Complaint Review: highdefbay.com High Def Bay

I am extremely skeptical of www.highdefbay.com and truly think it is a SCAM. I will let you be the judge, but I'm an attorney in south Florida and in shopping for a new plasma I happened upon some truly ridiculous pricing then decided to do a little hunting. This is what I found.

Strangely the company www.highdefbay.com from Indonesia appears out of nowhere and the only websites that you can find discussing it all seem to use strangely similar marketing language, have a religious theme and are moderated by good ol' trusty housewives. The reviews are actually paid for by a website called payerpost.com according to a moderator on one site.

I'm starting to see a pattern here. Similar sites in Asia that have "too good to be true" pricing (likewww.nuuboo.com) and have similar payment requirements seem to just disappear (poof) without warning only days after they ask me to wire transfer several thousand dollars to them because they are "most trust business and sell many to U.S. peoples." (whatever that means).

On their testimonial page FOR HIGHDEFBAY the following "testimonial" was written: (On Oct 3, 2008 it mysteriously disappeared after I wrote the company and called them out on this obvious screw up)

Marten Suparman/ Bumi Serpong Dame

I'm very impressed. Placed an order after lunch yesterday and immediately received an order confirmation. Later in the afternoon, I get another email informing me that it has shipped (together with a tracking number). This morning FedEx indicates it's on the truck for delivery. I've purchased from HighDefBay about *5 month ago* with an equally good experience. I'm very pleased.

Well, that was a wonderful testimonial from Mr. Suparman (Superman???) - all of the important details are covered - good communication, fast service, tracking numbers, etc....there is only MAJOR problem - www.highdefbay.com DID NOT EXIST 5 MONTHS AGO. The domain was purchased three months ago. (July 16, 2008) Also, if you see below, the supposed Mr. Suparman is supposedly a frind and good local customer - so why would he have the product shipped and get a tracking number? THIS TESTIMONIAL IS A COMPLETE FABRICATION!!

Other things that should make you say this is a scam: They only accept local pick up (Indonesia) or wire transfer. Not even Ebay auctions with PayPal. Wire Transfer to Indonesia is about as safe as mailing cash to Baghdad. What could you possible do if your product doesn't arrive? File a lawsuit in Indonesia? The bank can't reverse the funds. You will be up a creek!

Other similar sites with AMAZING prices just disappear without warning - like www.nuuboo.com (poof!)

www.highdefbay.com did send me the following email right before they yanked the testimonial off their site:

Mr. ********

To be honest we are still new comer on this
online/overseas business, usually we only sell/supplied to local buyers only and most of testimonial comes from local buyers. Mr. Marten Suparman is one of my loyal customer and we asking him to write a testimonial after we launch our new website.

we dont have any refrence yet from around the world since we are still new comer. however we confirm you that we are running legal business in here and we are now triying to sell our products to International buyers.

Feel free to ask if you need more information.

Regards
F.Noya & Hans
HighDefBay Co
www.highdefbay.com
+62 813 893 66155

I responded to your email and I asked if they could sell me a tv by setting up a private auction on Ebay or on a credit card. No response. I'd even pay any additional fees incurred. No response. Strange... COD? Nope.

They also told me in a separate email that ground shipping (I didn't know you could drive from Florida to Indonesia), which is normally $300, for the TV I was looking at, is free until Dec 20, 2008! Imagine that! I wire transfer $2200 dollars to them (instructions on how to pay them are sent in a separate email of course) at which point they will hopefully ship me a ridiculously under-priced, 60", 150lb television from Indonesia for free! Keep in mind that the average price on the web from known vendors is about $3800-4000 with some as high as $5500. Too good to be true prices are, most often, too good to be true.

I ONLY HOPE NO ONE IS CRAZY ENOUGH TO SEND THEM MONEY!!!

Tom Esq.
Boca Raton, Florida
U.S.A.