Lol, well maybe he deserved it buying those things and at $750…one born every minute…
[quote=“SpoofyChop, post:98, topic:128012, full:true”]Clearly a scam but I’m not sure I get how it works. Do they buy a bunch of stuff from themselves and then build up a good store rating to start the real scam in earnest?
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Apparently the scam is that they actually won’t send anything, and hope that they get their first payment from Amazon before the account gets shut down due to complaints.
I can’t imagine how this is possible.
Amazon doesn’t pay sellers in real time as far as i’m aware. Unless you’re an old grandfathered account, you get paid roughly ever 1-2 weeks. I think it is two weeks.
If your account goes under review for whatever reason, amazon holds a very large percentage of your money to do refunds in case you crash and burn.
if your did not arrive stat goes above 3-4% (from memory), your account will be put under review and/or suspended.
I’m not sure about non USA sellers on amazon.com though. Potentially they can have their transit time high enough that it will work, maybe? Seems unlikely though and as soon as a few people amazon A-Z refund you, you’re basically done.
Also as far as fees go, I don’t have any experience selling TVs, but Amazon is not dumb. In the categories i’ve sold in there is a fixed value and a percentage. I imagine if i sold you something for $5, amazon would charge me around $3-4 (Amazon does not want low value items being sold by 3rd party merchants). These rules do vary by type of item though, so this could be completely wrong for TVs.
Two weeks is the number I’ve heard too. But I imagine it’s easy to string people along for a few weeks before they contact customer service to complain or file a review. And this process must be so easy to automate that it’s probably profitable if they can just get out with a few hundred dollars before Amazon disables them.
(Looks like somebody made a website that tries to detect these sellers: https://www.scamsellers.com/about)
It’s got to be a lot like phishing. They only need one out of hundred or a thousand to make it worthwhile. How long does it take Amazon to take one down and what prevents them from making another bogus account?
Just caught up on this thread since February and I think there’s a critical aspect of the counterfeit issue that wasn’t the focus of the conversation:
Has anyone here ever bought anything where the seller was Amazon (not “fulfilled by”) and gotten a used or defective product?
I would never buy an SD card on Amazon from a third-party seller. But I’ve bought plenty where Amazon was the seller and had no issues at all.
I’ll only buy things from third-party or fulfilled by on Amazon where there’s little risk of getting a bad product – IE, books, primarily.
They co-mingle. It’'s not only possible but noted in multiple places that you can get a counterfeit from Amazon. I mentioned this somewhere already.
The reason it’s in the news this week is that even books aren’t a safe haven:
http://www.inc.com/sonya-mann/amazon-counterfeits-no-starch.html
(And yes, those were apparently being sold directly by Amazon, not just fulfilled by amazon).
I saw nowhere in that article that confirmed that those books were “sold by Amazon” On the other hand, the book issue was discussed directly when they talked about issues with “fulfilled by Amazon” orders. They also pointed out that the only ways 3rd party product can be sold on Amazon is either self shipped or fulfilled by amazon. 3rd party goods are not listed as sold by Amazon. If you know other wise, please provide a link to the info. I use amazon a lot and if there is actual proof of this kind of thing, then I would like to know.
Its been my experience that if you decide to step out from the protection of “sold by amazon”, you should understand that there are risks as a major part of the process is out of Amazons hands. This has been made clear several times. It is what it is and if you understand that and get screwed, well you took your chances. Ive dealt with Amazon for over 10 years and have never had a issue with their service. I do not regularly buy 3rd party though because I understand the risks. If I do decided on a 3rd party product, I vette it as thoroughly as I can and if I run intro a hint that they may not be legit I dont order.
There are no real risks for the customer other than annoyance. Amazon will 100% stick behind you basically no matter what for the first 30 days. Probably even a ways beyond that.
Admittedly i do not buy big ticket items from anyone on amazon other than direct amazon, but that is more to due with longer term warranty stuff.
I think this is one the latest bits about the issue.Amazon claims they are trying to address counterfeits this year. The used as new thing is still a part of it though. It’s kind of an odd duck to have because by avoiding all Third Party Sellers, people can easily wind up avoiding the company that actually makes the product they want. A number of them sell directly on Amazon.
Not for most products, but for a few, like power adapters, counterfeits have been known to catch fire or even electrocute people.
That is just not true, as has been pointed out multiple times in this thread. The inventory from the “fulfilled by Amazon” sellers is mixed together with Amazon’s own inventory. When you buy a product, be it fulfilled by Amazon or sold by Amazon, you’re getting a random item from that pool. The only exception are sellers who don’t co-mingle their stock. But that costs them extra, and obviously anyone sending counterfeits to the Amazon warehouse would always choose to commingle.
And yes, there’s no risk in the sense that Amazon will accept a return. But that’s still a lot of trouble, and you need to realize that you’ve received a dud.
I bought a light bulb from a third party seller in Hong Kong, 6 weeks delivery, and it never came. It was only $5. I haven’t even bothered to complain to Amazon about it, though I suppose I should just to not be a part of the problem.
I had a Hong Kong 6 - 8 week delivery item ($20) never arrive. I complained directly to the seller, and they apologized and sent me a new shipment by the “fastest” means available (4 weeks). It did eventually show up, so I was happy. If it hadn’t, I would have been outside of Amazon’s normal refund window, though.
Anyone getting shipment from Amazon through their own delivery service yet?
For the first time they sent something to me using their own service this week. It has not gone well. The package, which is a small bottle of eye drops, was supposed to be delivered Friday. They wouldn’t leave it on my porch, even though every other delivery service does. Then they marked my package as lost. Then it went out for delivery Saturday, but there was an error (I don’t know what). Now my address is marked as undeliverable and they are telling me I need to provide a new address.
If they would have sent it USPS, like they do with 90% of the stuff I have ordered, it would have cost them about $2 and it would have been in my secure mailbox on Friday. On top of that, they have given me a free month of Prime over this. Seems a costly business decision on their part.
If this is the new norm, I will be using Amazon a lot less.
We’ve been getting a lot more of the new Amazon contractor delivery here in suburban Atlanta. Our experience hasn’t been as bad as yours, but we’ve seen similar issues with incorrectly documented mis-deliveries and late deliveries.
I’m sure they’ve switched because this delivery method is less expensive for them. But it does seem comparatively worse. And UPS does not set a high bar to begin with.
Diego
I just use the drop off lockers, so much easier and pick it up when I am ready. Much easier than hoping it gets left with a neighbour or somewhere else near the house.
Thanks for the idea. I just checked and a grocery store close by has lockers. Any drawbacks involved with using them? Not ideal, but I can’t say I am comfortable with getting expensive stuff left at my door all day when I am at work.
Guy near me had Amazon put his package in his mailbox. USPS picked it up. When they realized what address was on the package they re-delivered it, postage due. He was charged another $5.00 for a package that was already delivered.