Shopee Seller Scam

You bought from a third party, not Shopee, therefore Shopee is not liable I would presume. Did the seller have COD, that may be a better option.

While I commiserate with you regarding your misfortune, I can't help but wonder about the reasons that you ordered shoes online as they're the sort of item that you would certainly want to try on before purchasing.

Anyway, just curious, not "blaming the victim".

.. because you cannot get WIDE fittings in shops

... and you cannot get specialist running shoes either.

or maybe you overpronate too????

johnross23 wrote:

I can't help but wonder about the reasons that you ordered shoes online as they're the sort of item that you would certainly want to try on before purchasing.

Even though I could (and often did) spend half a day in Nordstrom trying on a dozen pairs of shoes just for fun, I've been ordering shoes since moving here.  Out of 26 pairs that I've bought online, I was dissatisfied with only one pair, which I gifted to the waitress at a cafe near our place.  They fit her beautifully.

Thanks for the information. Good thing to know

I buy all my shoes & sandals through Shopee, they have sellers that specialize in big size shoes, trainers & sandals & most of them have a chart page to advise you exactly the size to order. My boats are size 46 & even in HCMC its not easy at all even in D1 & the selection is generally not good. All the sandals & trainers I have bought through Shopee have been excellent quality & value. To get best value you have to have a good look at whats on offer from all the sellers cos you will see exactly the same product at greatly different prices.
Oh & by the way Shopee sellers dont only do COD, they do Air Pay Wallet, credit & debit card payments

... difficult for me know as i only see Vietnamese site on computer, and then usually i only see Vietnamese bank and debit cards. and when i buy, i don't seem to get choice of payment anyway, ie i don't see a screen asking me how to pay.

in any case, this is not relevant to the OP issue

... btw, for my future info, what wide shoe sellers hv you found? (the actual size ie length is not the issue for me.)  funny, it seems all my shoes (literally) fell apart at the same time.

running shoes i did not actually have, seeing it has been so long since i ran, and running shoes are very specialised, and runners are usually very particular about what shoes they like and are good for them, overpronation typical example.

... but CB, somehow i suspect that your feet are not short wide feet, but long and narrow, typical of all Vietnamese? AND of Vietnamese shoes.

same as my wife and sisters mostly all wear a 'straight' 35

and in any case not the point of the OP issue

lazada sends you an email when order is received, shipped, delivered. Shopee dosen't. If you must order with Shopee, login to website or use app and keep screenprints of order activity.

Shopee does advise you when am order has shipped.. it's not the most reliable system but I have had a few notifications of shipment

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Shopee does advise you when am order has shipped.. it's not the most reliable system but I have had a few notifications of shipment

Thanks. Ordered yererday. nothing. Login to website and it shows it was shipped today.

There notifications are very hit and miss . Once you receive the items make sure you check them throroghly before updating the app. If you don't and they turn out to be defective or fake you will never get your money back

Jlgarbutt wrote:

There notifications are very hit and miss . Once you receive the items make sure you check them throroghly before updating the app. If you don't and they turn out to be defective or fake you will never get your money back

Was your orders delivered on the time?..mine says delivery on 21.05.2021. I didn't receive delivery yesterday, or hear from seller or delivery company.

I've now (10am on 22.05.2021)messaged seller through app. Waiting to hear back.

The delivery time is another hit and miss affair. Some items arrive early and others arrive late. Depends on who the carrier is.

JT express are the wrist by a long way

AU Refugee wrote:

.. because you cannot get WIDE fittings in shops

You may be able to

https://panjiva.com/Vietnamese-Manufact … f/skechershttps://www.facebook.com/Skechers-Vietn … 341470129/

Have a hunt around or contact the people in the link - I have a massive problem buying shoes because my feet are crazy wide, but Scechers have a good variety of styles in very wide fittings.

Skechers usually need to go up half a sIze.

There is a shop in HCM called Nemomamashoes.. stock changes daily so worth a check if you are passing.

Usually samples from stores . Half price or better

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Skechers usually need to go up half a sIze.

I'm really surprised at that because I've always had problems finding wide shoes (even in England) but they have sizes too wide for me.
Not cheap, but their shoes are the only semi-formal/office ones I wear now.

Jlgarbutt wrote:

The delivery time is another hit and miss affair. Some items arrive early and others arrive late. Depends on who the carrier is.

