Ladies and gentlemen,
I have been in conversation with swiftronics for a while on Skype. While as of right now I am not accusing her of anything, I must bring my suspicions to this forum.
FAST UPDATE: Scroll down for a conclusion! This is definitely not that person and very possibly a scammer!
The person I was talking on Skype is named Laura Gognon. She and her son Franklin (who is in charge of eBay business according to her) conduct this operation from their home at an address which she disclosed, but I will not show here.
Okay, so we hit it off well. She emails me the pricelist and the catalog. On that same PDF there was a short introduction first in which she claimed to be an Ontario (Canada) based company (which is, of course, fine). But then later on as I read through the document, a couple of things were interesting to me, mostly the grammar and spelling. For example, this was the first item in the "Drop- shipping and how it works?" header:
Our merchandise produces contracts and major commitments with different distributions, by we drop shipping the products we cannot fully handle, and produces less stress than auctioning each and one of them.
This sentence is poorly constructed, and it's not really the only one. There are numerous grammar errors throughout the document. The pricelist was a bit strange too, not really representative. When I confronted her about the grammar issues, she said that that's Canadian grammar. Well, I immediately knew that was nonsense, because I live close to Canada and have many Canadian friends. She later tried to explain how it was her son who wrote that and something along the lines that he's not the best with grammar. Her reply later also was this (on Skype):
and thank you alot about the Grammar concerns, I really don't pay much mind to the products lists as it's updated dayli which most customers like. (direct quote)Still a lot of errors. I'll give it a go, but I'll be cautious.
What was strange throughout her conversation with me, she referred to me as "son". She kept calling me that way, it was strange. And yes, I am sure of this.
Then she sent me the dropshipping sign up form, which was nicely designed with the swiftronicsinc logo in the top left. Professional, but could have easily been made or obtained from somewhere else. I sign up, and then she says how someone needs to read the application in order for it to be approved. The next day, I was approved.
What was interesting at this point is that they offer no website - or any other electronic way - to submit an order, it was only possible through phone and fax I believe. She claimed that the website will be up & running soon, which is strange way to start a business. But that's just my opinion.
Now something crossed my mind. Is she just representing herself as a company, but is really not related to it in any way? Let's check.
I conducted an address search of that address she gave me in the city where she lives. A house and name came up, but the name was not anything alike her name. Okay, this means nothing (for now).
But then this is what I did:
I go to my ebay account where I'm a fairly reputable member and message the person with the account
switftronicsinc. This "person" has the same logo, same address and everything as the dropshipping form she sent me and the same logo as the one she uses on her Skype account. I message this person with the question
"Could you just please confirm that you're associated with a person named Laura Gagnon and that your Skype username is swiftronicsinc?". Then I asked her on Skype to reply to my eBay message. She says something about her son managing that account. Okay. But this alleged "son" of hers answers the next day via eBay and what was the response? "
Im not". I was shocked to say the least.
Then I kept asking her to answer my eBay message and she kept saying how it may have been marked as spam because I did not order anything, which is bs. She also kept saying that she has no control over eBay messages and that eBay orders are out of her hand and that I need to conduct my communication with her son if I order through eBay. Then I kept saying that I did not want to order anything through eBay, but she kept repeating that it was her son and some "directors" that managed the whole thing on eBay. Again, I replied that I only asked for her name via eBay message. She says how she has no login details for eBay.
Then she started making up some bs excuse that the eBay message is not for wholesale and that that's the reason he did not reply. But then, I told her that he did reply and said he had no idea who she was. She kept repeating the same story I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Nearly obvious scam by now.
What she is essentially saying here is that her son doesn't know her name.
Finally, she said that I may have gotten a different eBay account that's not of her company. Yeah, right... not her company, but both happen to be in Ontario, Canada, both happen to have the same logo and be in the same business? Also copied the description from the eBay page in her product list word-for-word. At this time: LOL
Now as someone mentioned above,
lots of you googled the name and came up with the exact same store and some of you probably believed her! Especially one user who mentioned how there are examples - this being one of those - of trusted companies listing here in this forum. But don't feel bad, I believed her as well at first. This company on eBay really is reputable with nearly 1000 feedbacks.
Then she kind of started accusing me of playing detective, even though when I asked her for feedback from her buyers back when I first contacted her she said "you need to conduct your own research, son".
UPDATE:
So I go to this guy's eBay page and guess what, there is a phone number listed. I call the phone, introduce myself, and say that I'm interested in wholesale. Here is the kind-of transcription of the conversation that took place between me and him (out of my memory from 15 minutes ago):
Me: Would you be interested in selling wholesale phones, like 50, 100 pieces?
Him: sure, that can be arranged
Me: Okay, but please first tell me one thing, I was talking to this one lady on Skype, her name is Laura Gognon, she says she represents your company for the wholesale channel... Are you affiliated with her?
Him: No, and I think you messaged me about it, or someone else? I have no female people on my staff
Me: Yes, it was me who messaged you. So you're saying that you're not affiliated in any way with the skype username swiftronics?
Him: No, I only conduct communication through eBay messages, BBM [Blackberry Messenger], and sometimes WhatsApp
Me: Okay, just to give you heads up man, this person is going around representing herself as the representative of your company, supposedly selling phones on a wholesale level, she says you're her son Franklin in charge of the eBay [and I proceed to tell him the rest of the story]
Him: Oh, wow, wait, are you serious?
Me: yep
Him: oh... wait, no, I'm not her, never heard of her in my life, like I said I don't have any female employees and don't know her
[rest of the conversation proceeds]
At this point we exchange phone numbers in case he needed anything. He thanked me a lot and said "much appreciated".
So, beware of this person! She's obviously trying to represent a reputable company and scam us for the money!
Before this thread was posted, she has also blocked me from Skype and told me to "stop wasting my time".
This one looks good and reliable what I can tell.
