans looked a little anomalous.
Shopping Made Fun. Join over 30 million others that have made their shopping more smart, fun, and rewarding. – That’s what Wish introduce themselves. No doubt Wish is growing fast and with more and more sale volume each month. It is very commom to see negative feedback for deal sites & Online marketplace, but it is not that commom to see huge negative feedbacks on a business’s facebook page as this. I checked the page for a while and summed up some of the Complaints， they are most about:
1. Cheap item with poor quality, item does not match display pictures.
2. Clothes size issues, size too small or too large.
3. shipping issue, no shipment or shipping too slow.
4. Bad customer service (No contact or difficult to contact)
As an online marketplace, any of the above issues can easily destroy a business and from their fan page, it looked like Wish have got 4 all. So here comes the question, what’s wrong with Wish? is Wish a fraud at all?
To begin digging Wish’s issues, we should start with how Wish’s business runs. Here’s some fact I found about Wish:
1. Though they claimed that they have many vendor (Sellers) from all over world, while most (or All?) of their sellers are from China. And most of their items are shipping from China (International shipping). Most sellers on Wish comes from another marketplace called “Aliexpress” which is another marketplace belonging to Alibaba group.
2. When customer using Wish APP checking products, they have 2 options: Wish it or Buy it. The more wish or buy a product gets, the more Exposure the product will get. The review & feedback of a product does not affect the exposure. Plus products with lower price will get more sells.
3. Wish is changing their seller policy frequently to adjust their marketplace rules plus trying to improve customer & business experience.
4. Once a while, Wish was declined by Paypal for selling Imitation （Knock off items) products. Then they decided to have all products inspected before they are live for sell. Also new sellers will be inspected when they are trying to upload new products.
5. Wish holds merchants’ fund until the first day of each month, sellers must provide active tracking information before they got paid.
6. Wish does not supply fulfillment service unlike Amazon. All products are shipped from individual sellers.
It is easy to find out why customers complain about the shipment and product quality. As a matter of fact, there are really very few restriction for selling on wish. When customers set up a dispute or complain about the purchase they maid, wish will make Intervention to the case and refund the payment to customer. But seller has no pulishment except the refund. I think this is the main reason for a mass amount of cheap & Poor quality items on Wish. At same time lots of sellers steal product pictures from other brands but send poor quality items to customers instead. This matter can be critical for online business. Sellers can do this because there’s no restriction or pulishment.
Many marketplaces have strict policy about Jewelry, clothes and beauty products. Sellers must get approvel before they listing their items for sell, and if there’s issues with products or customers, their selling account should be closed or limited. If Wish really want to improve their business performace, I would strongly suggest they do so.
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If you are reading this post, you should be noted that I wrote above post in April 2015, now it is Jan 2017, how time flies!
It is almost 2 years now, and there’s still new comments about wish rolling in my blog comment. Looks like wish does not change much.
I have summed up some of the complains or issues customers shopping with Wish, there’s not much “fun” part in it. We know that there are still tons of questions or problems out there, but that’s not what I am about to digg, instead I am trying to explain to you guys why the hell those issue happens, hopefully it helps you to decide if wish is the right shopping APP you should install in your phone.
Clothes Size
While we already know that the sellers on wish are from China, generally Asian people wear smaller clothes than people in USA & Europe. The problem is many sellers set up clothes listing with Asian measurements. If there’s size tag on clothes, you will be about to find out the clothe is the right size you ordered, but it just does not fit you, because IT IS FOR ASIAN PEOPLE. But most of time, there’s even no tag on clothes! It is almost “blind-shopping” buying clothes items. The pictures might be stolen from some other brands, the actual merchandise you received could be produced in any small workshop. Sure there’s plenty of large factories manufacturing decent clothes for Foreign brands, but barely any of which were sold on Wish.
