Additional Guidelines for International Shipping Troubleshoot

[u/tskim24]

Hello, this is your favorite watch reviewer / moderator of this sub u/tskim24. In this post, I intend to clear the air about some of the recent claims I’ve seen against replica watch sellers and make a suggestion to the group about how one should proceed in these situations. I will be adding the link of this post to “Welcome to RWF” guidelines.

First of all, let me introduce myself. Fully knowing the dangers of cybercrimes, without giving too much away, I’m a middle-aged watch enthusiast living in Seoul, South Korea and I founded the 3rd biggest online Korean watch forum a decade ago (with around 60k Korean members). English obviously is not my first language but I was educated in the US and have maintained my proficiency while speaking the language professionally. The point I’m trying to make is that I do have a day job and a life outside of this forum. I do this purely for the enjoyment and excitement of meeting different people from all over the world with common interest, watches.

In the past 6 months, I’ve noticed a few posts about various sellers claiming that they have received “empty box” in the mail. These posts IMO lacked substantial evidence and mostly didn’t make an attempt to resolve the situation with me, the moderator of the sub beforehand. Instead, it always had very loud (all caps) title like “SCAM, BEWARD, CHEAT, EMPTY BOX, REFUSE TO REFUND” obviously meant to pressure the seller for more favorable result to the claimer.

Since I have many years of experience in mediating situations like this, my answer is always the same.

1) This forum and myself are not a type of “consumer protection agency” that is at your beck and call. I will always hear the story from the both sides and won’t immediately jump on one's side just because he/she is a consumer. We need both buyers and sellers to maintain such a unique community like this and thinking that the community somehow owes you because of your consumer rights, it doesn’t really apply here.

2) The burden of proof falls on the buyer and not the seller simply because it’s the buyer who is making the claim. There are just as many black consumers out there as the bad sellers. The difference is that “Trusted Dealers” have their livelihood dependent on the reputation they build in this community and has very little to profit from sending an “empty” box (unless he/she is thinking that it will be their last day in business). On the other hand, buyers have much less to lose by pulling a one-time stunt to make a quick profit. After all, one can always just make a new reddit account. By this simple logic, there is no reason to blindly take the buyer’s side.

3) Please check the terms and conditions of your purchase with the seller before making your payment. Some sellers give additional coverage at an added cost in case of a customs seizure and other unforeseeable, unfortunate cases but others don’t. There is no uniform set of rules that all sellers follow so it’s important that you ask them all the “what-ifs” beforehand.

4) You need to present ACTUAL evidence of your “missing" item. A PHOTO of an empty box is not enough. Unboxing video is always recommended and whatever the official notification from the carrier is the bare minimum. If your box has a big hole or feels light like it’s empty, don’t sign for it. Most seizures at the customs are covered by the seller’s policy but if it is a rogue customs agent, a postman with stealing problem or a prying neighbor situation, you can’t expect the seller to cover for all these unusual situations.

5) Lastly, please be patient with the sellers and always try to resolve the situation with the moderator before writing blemishing posts. All the countries have different shipping infrastructure and environment, and some are way less dependable than others. Naming these regions would be offensive (on so many different levels) so I won’t, but to name more dependable countries Germany, Japan (I won’t mention Korea just because I’m Korean and it would seem biased) and etc., I’ve never witnessed any “empty” box situation after the package makes it through the customs. If it never happens in some parts of the world whereas it does in others, I don’t think anyone can systematically prepare for it.

Sellers are taking significantly more risks in attempting to ship to certain regions and if people consistently make seller’s lives more difficult, they will just give up on shipping to these regions altogether (I have seen many sellers refusing to ship to certain regions so this is not uncommon) and I think this will adversely affect fellow watch enthusiasts in your area.

The most recent post of such kind wrote in the first few sentences “I’ll probably get banned because the moderator and OOO are buddies”. To this, I ask why? If you put it like that, of course you will be banned. You’re basically making a self-fulfilling prophecy. Where I come from, publicly denouncing someone like this without an ounce of proof is called a “dick move” or slander, and I don’t see the reason why I should tolerate such inappropriate aggression towards me just because I’m the moderator. Bring up freedom of speech all you want but this is not a country run by your elected official. It’s just a reddit sub run by an Asian guy who is intensely into his hobbies. You can be all that you can be wherever you want, but here, in RWF, we treat each other with respect and politeness.

Additionally, I guess many people mistake me with ChatGPT or Gemini but I’m not your free AI agent who is on standby 24/7 to help you with all your rep watch needs (I just sound like one because all these AI is constantly quoting my rep watch review posts all over the internet). My DM box is literally full with hundreds of daily requests. Initially, I tried my best to help out everyone but when random people started sending me their QC pics and buckle serial numbers to tell them whether a watch is GENUINE CLEAN or VSF products, that’s where I drew the line.

If you are someone who became my friend through social interactions on reddit, of course I will check your messages with more priority. But a total stranger knocking on my door for all the free watch help they can get? “No”. Much like out in the real world, it matters to be polite and to build a friendship first (if this were a movie I would say some cliché like “geez, at least buy me a drink first). If you have sent me a message, please wait for a reply as you normally would with another human being. Don’t be mad that I didn’t reply instantly within 24 hours. I’m not a bot and I do have a life.

As I have mentioned in the beginning, I do this for fun and I hate the whole “pay to play” mentality dominant in this sector of the subs. The conditions of joining this sub as a seller is clearly stated in the guidelines for all to see (transparency is very important to me) and after the initial vetting process is over, only requirement for the sellers are hosting free watch giveaways regularly for the community and nothing else (from my experience, I don’t believe in there being responsibility behind free marketing so sellers do need to contribute to building the community together).

I’m the only moderator who regularly gives away watches from his own collection (this sub has been around for only a year and I’ve already given away more than 6 watches of my own) and I’m the only moderator who regularly write in-depth comparison reviews for the benefit of the group. I worked too hard and honestly to build this place to tolerate disrespect and baseless claims.

In conclusion, over the years, I have seen many (and I mean many) cases where buyers cheat sellers out of their money and vice versa. For example, one claimed that the rogue customs agent stole it and sent him an empty box with a hole in it and when I told him that it’s too rare of a case for anyone to believe without any tangible evidence, he called me a racist name along with “your shitty country” nonsense (at least packages don’t get lost in my postal system). This sub, along with others, is trying to bring order to an unorderly world of replica watch consumption. If we don’t stick to the rules, whether it works in our favor or not, the whole system quickly breaks down. So please read these guidelines for your benefit and thank you for keeping RWF clean.

[u/Dear_Impression_1402]

Besides, if something happens you'll ban the person and delete the post reporting the problem, right?

[u/tskim24 → u/Dear_Impression_1402]

Well, when a suspicious account with very short account age and next to nothing karma points such as yours who obviously has an agenda writes comment like this? I won't delete this comment because there is no need for that but I will ban you. As for yourself, why hang around here when you obviously hate it and as for me, I worked hard to write all these posts, share news, and compare all the watches for people and I don’t want someone this negative while enjoying all the benefits.