Good service / bad payment portal from FirstShop

DrJohnZoidberg

DrJohnZoidberg

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Just thought I'd comment on the quick service from FirstShop today.

They don't have any secure means to pay by credit card so I used their live chat to find out if I could EFT. Henry quickly answered my questions and sent through EFT details immediately to me.

It's a shame they actually allow credit card payments over an unsecured connection but at least there is somebody on the other side to help out.

If FirstShop is reading this please process CC payments securely, for the love of god this isn't the 1990s anymore.

+1/-1 to Firstshop :D
 
Yeah, I chatted to Henry earlier this week via the live chat service, he was pretty quick to respond. They said that ETA would be 3 to 5 days, tomorrow is the 5th day.

One thing which looks slightly fishy though is if you go onto hello peter and view the compliments, that there will be a few posts around a certain time all in quick succession and all those posts will be by users who have only made 1 post. All of these posts would be complimenting just one person at FirstShop so it does appear to be a setup. I have no way of proving that it is the same person making the comments which sound similar to other comments made in that same time period (within 20 minutes of each other), so it will remain an amateur theory for now.

Well this seems to be confirmed, here are some of the links that were posted for FirstShop compliments this morning that are now gone:

http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/good-service-1419608
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/good-service-1419612
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-excellence-1414701
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-guranteed-1419598
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-provided-1419650
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/the-best-1419669

All of these posts were recommending a "Shenaaz Essop"...
 
This happens more often than you would think, companies using Hellopeter.com to fraudulently promote themselves.
 
Bighit said:
Yeah, I chatted to Henry earlier this week via the live chat service, he was pretty quick to respond. They said that ETA would be 3 to 5 days, tomorrow is the 5th day.

One thing which looks slightly fishy though is if you go onto hello peter and view the compliments, that there will be a few posts around a certain time all in quick succession and all those posts will be by users who have only made 1 post. All of these posts would be complimenting just one person at FirstShop so it does appear to be a setup. I have no way of proving that it is the same person making the comments which sound similar to other comments made in that same time period (within 20 minutes of each other), so it will remain an amateur theory for now.

Well this seems to be confirmed, here are some of the links that were posted for FirstShop compliments this morning that are now gone:

http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/good-service-1419608
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/good-service-1419612
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-excellence-1414701
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-guranteed-1419598
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-provided-1419650
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/the-best-1419669

All of these posts were recommending a "Shenaaz Essop"...
Click to expand...

Our company ordered some stuff from the last month and delivery was okay, not the fastest but some of their pricing is very good.

Also I wouldn't read too much into HelloPeter.

Peter%20Griffin%20Football%20head.png
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Our company ordered some stuff from the last month and delivery was okay, not the fastest but some of their pricing is very good.

Also I wouldn't read too much into HelloPeter.

Peter%20Griffin%20Football%20head.png
Click to expand...

Yes, I've discovered the HelloPeter fraud thing now :-) I usually only read HelloPeter compliments. In any event, their pricing is very good, delivery is slow but I guess something has to give for the cheap products they sell. Would I buy from them in the future again? Probably.
 
i told them about this issue about 6 months ago, and they said they would look into it. Obviously they don't care about their customers security, or this would have been fixed by now.
btw, you can force it to use https, by changing the url to https. so they have the means to do it, just does not seem like they know how to get it to link from non-secure to secure.
 
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lucifir said:
i told them about this issue about 6 months ago, and they said they would look into it. Obviously they don't care about their customers security, or this would have been fixed by now.
btw, you can orce it to use https, by changing the url to https. so they have the means to do it, just does not seem like they know how to get it to link from non-secure to secure.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I checked now and my HTTPS Everywhere Chrome extension was disabled. Thought it was on which would have automatically done this for me.

Thanks again for the heads up though.
 
I ordered 2 items from them this morning, without even knowing of this thread. lol.

I brought up the unsecured payment page, and Henry also said to just force the https on it. Still didnt care much for it.

Will see when my stock arrives. Apparently its 1-2 working days.
 
Update,

Got my stock from them in 3 days. Quite happy with them IMO
 
I tried to buy a Samsung SSD from them in Dec. It was not one of the best experiences I have ever had. Can't remember the issue anymore but I do know that it was a mission to get my money back. I can also remember that while I was struggling to get my order processed, I phone and they had a huge party going on which resulted in them not really worrying about anything other than the booze they were consuming.

After that though, it just went downhill. Won't touch them again.
 
FirstShop Website Updates

Hi All

Thanks very much for the constructive comments, we really appreciate the feedback. I would like to take this opportunity to inform you of some of our updates and positive changes we have made to the website, addressing some of your concerns.

