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Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

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Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#241

Post by Godel_unicode »

URSpider94 wrote: post #236
jrockway wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least for camera equipment, this does exist. You can take your camera to B&H's used department, and they will buy it from you. You can also go to B&H's used department and buy a used camera from them. The advantage of this over Amazon is that as a seller, you know B&H isn't going to screw you over in any way, and if they do, you know where to serve your lawsuit. A trusted business with a physical location is the c…

Sure, but B&H is probably going to take a good 30% premium in that transaction, if not more. Which is certainly better than losing a camera and getting 0% back... Over 1000 transactions, you’d do better selling on Amazon. On one transaction, your statistical outcome is still the same, but you run the risk of hitting that one bad outcome.

How can you possibly know what the expected value is of selling high price commodities on Amazon?

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#242

Post by peteretep »

tempestn wrote: post #157
CamelCaseName wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost. The correct condition would be "Used - Like New" [0] The reason why this matters is because "New" items are grouped in a separate tab/link on the product detail page. Frankly speaking, selling anything other than sealed products in perfect conditions as "New" opens you up to misery. [0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

I don't know, that page seems a bit ambiguous to me: > New: Just like it sounds. A brand-new, item. Original manufacturer's warranty, if any, still applies, with warranty details included in the listing comments. Original packaging is present for most New items but certain items like shoes may be re-boxed. > Used - Like New or Open Box: An item in perfect working condition. Original protective wrapping may be missing…

> which has had the box opened and then the items re-packed into it as they originally were (in perfect condition, in their original wrap, unused, no fingerprints, etc.)

Sounds like a good way to receive products that failed customer QA, and that the customer can't return themselves for some reason.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#243

Post by schoen »

joshspankit wrote: post #192
canada_dry wrote: post #56

This is such a basic issue that I don't understand why USPS or some other shipper w/ bricks-n-mortar haven't stepped up to offer some sort of package shipping certification. If I was the seller it could work as simply as me bringing the item to a shipper who would take their own photos and weigh the items being packaged up as well as some check that the item is as being described to the recipient. In turn the shipper…

There’s one risk that seems to be being missed: Fraud by delivery company staff. Someone might choose to risk their job for a verified $2k+ package. Moreso if they ended up with a truck full...

Maybe the delivery company would store the information about the verification in a database that only the sender could initially access (but also including an ID that the recipient could verify after the sender provided the appropriate URL). So shipping company staff other than the one who performed the verification wouldn't easily be able to learn about its results.

(Maybe this, in turn, would create some other bad incentive or opportunity for fraud.)

Another random idea: law enforcement agencies could conduct sting operations where they buy and sell valuable items online (with extremely thorough documentation of the shipments sent or received), and then criminally prosecute counterparties who commit outright frauds. E.g. maybe 0.05% of the people buying or selling expensive cameras would be police and prosecutors who would try hard to send you to prison if you tried one of these scams against them.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#245

Post by axaxs »

undersuit wrote: post #218
monomad1 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a lamp for a rear projection tv a couple years ago. It burned out after a month. Amazon let me return it, but charged a restocking fee. That would've been fine, but I haven't been able to review the product for over a year now. Fuck amazon - newegg is cheaper anyway.

Newegg has problems too. All my friends have RMA horror stories with them, mine is having to pay $50 and shipping because the plastic PCI-E retention clip broke when I was disassembling my new computer with DOA motherboard for an RMA. Also, Newegg gave up on maintaining their reliable filtering tools for third party sellers.

Mine is returning a phone, and having them ask for my Gmail password three times. Maybe it's my fault I didn't disassociate something prior to factory reset, but the phone was fine. And new. They claimed they couldn't complete the return until they had full access. That alone tells me they are selling used phones as new. After I refused, they told me to just change it to something temporarily so they could log in. I demanded the phone back, and promptly donated it as is.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#246

Post by totalZero »

crazygringo wrote: post #203
tempestn wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, that page seems a bit ambiguous to me: > New: Just like it sounds. A brand-new, item. Original manufacturer's warranty, if any, still applies, with warranty details included in the listing comments. Original packaging is present for most New items but certain items like shoes may be re-boxed. > Used - Like New or Open Box: An item in perfect working condition. Original protective wrapping may be missing…

There is zero ambiguity in that. If the box had any kind of shrink wrap, adhesive seal, or anything else that's now missing or broken, it is unambiguously "Used - Like New or Open Box". That's literally what "open box" means. As I buyer, I would absolutely have a problem buying, say, a new MacBook on Amazon that was missing its original shrink-wrap. It's simple: is there any detectable difference from how you bought…

When I bought my Canon camera new from an authorized dealer, it didn't come with a seal nor overwrap. I do agree with you, but not all products are sealed.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#247

Post by totalZero »

ikeboy wrote: post #150
jfim wrote: post #4

Wouldn't that be a good small claims court case? There's good documentation that the item has been shipped, and the seller is out of both the money and the camera.

Amazon may suspend your account for doing so. It happened in the case I linked at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22388122

Sure, but they're still the losers here. They lose a nonprofessional seller but also, there is a legal record of potentially unfair practices. Most companies don't want that kind of information out there.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#248

Post by gefh »

_underfl0w_ wrote: post #123
filoleg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EBay in 2017 was a giant shitshow (and probably still is, but I don't use it anymore). Both their security and support are complete trash, even if you happen to be lucky (like me) and they reply quickly. I woke up one morning to get an email notification thanking me for purchasing a back bumper, a wing, and a few other parts for a 2012 Hyundai Genesis, which I obviously don't have and neither have I made that purchas…

This is really bad advice, but remember that two can play at this game. You have this idiot's real name and address, as well as the make and model of the car they drive. Food for thought.

Quite possibly an innocent address the fraudster is using as a dead drop.

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#249

Post by thinkloop »

Chinjut wrote: post #189
milankragujevic wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please do not copy and paste comments, only link to them instead, if on HN. See this comment by @dang: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22122334 (and similar comments - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ) * I know I don't have the authority to say this, I just want to be helpful.

To save you a click, what @dang says in the first link is: Please don't copy/paste comments on HN. It lowers the signal/noise ratio and makes for pain when we go to merge duplicate threads. If you want to refer to something you posted elsewhere, please use a link. Better still, when you see a split discussion, email hn@ycombinator.com so we can merge them. We'll make sure your comment ends up in the winning thread. h…

> makes for pain when we go to merge duplicate threads

This was interesting. Would it only be an issue if the copied comment was a root comment of the article? Otherwise the copied comment would be under a different branch without possibility of collision with the copy under a different branch. If that the case?

Re: Amazon let a fraudster keep my Sony A74 IV and refunded him

#250

Post by bufferoverflow »

canada_dry wrote: post #56

This is such a basic issue that I don't understand why USPS or some other shipper w/ bricks-n-mortar haven't stepped up to offer some sort of package shipping certification. If I was the seller it could work as simply as me bringing the item to a shipper who would take their own photos and weigh the items being packaged up as well as some check that the item is as being described to the recipient. In turn the shipper…

You can still fool that system by shipping a broken camera. USPS won't be checking the functionality.
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