Reading time: 6 mins
9 December 2022
It's hard to believe that those cheap prices aren't elaborate Wish Scams. What is 'Wish anyway?
Wish is a popular online shopping platform with millions of customers worldwide operating from San Francisco. Their business model is allowing merchants to advertise their products directly. It's an online marketplace offers remarkable deals on clothing, electronics, and other products that make it a great bargain for savvy shoppers. However, some people have raised questions about whether wish is a scam or not. Some products are even given out for free!
The truth is, the company Wish does not have any hidden agenda. They offer low prices by connecting customers directly with merchants who are willing to give a good deal on the online marketplace. Wish does not manufacture their own products and thus, keep the costs down for shoppers.
You might be wondering why some items are scheduled to take more than 4-6 weeks to arrive. In most cases the items are shipped from overseas, which explains the long delivery date. The shipping costs are fairly cheap as well, as those items travel in bulk by shipping containers once enough orders have been processed.
Shopping on Wish is a bit of a Catch-22. While the company may be legitimate, its merchandise is another story. The majority of merchants are located in China, so counterfeit products are rampant.
Many shoppers get lured in by deals that seem too-good-to-be-true and it turns out they're right! Who knows if the £50 iPhone you find on the app is made by Apple or a factory pumping out knockoff products? The only way to know for sure is to order and receive them - which can take weeks or months, meaning you have no return policy if it's a fake.
Therefore, it's important to do your research before shopping and look into any product guarantee or return policy available before committing to an online purchase. Taking these precautions can help guarantee you don't get caught with 'fake' merchandise from Wish!
Simply put, it is a promotional technique used by wish to lure in new customers. That being said, the items are typically sold below cost by merchants looking to increase sales on wish or move excess inventory.
There are also issues of delivery date and quality. Wish does not oversee or guarantee the quality of the product you receive, as it is up to individual merchants. Delivery dates can also be unreliable and wish does not have any control over that either, so make sure you read reviews before purchasing something from wish.
In some cases it can take more than 1-2 months for an item to arrive at your doorstep, by which the product return policy expires, or the seller disappears from the market. Chinese authorities will simply not chase up individual sellers on behalf of an American Company.
In cases like these you can try to claim your money back and request a full refund from Wish. However, it's unlikely that they will absorb the cost of scam Chinese company.
Merchants will do anything to make their products appear high on the Wish website, including posting fake positive reviews to hide the negative reviews from credible purchases. This also includes fake product descriptions and imagery to make the product appear more appealing than it may be in reality.
In fact, majority of the products have the same copy-and-paste descriptions from other similar products, or reviews from other customers who purchased a similar product somewhere else. It's very challenging to find credible merchants and products on the Wish Website due to China's dismissive approach to copyright and intellectual property rights.
Intellectual property rights are not enforced in China because the government does not recognize world IPR's as legitimate. This makes it easy for companies to copy products and sell them at lower prices on wish, making wish a great place to get cheap items.
There is also the issue of materials and health and safety standards. Products on the Wish website are often made of inferior quality and cheapest materials compared to products from other countries. Similarly, there is no guarantee of health and safety standards being met or adhered to on Wish. As such, the Wish website is populated with a lot of cheap and fake products such like a smart watch, electronic devices or iPads which already feels like a big scam.
Tracking numbers are usually provided for wish orders. This means you can track your package as it is being shipped to you, however wish has no control over the actual shipment process so there are still chances of packages getting lost in transit or not even leaving their warehouses!
In most cases, the tracking numbers don't even work once they leave China's logistical system as other countries won't have the required systems to continue tracing the packet with a tracking number.
Additionally, some Wish merchants have a habit of disappearing without sending out products. There's no way to get a refund in such cases and wish does not have an effective system for tracking down the merchant or giving you your money back.
Shipping costs can also be very expensive. Wish ships internationally, so you may find yourself paying up to three or four times the item's original price in shipping charges, whilst also receiving their low quality products.
In conclusion, wish may be a good place to get some cheap items but it is definitely not without its risks. While wish offers a wide variety of products at discounted prices, customers should always take the time to read reviews and research the product before making a purchase. Additionally, be on the lookout for fake reviews and descriptions as well as suspiciously low shipping rates. Finally, always be aware that wish has limited control over delivery times and product quality which could easily result in delays or substandard goods.