1) Since August we have implemented a fully secure credit card payment portal (https). We also accept payments from Mastercard, Visa, Instant EFT, PayFast, PayU and Bitcoin
2) We have a more efficient delivery service and have worked with our couriers to make sure deliveries happen when we say they will happen.
3) The posts on Hello Peter are from genuine consumers and clients and we try our best to address each and every comment on the portal.
4) We now have a much more user friendly search tool allowing clients to easily find the products they are looking for.
5) We have updated our EFT portal, allowing instant EFT's to be processed so that payments via EFT go through immediately.

We are continuously improving the site and listening to our consumers to try and make the shopping experience on FirstShop a memorable and pleasant experience.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, we value you comment and we need them in order to improve.

Please don't hesitate to contact us Mon - Fri on 0800 390 021 or on [email protected]
 
Bighit said:
One thing which looks slightly fishy though is if you go onto hello peter and view the compliments, that there will be a few posts around a certain time all in quick succession and all those posts will be by users who have only made 1 post. All of these posts would be complimenting just one person at FirstShop so it does appear to be a setup.

Well this seems to be confirmed, here are some of the links that were posted for FirstShop compliments this morning that are now gone:

http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/good-service-1419608
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/good-service-1419612
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-excellence-1414701
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-guranteed-1419598
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/service-provided-1419650
http://hellopeter.com/firstshop/compliments/the-best-1419669

All of these posts were recommending a "Shenaaz Essop"...
Click to expand...

Firstshop said:
3) The posts on Hello Peter are from genuine consumers and clients and we try our best to address each and every comment on the portal.
Click to expand...

Let's not kid ourselves here. I came across 6 different posts, each posted by a first time hello peter user, all recommending the same employee, all with almost identical wording, all posted within a 15 minute time frame.
 
Firstshop said:
Hi All

Thanks very much for the constructive comments, we really appreciate the feedback. I would like to take this opportunity to inform you of some of our updates and positive changes we have made to the website, addressing some of your concerns.

1) Since August we have implemented a fully secure credit card payment portal (https). We also accept payments from Mastercard, Visa, Instant EFT, PayFast, PayU and Bitcoin
2) We have a more efficient delivery service and have worked with our couriers to make sure deliveries happen when we say they will happen.
3) The posts on Hello Peter are from genuine consumers and clients and we try our best to address each and every comment on the portal.
4) We now have a much more user friendly search tool allowing clients to easily find the products they are looking for.
5) We have updated our EFT portal, allowing instant EFT's to be processed so that payments via EFT go through immediately.

We are continuously improving the site and listening to our consumers to try and make the shopping experience on FirstShop a memorable and pleasant experience.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, we value you comment and we need them in order to improve.

Please don't hesitate to contact us Mon - Fri on 0800 390 021 or on [email protected]
Click to expand...
Dear Firstshop. Why do you list items on your site as "in stock" when they are not in stock?
Case in point : http://www.firstshop.co.za/lg-d2342p-pn-3d-led-D2342P-PN-p-23813
 
R13... said:
I had that happen to me and they even told me on email the item was in the warehouse and then it went to being discontinued by the supplier lol.
Click to expand...

They responded with: We don't have stock of this item but here is something similar for more than double the price :erm:. Yet they continue to list it on their site as "in stock"!? bait and switch

will be steering clear of them...
 
Park@82 said:
They responded with: We don't have stock of this item but here is something similar for more than double the price :erm:. Yet they continue to list it on their site as "in stock"!? bait and switch

will be steering clear of them...
Click to expand...

Will also be staying clear from them. Just clicked on the link still shows stock available 1 unit - noticed the price increases upon checkout.... its unacceptable for a company to act like this to lure unsuspecting victims to purchase the item only to be told screen damaged / sorry we don't have stock / discontinued . It's the 21 St century have a live system in place with let's say a notice prices last updated on with time with a notice if it's NEW / DEMO / Discounted / Faulty
 
I'd avoid these guys. The owner, rep or whoever handles their sales on bidorbuy had the audacity to give me a negative rating for being "impatient" in retaliation for a negative rating on them for a late delivery.
 
Thanks for the warning. I was about to place my first order then I saw this thread - close shave.
 
We are aware of the issues mentioned in this forum and we are terribly sorry for the inconvenience this causes. Our system is not live and suffers from a 24 hour delay. We are in the late stages of development of our new back-end that would allow a 15 min update as opposed to the current 24 hour delayed view.
This affects a very small percentage of our sales, but we do understand that it is very frustrating for you when this happens. Imagine the frustration on our side too, because we firstly loose or put the sale at risk and secondly have to go through the motions of refunding our customers. While the situation is frustrating for you it is also counterproductive for us. This is why this issue has become a priority for us to resolve.
Please accept our apologies for the frustrating you but this will soon be a problem of the past.
 
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