The seller in question was selling items they didn’t have at a nearly 50% markup.
I had a seller try to pull this shit on Amazon a few years ago. I had bought a wrist rest for my keyboard, the one I’m tolerating at this very second in fact. Amazon’s pages have a stark white background, the wrist rest was black. Even if details came through in the picture, the background of the page would wash it out. I wanted a simple straight wrist rest. This one has what I can only describe as a waist; the part your right hand would rest on is narrower and thus less supportive than the ends. I gave it a 3-star review stating such. The solution I’ve found is to turn it around so it’s facing “backwards” and that puts the narrowest part in between my hands.
The seller emails me asking if there’s anything they can do to make it right. So far, we’re okay. I just say no, it’s not worth bothering with on my end. They kept getting pushier about changing my review to 5 stars until I contacted Amazon about it.
Somewhere, be it Amazon themselves via the almighty algorithm, or the dropshippers themselves, there is a disconnect from reality. 5-star reviews carry no information, even if they are specific and detailed, the practice of paying or compensating for them is so common that you can just flush them down the toilet with the rest of the piss. It’s the low end that carries the information. I have chosen to buy products based on their 1-star reviews.
For example, I’m invested in the Craftsman V20 power tool system. I went to buy the power inverter they sell for it, that lets you run normal electrical things off of drill batteries, has a NEMA15 socket and a couple USB ports on it. The negative reviews were mostly “Doesn’t run my space heater. Would rate 0 stars if I could. Returned.” I couldn’t find a negative review of the product that didn’t boil down to “I don’t know what 150 watts max means.” Not a problem with the product, it’s a problem with people being ignorant. I bought, and am happy with, the tool.
On the other hand, I went to buy a pocket flashlight, I looked at the negative reviews and many of them said some variation on “tail switch broke after 4 or 5 months.” Ah, this model has a common mode of early failure, I’ll move on.
Honestly when I’m dubious of the quality of a product, I look for the negative reviews. If the only negative reviews are people clearly being dumb or really minor gripes, I take that as a good sign. If there are very few or no negative reviews, that’s a red flag that something fishy is going on.
Username checks out in the best possible way.
Oh this is possibly my least aggravated.
Fair 'nuff
This happened to me once but diff platform. I gave the seller 3 out of 5 stars. Seller messaged me with the same m.o. I changed the stars to 1 and attach the screenshot. Fuck them.
Update it to include being pestered by them to change to a positive review.
To being blackmailed into only receiving a refund if they change their review. I see nothing in there about them giving a refund if they don’t change it first
Change the review, get the refund, change it to a one star and include conversation snippets regarding asking to change the review
I had this on amazon a while back. They offered to send me a new item and refund if I changed my review. They sent the item and refund and I stopped responding.
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My wife bought a Keurig coffee maker on Amazon for a Christmas gift. When it arrived, the box was mailed directly from JCPenny.com. I looked on their website and the coffee maker was $35 cheaper. We learned our lessons about dropshipping and only looking at Amazon for products.
Keep fighting the good fight OP!
Amazon hasn’t been the cheapest for things in a long time. There’s a few segments where they are competitive, but it’s generally only small things that are cheaper to ship. The more people that learn this the better.
There was a time when you could have kitty litter delivered to your home for less than it cost at a local store, but that hasn’t been the case for a almost a decade.
So you returned it and re-bought it from jcpenney.com, right?
Nah, it was a last-minute gift for her mom, and my wife didn’t want to go empty-handed. The bad guys won that day.
I think I’m gonna wait a few days before telling them no. Or maybe just not respond. I’m sure as hell not changing or removing my negative feedback. Clearly my review is worth more to them than the cost of the item.
Just take the item and run. Underhanded tactics deserve underhanded tactics
I left negative feedback for dropshipping
Not all heroes wear capes (unless you do, OP).
I wouldn’t mind wearing a cape lol. Underrated fashion accessory.
Flowy thin capes that just make you look dramatic: cringe, impractical
Heavy, thick capes big enough to drape over a buddy for cuddles: hot + chad
I have to say, wearing a cape at a Renn Faire with colder than expected weather and having my now wife and her friend snuggling under it for warmth felt pretty good.
Wife wore a cape/cloak for our wedding. 10/10 would marry again.