JT express are the wrist by a long way

Mine's a definiete miss. seller is now saying delivery before 28 May. When I ordered chose company called 'Best' delivery which had the earliest delivery time 21 to 22 May.

Seller is saying item has just been handed over to Best delivery so I should expect it before 28 May. He says 'it's the rule', even though what I saw onscreen when ordering said differently.

Spoke to shopee support. They are saying I can follow a link and click on 'Expedite' order. Not holding my breath. IF only it said when I ordered delivery date was before 28 May, I would've visited a shop and purchased it or ordered from other online seller with faster delivery.

andrewwise wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

The delivery time is another hit and miss affair. Some items arrive early and others arrive late. Depends on who the carrier is.

JT express are the wrist by a long way

Mine's a definiete miss. seller is now saying delivery before 28 May. When I ordered chose company called 'Best' delivery which had the earliest delivery time 21 to 22 May.

Seller is saying item has just been handed over to Best delivery so I should expect it before 28 May. He says 'it's the rule', even though what I saw onscreen when ordering said differently.

Spoke to shopee support. They are saying I can follow a link and click on 'Expedite' order. Not holding my breath. IF only it said when I ordered delivery date was before 28 May, I would've visited a shop and purchased it or ordered from other online seller with faster delivery.

I use online shopping a lot these days & have used Shopee & Sendo a lot but recently I have changed to Lazada, their tracking & support are by far better in my experience. Recently I received an item that was broken when I opened the package so I took a photo sent off complaint with details. Within 1 hour the request for refund was accepted, they sent a printable label to fix to the  return package & within 3 hours from registering the complaint the courier arrived & picked up the returns package. Next day my re fund coupon was in my online account including the cost of delivery. Gotta say that was very impressive.
I had a similar situation with Shopee about 3 months back & gave up on the re fund request in the end.
What I will say though about Shopee is they can be a lot cheaper for exactly the same product if you trawl their suppliers & being a Scotsman I always look for the best bargain

Ahem.. sometimes it works in your favor, recieved a fake pair of skechers, easy to tell as the memory foam insoles we ordinary ones. Complained and got a refund and kept the shoes - just go to local store and buy genuine insoles for a fraction of the price.

None of the shopping apps care too much about fakes, people use genuine photos theh download from google... and rely on no brand somewhere in the description.

Jlgarbutt wrote:

The delivery time is another hit and miss affair. Some items arrive early and others arrive late. Depends on who the carrier is.

JT express are the wrist by a long way

Don't know if you've used Best Express yet for delivery. My experience was not great.

I contacted shopee support on 22 May to tell them I cannot accept order as it doesn't keep to the delivery dates specified at time of order (21 May - 22 May).

Delivery man called me when I was away from home (about 100 km away) on 24 May.

Told him 'khong muon'.

He's only gone and marked the item as delivered and uploaded a picture of a signature (just a line going from top to bottom). It has date of 24 May at 14:09. I can prove that I was not at home to accept delivery.

Shopee support has asked me to mark the delivery as not received which I've done via app. Now the seller has until 28 May to respond. What a mess.

Delivery company probably figured if they mark it as delivered, i may not dispute it, which means they get paid by Shopee nevertheless

goodolboy wrote:

andrewwise wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

The delivery time is another hit and miss affair. Some items arrive early and others arrive late. Depends on who the carrier is.

JT express are the wrist by a long way

Mine's a definiete miss. seller is now saying delivery before 28 May. When I ordered chose company called 'Best' delivery which had the earliest delivery time 21 to 22 May.

Seller is saying item has just been handed over to Best delivery so I should expect it before 28 May. He says 'it's the rule', even though what I saw onscreen when ordering said differently.

Spoke to shopee support. They are saying I can follow a link and click on 'Expedite' order. Not holding my breath. IF only it said when I ordered delivery date was before 28 May, I would've visited a shop and purchased it or ordered from other online seller with faster delivery.

