I hope you get enough social media visibility to get your money back.
I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
121–130 of 447 posts
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#122filing the chargeback is a good idea... but also, the sender made a critical mistake sending it usps.. that makes it mail fraud. Talk to the US Postal Inspection Service, it's a branch of law enforcement, and I'm sure they would be very interested with all of the evidence youve collected. They can cross state lines and arrest the sender. https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/
This! They have just committed mail fraud and since they thought they were hidden behind amazon, all it takes is one postal inspector to request the banking details of the payout and now there is a person on the hook. You've already done the legwork. Take this to the proper authorities.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#123I don't even buy anything that is not sold via Prime. I assume anything non-prime is of the lowest possible quality or a scam. For some reason I feel comfortable with prime thinking that the items have had some sort of quality approval. (at least getting my item as described and expected.)
Prime doesn't mean it's sold by Amazon. It can be a third party seller using Fulled by Amazon services. And in that case, the item may not even come from the specific seller you're buying from, because of inventory commingling - they put all of the sellers' inventories into one big bin and send you any of them. What you may be looking for is "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com". But there have been reports that even t…
> the item may not even come from the specific seller you're buying from, because of inventory commingling - they put all of the sellers' inventories into one big bin and send you any of them.
Yeah, but in that case you're at least very likely to be getting the item you ordered. I've got the same policy for ordering stuff from Amazon - if it's prime and does from their warehouse I'll trust it. Haven't been burned yet, and the occasional mistake is always cleared up, usually with a 1 month credit to my prime subscription.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
One potential problem with that is that Amazon can retaliate by closing the users's account if they didn't agree with the charge-back even if they're unsuccessful at fighting it. That can be really difficult to deal with if you're also using AWS for hosting or other things.
Uh... isn't it obvious that you should never use your personal shopping/Prime account for business-critical services?
Yes, that would be common sense. The problem with common sense is that it's not very common.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#125In 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.
Read first, comment later!
He called initially and then decided to start emailing so he can add he's own extra details to the emails and have a paper trail.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author appealed, stating that the delivery address was incorrect. Amazon's rejected the appeal on the basis that the tracking information "shows that someone at your address signed for the package." That's not a mysterious hole that low-level employees are unaware of, that's just inattention on the part of whoever was handling the appeal.
The point was more that "mysterious hole" and "innatention" are mostly the same thing. My words were "scams are hard to detect" and I stand by them. The people you want to be more attentive make hourly wages and probably see thousands of these appeals every week, statistically none of which are creative scams worthy of arguing about on HN. You're asking too much. Those employees don't exist. You have to get over thei…
> My words were "scams are hard to detect" and I stand by them.
Amazon had nothing to detect here. The author did all the job and provided all the evidence. What was required by Amazon was to acknowledge the facts.
If the people that are supposed to provide assistance are not paid enough or have too much work to do to pay attention to what is written in an email, Amazon should, well, pay them more and/or don't overwork them.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#127Be wary of Amazon closing your account due to the credit card charge back dispute.
I had Amazon close my account several years ago due to a credit card number change right when I made a purchase. It was hell getting them to re-open my account and take my payment for the product I ordered and received.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#128I'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…
My only bad experiences with Amazon has been with 3rd parties. From minor things like misrepresentations of when items will ship (very frequent), to poor packaging (also common), to really crappy quality products. I now buy on Amazon only if it's sold and fulfilled by Amazon.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#129I'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…
I've pretty much switched most of my online shopping over to eBay instead of Amazon because of this. Before Amazon opened the floodgates to 3rd party sellers, I had much more confidence that I wasn't going to get scammed there or buy some counterfeit junk. Now it's probably equal likelihood as on eBay. Most of what I buy is cheaper on eBay and almost everything comes with free shipping, so the balance now favors eBay.
For things that I absolutely 100% want to get without the hassle of dealing with fraud, I'm back to the online stores of traditional retail places. :(
If Amazon could clean house of all that trash, I'd probably move my shopping back.
Re: I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon
#130Earlier 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…
I just don't see how Amazon isn't the go to. Anything handled directly by Amazon generally has the most competitive pricing, near guarantee of two day delivery or faster, and far larger selection than any other individual store. I cannot think of any general purpose store off the top of my head I would prioritize over Amazon.
To be clear, there are some specific purchases I would not make over Amazon. Amazon's clothing section is a complete joke, for example. I also like B&H, and use them when buying high end equipment.