Website Name
Hero-Shoes
heroshoe.co
hero-shoes.com
Website Type
Online men’s shoe store
Is Hero-Shoes Fake or Real?
Fake
Why Is Hero-Shoes Fake?
Hero-Shoes is a website that claims to be selling high-quality men’s shoes. The brand has two identical websites with the domain names heroshoe.co and hero-shoes.com. I could not figure out the reason behind creating two identical websites selling the same products at the same prices. My guess is that it is because ‘hero-shoes.com’ looks more professional.
Domain name lookups of the websites show that heroshoe.co was created first on 7th March 2020 and hero-shoes.com was created later on 25th April 2020. The registrant’s information such as name and location have not been provided in either case.
It seems that Hero-Shoes is a dropshipping operation, as the same products are available much cheaper on Aliexpress. The prices mentioned on Hero-Shoes are supposedly discounted at around 50% from the ‘original’ prices. It seems to me that these numbers are randomly inflated to create an illusion of great value. In reality, products on Hero-Shoes cost roughly 80% more compared to Aliexpress.
There are some reviews given Hero-Shoes’ website, but these seem to be fake. The dates on the reviews show that they have been written even before the website was created.
Hero-Shoes has a social media presence on Facebook. There are three separate pages that seem to be operated from United States and Philippines. One of the pages has been claimed by the company NGE LLC based in North Carolina. There is not much information on the company to judge whether it is a legitimate operation. One of the pages is currently running ads on Facebook.
The Contact Us page of Hero-Shoes provides an email ID, phone number and address. The phone number simply shows up as ‘Toll Free’ on TrueCaller. The email ID was found to be working when tested. There is a different email ID given on the Refunds page that has been created using a free service (GMail). The address provided is not the same as the company’s registered address. I could not locate it on Google and therefore could not verify whether it is real.
There are quite a few reviews available for Hero-Shoes on TrustPilot, Web of Trust and Facebook. The reviews are overwhelmingly negative as customers have complained that they have not received their shoes even four months after placing the order. They also say that customer service is unresponsive. Allegedly, in one case, a customer was given a fake tracking number.
The chances are quite high that Hero-Shoes is a scam. It seems to be a dropshipping store that orders shoes from China. As a result, the prices on the website are ridiculously inflated. Hero-Shoes is operating under two different domain names – heroshoe.co and hero-shoes.com. The reviews on the website have apparently been written before the website was even created, indicating that they are fake.
Hero-Shoes has three different Facebook pages for no discernible reason. The phone number and address could not be verified to be legitimate. The website provides two email addresses, both of which seem to be working. However, customers have complained that they have not received any response after sending the company emails. It seems that orders placed since the creation of the website have not yet been delivered.
Much like KayceeBeauty, Hero-Shoes seems to be a dropshipping store that has suffered the brunt of the global lockdown. The website is engaging in some shady marketing practices that make me doubt whether Hero-Shoes is a genuine operation that prioritizes customer satisfaction. It is advisable to avoid shopping on Hero-Shoes, as there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that orders have actually been delivered.
Tip: Dropshippers exist only as middlemen who create flashy e-stores and sell products of other sellers at a high markup. When you shop at these e-stores, they simply place an order on your behalf and pocket the difference. You can save yourself quite a bit of money by checking whether the same products are available on reputed sites like Aliexpress and Amazon. Not only will it be cheaper, but you will also have a better experience with customer service if something goes wrong with the order.
How to Get Your Money Back from a Scam
Remember: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
If you have been the victim of an ecommerce scam, you can take the following steps:
- Lodge a complaint at the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
- File a complaint with the payment portal and ask whether the payment can be reversed.
- File a complaint with the Consumer Complaints Forum
- Leave a negative review on review portals such as Scamadviser, TrustPilot, OnlineThreatAlerts and SiteJabber
- Report the website to Google using the Suspicious Site Reporter extension for Chrome
- Give a low rating to the website on Web of Trust. You can also install their extension for the same.
Disclaimer: This review is intended for information only and should not be relied on when making financial or business decisions. If you are a website owner and would like to provide clarifications regarding your business and/or website, please get in touch using the Contact Form.