I use online shopping a lot these days & have used Shopee & Sendo a lot but recently I have changed to Lazada, their tracking & support are by far better in my experience. Recently I received an item that was broken when I opened the package so I took a photo sent off complaint with details. Within 1 hour the request for refund was accepted, they sent a printable label to fix to the  return package & within 3 hours from registering the complaint the courier arrived & picked up the returns package. Next day my re fund coupon was in my online account including the cost of delivery. Gotta say that was very impressive.
I had a similar situation with Shopee about 3 months back & gave up on the re fund request in the end.
What I will say though about Shopee is they can be a lot cheaper for exactly the same product if you trawl their suppliers & being a Scotsman I always look for the best bargain

I feel I have to come clean & update my post where I was promoting the virtues of Lazada in my experience.
So it goes like this:- as above I got a re fund voucher on an item I sent back. So I used it to buy another item & I had to make a top up payment of about 30k vnd. Well it sat there noted as being packed by sender for about a week & then clean out of the blue........ORDER CANCELLED. No details nothing, just ordered cancelled!! So tries again for a different product from a different supplier using the voucher & again noted as being packed by sender shop. After about another 4 days I contacted the shop & asked when I would get the item. Next thing up it comes on the tracker......ORDER CANCELLED. So I am now on order 4 using this voucher & living in hope it comes but again its been sitting as being prepared by sender & I contacted them today & they assure me its coming, just waiting to be picked up.....well its no big deal item so I "live in hope" 

goodolboy wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

andrewwise wrote:

Mine's a definiete miss. seller is now saying delivery before 28 May. When I ordered chose company called 'Best' delivery which had the earliest delivery time 21 to 22 May.

Seller is saying item has just been handed over to Best delivery so I should expect it before 28 May. He says 'it's the rule', even though what I saw onscreen when ordering said differently.

Spoke to shopee support. They are saying I can follow a link and click on 'Expedite' order. Not holding my breath. IF only it said when I ordered delivery date was before 28 May, I would've visited a shop and purchased it or ordered from other online seller with faster delivery.

I use online shopping a lot these days & have used Shopee & Sendo a lot but recently I have changed to Lazada, their tracking & support are by far better in my experience. Recently I received an item that was broken when I opened the package so I took a photo sent off complaint with details. Within 1 hour the request for refund was accepted, they sent a printable label to fix to the  return package & within 3 hours from registering the complaint the courier arrived & picked up the returns package. Next day my re fund coupon was in my online account including the cost of delivery. Gotta say that was very impressive.
I had a similar situation with Shopee about 3 months back & gave up on the re fund request in the end.
What I will say though about Shopee is they can be a lot cheaper for exactly the same product if you trawl their suppliers & being a Scotsman I always look for the best bargain

I feel I have to come clean & update my post where I was promoting the virtues of Lazada in my experience.
So it goes like this:- as above I got a re fund voucher on an item I sent back. So I used it to buy another item & I had to make a top up payment of about 30k vnd. Well it sat there noted as being packed by sender for about a week & then clean out of the blue........ORDER CANCELLED. No details nothing, just ordered cancelled!! So tries again for a different product from a different supplier using the voucher & again noted as being packed by sender shop. After about another 4 days I contacted the shop & asked when I would get the item. Next thing up it comes on the tracker......ORDER CANCELLED. So I am now on order 4 using this voucher & living in hope it comes but again its been sitting as being prepared by sender & I contacted them today & they assure me its coming, just waiting to be picked up.....well its no big deal item so I "live in hope" 

I heard that Lazada will cancel orders of sex-toys and lubricants to older guys in order to control misuse and self harm,lol. 

Maybe we expect too much having been spoilt by Amazon. The order cancelled tning is common on all the shopping platforms, either the seller has no stock or just cannot be bothered to ship

On a related note never ever pay in advance, here many residents do and rely on security to accept parcels which get placed in a store room for collection later. So many people claim their psrcel is missing when then go to collect later, either residents, security or even delivery rider helpjng themsleves pt whatever takes their fancy

colinoscapee wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

I use online shopping a lot these days & have used Shopee & Sendo a lot but recently I have changed to Lazada, their tracking & support are by far better in my experience. Recently I received an item that was broken when I opened the package so I took a photo sent off complaint with details. Within 1 hour the request for refund was accepted, they sent a printable label to fix to the  return package & within 3 hours from registering the complaint the courier arrived & picked up the returns package. Next day my re fund coupon was in my online account including the cost of delivery. Gotta say that was very impressive.
I had a similar situation with Shopee about 3 months back & gave up on the re fund request in the end.
What I will say though about Shopee is they can be a lot cheaper for exactly the same product if you trawl their suppliers & being a Scotsman I always look for the best bargain

