Online shopper buys B37,000 luxury bag, gets water bottles

Panhathai Lertsin-udom shows the Kung Fu Panda bottles she received after ordering a second-hand Celine bag online. (Photo by Chakkrapan Natanri)

KHON KAEN: A woman has registered a complaint with police after her online purchase of a brandname bag turned out to be two water bottles.

Panhathai Lertsin-udom took the evidence of her order - an online transaction receipt, Line chats with the seller and a video - to Muang police station on Sunday to back up the complaint against the B.PROMOTE Line account.

She said she ordered a second-hand Celine bag on Tuesday after the image was posted on brandnameby_Oa, an Instagram account, by a seller identified as B.PROMOTE.

She said she paid 37,000 baht for the order, after a 3,000 baht discount, and transferred the money to the bank account number sent to her by B.PROMOTE on the same day.

"I decided to transfer the money quickly because I knew that many shoppers were lining up to buy brandname products," the buyer told the Bangkok Post.

After the payment, she was told that the bag would be delivered to her, and was given a parcel code issued by Kerry Express Thailand.

Mrs Panhathai became suspicious when, starting from Wednesday, she was unable to contact B.PROMOTE. The B.PROMOTE Line account was shut down, she said.

(Video by Panhathai Lertsin-udom)

When she checked with the parcel delivery firm, she was told the goods were on the way to her from a sender in Chiang Mai. When a delivery man arrived with the parcel, she asked someone to record video while she opened it. Inside was a box containing two Kung Fu Panda water bottles.

Mrs Panhathai said she called the sender listed on the parcel's label, and was told that someone had ordered the bottles on her behalf.

A check on brandnameby_Oa by the Bangkok Post shows it to be an Instagram account used to sell second-hand luxury products. The page charges 50 baht per post, with a promotion of "buy two posts, get one free". It has almost 14,000 followers.

The page says the buyer should contact the seller directly, with a message reading that "it will not take any responsibility" for the transactions.

Panhathai Lertsin-udom displays the used Celine bag she ordered on her phone. (Photo by Chakkrapan Natanri)

Pol Col Chamlong Suwaluck, the Khon Kaen police station chief, said on Sunday that police will not take action until they have questioned her and reviewed the evidence.

"I have bought many brandname products online from several accounts. Every time I thoroughly checked all information before I ordered," Mrs Panhathai said, describing her efforts to avoid being ripped off.

"I couldn't believe that it finally happened to me."