THE BUDOL ART IS ALIVE.
Budol is the Filipino word for "con", "trickery" or "scam". It's real and alive. Moreover, it has gone digital and migrated in the Internet.
I was a fool for falling into one. I bought a BOSE bluetooth earphones from an advertisement in Facebook. The ad says that due to the pandemic their store closed and had gone bankrupt. They are selling their inventory for almost 80% off. There were no apprehensions on my part. The sponsored ad has a well-thought message. When I clicked the link in the ad, I went into their web site which I should say is totally professional looking. The site is clean and smart looking. There were no misspelled words nor any grammatical error that would flag you that there might be something wrong with the item being offered.
The order form that I filled-out looked okay. The bluetooth earphones cost 2,000 PHP. I thought to myself that this was a great deal. A few months back I bought a BOSE in-ear bluetooth sports headset for 12,999 PHP from the BOSE boutique in SM Aura Premiere mall in BGC (Bonifacio Global City) in Taguig City. The model offered in the site is quite the steal because I remembered that it cost around 10,000 PHP in the store.
In short, I fell for the trap!
A few days past and the item was delivered. It was on COD. After I paid for the delivery I was so excited to open the parcel. To my horror, the item looked like a toy! It was a FAKE BOSE product. It could not cost more that a couple of hundred of Pesos. My money gone with the wind!!!
THE ANATOMY OF A BUDOL.
Let's examine. If it was too good to be true, then it's a glittering BUDOL. For sure!
Have you come across sponsored posts in Facebook selling branded bags, shoes, watches, gadgets, t-shirts, etc. with sob stories like their warehouse was hit by the floods due to the recent typhoon; or they have gone bankrupt because of the closing of their store due to the pandemic; or their clients who have ordered in bulk was not able to pay up because the clients too had gone bankrupt? So, now they are offering the items in their inventory for an unbelievable discounted price.
Don't fall for it!
If indeed a company had gone bankrupt, all of their assets are consolidated and are most probably sold in its entirety. Definitely not in retail!
Do not believe the comments.
The Facebook sponsored ad had a lot of comments. Like there are satisfied customers who bought the items. They are made-up comments. Do not believe a word. If you are curious, got to the web site but do not buy anything. Save the URL of the store's web site. Check after a week if it's there. In my experience after I received the package and found out that the item was fake, I went back to the web site so I can call and make a complaint. You know what? The site isn't there anymore. Classic, right?
LEGIT ON-LINE STORES.
As most of us, we buy things on-line. Buy from legit on-line stores. How do we know if they were legitimate? Call the store. There should be contact information in the site. Even scrupulous web sites have those information posted. Call them or email them for their business registration number so you can check against the records of the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is to protect you and your hard-earned money.
If you do not want to do this checking, you can order at least something that's cheap and have it delivered to see if it was the real deal. Something like a trial-and-error for the store. If they were able to deliver the real thing then you can continue to purchase other things or those that would cost a lot of money. All I am saying is we should be vigilant in screening off those who are just conning us.
I already learned my lesson! How about you? Do you have any similar experience? Comment them here. I would love to talk about them so we can warn others in falling into these crazy and dirty traps!
Lifestylecheck101: do not give your trust so easily. Remember that trust should be earned!
No comments:
Post a Comment