Big claim from me, but I use Lazada a lot and I’ve experienced this more than just a few times and I think I know what’s going on behind the scenes at the online retailer.

Small orders, the ones that are PHP 1,000 and below, are the most susceptible to fraud on the online shopping destination. And this might not just be limited to just Lazada and probably also happens in Shopee, but there is a huge issue with sellers sending us shoppers the wrong item and putting the onus on us to have the time, the money, and the patience to fill in the required return forms, wait the two days for confirmation, and get our money back.

Except we really don’t get our money back – it lands on the Lazada Wallet, which conveniently you’d have to use on Lazada, instead of an actual refund where you can go elsewhere and spend the money there.

Recently, I was the “victim” of one of these AGAIN. When I ordered a “Mini HDMI to HDMI Cable,” to use on my new portable monitor with Mini HDMI inputs only. What I got was a Micro HDMI to HDMI cable, and obviously it won’t fit because Mini and Micro are completely different size ports.

Naturally you’d think the seller just made a mistake, but if you look at the package it came with, it clearly says MINI HDMI. The ad on the Lazada page also clearly says MINI HDMI. Yet I got the wrong cable. Was it by mistake or deliberate?

Sadly, there was no receipt this time like the last fraud I caught so you can argue that this time it was a legitimate mistake. But now, I have to do the grunt work of filling out the forms, putting this into a package, driving to LBC, taking a good chunk of my day, just to get a PHP 126 refund?

It seems to me, that sellers like these are just preying on these small orders so busy people like us will not find the time of day to complain and return a PHP 126 item. Put all those PHP 126 items together and you’ve made a huge chunk of change for yourself – all while making customers suffer.

And this is not just baseless conjecture – someone else had already reviewed the product and got the same wrong item like I did. This is not just one random mistake, it happened to at least two people now. And there’s no doubt they also found that taking a trip to LBC to start the refund process is too much to ask for out of our busy day.

Incidentally, all of the large ticket items I’ve bought on Lazada (yes I’ve spent 6 digits on Lazada on total so far) have always been correct. Because people will surely ask for a refund if they get the wrong item that cost them a lot of money.

How do we fix this? Its clear we need to hold the accuracy of orders to a higher standard. With the current system in place, there is way too little repercussions to the seller for delivering the wrong item. More care needs to be taken, so I suggest punishing them by refunding the customer but the customer also keeps the item after the usual Lazada confirmation / investigation. (Lazada needs to confirm that the buyer isn’t making a false claim.)

I want the system to punish the seller, so that they make sure to send the correct item next time or face losing money and the item they sold. At least maybe for orders PHP 1,000 or below. This makes the seller think twice about sending wrong items deliberately but also doesn’t punish huge ticket orders if a seller sends the wrong item by mistake.

Not sure if something like that can actually be implemented realistically but everytime I get an item like this, I seriously think about why I’m shopping in Lazada in the first place.