Be Aware!! Don't buy from SALES FLOOR Solutions Limited

[yigalab]

Unfortunately I am a victim of a fraud and malicious conspiracy of this questionable store.
This store seems to have ordinary Facebook page without any bad reviews:
https://www.facebook.com/SALES-FLOOR-solutions-limited-513135858832519/?fref=ts
The company is based in Crewkerne, England.
I saw a post in one of my groups with their email address: salesfloorsolutionsltd@gmail.com
I wrote to this email, showing interest in buying iPhone 6s 64gb.
Someone named Brian Best replied to me and claimed that the price is 450$ + 50$ shipment to Israel.
Brian wrote that their iPhones are brand new, original unlocked and SimFree. He said that they buy in large quantity directly from the manufacturers and they sell at a net value price to customers worldwide. He also said that they have branches in Ireland and West Africa.
Brian asked me to transfer the money to their head of operations, Andrew Jide, in West Africa. He said that he is in charge of all shipments through DHL.
After I transfer the money he told me that there was problem shipping with DHL so they picked another company named "Horizon Courier Services". He said that the phone I ordered was shipped with some other goods. He also gave me a tracking number so I can monitor my package at the courier web site.
At the socond day I saw that the courier passed through Egypt and the package is held in Egypt customs.
I asked Brian for the meaning of this and after a while he told me that I must pay 700$ more to release the parcel from the Egyptian customs and that it is highly refundable (I wonder how...).
At that time I realized that i was fooled and probably the whole thing is nothing but a scam.
I asked Brian to cancel the deal immediately and send me my money back but he refused, claiming that he cannot do this with the package in held.
The bottom line is I unfortunately lost my 500$.

You can see the tracking info in this web site http://horizoncouservices.com/index.php with this tracking number 1454936429

I wonder what I can do. I'll appreciate any advice.

 

[Mlrollin91]

How did you transfer the money? What company? Was it a wire transfer, or did you use PayPal?

 

[timeconsumer]

A brand new iPhone 6S 64GB that's unlocked and sim free for $450? Those retail for $749. I'm not trying to be rude but a phone that's almost $300 off of retail... that should've been a red flag that it was a scam.

That said, you mention you transferred money. How was this done? If it's through something such as PayPal you may be able to file a claim with them. Otherwise I'm not sure.

 

[yigalab]

How did you transfer the money? What company? Was it a wire transfer, or did you use PayPal?

Well, this was my main mistake... he told me that the only way to transfer the money is to use "MoneyGram" service which is basically like making a deposit to someone's account. There is no way to receive the money back :-(
[doublepost=1456216434][/doublepost]

A brand new iPhone 6S 64GB that's unlocked and sim free for $450? Those retail for $749. I'm not trying to be rude but a phone that's almost $300 off of retail... that should've been a red flag that it was a scam.

That said, you mention you transferred money. How was this done? If it's through something such as PayPal you may be able to file a claim with them. Otherwise I'm not sure.

Yeah i know. My stupidity.

 

[timeconsumer]

Well, this was my main mistake... he told me that the only way to transfer the money is to use "MoneyGram" service which is basically like making a deposit to someone's account. There is no way to receive the money back :-(
[doublepost=1456216434][/doublepost]

Yeah i know. My stupidity.

Sorry to hear that

I know in the US you can file with the BBB, I'm not sure if there's something similar in the UK but perhaps somebody here would know.

 

[yigalab]

I reported the UK police department that deal with such fraud

 

[Newtons Apple]

This just smelled wrong from the beginning. Paying for anything via Moneygram/Western Union is a red flag.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[maflynn]

The old adage "if its too good to be true then it probably is", fits here. OP, too bad on what you endured, hopefully you've learned from it.

 

[yigalab]

Surely!!
The thread meant for other people not to fall in same scam.

 

[Givmeabrek]

Wow, sorry to hear about this. Pretty scary stuff.