NO Shipment
Many customers have had experience on wish that their shipments were never received. Well most time when you shopping online, you should be alerted if the shipment is coming from outside of your country. All shipments on wish are from china, meanwhile, to save shipping cost, most sellers choose to use the most cheap shipping method to carry your order which means: No tracking number (you will never know if your order was sent out or not, some sellers just mark their order “shipped” no matter it happens or not)
Extra long shipping time
Your order may come in a month, 2, 3, half a year or over a year, indeed there are express shipping ways from China to other countries, but it does not happen much on Wish, no one would buy a 3 dollar item with paying 30$ shipping cost, needless to mention that lots of products are marked “free shipping” on wish. So most of time, sellers use un-registered regular mail to carry your order, the shipping time was never guaranteed, the package is not safe, you can expect your order to come in a long time or never.
Poor Quality Products
I know While a product is labelled as “made in China”, you should perhaps not expect much quality about it. However, I do not believe that’s the issue for wish case. Prove is When you buy some items from Walmart or Amazon, even it is made in China, the product should still be usable, most items are with decent quality. How come shopping with Wish could be so lousy？
I believe it is Wish’s Fault, the wish system does not have any Elimination mechanism upon sellers. In the early days when shopping on line became a thing, I am sure there are all kinds of sellers out there, good one and bad ones, professional sellers and Amateur sellers, but as time goes, only the best of best can last to end. Each online marketplace has their Evaluation mechanism to keep the quality sellers and ban un-professional ones. Like Ebay and Amazon, sellers can easily get banned for bad feedback or customer complains. Plus most other marketplaces are setting up more and more strict selling policies for their merchants to ensure excellent shopping experiences for their customers. Wish sounds very tolerant to sellers failure and their policies are loose.
Why?
I do not know exactly. But here’s the big picture I imagine:
- Wish is a new marketplace compared to other sites (ebay, amazon), they do not have enough merchants or vendors while they want to recruit more sellers, currently they might consider it is their best option to keep a loose requirement upon vendors to avoid vendor loss.
- Compared to other marketplace or shopping APP, Wish want to provide customers “Extra value” & “extra low price” products for customers, cause there’s not much other advantages for customers shopping on Wish, especially when you expect to receive your order over a month or so, what would you expect when you buying an item for 1/3 price of regular price? Wish has to allow merchants selling low quality items for extra low price, it helps the APP to attract more customers, at least Newbies! Or you tell me what made you placed your first order on Wish!?
Anyway, these 4 issues were mentioned mostly there, hopefully the post helps you a little bit to understand why they happens. I have gathered information around from some of my friends who are or were selling on wish, in 2016, some new policies were released by wish and they were trying to raise their standards on merchant behaviors and improve their shopping experience for buyers. Also they are setting up fulfillment centers in Local (Wish is a USA based company, not chinese!) Only time will tell if things will change but at least they start to do their job.
What’s your experience with Wish? Feel free to Comment below to share with me and readers.
Haydn's Blog 
wish is scam intended to scam Chinese merchants ,their philosophy is fine 10 000 -100 000 Chinese merchants in amounts of 1000-10 000usd . if you have been scammed by wish leave your email to help class action lawsuit legalsociety@vistomail.com
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Hey Marc
Shocked to hear that. Wish is also un-friendly to their vendors. No comment here.
Haydn
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Just recently I was defrauded by Wish. Originally my order was correct and confirmed. Then after waiting three weeks of the month I had to wait for my order to arrive, they switched the product picture in my order history, and shipped me a very cheap wrong item. Between product cost and shipping I’m out $19.00. Contacting customer support just lead’s to more waiting and seldom any real resolution. Many of the items they offer can be found at a swap meet…. save the shipping cost and dreadfully long wait time.
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sorry for your loss. I think you should file a claim in paypal, at least you can do that right
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I asked about an item I purchased, I never received the item, now they are saying I’m out of the refund range, I never asked for a refund, just my cheap ass purchase!!!!
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Figures such lousey service would be from a company based in a country that treats animals so horribly!!!The prices are great,the merchandise is cheap and service is a joke!!