I feel I have to come clean & update my post where I was promoting the virtues of Lazada in my experience.
So it goes like this:- as above I got a re fund voucher on an item I sent back. So I used it to buy another item & I had to make a top up payment of about 30k vnd. Well it sat there noted as being packed by sender for about a week & then clean out of the blue........ORDER CANCELLED. No details nothing, just ordered cancelled!! So tries again for a different product from a different supplier using the voucher & again noted as being packed by sender shop. After about another 4 days I contacted the shop & asked when I would get the item. Next thing up it comes on the tracker......ORDER CANCELLED. So I am now on order 4 using this voucher & living in hope it comes but again its been sitting as being prepared by sender & I contacted them today & they assure me its coming, just waiting to be picked up.....well its no big deal item so I "live in hope" 

I heard that Lazada will cancel orders of sex-toys and lubricants to older guys in order to control misuse and self harm,lol. 

Well after 3 cancelation I was starting to wonder if she, oooooopppps I mean it was ever going to get delivered

goodolboy wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

I feel I have to come clean & update my post where I was promoting the virtues of Lazada in my experience.
So it goes like this:- as above I got a re fund voucher on an item I sent back. So I used it to buy another item & I had to make a top up payment of about 30k vnd. Well it sat there noted as being packed by sender for about a week & then clean out of the blue........ORDER CANCELLED. No details nothing, just ordered cancelled!! So tries again for a different product from a different supplier using the voucher & again noted as being packed by sender shop. After about another 4 days I contacted the shop & asked when I would get the item. Next thing up it comes on the tracker......ORDER CANCELLED. So I am now on order 4 using this voucher & living in hope it comes but again its been sitting as being prepared by sender & I contacted them today & they assure me its coming, just waiting to be picked up.....well its no big deal item so I "live in hope" 

I heard that Lazada will cancel orders of sex-toys and lubricants to older guys in order to control misuse and self harm,lol. 

Well after 3 cancelation I was starting to wonder if she, oooooopppps I mean it was ever going to get delivered

i refer to previous post about scam where seller use fake order no so they can  cancel order if there is problem. that was Shopee, but maybe same applies here.

also note Lazada is more than happy to credit back to CC.

apart from a recent prob with the SELLER refusing to accept that items was NOT the size that the label said, where - in this case - useless support (they said label is what you ordered so size must be ok. duh.), i wrote to GM and got a voucher for d150,000.

in another case at same time, which was actually harder to argue, i bought a cheap charcoal BBQ, and when we got it, it was so weakly constructed, we put in a return, the seller refused, we raised a dispute, we sent them some photos of why it was poor quality (not fit for purpose we would say), and they overturned decision and refunded money.

andrewwise wrote:

Jlgarbutt wrote:

The delivery time is another hit and miss affair. Some items arrive early and others arrive late. Depends on who the carrier is.

JT express are the wrist by a long way

Don't know if you've used Best Express yet for delivery. My experience was not great.

I contacted shopee support on 22 May to tell them I cannot accept order as it doesn't keep to the delivery dates specified at time of order (21 May - 22 May).

Delivery man called me when I was away from home (about 100 km away) on 24 May.

Told him 'khong muon'.

He's only gone and marked the item as delivered and uploaded a picture of a signature (just a line going from top to bottom). It has date of 24 May at 14:09. I can prove that I was not at home to accept delivery.

Shopee support has asked me to mark the delivery as not received which I've done via app. Now the seller has until 28 May to respond. What a mess.

Delivery company probably figured if they mark it as delivered, i may not dispute it, which means they get paid by Shopee nevertheless

The staff member at my aparmtent has paid himself and accepted delivery while I was in Saigon. I told him specifically not to accept that morning. Maybe he forgot. Not only that he never told me about delivery until I asked him 4-5 days later (to confirm if shopee was not fibbing).

The box is still lying at reception unopened. Staff member has told me not to worry as it was his fault. I chased up with the seller. He was uncooperative.

Raised it with Shopee. A few email to and fro. Then the last email I received from Shopee on

May 28 at 14:42 says I have 24 hours to respond:

'- In case you have received the goods, please click cancel the complaint or if there is another complaint with the product received, please respond to Shopee within 24 hours from the time this notice is sent.