Some serious warnings here:
Buying direct from the manufacturer? Apple only sells to authorized dealers and end users.
Sending cash directly to Africa?? I don't think so...

It's good that this is posted. Let this be a warning to all.

 

[0928001]

This is unfortunate. Although I agree with everyone's responses here regarding all the red flags, some people aren't aware these scams actually exist until it happens to them. I'm very sorry, and I hope something good comes out of it for you.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Well, this was my main mistake... he told me that the only way to transfer the money is to use "MoneyGram" service which is basically like making a deposit to someone's account. There is no way to receive the money back :-(
[doublepost=1456216434][/doublepost]

Yeah i know. My stupidity.

I would contact your bank. You might be able to cancel the transaction, like canceling a check.

 

[maflynn]

Surely!!
The thread meant for other people not to fall in same scam.

Perhaps but there were enough red flags, I'm not sure a thread about it will do much more if those red flags were not heeded.

Good luck on hopefully recovering your funds.

 

[noobinator]

So many red flags I don't know where to begin! It does suck what they did to you but at least you learned from your mistakes.

 

[btbam91]

Wow OP. This one is on you it seems.

 

[melman101]

Wow, according to that tracking information, there is a lot of stuff in that box, including 3 65-inch 4K televisions.

Sorry OP :-(

 

[asharahmed]

Wait. Is this courier legit? Doesn't seem so because no courier I've seen shows what's actually inside the box, just the weight and stuff. In any case, sorry man, consider it a lesson learned

 

[ATC]

The package indicates the following contents:

6x Apple iphone 6s 64gb
2x 5 Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge 64gb
3x Samsung 65-inch UN65HU9000F curved new 4k UHD television

Paying the extra $700 for all that is a heck of a deal.

 

[jetsam]

It looks like the "courier" is a fake company. A "whois" on that domain shows the site was created on August 15, 2015 with the actual owner name hidden. What legitimate company hides their contact information?

Furthermore, looking at the Horizon Courier site, the only contact information is an email address.

 

[ActionableMango]

In my opinion that courier website is not real. What kind of international courier business has no address or phone number? How the hell would you even do business with them? They also have typos in the website, they accidentally call themselves "West Wide Shipping" in a couple of places, and if you enter a number other than OP's consignment number, it exposes a database error.

It's probably a front to give an excuse for why the package hadn't shown up, and to attempt to extort an additional $700.

 

[yigalab]

Guys, thanks for your sympathy and concern. I appreciate that a lot.
The research indeed shows that the courier company must be faked and this whole thing is a big conspiracy of scam.
Suppose I was too blinded for this so called bargain, that unfortunately i ignored all the red flags, as you mentioned.
Anyway, I've learned my lesson in very embarrassing way…
I believe that "SALES FLOOR Solution Ltd" company has finished its "sales" career because when people will search on Google to see if there's any reviews on it, they will see the big warning which I've posted here.
What also bothers me is fact that this company is shown as ACTIVE for 5 years at "Endole UK company Insight" web site
http://www.endole.co.uk/company/07519472/sales-floor-solutions-limited. So we can't say that this is a faked company.

 

[lugworm]

Have you been living in a cave for the last five years ?
You really sent money to someone from west Africa via Western Union! Was he a Nigerian prince by any chance...that is the usual tale.
This is first instance I've heard of anyone actually falling for one of these scams !!

This is a wind up, surely.

Check out the Scambusters website for details of how to deal with these crooks.

 

[Pez555]

Scary how people still fall for this type of thing. Hope you get it sorted.

 

[12vElectronics]

You really thought sending a Money Gram to West Africa was a good idea?

 

[yigalab]

Guys, I think that I already admitted my stupidity. There's no need to punch me there anymore.
But no one say anything about the company...
I mean, look at their FB page and their references in other web sites.
They seem to be real. They mention fixed address and phone number.
What if someone goes there? What would he find?
As I said, I already reported them to the UK police, but since I'm not a UK citizen, I hardly believe that someone would bother to check them out for me.