Exception that proves the rule
Order one from him on ebay!
stay safe
Well, that doesn’t feel vaguely threatening at all…
Update the review with a screenshot of their begging.
I’m out of the loop, what’s drop shipping and why is it bad?
The seller just buys the item on Amazon and sends it to your address usually at an inflated price. They sell stock that they don’t own.
To play the role of the annoying five year old, “And why is that bad?”
They offer no service or benefit. They are a needless middleman.
Can’t people just buy directly then, why do they choose to use these dropshippers?
Usually people are unaware they are dealing with a dropshipper.
But if you compare prices, why wouldn’t you go for the lower price?
If you don’t compare prices, well, at that point it’s just on you tbh.
It’s usually over different websites and look like different levels of quality. For example, my friend bought a part of their Halloween costume on etsy, expecting something of decent hand made quality. Instead he got something mass produced from a factory drop shipped from Amazon.
Dropshippers don’t advertise themselves as such.
That’s how modern business operates. Market t is statured and the market aint got a lot of new ways to make money so these “entrepreneurs” just trying to middle man everything 69 times
Best example is any e commmer transactions, so you regular buyer and seller but now you also got amazon, bank, visa, some advertising algo that sells your data…
Jfc I am just trying to buy a pair of fucking socks.
They’re taking your money without providing you any value. It’s dishonest and it’s against eBay’s terms of service (unless they are working directly with the supplier, which I highly doubt is the case.)
It says that a refund is offered and you can still keep it. I see absolutely nothing negative for you. But the answer from another user makes 100% sense. That for later scams as soon as a positive reputation has been built up.
“the thief gave me money to shut up, I see nothing negative for me”
If you just want to get it wrong. In the message itself on the picture there is nothing negative about what OP said with no money back. The answer of another user has explained how the scam is what makes 100% sense. Which also makes it obvious that it serves as an owner bribe. OP just didn’t point that out.
The negative rating and reporting is also correct. I didn’t say anything against that either.
Yes, from the individual person that is a perfect deal, nothing monetary to lose but they can get something. Only other persons will suffer. Which is exactly why everyone here calls it a bribe. Which is why you saying that completely neutral makes it look as if you think that is good and should be done.
What exactly are you arguing for or against at this point?
The point of it is that by exposing them they will have to create a new account to scam with.
Lol Did I say anything against it? No. Did I suggest that the answer from another user makes more sense? Namely exactly what you are now also referring to, that it will be used for future scams. I didn’t say anything against rating the seller badly because it is the right thing to do. That you should definitely report them.
I have not objected to anything. Only that it was said that there is no money back if the picture in the message clearly states that he can keep the item and have his money back. In the message is nothing negative for the OP itself.
If you take the bribe you are as bad as the one offering a bribe.
Take the full refund, proceed to leave the review as is. Best of both.
Take the bribe and update your review to inform people they’re bribing for positive reviews.
Lol I didn’t even begin to talk about that.
It’s a way of farming sales and reputation, to build an account for later scamming with.
A brand new account running a scam gets picked up almost immediately as they’re watched closer. An account that’s been around for 5 years, selling products without reports of fraud, suddenly switching to scams stays under the radar longer.
Great answer. Thank you.
You should suspect it for items with really long delays. They are waiting for a sale or new pricing. They sold you something they don’t have and don’t plan to send until they find it cheaply enough to hit their profit target.
Meanwhile you could have bought from someone who actually has it, direct from the original seller without extra markup, or waited for the same sale they are
They’re short sellers
Also you may be avoiding Amazon, but end up giving them your business against your wishes.
This has been my issue. I’ll order something from a seller and it shows up two days later, delivered by Amazon.
A deliberately deceptive business practice that does nothing to help consumers and only raises prices? If you have to have it explained to you why that is bad, well I’m sorry, but you are beyond saving.
Very kind and polite of you
Why is doing literally nothing but adding cost a bad thing? 🤷♂️ they’re even selling on the same platform, it makes the actual-priced product harder to find or is just a full-on scam, pretending they sell higher quality products than actuality.
The complexity of returns wouldn’t be ideal I guess, you don’t have the original receipt etc.