But after the deadline on Shopee, there is no response from you, Shopee would like to cancel this Return/Refund Request and make a Full Payment for the Seller in accordance with Shopee's regulations. In this case, Shopee is sorry that we cannot support you further.'

I responded within 24 hours to tell them we need to return. Shopee has replied saying they sent me an email on May 27 at 13:34 about 'complaint result' and that I should have responded to that email within 24 hours. I checked my inbox and spam folders. No such email. Anyway, their email of May 28 at 14:42 does say I have 24 hours to respond and I did respond within 24 hours.

Won't be using Shopee again that's for sure.

i was surprised to learn a few days ago when i was doing some Internet research that
Shopee is about twice as big as Lazada

yet from personal experience, Lazada shopping experience and most of all SERVICE is 10 times better.

how many people like you and me?

other ting for us is that Shopee only (apparently) hv English on mobile app  - NOT on computer app

which is really a bit of a deal breaker right there

For sure the English option makes things easier.. but I would be happy if sellers were just honest and used real photos and descriptions that were clear that they were copies or fakes

Vietnam Lad wrote:

i was surprised to learn a few days ago when i was doing some Internet research that
Shopee is about twice as big as Lazada

yet from personal experience, Lazada shopping experience and most of all SERVICE is 10 times better.

how many people like you and me?

other ting for us is that Shopee only (apparently) hv English on mobile app  - NOT on computer app

which is really a bit of a deal breaker right there

I get shopee & lazada in English on my laptop

goodolboy wrote:

Vietnam Lad wrote:

i was surprised to learn a few days ago when i was doing some Internet research that
Shopee is about twice as big as Lazada

yet from personal experience, Lazada shopping experience and most of all SERVICE is 10 times better.

how many people like you and me?

other ting for us is that Shopee only (apparently) hv English on mobile app  - NOT on computer app

which is really a bit of a deal breaker right there

I get shopee & lazada in English on my laptop

funny, as i never see that, and they told me when i ask them "sorry, only hv for mb" (unless they just add?)

now just a few days ago, i learnt how to emulate a mb (for Instagram) on computer. not SO hard once you get the hang of it: i wonder/suppose if i could do same for Shopee - although that hardly matters as i refuse to use them, ;-)

one problem w a lot of sites that actually hv English is that it is often v hard to find the language switch when it is all written in Viet.

goodolboy wrote:

Vietnam Lad wrote:

i was surprised to learn a few days ago when i was doing some Internet research that
Shopee is about twice as big as Lazada

yet from personal experience, Lazada shopping experience and most of all SERVICE is 10 times better.

how many people like you and me?

other ting for us is that Shopee only (apparently) hv English on mobile app  - NOT on computer app

which is really a bit of a deal breaker right there

I get shopee & lazada in English on my laptop

which browser are you using on laptop please?

HenryJo wrote:

goodolboy wrote:

Vietnam Lad wrote:

i was surprised to learn a few days ago when i was doing some Internet research that
Shopee is about twice as big as Lazada

yet from personal experience, Lazada shopping experience and most of all SERVICE is 10 times better.

how many people like you and me?

other ting for us is that Shopee only (apparently) hv English on mobile app  - NOT on computer app

which is really a bit of a deal breaker right there

I get shopee & lazada in English on my laptop

which browser are you using on laptop please?

Google Chrome

When communicating with seller on Lazada, should we always use the chat feature?

I remember reading this somewhere, not sure if it was on Lazada website or if it was to do with another website.

Reason I'm asking is because, currently trying to arrange a return for a computer mouse purchased on Lazada. Seller is asking me to phone their hotline. Is this legit?

I wrote back explaining I'm a foreigner and that my Vietnamese is not so good. He's replied repeating the same  'call hotline'. He doesn't say if hotline has English support or what the purpose of calling the hotline is.

I'm hesitant, because if lazada were to become involved later, I won't be able to provide evidence of phone call that easily, whereas with chat feature I can using screenshots. (maybe lazada can see chat history even without me providing it?)

Btw, if it comes down to it, can I record the phone call? I already have an app on my phone that does this. Does anyone know the law on recording phone calls in Vietnam? I believe in some countries you can do this if you let the other person know beforehand. Is this a requirement in Vietnam?

