It's very unfortunate, when the same thing happened to me amazon refunded me straight away, they acknowledged the person who signed the package was not me and I had my money back straight away.
I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
111–120 of 447 posts
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#112a similar scam has been going on for a while, with at least video games, board games, and bike gear, from what I've seen on Amazon Canada. Third party sellers with a "real" looking name will list an item at a ridiculous discount off retail. If you buy it, you get a Chinese international tracking number. This takes forever to "arrive" and it turns out Amazon only really cares that the tracking number shows to Canada.…
This happens with books too, though in these cases it can be more difficult to spot beforehand (e.g. 20-30% off a cover price isn't too unusual). However, if the seller has _every_ book listed for the same price, something is very obviously wrong. From those I've seen, it looks as though old and/or inactive accounts have been compromised. These have a decent history, possibly even a positive feedback rating, but no a…
on .ca they seem to be newer accounts, often "FIRSTNAME LASTNAME" "located" in the US somewhere.
Totally forgot the _every_ book thing - they also sometimes have items that aren't actually released yet, but are available for immediate shipping, which I guess gets them bumped up a bit.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#113I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…
Newegg went through the same bifurcation when it introduced third-party sellers in 2010. It turned a largely hassle-free shopping experience into one where extra care had to be taken to filter out results that weren't sold by Newegg itself. I'd argue that Newegg was more hurt by this than Amazon, because customers were trusting Newegg to deliver a consistent experience at the expense of fewer categories of inventory,…
Didn't I read that Prime loses them money most of the time? I don't think the membership fee is a real replacement for regular revenue streams; it seems to me like the point is more to encourage people to "get their money's worth" by buying from Amazon more.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#114The only way I've got problems solved with Amazon is going to the police and let them sort it out. Worked every time. Amazon was in now way responsive or helpful before I've got the police involved.
I've had great experiences with Amazon the few times something went wrong.
- Had a fire extinguisher shipped to me but the pin apparently got knocked out in the box and it discharged during shipping. They sent out a new fire extinguisher immediately, I got to keep the old one and got it recharged for $10.
- A water filter was held by USPS and I wasn't able to pick it up in time. They sent out a new water filter (different shipping so it got to my door) even before the first one was sent back for non-pickup.
- Ordered through Amazon Fresh and some bread got crushed by a 2L soda. Sent a one-line message to them "Bread was crushed by 2L soda" Bam -- refund for bread.
- Called, questioning a $10 charge I had on my credit card, even though I hadn't ordered anything. They tracked it down to a Prime Video subscription I had made that had ended its "free trial period." I just said "Oh! I was going to cancel that!" and they removed the charge and cancelled it for me right then and there without me even asking. I've never heard of any company doing something like that that easily. In my experience "free trial periods" are just traps trying to get people to forget and let the subscription run, so I didn't even bother asking, but they went ahead and removed it.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
What the brand gains at the expense of quality is MUCH more valuable: the notion that "if I only have time to check one website, Amazon's going to have it because Amazon has EVERYTHING." Adding third-party sellers allows it to have a much larger catalog of obscure items. Any shopper who's been burned will still use Amazon in the way you are, just being careful to filter by Prime and/or Fulfilled by Amazon. So the dam…
The notion that "Amazon has EVERYTHING" only works if you can actually count on the purchase to work. Once it becomes apparent that third-party sellers are crap and those items don't count, you're back to "Amazon has certain things." And I'm not merely careful to filter stuff. Amazon is no longer my go-to in general. I do buy stuff from them sometimes, but they're not the first place I check for most things. A less s…
Frankly, I don't think you're in the majority. Personally, I buy from third-party sellers a lot because I get two-day shipping free and it's easy to shop on Amazon. If I got badly burned I might change my behavior but so far I haven't. I wonder how many even notice the difference.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#116I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…
It's much worse for me now that I have a kid. I of course categorically refuse to buy any kids products from third-party sellers on Amazon, and Amazon provides no good way of filtering them out, so I have started to drive to Target much more often. The secondary benefit is that Target has much better prices than Amazon.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#117Recap as I understand it, since the blog post isn't 0. Buyer purchased item from third-party seller on Amazon 1. Seller picked a name and address in buyer's town, from an obituary, and sent parcel containing two baking mats thereto ( instead of camera lens ) 2. Occupant of that address signed for it believing it to be for the deceased relative 3. USPS updated status to 'delivered' with signature and address recorded…
> I wonder how many items he had to sell before
"The seller had one good review but didn’t appear to be selling anything else." so it looks like maybe just one item
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#118I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…
This 100 times.
I never buy from third-party sellers in Amazon, but I am having such a hard time explaining to friends and family how to do the same. They keep buying from third-party sellers and keep wondering how it is not "Amazon".
I wish there was an option to set it once and never see third-party seller items again.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#119In 2016 I made a couple hundred (yes hundred) purchases on Amazon. Of those, more than a dozen failed to ever arrive. All of the ones that failed were from third-party sellers.
Amazon Customer Service is very willing to work with you if you call directly. (I've also had a $1500 item fail to arrive.) I wouldn't trust their email support though.
Long story short: Pick up the phone.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#120I'm wondering more and more why Amazon hosts third-party sellers at all. They dilute the Amazon brand to a tremendous degree. It used to be that buying from Amazon meant a certain level of quality and service. Now there are really two Amazons: the old one, and a new one that's basically a shitty version of eBay. I have to go out of my way to avoid these crappy third-party sellers when I'm searching for stuff on Amazo…
Agree wholeheartedly. I’ve also been scammed by a third-party Amazon seller, and I half-wonder if they continue to allow third-party sellers as a way to further promote Amazon Prime — when you’re on Prime, you can simply filter out all non-Prime items. You know in your head you don’t have to deal with all the extraneous, spammy crap associated with non-Prime purchases.
Many third-party sellers are included under Prime though.