First off I am never reading a review or anything frankly in Forbes Magazine ever again, a magazine until recently I trusted not to steer me wrong.
It is only when things do drastically wrong that we tend to look deeper into a company. When I shopped with Nuvio a red light specialty product business I thought was dealing with an American company. The address is
17595 Harvard Ave, Ste C-827 (or Suite C-613), Irvine, CA 92614
When you read between the lines the company explicitly states on the Nuvio Recovery Contact Page that this is a mailing address only and products should not be returned here. And they have no phone number, just an SMS service that I discovered doesn’t get responded to which should have been a dead giveaway.
Would I have purchased if the company had been upfront about where they are actually based who knows but it would have been better for me, the feeling of being misled isn’t a good one.
The particular product I purchased was for a gift. The shipping stated 2-5 business days and I purchased 3 weeks in advance of the birthday thinking I had plenty of time should anything do wrong.
The order was shipped, tracking provided and all was fine or so I thought. I’d read about this particular product in Forbes magazine so I foolishly trusted the big name publication and the editor writing the article, in hindsight probably an advertorial for commissions had I read the fine print there too.
6 days after placing my order it was returned to sender on my tracking which revealed it had come from mainland China not Southern California as I believed. And then the fun began. Trying to get help from a non existent customer service department via a compliant but ineffective AI assistant Julia, no phone number, no email response, no response to SMS, and a whole load of people online ranting about the same experience I was in the middle of.
The advice to just challenge the transaction with the bank or credit card and chalk it up to experience, which is what I did.
The disputed transaction takes up to 60 days to resolve so I don’t have an outcome yet but just wanted to let others know if you are thinking about red light therapy products Nuvio are perhaps a company you might want to avoid.
Another experience I just had was with a fashion company Electicook I didn’t buy from this time without doing a bit of exploration first. They had been popping up a lot showing a designer jumper I liked, at a very competitive price. Too competitive. I got the impression from the website advertising this jumper was preloved secondhand, then when I saw it appearing repeatedly I realised it couldn’t be a one off, it must be a dupe, fake, mirror copy and I set about finding out how a company operating illegally violating copyrights could be advertising so prolifically on Meta.
Was that allowed? Apparently yes.
I found out if you buy from a company like Electricook and your goods get opened by customs they will be seized, and you lose the goods and the money. I also found out on Google this particular company is known for operating illegally and whilst it is not a crime to shop with them what they are doing using brand names in their marketing to mislead consumers, stealing trademarks and proprietary designs is criminal.
Some people don’t mind, they want the designer dupes and are happy to take the risk but buyer beware, if you see something that looks too good to be true, I honestly thought this particular jumper was a one off on a platform I hadn’t seen before. I guess I trusted that Meta would not allow known businesses like this to advertise openly with them.
Got burned the first time with Nuvio, when it came to Electricook I did my research before shopping.