If it seems too good to be true!

If it seems too good to be true, it usually is!

Most of you will have heard of this saying, but how many of us forget about it when we see a bargain?

Just recently, whilst looking through Facebook, I saw an advert for an amazing piece of exercise equipment. A folding walking pad. This piece of kit was available at 60% off, and end of year sale price, at a cost of £54, including free shipping!

Now I have to confess, I absolutely loved the piece of equipment. I could see it would be absolutely perfect for me. The walking pad as it is called, folds up in half for easy storage. It was remote control and could go at speeds up to 9.94 miles per hour! It was battery charged, so you could set it up anywhere. I thought it would be great for walking in front of the TV at night, to burn off some calories.

Then my sensible side kicked in. This piece of equipment seemed very cheap, considering what it could do, and comparing it against other running machines on the market. You only have to have a quick look on Amazon for example, and see that some of the more basic, clunky models are more expensive.

I looked at some of the comments from other Facebook users. It seems that where ever you were in the world, it would be shipped for free! That made me very suspicious. I could perhaps understand if they had a supply of them in the UK from China. They may be able to afford free shipping, but with no country having to pay to ship – that wasn’t right. I’ve posted parcels in the UK. They were expensive enough, never alone abroad!

I then thought I would google the product. The machine does exist, or at least there is a company who is selling one similar. This one is made by Xiamomi Youpin and is on offer at 45% off by another store online. Current selling price is £328. It looks exactly the same, and the videos are very similar. This is a bit different to the price being offered by this other company.

I’m now even more suspicious so I researched the company. A website called Scamadvisor.com gave a warning out about the website. It had only been active 8 days. It stated that the website was probably in USA but the company based in China. I then looked at Companies house and saw that the company was owned by a parent company that had many more companies underneath it. Most had closed very quickly.

I next decided to look for reviews on some of these companies. All the comments I saw reported that people had ordered goods but never received them. They also never received their money back.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not naive enough to pretend that there are not good copies of things coming out of China that you can pick up at a fraction of the price. Of course you can, but I would still expect there to be a reputable company behind it selling the product. Surely there would be other products for sale by them, which you could gauge customer satisfaction. This didn’t seem to be the case with this company.

What was interesting about the online store I was looking at, was that it didn’t take Paypal, just debit or credit cards. I never buy from companies I don’t know, if I can’t use Paypal as I worry about passing my financial details on. This is a perfect example of why!

I messaged the company via Facebook to ask if there were any customer reviews I could see? No answer, so I messaged via Messenger, to ask if anyone had yet received their product, and if so, was there any reviews I could see. I am still waiting for a response.

Since then, the online store has closed. Now that could be because they have sold out of this amazing product.

The advert has been shown 93.8k times. 623 people have shared the post, so many more may have seen it. There are hundreds of comments from potential customers. Questions range from the speed, shipping and price for 2, which was further discounted. It would seem that for the last day or 2, none of the comments have now been responded to.

From the comments, a lot of people really like the product. And why not. It is a brilliant product. I myself really love it. But does this particular company really exist and are they genuinely selling the product they are advertising? Sadly, I wonder how many of the 93.8k bought it, and how many of them will actually receive it?

I have purposely not named the company I have been looking into on here, as I am only talking from my own research and suspicions. I hope for any potential customers that this is a genuine site and in 6-9 days they will receive their walking pad and be very happy with it.

If you are in the market for one of these machines, I would personally recommend looking at companies selling it. It seems the genuine price is about $300-$440. I still think it is an amazing product.

When I have saved up, I would like to buy one of these myself. Yes it would have been great to have bought it for only £54. But as I said, if it looks too good to be true, it usually is.

I am really hoping I have been proved wrong, so if anyone knows of anyone who successfully bought this product at that price, please let me know. I will be kicking myself for not snapping it up then!

So next time you see an amazing offer, just think before rushing in. Do your research, and if you have any doubts, don’t go ahead. You could be saving yourself a lot more money in the long run! If you get a genuine bargain then great. I always like to be proved wrong!

Happy shopping.