To be a little more clear from what op said, it’s when someone sells it from eBay to a person that didn’t shop around to see if the product was cheaper from other retailers. The ebay seller than buys it from another retailer where the product was offered for less money and then the seller has it shipped from that retailer directly to the buyers house. It’s bad in the sense of some eBay shoppers purposely want to avoid giving their money to a specific retailer (like amazon), or they just feel mad that they could have gotten the product cheaper to begin with.
I don’t mind this personally with ebay, I might be out a few extra dollars sometimes but at least I am supporting independent sellers and not having to waste time visiting and put my info into many websites. If they are violating the terms of service of Amazon Walmart etc. to do so, great, I support that. If they are waiting for sales to get a better price, fine, I wouldn’t want to bother with that myself.
If their lack of actually having the item resulted in me not getting it at all, I’d be a little pissed about it, but I haven’t experienced that. Overall I like ebay way better than other e-retailers.
Basically the way it usually works is.
Chinese knock off mass factory, makes stores and has the items.
They find a guy in America and say "Hey can you list our items on ebay, when you sell them, we’ll take $20, you can probably sell them for $50.
Guy lists item for $50, someone buys it, he then just e-mails the dropshipper and asks them to send it straight to the buyer. Sometimes he will have to give ebay a fake tracking number (because ebay doesn’t approve the practice).
Point is the drop shipper is just there to conceal the actual source of the product. That’s generally because they are sketchy in some other way.
A co-worker of mine at one point got into a drop shipping scam. She was selling golf clubs that way (she was selling them about 80% of expected retail, place she was buying from was charging her about 25% of retail. She didn’t know (but probably should have guessed) that the clubs she was selling were counterfeit, and she about had a heart attack when her 2nd customer called her out on it (she refunded him and took the loss).
Yes, and it’s basically a given that most of this crap is counterfeit, unless it’s a scheme as dopey as simply ordering it from Amazon and shipping it back to you. Which still isn’t a guarantee that it isn’t counterfeit, come to think of it.
That profit margin for the drop shipper has to come from somewhere.
And this is coming from someone who deliberately orders counterfeit crap. (Yes, knives, how did you guess?) But if you’re okay with that you may as well buy it directly from whoever is making the knockoffs in the first place via Aliexpress or whatever and pay a lot less in the process.
Me? Order an obvious fake of an overpriced knife so that I can decide if I like the design in person? Nah, never!
quickly shoves small box of counterfeits under bed
Ha-ha, your box of counterfeits is small…
It’s not the size of the box that matters, it’s how you use it!
At least, that’s what my mom told me
Change your feedback, get the refund, and change it back.
This is underrated comment. XD
IIRC revisions have to come through the seller. Something I’ve never done is taking the refund only prior to revision then revising it to explain what I got a refund for.
Yeah they send you a forum through ebay that allows you to change it. It doesn’t work the way it does on Amazon.
Are they not spamming 5 star reviews to the limit so that no new ones can be submitted anymore? Because that’s also a thing they do with less effort.
I had an Amazon seller offer to send me a gift card if I changed my review so I said I would take the card but would probably only change my review to note the gift card offer.
Had that happen on Amazon and ebay multiple times
I always tell them I’ll only increase it one star and the reason for the change will be the first thing anyone sees in the review, even above the original review.
So far I’ve only had one taker.
It’s explicitly against Amazon’s ToS to incentivize reviews, or write/modify reviews in exchange for any kind of compensation. This includes the typical business card included in the box with the product pleading for 5 stars and promising “free gifts” or store credits. When I still used Amazon, any time I got one of those it was the only thing I mentioned in my review.
I don’t know if anyone actually meaningfully enforces this, but quite a few things I’ve reviewed in such a way seemed to disappear from the site more quickly than usual.
Amazon doesn’t care because they are making money. Good luck getting them to actually fix the problems.
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Why did you buy it from them when it was cheaper elsewhere?
Maybe he found out after the fact?
Correct.
I try to avoid Amazon when possible. I’ve had this happen, too. I paid a couple extra dollars on eBay in order to avoid Amazon, and the item came from Amazon anyway.
That’s exactly what happened here. Except it was $11 more. In restrospect, I should have compared it with prices on Amazon.
Well, I prefer to learn from other people’s mistakes. I’ve avoided some of the common pitfalls, but hadn’t realized the prevalence of this trick. I’ll keep it in mind when I research my future purchases.
