Is buying online worth the risk? Wendy investigates

But people are generally very trusting, and often purchases are emotional, and, well, sadly there is no shortage of people on the world wide web, waiting to take advantage of that.

Today’s segment is about the online purchase of dolls which bear an uncanny resemblance to newborn babies. And they don’t come cheap.

Bumblebee Reborn Dolls

I’ve spoken to four Durban women who paid Bellair-based Bianca Rabie for one of more of these dolls back in April, and all they have to show for their money is a string of excuses and no-shows.

Ros paid Rabie, who advertises the lifelike dolls online as Bumble Bee Reborn Babies, in full - R2400 - for one of the dolls for her daughter’s seventh birthday.

She was told it would take three to five weeks to produce the custom-made doll, and asked to choose the hair and eye colour, and a name for the “birth certificate”.

But three months on, no doll. Three times Rabie arranged to meet Ros to hand over the apparently completed doll, and all three times she failed to show up. That’s when she realised something was very amiss.

René Allen of St Winifreds on the KZN south coast found Rabie via her Facebook page - Bumblebee Reborn Dolls - and began communicating with her via Whatsapp. She paid her a deposit of R1900 on April 19 - money her eight-year-old daughter had saved and was also asked to choose eye and hair colour, and promised that she’d have the doll within five weeks. 

When that didn’t happen, Rabie blamed her supplier, Rina Muller, in Cape Town, who makes the dolls under the company name Baltorina’s Unique Babies, soon to be relaunched as Touched by an Angel Babies, according Muller.

René says Muller gave her a whole of excuses, ranging from being ill to moving house. "It’s been very frustrating, and the worst thing is my daughter is heartbroken. I’ve actually stopped telling her the doll might come, because she ends up being heartbroken every time a new promise of delivery isn’t kept.”

Nellie Botha of the Bluff has a similar story - she paid Rabie R3000 in cash, in person, at the end of March as a large deposit on two dolls as birthday presents for her two daughters. 

She’s also been given a string of empty promises and excuses.

And then there’s Pinky Wallace of Queensburgh, who paid a deposit of R1400 for a doll for her mentally challenged daughters on the 6th of April. When it didn’t materialise, she laid a charge of theft by false pretences against Rabie at the Bellair Police Station.

I have sent two SMSs to Rabie - on the number I know she is currently using - plus an email, asking her to respond and saying that I am airing the issue on today’s show, but she hasn’t responded, despite claiming to René yesterday that she had emailed “that woman” - me - “more then four times already I don’t even get an email back from her”. 

I did get manage to get hold of Rina Muller in Cape Town, who told me that she runs a legitimate business with Rabie as her agent in Durban. She cited illness and a move as reasons for her failure to deliver the dolls, but vowed that they would be couriered to Rabie today. I’ll be following up on that.

Interestingly, René Allen got a Whatsapp message from Rabie after I’d spoken to Muller, asking her: “Can u please give me details on your baby again please?”

So three months after René made payment, the doll has clearly not yet been made.

I chose this topic as a cautionary tale for those who may be contemplating buying these dolls online.

Wendy's tips 

When buying online, know that it’s a very high risk activity when you aren’t dealing with an established major online shopping brand.

Never pay the entire amount upfront for a custom made item such as a doll or clothing, and know that when you pay by credit card you have the protection of Chargeback if you don’t get what you pay for, but no such protection exists when you do an EFT.

And I also want to tell people about Shepherd.

If you can’t do business face to face, make use of Shepherd, which Gumtree is affiliated to. It facilitates transactions between the buyer and the seller and requires both parties to register on www.paywithshepherd.com. 

The buyer pays the money to Shepherd for safekeeping and the seller pays for a courier to collect and deliver the item to the buyer. 

If the buyer is satisfied, he accepts the item, at which stage the payment is released by Shepherd and the seller is paid. If the buyer does not accept the item, the transaction and delivery is simply reversed. 

There is no need to meet face-to-face and no risk of payment fraud.