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hey Kberle
No argument about that. Sure wish is doing it wrong.
Haydn
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I ordered four items from Wish.com,they were sent to the wrong address.They said they would refund two of them,they never did.I requested a replacement or refund for the other two.They have now stopped communicating with me!!This China based company is a fraud.Figures!!!
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Hey Kimturnage
Sorry for your loss.
But I have to correct you that Wish is not a China based company, instead it is located in CA, USA.
Their sellers are from China.
Haydn
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I have been trying to purchase from Wish for the past week. After my first order was placed which had several items on it, I received emails saying I had refunds for every item. I had paid with Pay Pal. Evidently I had a card registered with paypal that had just expired that week. I also have my checking account registered with paypal so seems paypal could have easily used my current checking account.
I went into payppal and updated my credit card … I still get an error message from Wish.
I tried using a different name and starting a new account but Wish still will not allow me to order.
I have sent Several emails to wish with no response. They have a phone number but no one will answer… only a machine ..but no way to leave a message. Please help me recover so I can start ordering from Wish. Thank you Sheila Manuel sheilamanuel@hotmail.com
(817 688 2250)
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hey SHEILA
Sorry for your trouble.
It looks like Wish had blocked you from buying on their marketplace.
I have heard that they do so because some buyers trying to blackmail them because there’s obviously no return service involved on wish (shipping back to China, what a joke!) so refund looked like their best solution.
so if a buyers gets too many refund, they may block your account.
Just my thought, not sure if it is your situation.
haydn
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I have ordered several items from wish and very few make it to me. I was getting refunded for items not arriving but now o cant request a refund or get anyone to email me back about my account being frozen. Include me in your class action Arleenh
Marissaarleen@gmail.com
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hey Arleen
Sorry for your trouble.
It looks like Wish had blocked you from buying on their marketplace.
I have heard that they do so because some buyers trying to blackmail them because there’s obviously no return service involved on wish (shipping back to China, what a joke!) so refund looked like their best solution.
so if a buyers gets too many refund, they may block your account.
Just my thought, not sure if it is your situation.
haydn
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he comprado y lo prometido no a llega en su totalidad dicen una fecha y no llega nada . y tengo muchas cosas compradas
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lesson learned!
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Yes this message got about that i can’t shop,cause about a fraud.Are your taking my money or other county taking my money.Im very despoint of you for being more careful.
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hey Gladys
Sorry for your trouble.
It looks like Wish had blocked you from buying on their marketplace.
I have heard that they do so because some buyers trying to blackmail them because there’s obviously no return service involved on wish (shipping back to China, what a joke!) so refund looked like their best solution.
so if a buyers gets too many refund, they may block your account.
Just my thought, not sure if it is your situation.
haydn
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I don’t think Wish is a scam, according to me its just a chinese version of amazon. 😀
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Hey Abhi
tks for sharing your opinion.
Haydn
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Myself and my partner both signed up to this site and both some stuff. Two days later we got missed calls from Gambia!, my other family members used it and two days later spam was sent to their calendars. Looks like they are selling user data to spammer/scammers
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Hey Kikoman
thanks for sharing your experience.
Looked like that wish has really got some serious issue out there.
Haydn
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Received two tops as a gift. Has lace a on neck and it does not stretch. The top is poorly down. Can’t get it over head. No tags on item as to size or type of fabric or how to wash. It looks like a triangle and no shape. Never seen anything so poorly made.
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hey Kat
Sorry for your loss and experience.
No argument that lots of stuff on wish is poor quality items.
Haydn
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Have brought from wish and will not.saw a item that said 3 dollars.The item was a sofa cover.The cover was the only thing added.Tax is not that much.why would the Shipping and tax add up to 22.00 ?Especially for something that’s 3.00
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hey Aurora
not sure what happened in your case.
but I assume it is a trick from merchant to attract customers by using a low price, but adding expensive shipping cost to whole order.
