Amazon rant

wsuffa

wsuffa

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Bill S.
Once again, Amazon has sent me a product listed as "new" that was very obviously previously used. I'll have to test it tomorrow when the system part I need arrives, but this won't be the first time.

I call it fraud. Others may view it differently. Last time it happened, I tried to leave a review and they rejected it because it was critical of them.

Beware.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Was it provided by Amazon, or was it via the Seller Marketplace?
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Thats the chief problem with Amazon, third party vendors. Anytime I've had trouble, its been because of that. They should do a better job differentiating what Amazon is selling directly, and what is a vendor. Or do a better job policing and vetting their vendors.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Was it provided by Amazon, or was it via the Seller Marketplace?
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Sold and shipped by Amazon.

This is NOT a third party vendor issue. (Same with my prior purchases).

This looks like it was a return that Amazon just put back on the shelf without even looking in the box.
 
Don't know if it meets the legal definition of "fraud" - but it's fraud in my book.

Another reason why I don't buy any. single. thing. from amazon
 
wsuffa said:
Sold and shipped by Amazon.

This is NOT a third party vendor issue. (Same with my prior purchases).

This looks like it was a return that Amazon just put back on the shelf without even looking in the box.
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Most (all?) returns to amazon are liquidated and not restocked. So it's unlikely that amazon was the one trying to pull a fast one.
 
We just had this happen with [shockingly] an air purifier; obvious return, filter had grill pattern in dust! I seriously doubt that Amazon returns are "liquidated", unless, by that, you mean "returned to stock".
 
My wife and I buy all kinds of stuff on Amazon, and I've never had anything that has looked used.
 
I've gotten used stuff a couple times. Once an older model item in a newer box. I expect someone traded up using a return assuming Amazon didn't check that closely. And they didn't. No problem getting the correct item though.
 
172andyou said:
Most (all?) returns to amazon are liquidated and not restocked. So it's unlikely that amazon was the one trying to pull a fast one.
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If not Amazon, who? This was sold and shipped by Amazon.

and it’s not the first time
 

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wsuffa said:
If not Amazon, who? This was sold and shipped by Amazon.

and it’s not the first time
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I dunno. But I can see a system where you buy it from Amazon. They then forward the order to the vendor who ships it out. With Amazon labels, stickers etc on it.
 
I have a love/hate relationship with the Zon. I do have Prime, and yes I use it. And I have utilized the return feature even though I really hate returning stuff.

The love is Prime, where I can order (like Wiley Coyote) at will, free shipping, the stuff I can't find in my store or Wally World and its on my doorstep the next day.

The hate: The way they treat KDP authors. They host Kindle Direct Publishing, which, well...

I fall in to the category of authors that are probably within the top 1 percent of self published authors out there. The average self published author sells a copy to their mother and that is it. Me, I actually have a following.

The problem is they have this program called 'Select' where people can pay a flat rate and download a number of Select titles for free.
The penalty to the author is that if they want to be in this program, they have to be exclusive to Amazon.

The payout for this is similar to if you sold an ebook outright. You get paid something like one cent per some number of pages read (they track that) and it ends up being about what an outright sale would be, if the person reads the whole book.

The problem here is two fold. First, scammers learned to game the system. Secondly, it was a very, easy, venue to promote. You could approach reading clubs, you could approach a lot of venues that are off the radar of normal marketing channels

And I did it well. I sold a hell of a lot of books through the streaming 'Select' program and my income from that far exceeded my outright sales.

And Amazon didn't like that. They assumed I was gaming the system and stripped about six thousand dollars of earned royalty from me.

Oh yeah, I am on fire, but not enough to take them on. Fighting them would be futile.
 
luvflyin said:
I dunno. But I can see a system where you buy it from Amazon. They then forward the order to the vendor who ships it out. With Amazon labels, stickers etc on it.
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Amazon is the vendor in this case. No third party.

this is an earlier purchase made from them. Again, sold and shipped by Amazon.

it’s not OK - is basically fraud. Of course, not like my state will take it up (A is building HQ2 in the state) nor will the Wash Post, which is owned by Bezos. They are too big to take down.
 

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I dunno if this changed since he, uh "retired" but up until not too long ago, you could email jeff@amazon.com and get well taken care of. Bezos replied to only a very few messages that went there, but supposedly he did read every one.

My personal experience with doing so: I ordered about $10,000 worth of stuff across maybe three big orders. I can't remember exactly why, but something got tripped up with the credit card payment, I went back and forth with them for a couple of days attempting some verifications, and eventually their system cancelled my orders and I had to start over. It took 3 weeks from the original orders to get the stuff that I had ordered.

