THEY thought they would save more if they placed orders for the slippers through an online spree.

But more than a year later, not a single pair of flip-flops – from Brazilian footwear brand Havaianas – has been delivered to the over 200 online shoppers.

Yes, it’s another online shopping spree gone wrong.

This time, the spree participants claim that the organiser, who is believed to have received over $10,000 worth of orders, blamed the delay on shipping problems.

Fed up, several of them filed police reports against the 21-year-old organiser. So far, 48 police reports have been lodged.

The police are investigating.

The spree organiser is also being flamed on online forums and blogs. When contacted several times by The New Paper, she said she did not want to be “involved” and asked not to be identified.

She claimed, in an e-mail sent to her customers late last year, that she had also been cheated and had also made a police report. A police spokesman confirmed the report.

In an online spree, the middleman hooks up with an overseas supplier, and then attracts potential buyers with discounts. Shoppers join sprees to save on shipping costs. But there have been reported cases of sprees in which the goods never get delivered.

Last month, The New Paper reported that over 40 police reports were lodged against a 17-year-old spree organiser, Naomi Kurashige, for failing to deliver their orders.She claimed she wired $35,000 to a UK supplier, but both he and the money went missing.

Like Naomi, the spree organiser for the Havaianas slippers had a good reputation. She had organised a number of successful sprees and received positive feedback.

In February last year, she advertised the Havaianas spree on four different online spree communities.

Over 200 shoppers placed more than 600 orders for flip-flops.  After transferring the money to the organiser, they claimed they were told that their orders would arrive in two months – in April.

One shopper, student Yvonne Tan, 22, said: “Last year, Havaianas flip-flops were quite hot, so her spree naturally attracted a lot of us since the prices were much lower than the retail prices.”

For the spree, shoppers could order slippers that cost $16 to $35 a pair compared to about $30 to $50 a pair in shops. Buyers claimed that though the organiser initially capped orders at 150 pairs of slippers in total, she later raised it because of the unexpected influx of orders. Miss Tan said: “She claimed to be getting them straight from the wholesaler from Brazil, so none of us smelled anything fishy.”

Things appeared to go smoothly at first.

Indeed, after the spree closed, the organiser kept her customers regularly updated via mass e-mail messages on the status of their orders. Initially, the e-mail messages, which included updates on the shipping situation and extra charges, came as often as once a week.

Over time, the e-mail messages merely echoed the earlier notes.

Customers informed

Student Denise Lai, 21, said: “She kept saying the supplier had trouble shipping the supplies over, or that there were too many orders. But each time, there was no confirmation of our orders.”

Later, the e-mails became less frequent and by last October, they stopped.
Shoppers tried to contact the organiser in vain.

One spree participant, Miss Amanda Koh, even turned up at the organiser’s home in January, but claimed she got a cold shoulder from the latter’s mother.

Said the 21-year-old operations coordinator: “Her mother said straight to my face was it wasn’t her problem, and that we could make police reports, but all our efforts would come to nothing.”

On Dec 5 last year, the organiser sent a final e-mail to the shoppers claiming she herself had been cheated, and that she had made a police report against the supplier.

The organiser wrote in the e-mail: “I understand that all you guys want is just your money back.

“I, too, transferred my own money to order the discounted slippers for my family and friends.

“That’s the whole point when I opened the spree anyway. But suay suay kena scammed (sic).”

She also advised her customers to steer clear of online shopping. But her customers remain livid.

Miss Lai said: “If she was really cheated of her money, there’ll be some proof she can show us, like an invoice or a receipt.

“She didn’t send us any proof of her police report either. How do we know she’s telling the truth?”

The organiser said she would give partial refunds, but that she could do it only in June this year after settling her school fees.

She said in the same e-mail: “I’ll fork out my own money and return 25 per cent of the total amount to decrease your damages.”

Ms Koh is not convinced.

“It’s not about the slippers anymore. I paid only $36 for my orders,” she said.

“I know of shoppers who have given up chasing her because they got tired and just want to let it go.”

She added: “I’ll understand if she (proves to) me she’s really a victim. It’s just that she doesn’t reply or provide any details.

“We trusted her and paid her money. We would expect her to be responsible as a spree organiser.”

>> Spree organisers get scammed too

This article was first published in The New Paper.