The seller in question was selling items they didn’t have at a nearly 50% markup.

  • Flummoxx@lemm.ee
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    25 days ago

    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!

    • daggermoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      25 days ago

      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.

      • Flummoxx@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        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.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      24 days ago

      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.

      • Flummoxx@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        Yeah, whereas I used to have dog food shipped from Amazon because it was cheap and convenient, now I pretty much only do it for the convenience, because it’s priced the same as Petsmart and Petco.

  • golden_zealot@lemmy.ml
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    24 days ago

    One time on Amazon, I purchased an air conditioner. The model they sent was not the model I bought so I went for a refund and to send it back the to the seller.

    The seller representative basically tried to spin it as though the model I received was actually better than what I had tried to buy.

    I told him that I didn’t care, it is not what I bought, that this “better model” is twice the width of what I wanted and it states in its manual that it needs to be on its own dedicated circuit.

    The fucking guy kept this up over a few messages. I told him that if he didn’t take it back, I would just charge back my credit card because this was clearly a bait and switch

    The next message the guy sends, he says that me “threatening” him by saying I’ll charge back the card is immoral of me, and makes an allegory equating it to murdering someone by shooting them.

    At this point I contact amazon proper, and give them the entire message log. The amazon rep is fucking horrified and says that they will investigate the seller.

    The fucking guy sends me a message telling me that I shouldn’t talk to amazon, because my correspondence with them gets CC’d to him.

    I forward that message to the amazon rep as well.

    The guy loses his fucking shit, starts making guesses at where I live, what I do for work, a bunch of shit. He says that he has a double major in marketing for some reason.

    I demand that I never have to interact with him again. In his last message to me he tells me not to leave a bad review as it is a family owned business.

    I leave a lengthy and scathing review, noting that someone with a double major in marketing who acts like this must have wasted a lot of money on their post secondary education.

    I get connected to someone else who isn’t insane who in their first message sends me the slip to mail this fucking air conditioner back, and I get my refund.

  • 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    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.

  • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    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.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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      25 days ago

      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

      • Jesusaurus@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Change the review, get the refund, change it to a one star and include conversation snippets regarding asking to change the review

  • makyo@lemmy.world
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    25 days ago

    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.

    • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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      25 days ago

      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.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        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.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Dropshipping itself isn’t evil, it just means the retail orders from the supplier (sometimes the manufacturer) on demand, but scalping or other resellers are quite bad yes.

    • daggermoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      If someone wants to pay more for something, and is made aware they can purchase the item elsewhere for cheaper, and still wishes to then that’s their prerogative. I don’t like being cheated or mislead.

    • daggermoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      25 days ago

      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.

      • tiramichu@lemm.ee
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        25 days ago

        To play the role of the annoying five year old, “And why is that bad?”

        • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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          25 days ago

          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.

        • daggermoon@lemmy.worldOP
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          25 days ago

          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.)

          • IceFoxX@lemm.ee
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            25 days ago

            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.

            • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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              25 days ago

              The point of it is that by exposing them they will have to create a new account to scam with.

              • IceFoxX@lemm.ee
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                25 days ago

                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.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      The other replies are a bit wrong.

      The definition of dropshipping is that the seller / retailer does not have any stock of the product and instead orders the product from a supplier whenever a sale occurs.

      Many have pointed out this usually occurs with middlemen and scalpers turning profit on goods available elsewhere for lower prices, but it also technically applies to print-on-demand and other manufactured at point of sale goods.