6 ms·

I recently ordered a cheap product from a vendor in china. As I found out later this vendor has 99% negative reviews that all say the same: money taken, product

I recently ordered a cheap product from a vendor in china. As I found out later this vendor has 99% negative reviews that all say the same: money taken, product not delivered, and this has been going on for months. At least I got my money back after a comlaint. I find it unbelievable that you can scam for months and still be a vendor on amazon.

setq 10y ago
Well they have your cash during the time between the purchase and the refund and may have a 20% no complaint rate so it might still pay to let them sell nothing.
- tyingq 10y ago
  They also get a monthly fee from the seller, even if the seller sells zero products.
  - dangrossman 10y ago
    The monthly subscription is optional. You can pay $0.99 per sale instead and nothing monthly. https://services.amazon.com/selling/pricing.htm https://services.amazon.com/selling/pricing.htm
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
ethbro 10y ago
The design of listing supposedly identical products by multiple vendors under the same entry needs to be revisited. It's great for competition and price pressure, but completely fails when dealing with generic items and vendors aren't held to account for outright fraud.
philliphaydon 10y ago
Not sure why you single China out. It can be any vendor. I bought an intervalometer for my camera for $30 2 weeks ago. Took 8 days. Works great. Done the job. Chinese brand and shipped from china. Bought some clothes from UK. Never arrived. Amazon refunded. Amazon is great. But any vendor can be as dodgy as any eBay seller.
- adrianN 10y ago
  Maybe they single out China because they're relaying their personal experience with a seller who happens to be from China.
  - taeric 10y ago
    I think the point is that the "from China" is actually unneeded information. Worse, it can help build xenophobia. Consider, the story is just as powerful with "I ordered from a vendor who had a ton of negative reviews for not delivering products." Even better, that instructs to start paying attention to reviews, and not origin of vendor. :)
    - kbenson 10y ago
      It's rather amazing how when you call out people's preconception they hold strongly, you'll easily get downvoted here, regardless of how well founded or supported that preconception is. If the original comment had mentioned how the purchase was from a black vendor, or a gay vendor, people would be up in arms about what that unjustly implies, and how without any sort of data to back that it's just stereotyping (at best). Do it for China, where people already have a strong preconception of the types of vendors present, and all that rational separation of anecdote and data and needing to justify your statements goes right out the window. This isn't to say you can't call out vendors from China if you suspect they are a problem in higher proportions than other vendors. The original comment could have included "I suspect this may be a problem exhibited more often from vendors from China, but don't have data to back that up" or more strong statements with some data, but did not. Instead we have a statement that only adds to the comment when combined with your own preconceptions, since it adds nothing to the circumstances of the described situation without your own preconceptions.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - Chris2048 10y ago
        Ordering from a black/gay vendor is not as unrelated as ordering from a different country, with different consumer laws and regulations. > rational separation of anecdote and data and needing to justify your statements No statement was made though. An anecdote simply provided additional data, and you objected on the basis of what people might assume. > but don't have data to back that up You might also assume that from no data being provided, and indeed, no claim being made. > we have a statement that only adds to the comment when combined with your own preconceptions or allows another thread on the topic to emerge, in this case if it's relevant that China was involved, causing someone with knowledge on the topic to comment.
lol768 10y ago
I had almost a completely identical experience. Ordered, waited a month and nothing. Went to look at the seller's reviews .. and they were all 1/5 negative saying the product was never delivered. The A-Z guarantee got me my money back but I wasn't impressed the seller was allowed to continue doing this for so long. After I complained, the seller appeared to have all their items removed from Amazon. As an aside, you can generally trust the FBA items from 3rd party sellers.
Semaphor 10y ago
We are showing self-made (because the widgets amazon offers are crap) widgets for the products our articles talk about. Luckily we have the prices from other merchants to compare the amazon prices to, and could implement a filter for unreasonable prices (way over uvp or way below what other merchants ask for). Amazon is full of scammers.

setq 10y ago

Well they have your cash during the time between the purchase and the refund and may have a 20% no complaint rate so it might still pay to let them sell nothing.

tyingq 10y ago
They also get a monthly fee from the seller, even if the seller sells zero products.
- dangrossman 10y ago
  The monthly subscription is optional. You can pay $0.99 per sale instead and nothing monthly. https://services.amazon.com/selling/pricing.htm https://services.amazon.com/selling/pricing.htm
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

ethbro 10y ago

The design of listing supposedly identical products by multiple vendors under the same entry needs to be revisited. It's great for competition and price pressure, but completely fails when dealing with generic items and vendors aren't held to account for outright fraud.

philliphaydon 10y ago

Not sure why you single China out. It can be any vendor. I bought an intervalometer for my camera for $30 2 weeks ago. Took 8 days. Works great. Done the job. Chinese brand and shipped from china. Bought some clothes from UK. Never arrived. Amazon refunded. Amazon is great. But any vendor can be as dodgy as any eBay seller.

adrianN 10y ago
Maybe they single out China because they're relaying their personal experience with a seller who happens to be from China.
- taeric 10y ago
  I think the point is that the "from China" is actually unneeded information. Worse, it can help build xenophobia. Consider, the story is just as powerful with "I ordered from a vendor who had a ton of negative reviews for not delivering products." Even better, that instructs to start paying attention to reviews, and not origin of vendor. :)
  - kbenson 10y ago
    It's rather amazing how when you call out people's preconception they hold strongly, you'll easily get downvoted here, regardless of how well founded or supported that preconception is. If the original comment had mentioned how the purchase was from a black vendor, or a gay vendor, people would be up in arms about what that unjustly implies, and how without any sort of data to back that it's just stereotyping (at best). Do it for China, where people already have a strong preconception of the types of vendors present, and all that rational separation of anecdote and data and needing to justify your statements goes right out the window. This isn't to say you can't call out vendors from China if you suspect they are a problem in higher proportions than other vendors. The original comment could have included "I suspect this may be a problem exhibited more often from vendors from China, but don't have data to back that up" or more strong statements with some data, but did not. Instead we have a statement that only adds to the comment when combined with your own preconceptions, since it adds nothing to the circumstances of the described situation without your own preconceptions.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - Chris2048 10y ago
      Ordering from a black/gay vendor is not as unrelated as ordering from a different country, with different consumer laws and regulations. > rational separation of anecdote and data and needing to justify your statements No statement was made though. An anecdote simply provided additional data, and you objected on the basis of what people might assume. > but don't have data to back that up You might also assume that from no data being provided, and indeed, no claim being made. > we have a statement that only adds to the comment when combined with your own preconceptions or allows another thread on the topic to emerge, in this case if it's relevant that China was involved, causing someone with knowledge on the topic to comment.

lol768 10y ago

I had almost a completely identical experience. Ordered, waited a month and nothing. Went to look at the seller's reviews .. and they were all 1/5 negative saying the product was never delivered. The A-Z guarantee got me my money back but I wasn't impressed the seller was allowed to continue doing this for so long. After I complained, the seller appeared to have all their items removed from Amazon. As an aside, you can generally trust the FBA items from 3rd party sellers.

Semaphor 10y ago

We are showing self-made (because the widgets amazon offers are crap) widgets for the products our articles talk about. Luckily we have the prices from other merchants to compare the amazon prices to, and could implement a filter for unreasonable prices (way over uvp or way below what other merchants ask for). Amazon is full of scammers.