Wish By Dani Carson

Wish: More Than What You Bargained For  

By Danielle Carson

Published December 4, 2017        

Deals and bargains, bargains and deals, no one pays much attention to the details except to the price cuts or the benefits to the customer. But what if a small detail could be peeling away hundreds of dollars without you ever knowing? In more than one incidence, a great price and a convenient sale can evolve into a mysterious charge here, a faulty product there, and then the epidemic of unawareness creeps up on buyers who simply wanted the opportunity to pay much less for a product than they would have anywhere else.

            Famously known for its low prices and convenience, Wish is a e-commerce company that started selling products in 2013 and in just a matter of two years, it had accumulated $2 billion in profit. Not only are their insanely affordable prices a catch, but also the availability of absolutely almost everything-from dog leashes, to handheld devices, to shoes and more- is much too tempting for any buyer who may “just-so-happen” to need a scarf for a particular outfit. But, as I’ve discovered and experienced, there is much more than meets the eye of the genie that we call Wish.


"You Never Have to Worry When You Shop On Wish!"

In an article published by Silicon Valley Editor of Tech Crunch, Connie Loizos, she recalled that co-founder of Wish, Peter Szulczweski confirmed that by November of their first year of selling products, Wish had already profited $500 million, simply because of the mass amounts of orders and small prices asked for any of their products. For example, instead of purchasing a $129.96 pair of Beats Solo2 Luxury Edition Headphones from QVC, I could buy a similar version for as low as $11 on Wish. I, myself, purchased from Wish because of the temptation of lower prices, but because of my experience, I decided to investigate further into the realm of this e-commerce phenomenon.

On March 9, 2016, I had purchased a women’s watch from the “Daily Deals” section of Wish, which allows you the opportunity to pay even lower prices for a limited time and pertaining to the given products I was to choose from. I received my order a few weeks later, which I approved of and admired greatly. However, (Date of 1^st email), I began to receive emails from an odd website, which I didn’t recognize, so I immediately marked the e-mails as read and never glanced back-although I should have. After receiving the third e-mail, I took a closer look and had realized that I had been charged $99.79 for a women’s luxury watch by the Luxury Retailer’s website. I knew something was wrong because I had only ever bought a watch from Wish, which I had done months prior to this e-mail. At that point, I had canceled my card immediately, but was still charged for the watch instead. That evening, I took some time to attempt to contact both Luxury Retailers and Wish about the issue that I had. That was when I had discovered that not only did Luxury Retailers not exist as a legitimate website, but that they had also charged me on two other accounts by the same amount of $99.79.

Because Wish was the only place that I had purchased a luxury watch, I attempted to contact Wish Customer Support to rectify the situation. When I I Instead, I was told by Wish customer support that they “could not return a refund” because their company was not the company on record that had made the transaction. In this way, Wish had legally evaded responsibility that they should’ve been held accountable for. However, I had investigated the store whom I had bought my first watch from, I noticed several red flags about the merchant named VitaStore. The details of which I have enclosed further along in the story.

On another occasion, Wish had directly been confronted about making another fraudulent charge for Samantha Beemer. "I had a pair of shoes in my cart, (note, they were not payed for). I went to check my bank account balance of day, and it said I had bought an item from wish for 30 dollars. I hadn't bought anything recently, so I went to look at my order history, and sure enough, it said I purchased them. My debit card was linked to my Wish account, but I HAD NOT payed for the shoes. Wish automatically payed for them." Thankfully, Samantha had caught the fraudulent charge before It had escalated to the point of becoming an entire month's bill being withdrawn without her knowledge, but many others have not been so lucky.

Fountain of Deals Or Stream of Scams?

Although the vast majority of Wish's reviews and ratings bring them the five-star reputation that many of their stores flaunt, there are also many accusations of low-quality items, shipping problems, and one common and increasingly problematic complaint: fraudulent charges. “While we did note a small number of negative Wish app reviews related to false charges, such as this one that mentioned “getting fraudulent charges” on a credit card after the customer used the Wish app, these reviews were only a small percentage," says a Wish representative on a blog concerning Wish's credibility and security on advisoryhq.com. However, on a complaint listed on wish.pissedconsumer.com, the author made it aware of how much of a problem the false charges are becoming when he stated that "you can simply google 'wish.com fraud' and see how many people have had this same issue." With the most significant issue referring to fraudulent merchants and mysterious charges to accounts that consumers had not made, you may begin to wonder who is regulating the Wish commerce to ensure that all merchants are doing their jobs correctly and efficiently.

This responsibility is in the hands of the Wish Fraud Specialist, whom Wish has applications for at the moment. I personally began to wonder how efficient the Wish staff had been working with efforts to contain the fraudulent charge issue when I noticed that VitaStore, the merchant responsible for my first watch purchase, was listed as "closed" on the Wish website. Located in the United Kingdom, it was also listed as a Health and Dietary Supplement Company. They had been notorious for never sending products, consumers never being able to reach the company for inquiries regarding their products, and of course, fraudulent charges. If the Fraud Specialist was doing their job, shouldn't they have noticed all of the evidence and complaints from other customers about the store? After questioning Wish about the issue, Wish declined to respond.

It's Your Wish.

"At first it was okay, but after my incident, I would not use the app again. Even though I got my money back, I do not want to take a chance with it. I do not recommend it." In an interview, Samantha Beemer emphasized how negatively she was affected by the Wish experience. Although thousands upon thousands of people will attest to loving the app and never having issues with it, the risk of something going wrong is always prominent, especially in an industry so new as e-commerce. Therefore, whatever you may Wish, always be careful what you ask for. You just may be biting off more than you can chew.