HenryJo wrote:

When communicating with seller on Lazada, should we always use the chat feature?

I remember reading this somewhere, not sure if it was on Lazada website or if it was to do with another website.

Reason I'm asking is because, currently trying to arrange a return for a computer mouse purchased on Lazada. Seller is asking me to phone their hotline. Is this legit?

I wrote back explaining I'm a foreigner and that my Vietnamese is not so good. He's replied repeating the same  'call hotline'. He doesn't say if hotline has English support or what the purpose of calling the hotline is.

I'm hesitant, because if lazada were to become involved later, I won't be able to provide evidence of phone call that easily, whereas with chat feature I can using screenshots. (maybe lazada can see chat history even without me providing it?)

Btw, if it comes down to it, can I record the phone call? I already have an app on my phone that does this. Does anyone know the law on recording phone calls in Vietnam? I believe in some countries you can do this if you let the other person know beforehand. Is this a requirement in Vietnam?

How long have you had the mouse before you send it back? reason I ask is that when i sent my faulty product back I dealt with lazada not the shop & as detailed before had a very good experience at that stage.
By the way as an update my new laptop crashed the other day so had to dig out the old one & am already all set up Shopee & Lazada English.
As another follow upon my out of the Blue cancelled orders from Lazada (4 now in total) I managed to contact their complaints site & got torn into them about it & got told it was because the shops were in China........hummmmmmmmm so I should make sure the shops were based in Vietnam. So I picked a shop stated as in HCMC & placed another order for the same item only costing more from Vietnam & you know what??? it came up as being shipped from China anyway hahahahahaha & I am still waiting for it!! On the positive side I got an e mail from Lazada saying sorry for the 4 cancelled orders & they gave me a voucher  for another 50kvnd on top.....winner winner

goodolboy wrote:

HenryJo wrote:

When communicating with seller on Lazada, should we always use the chat feature?

I remember reading this somewhere, not sure if it was on Lazada website or if it was to do with another website.

Reason I'm asking is because, currently trying to arrange a return for a computer mouse purchased on Lazada. Seller is asking me to phone their hotline. Is this legit?

I wrote back explaining I'm a foreigner and that my Vietnamese is not so good. He's replied repeating the same  'call hotline'. He doesn't say if hotline has English support or what the purpose of calling the hotline is.

I'm hesitant, because if lazada were to become involved later, I won't be able to provide evidence of phone call that easily, whereas with chat feature I can using screenshots. (maybe lazada can see chat history even without me providing it?)

Btw, if it comes down to it, can I record the phone call? I already have an app on my phone that does this. Does anyone know the law on recording phone calls in Vietnam? I believe in some countries you can do this if you let the other person know beforehand. Is this a requirement in Vietnam?

How long have you had the mouse before you send it back? reason I ask is that when i sent my faulty product back I dealt with lazada not the shop & as detailed before had a very good experience at that stage.
By the way as an update my new laptop crashed the other day so had to dig out the old one & am already all set up Shopee & Lazada English.
As another follow upon my out of the Blue cancelled orders from Lazada (4 now in total) I managed to contact their complaints site & got torn into them about it & got told it was because the shops were in China........hummmmmmmmm so I should make sure the shops were based in Vietnam. So I picked a shop stated as in HCMC & placed another order for the same item only costing more from Vietnam & you know what??? it came up as being shipped from China anyway hahahahahaha & I am still waiting for it!! On the positive side I got an e mail from Lazada saying sorry for the 4 cancelled orders & they gave me a voucher  for another 50kvnd on top.....winner winner

Only received mouse on Saturday gone. So, still within 7 day returns period mentioned on order. Mouse is not defective, just not compatible with my system (Linux o/s).

Asked seller before purchase if I can return it if not compatible. He said 'yes, within 7 days'. Now, I'm experiencing friction. Order even says can return 'if  not satisfied'.

If I deal with Lazada for return, perhaps more straight forward. Just wondering if it's worth it. Mouse was only about 190k. With 30k discount voucher applied.

About items shipped from abroad I thought just before ordering lazada website gives a diagram with 'seller' ---> 'hai quan' (I think it means customs)  ---> 'buyer'. The 'hai quan' should tell us immediately it's coming from abroad. Maybe it doesn't show always!