Haydn
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Hello,
I have recently had my account frozen by WISH.COM for supposedly repeated offenses of violating their refund policies.
I asked for proof and their response is that they can not tell me right now. I have copies of all e-mails back and forth. WISH.COM has cut me off because I was responding when ever I got the automated e-mail saying that my item is now past due and I should apply for a refund.
I have never scammed an item that was received on time and have declared so when an item did arrive as promised.
I have never tried to “blackmail” them in any way, all I ever did was respond to them.
I still have many many items outstanding and I am no longer getting my e-mails or even phone calls replied to.
I need help to recover lost funds that WISH.COM has stolen.
Thank you,
Mr. J.Labelle
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hey Jared
sorry for your experience.
But as far as I know, there’s nothing you can do about it.
because you can not get cheap items + fast shipment + great customers service at same time.
I suggest you to get rid of the APP and report your case to your bank.
Haydn
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I had bought a Pack of 2 party lights, or so I thought it was a pack of 2. My friend had bought a party light from wish and the product was great so I thought I’d give it a try. I find a great deal, the picture says ” x2 ” and shows 2 of the party lights for $16.. one small party light generally costs $8 on the site. When the mail comes in I only received one. I reached out to the seller and their response was “the product description states the package included 1x crystal magic ball. However, I noticed that the photo and messaging on the product listing creates confusion and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.” Thoughts?
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hey Josettex
I am sorry for your loss. You can always open a dispute on the order and get your money back.
there are barely very few punishment for wish sellers, so basically they can do anything they want.
this is why customers should run away from the APP.
Haydn
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I have bought many items from wish and most did not arrive when they stated they would, I was offered a refund and I got my money back for most of the items, however now I have been blocked from the app and have no idea if the items I still haven’t been refunded for are going to come or if I just lost my money.
Why do they offer to refund the money and then block you. I haven’t received the items that I was refunded for and in most cases tried to order a similar item from a different seller.
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Why do they offer to refund the money and then block you？
because they have to refund your money because they have no idea if the item was delivered or not, or whether the order will be delivered (or not). So to stop more angry customer rolling in their customer service system, they have to refund you money.
Why you are blocked from the APP?
because obviously now they assumed you are trying to Blackmail the APP (getting free merchandises).
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I’m selling on wish as a merchant. Today they freeze my unpaid balance more than USD 7,000 with unclear reason. I got almost 5 stars of my products and shipping time.
Tried to call their office but no answer. Emailing them also no reply.
Has been reported this site today to the FBI.
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Wish.com will not let you sign up to sell goods on their website if you are non-Chinese. I have pretended to be a Chinese company and was able to open up 2 accounts. For my U.S. account, they won’t let me sign up.
Kind of weird!
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wow, that’s some real weird sutff
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I ordered a pair of sneekers and ot no conformation or any contact from them although they did charge my credit card. I looked today and the amount was credited back. I look on their site and it says my acc has problems to show a screenshot of a statement with the charges on it and also a valid email address. I will of course not be sending either sounds to much like scamming to me
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I have had a terrible experience with wish. With my last order. Previously it was hit or miss. Some things were great some not so much. This time I have only recieved 3 of the 30 items I ordered in 3 months and Wish refuses to refund my money because according to their records the items were shipped. I filed a complaint with the BBB. What shocked me was that despite the numerous complaints and poor reviews from Wish customers, they still maintain an A+ Rating.
