There are a lot of online retailers that sell bikes, but if you’re after the latest models, then you want to be wary of websites that are offering bikes for significantly below the going market standard. The online Indonesian store has been turning heads lately for this very reason. Is J Bike Store legit?
J Bike Store is a scam that aims to get you to pay them money for a product that they have no intention of delivering. Several bike forum and reddit users report that this company accepted their payment and never sent the bike as promised.
Scams can be hard to spot in today’s world as the tricks and schemes of unscrupulous people get more and more complex, but if you keep your eyes peeled, you can spot the telltale warning signs of a scam before they manage to trick you.
The rest of this article will discuss the question: is J Bike store legit?
Contents
Is J Bike Store a Scam?
So is J Bike store legit? Before we get into the nitty gritty of why you should avoid purchasing a bike from J Bike, it’s important to get a simple piece of information straight: all bike manufacturers deny that J Bike is part of their dealer network. As such, J Bike is not authorized to sell bicycles and has no credibility to speak of.
Without the backing of a manufacturer, at best, you are going to receive an inferior product (if anything) when you order through them. Without further ado, let’s get right into the reasons why you should avoid this seller at all costs.
Fake Reviews
If you do a quick search on J Bikes, you’ll find a rather interesting tale unfolding to answer the question: is J Bike legit?
Open up any business review site, and you’ll see two vastly juxtaposed types of reviews: some claiming that J Bike met their every need, and others claiming that J Bike delivered an inferior product (if they delivered anything), parts were missing, and that customer service was nigh nonexistent.
The positive reviews have very similar outlines and seem to follow a template regarding what the customer is planning to use the bike for, how easy the product was to assemble, and how they would willingly use the service again.
Almost undoubtedly, these are fraudulent reviews that misrepresent the nature of the company and the quality of the service they offer. On both 99Consumer and Trustpilot, websites for reviewing businesses, you can find alarmingly similar reviews under different usernames.
The top review on both websites reads almost exactly the same, with the first line being about taking their bike to a supposedly popular auto and bike shop, only to have the person, Hal by name, overcharge them for the services.
The review then goes on to state that they took their bike to JBs afterwards, touting the fair prices, great customer service, and the oh-so-suspicious “friendly and knowledgeable” staff.
Of course, similar reviews wouldn’t be suspicious in and of themselves, but these two review are posted under different pseudonyms on different websites and read exactly the same.
PayPal Scams
Perhaps the most alarming trait mentioned by disgruntled J Bike customers is their shady transaction history. Many users report paying the fee for the bike through PayPal only to have the company claim that there was an error processing their information.
After doing so, J Bike then tries to get the customer to complete the transaction through Western United, which is an extremely alarming request for anyone familiar with scam attempts.
This suggests a telling answer to the question: is J Bike store legit? The scam, it seems, extends farther than simply taking a customer’s money with no intention of delivering the promised product.
For some, it seems J Bike is actively trying to evade detection by financial institutions like PayPal. Savvy customers who refused to transfer money via Western Union were immediately refunded and never contacted further, again suggesting that J Bike is trying to fly under the radar when it comes to scam detection.
The J Bike Scam
The layout of the scam seems to be fairly consistent, with J Bike claiming that the PayPal transaction didn’t go through and that they need further documentation. As a result, they will attempt to get their customer to make a payment through Western Union.
Whenever someone cottons on to this suspicious activity, J Bike shuts off all communication, definitively answering the question: is J Bike store legit?
One such customer on July 23 of 2020 reported that they tried to make a payment through PayPal for a bike. After J Bike suggested they complete the payment through Western Union due to a lack of documents, the customer contacted PayPal to get the appropriate documentations.
After sending these documents back to J Bike and requesting a copy of them, the customer never heard back from them again. With all this info, you can easily tell is J Bike store legit.
The very next month, another customer left a review on Trustpilot questioning the authenticity of the tracking details J Bike provides. Most online shippers will give you a tracking number when you make a purchase so that you have the freedom to view the progress of your order.
Fake Tracking Details
Should you make a purchase with this fraudulent company, J Bike will send a tracking number through a company called Transcargo, which will show fictitious tracking information about the product. The Trustpilot review states that their package went from Jakarta in Indonesia where J Bike is located to Pakistan. From there, it allegedly travels to Ireland and overseas to the states.
Once it reaches the states, the bike gets ‘stuck’ in customs, usually in a customs center in New York. The customer reported that J Bike was responsible with questions that they had, but as soon as the customer mentioned that the bike had been stuck in customs for over a month, J Bike cut off all communication.
The trend regarding their tracking details seems to be similar, with the imaginary bike getting lost in customs in New York. That’s right. Every single on of J Bike’s supposed deliveries take the exact same route: from Jakarta to Singapore to Pakistan to Ireland, finally arriving in New York only to get stuck in customs.
What to Do about J Bike
So is J Bike store legit? If you’ve already ordered from J Bike, don’t panic! The first step is to contact your credit card issuer or PayPal and let them know what’s going on. In most cases where people have stopped short and refused to transfer money via Western Union, J Bike has issued a full refund and gone silent.
Some scam victims have even managed to get their money refunded straight through PayPal as well. The scam usually lasts the course of a month, with J Bike only claiming that the PayPal documentation isn’t in order up to a month after the bike has allegedly shipped.
Final Thoughts
There are numerous fraudulent companies out there that are trying to capitalize on people who are bargain hunting, and if you’re wondering is J Bike store legit, you’ll see that their scam layout is pretty advanced.
Their scam is dynamic and well thought out, so if you or anyone you know is interested in their deals, avoid this company at all costs. This innovative scam makes the question is J Bike store legit easy to answer and calls to mind the old adage: If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.
