Is http://www.honestshoes.com/ legit?

Dear terenceli8068,

I advise not to do any business with this company. They are extremely dubious.

Note that nowhere on the website the actual location of this "company"
is mentioned. No address, no telephone number, no fax number. Only a
Chinese Yahoo e-mail address, honestshoescompany@yahoo.com.cn, that
could belong to anyone. Reputable companies have no reason to conceal
their physical addresses; only scammers do so because they don't want
to be tracked by their victims.

It is more than suspicious that they won't tell potential customers
under what country's laws they operate. After all, when doing business
with a company it is very important to know what laws apply.

Also, note the poor photos of the items in their catalog. Any
professional photographer would cry if he saw this. No reputable
company would use such primitive photos that make almost any product
look extremely bad.

I checked who owns the domain; allegedly, it was registered by this
person or entity:

hongchen
chen hong net@lyg.com.cn
0518-5016199 fax: 0518-5016199
lianyungang
lianyungang jiangsu 222000
cn
Created: 2005-02-24
Expires: 2006-02-24

If there is only a grain of truth in this data, the domain was
registered by someone in China. He used an invalid e-mail address
(empty spaces are not allowed), and a Google search for the phone/fax
number leads to some Chinese businesses that have nothing to do with
shoes. But what is most important: The domain has been registered for
only one year. This is typical for scammers; they use "disposable"
domains that are simply abandoned once they are not of use any longer.

The payment options are noteworthy, too. On the respective page, they
start by offering payment via Western Union or bank transfer. However,
the "contact form" on the same page lists "MTCN or MoneyGram reference
number" - MTCN is a money transfer control number issued by Western
Union. MoneyGram is an escrow service that was not even mentioned
earlier. No word of bank transfer anymore. Are the Honestshoes people
confused by their own payment options? By the way, both Western Union
and MoneyGram are only used by scam businesses, because those transfer
systems make it impossible to ever find out where the money actually
went; and because it is impossible to call back the money if you find
out that you have been scammed. Reputable companies do not propose
these payment options.

Finally, something that shows the incompetence of the fraudsters. On
top of each catalog page, they state (in amusing English): "Free
shipping fee to worldwide". But on the "Policy" page, they say: "All
items price already include shipping and handling fee for shipping to
US, Canada. For other countries, requires extra shipping and handling
fee." Free worldwide delivery or not? What legit, reliable company
does not even know their own shipping policy?

All these points make Honestshoes too dubious to do business with
them. Should they deliver anything at all, it is very probable that
the shoes are cheap knock-offs of the brand products they claim to
sell. Since such fake brand products violate trademark laws, it is
even possible that they are confiscated by the customs, which may lead
to serious legal problems for the buyer (depending on the respective
national trademark laws).

So I must advise to avoid any form of business contact with Honestshoes.

Regards,
Scriptor

Clear explaination and meansful recommandation!

thank you

Well, I would agree totally with the above things said about the
company being dubious and there are some loose ends. There is a
difficulty in translation for a lot of stuff on the site. Judging with
what Ive seen through emails with "jack" who is actually Yanglin Zhou
from Nanjing China in the province of Jiangsu.

He is very quick to respond about his emails and his orders come
extremely fast. I defintely could tell they were fakes which is why i
am selling them in flea markets. They are legit as far as business
goes....but you will not be getting real items. They are as close as
you could find most likely...but here is what i noticed about his
shirts.....

The tag of devanlay was present and same tag...but was on other side
of inside of shirt

The tags will say "hecho in peru" on some of them and some don't have this

The gator is slightly thinner but looks exactly the same as real one.
as compared to the one I bought at full retail for 72 dollars at
bloomingdales in manhattan new york.

The tag on the neck is slightly differnt color on the alligator, the
green is differnt shade but very close.

I noticed also that the collar was a bit more flimsy than the real one 

The mother of pearl buttons were on some of them and some didnt have
them...but the ones that did were only half mother of pearl and on the
back they were black plastic or other material only appearing to be
mother of pearl

So.........what im tryin to do here is educate you on what he actually
does. he is EC21 trade certified which means maybe not much but it is
an affiliation much like others in asia. He is very easy to deal with
and acts FAST. I would just like to again note they are not real
shirts from what I can tell. He only takes western union which is
shady too cause theres no telling if you will get things...I luckily
did with no problems. His min order is 50 shirts at 10  piece.

Good luck with him....if you find any great leads for real suppliers
please let the board know!