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well, when it comes to online shopping, do we really can believe Rating…
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Hi Haydn,
I’d been using Wish for about a year, purchasing in total about 200 items from €1 – €250. Initially I was really impressed, and considered the massive degree of price mark up through Western suppliers for the same items. I admit I did pick up some real bargains in my opinion. Yes, you have to be very careful with sizes going at least 2+ sizes up (I would be a large build). True, some items take a couple of weeks, others up to 3-4 months. This is declared, but what is curious is why is there such a wide discrepancy. However, over the last 6 months nearly half the items I brought never materialised. But, the last straw was when I was sent a child’s purse instead of an exercise machine ???? I ordered a pair of winter shoes which never came, they issued a refund and recommended another seller with the same item, and those never arrived either. On another occasion I refused a refund requesting another item be sent instead, they agreed but that never came either. My fear is that Wish, or the trader had held onto my money for several months. Wish have no issue in offering a full refund, but it’s the time and inconvenience that’s the issue. I don’t mind waiting if I knew an item that was actually coming. But to wait 3-4 months to find the thing never even made it out of China is bang out of order. Frankly, I’m surprised the Chinese government isn’t taking the issue more seriously since their international reputation as a consumer trading country must be drawn into question at this stage. I wondered whether it was clever pricing strategy since you’ll always find the same item on Wish with various prices, and someone’s testing the perceived value of items in the Western world through website activity, purchasing & saved items. A conspiracy theorist might ask how many false sales do you have to make before you can make a tidy income from the accumulated interest ? Just a posited theory, otherwise Wish seriously need to do a better job at validating their sellers, or the Chinese Postal Service has a lot of explaining to do. It is a shame, they started really well but have fallen just as quickly.
Regards,
Jerry
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hey Jerry
thanks for your sharing, a clarification here:
Wish is not a chinese company, it is based in CA, USA. The sellers on this APP are from china. which means Chinese governments have very few to do with this company.
And Wish does need to control and manage the whole business in better way.
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I think this is a place where most of the Chinese sellers off load their unwanted items. Most of the time they do not send what you want but similar, which is not what you ordered. I am sure they do this in the hope you will not try to get a refund and therefore they keep the money. In the last 6 months I have ordered about 15 items but only received 4 out of those that were correct – 4 were incorrect and still waiting for 7 more to arrive – 2 of which are past their delivery date, but not hopeful !! A total waste of time, effort and money!! Better to go to Amazon or Ebay … at least it is regulated!!
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Thanks for the clarification. In addition I think time of year is a relevant factor. The last couple of months, things have arrived very promptly. But around the lead up to Christmas – no so good. The main issue seems to lie with electronic goods, and these may be more likely to be inspected by customs etc. I have regular refunds when stuff doesn’t turn up, so I guess I’m more accustomed to the risk.
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Wish is a rip off ordered a ring nov2017 was to be here before Christmas sent them a message dec 26th did not arrive they said will be delivered late so every 2 weeks send a message were is the ring same thing shipment running late the tracker still says it is route so last week sent message just refund my 6 dollars hot this message back sorry it is past our 30 money back guarantee hope they like the 6 dollars last dime i will spend there
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I have ordered a GTX 1080ti graphics card. Just after shipment they changed the description of the item to a power cable. They also did the same with a Mobile Phone and a laptop. Luckily I took screen shots of the order/s before they changed them. This sort of thing must be against Trade laws, but I’m not sure how or where to take any legal action.
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Horrendous experience and no refund! I don’t want a refund any longer. I want a class action lawsuit to shit them down from scamming thousands upon thousands of people.
I paid express shipping…products came months later and were impossible to track despite their supposed “tracking” system which never really tells you where your product is.
Jeans arrived first way too tight despite the fact I ordered sizes up to make sure they fit. They were horrible quality, smelled like chemicals and all four button holes to close the jeans were completely sewn shut!
Well at least they were “sort of” what I ordered. The gray camouflage fur winter coat I ordered arrived as a completely different jacket. I’m a small but ordered a large to be sure. The coat that came was black (not gray camouflage) with a small hood (pic showed a huge hood), the material was thin and not warm, nothing to close the jacket. There was one string to tie it on one side, none on the other, and the worst…the sleeves came just past my elbow althovthe rest of the coat was plenty big! The pic showed the sleeves past the models wrist onto her hand. Customer service was NON existent. Only way was thru their chat. When they finally responded via email where you click on a web link, I could read the response once to never open again since they “closed” the case refusing refund as they had contacted the seller and I got my product!
Horrendous scam site all around….
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