I emailed jeff@amazon.com, explained what happened, and almost immediately got back an apology and a note saying they would "make it right". I expected maybe a $100 gift card or something like that.

Nope - They gave me half off the entire order. $5,000 credited back to the card. :eek: So, I'd say it's worth a shot. They do try to do things right at the corporate level, it seems, and I'm sure they'd appreciate knowing about your experience.

BTW, I've also heard that Bezos once called the guy who was in charge of their customer service department into his office and laid into him about long hold times. The guy denied that there were long hold times up and down... So Bezos dialed the number himself, put it on speakerphone, and glared at the guy for 20 minutes until the phone was answered, and fired him on the spot.
 
I’ve only gotten one used item when I bought new. It was a robot vacuum and the product was clearly used. Called them up and they sent me a new one within a few days.
 
I'm most interested in not having this happen again.

It wouldn't be acceptable in the brick-and-mortar world. It shouldn't be acceptable for Amazon. In a lot of places, the local consumer affairs and attorneys general would be all over a brick-and-mortar store if they did this ****.

I know I can return it. And if it doesn't work, I will. But that won't stop Amazon from continuing to sell used crap as "new". They can put the used/returned crap on Woot and label it as such. Heck, they can sell it on Amazon as long as they label it as such.

@flyingcheesehead - Kent, I'll look into that, though Bezos has stepped down from a lot of the Amazon stuff.
 
My wife and I have used Amazon (for better or worse) a ton over the past 3-4 years. Mostly for odds/ends as well as baby/kid toys and such. Probably in excess of 100 purchases over that time period, from $5 obscure electronics parts to $700 car stereos. Never a single package missed, damaged, or re-packaged as new. We very well could be the outliers in this instance, but I suspect @wsuffa may be the real outlier in the case with two experiences of having a product being shipped as new when it was clearly used (at least opened prior). I'm not going to act like Amazon is some great company that I couldn't live without, but they sure are convenient and often one of the lowest cost suppliers (which is often supplied with 3rd party vendors).
 
There's no way to keep it from happening. Amazon has essentially become an online flea market and has no interest in fixing the problem. Same with their review system. I consider my time too valuable to have to constantly deal with returns and therefore shop elsewhere for anything that's actually important (such as electronics).

But I know I'm also in the minority, which is why Amazon will happily keep fulfilling orders in the least amount of time possible without verification of the actual product.
 
kayoh190 said:
There's no way to keep it from happening. Amazon has essentially become an online flea market and has no interest in fixing the problem. Same with their review system. I consider my time too valuable to have to constantly deal with returns and therefore shop elsewhere for anything that's actually important (such as electronics).

But I know I'm also in the minority, which is why Amazon will happily keep fulfilling orders in the least amount of time possible without verification of the actual product.
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Eh, usually I disregard 1-star and 5-star ratings on ANY website. The 3/4-star ratings are where you gain any meaningful commentary from actual buyers. There is no authority vetting those reviews on most any website, so I can't knock Amazon for not being any better at it. Most of the "bot" ratings are easy enough to spot.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Eh, usually I disregard 1-star and 5-star ratings on ANY website. The 3/4-star ratings are where you gain any meaningful commentary from actual buyers. There is no authority vetting those reviews on most any website, so I can't knock Amazon for not being any better at it. Most of the "bot" ratings are easy enough to spot.
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I don't blame Amazon for this - just the nature of growing to that size and therefore having to deal with crappy humans doing crappy human stuff. When I did a computer upgrade a little over a year ago 4 of the 8 packages (all from Amazon itself, not 3rd party) contained very-close-but-not-exact items in what appeared to be unmolested packaging. The RAM I had to send back twice. It was very well done, and I don't blame Amazon for not being able to notice. Their customer service is good and they make it easy to return items. But it's still something I'd prefer not to deal with. I used to use Amazon all the time and 95% of the stuff I bought was fine, but with price matching and free shipping being the norm I gradually started shopping elsewhere and haven't been disappointed.

I'm still using Amazon for the little convenience stuff - things I can't buy easily at a corner store. It's certainly nice to get pretty much anything you want that same day!
 
wsuffa said:
If not Amazon, who? This was sold and shipped by Amazon.
and it’s not the first time
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One of the common scams is to register with Amazon as a vendor. Ship counterfeit or used goods to the warehouse with the same UPC codes as the legitimate ones and hope you get away with it long enough to turn a profit. That's most commonly how bad goods end up being "sold and shipped by amazon".
 
wsuffa said:
I'm most interested in not having this happen again.
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My experience is that amazon also wants it to not happen again. Report it to them, it helps them identify and shut down bad actors in the supply chain.
 
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