Author Topic: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay  (Read 2287 times)

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Offline ValentineWeather

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Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« on: November 07, 2019, 08:37:33 AM »
Being I live out in the boonies Amazon Prime was a real lifesaver when it came along. Still is but I've noticed increasing amounts of price gouging where retail prices are much lower, reminding me what eBay turned into.

Now I'm seeing reviews that have nothing to do with the product. The old bait and switch where the seller slides a totally different product under reviews that were positive.  It's happening a lot now. So shopper beware and don't write/offer any positive reviews without including exactly what the product is you are reviewing. 
This will help curb the Ol' bait and switch on reviews. Amazon has not attempted to address or police any of these issues. I've complained about it multiple times and they just apologize but nothing changes.
Randy

Offline galfert

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2019, 03:01:58 PM »
I think it warrants knowing how Amazon works a bit more. What you see on Amazon for sale is not all sold by Amazon. There are 3rd party sellers. Amazon has little control over what their 3rd party sellers make available. My first caution is to try and buy products that are listed as sold by Amazon. This is even different that those sold by 3rd party but fulfilled by Amazon. Those are still relatively safe purchases. Depending on where you buy from changes the return policy. Now if you only find the product sold and fulfilled by 3rd party then that is the greatest risk. Even still if you shop with a decent credit card then the credit card company has your back. I've gotten many full refunds from my credit card company if I'm not happy. None of this is a mystery. You can clearly see when it is Amazon, 3rd party, and 3rd party fulfilled by Amazon.

Regarding product reviews....you need to be careful reading them. What occurs here is that many products are grouped. Meaning you may be buying a pair of headphones but they come in not just different colors but perhaps even slightly different models but they all get grouped together as one listing. Therefore when you read the reviews you need to be aware that the review you are reading may be for the slightly different model that is grouped with the same listing. If you look at the review it clearly tells you which product the person purchased and which one of the variations they are reviewing. So nothing sinister here.

That said there are cases of some 3rd party vendors doing a bait and switch. But if you take the precautions that I've mentioned then you can be a more informed shopper and still take advantage of the wonderful resource of buying online. Of course there are items that are still better bought locally.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2019, 03:03:29 PM by galfert »
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Offline CW2274

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2019, 03:21:45 PM »
Fraud has apparently become a rapidly increasing problem with Amazon. I just returned 6 liters of motor oil because this came to my attention that it may be fake...not taking the chance of putting it into my motor. I bought it later online from a reputable car parts dealer.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2019, 03:31:56 PM by CW2274 »

Offline ValentineWeather

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2019, 04:18:34 PM »
Fraud has apparently become a rapidly increasing problem with Amazon. I just returned 6 liters of motor oil because this came to my attention that it may be fake...not taking the chance of putting it into my motor. I bought it later online from a reputable car parts dealer.

Yeah, that too. So many Fake Chinese knockoffs being sold. Even medical supplies. A friend that needed glucose strips ended up buying fakes and was adjusting their medication.  The packaging was close but had subtle differences in color very hard to detect. The main thing missing after contacting the manufacturer of the real strips was a code normally stamped on the boxes.
Randy

Offline CW2274

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2019, 04:36:08 PM »
Fraud has apparently become a rapidly increasing problem with Amazon. I just returned 6 liters of motor oil because this came to my attention that it may be fake...not taking the chance of putting it into my motor. I bought it later online from a reputable car parts dealer.
A friend that needed glucose strips ended up buying fakes and was adjusting their medication. 
That's f'ed up. One can hope one day people like this will get theirs....... :twisted:

Offline ValentineWeather

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2019, 04:43:28 PM »
As far as mixing items together and doing a blanket review, true that has been going on from the start but it's more serious than that. I went back and found 3 different reviews written some years ago needing the items again and discovered they had completely changed the product but my reviews were still there.  :evil:

These were all Prime items shipped directly from Amazon as many sellers contract with Amazon shipping the goods/merchandise to the warehouse and Amazon handles the shipping to customers.
Ambient weather does this. If you need an item quickly order directly off Amazon otherwise it will take  5 days or more.

Randy

Offline DRoberts

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2019, 08:40:46 PM »
Fraud has apparently become a rapidly increasing problem with Amazon. I just returned 6 liters of motor oil because this came to my attention that it may be fake...not taking the chance of putting it into my motor. I bought it later online from a reputable car parts dealer.

Recently looking to replace a mattress. Found serious contradictory statements on Amazon about the product I was interested in. Apparently counterfeit products have been turning up on Amazon with this company's logo. Company said they were in the process of withdrawing all connections with Amazon. Don't blame them.

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2019, 08:19:36 AM »
Usually, for a review that is for a wrong item I will add a short, negative review myself...stating that I was considering purchasing but that the confusion on the reviews drove me away...naturally they end up with a 1 star review.  Probably doesn't help anything, but it makes me feel better.  :lol:

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Offline ocala

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2019, 11:00:49 AM »
As with anything it's all buyer beware.
If you take the time and due diligence you can find what you want.
There is a host of scam artists on the internet. Just gotta before careful before click to buy.
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Offline ValentineWeather

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #9 on: November 28, 2019, 02:34:15 PM »
As with anything it's all buyer beware.
If you take the time and due diligence you can find what you want.
There is a host of scam artists on the internet. Just gotta before careful before click to buy.

I agree my point is they are using our legit reviews for a completely different product and Amazon is allowing this practice.  :twisted:
Randy

Offline Bashy

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2019, 12:01:16 AM »
One of the major issues is the sellers selling a product for a major discount or even free, you get a refund when youve posted a positive review, this is a big no no from amazon, they will come down on the seller, but it still does not stop them from doing it, so you get lots of positive that are not 100% cosher.

Another is, the deals section, a lot of the items are items from sits such as wish.com and lets face it, we all know what their products are like lol

I am a big Amazon fan and use it weekly if not multiple times a week, i like the convenience and customer service should something go wrong, especially if its provided by and shipped by amazon. been a few times where something has gone wrong, for example, just the other day, the Sandisk 64gb U3 for my P4P didnt turn up the next day as per 1 day shipping, they sent a new one, i asked what if the old one turns up, they said keep it and gave me a fiver for the trouble. It did turn up the next day, so being honest, i sent one back and being good to their word, they refunded the original one so i got it free, little things can go a long way....
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Offline ValentineWeather

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #11 on: December 02, 2019, 12:27:08 AM »
Bashy sounds like your across the big water version is different than ours.
Randy

Offline K5GHS

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2020, 12:27:24 AM »
Don't write a bunch of reviews at once, I used to do it in batches when I'd get around to it and I got suspended from writing reviews because they saw it as unusual activity.  Its since been reinstated (with an email to me with fanfare that I was now being allowed again, haven't submitted one since!).

And for sure you have to watch for prices as well as where stuff is coming from.  I found a lower price on a item I order every other month or so, but it too had the increased shipping cost which would have made it $10 more than the usual selection I'd make.  Amazon presented it as a "new lower price!" on the product I normally ordered.  This one though wasn't just inflated shipping a-la Ebay.  This was because the supplier was in the UK, so it would have to be shipped across the pond to the USA.  That also explained the 3 week window versus 2 days via Prime, yet Amazon featured it to me as a better alternative.

As always, buyer beware.
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Offline Oilswell

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #13 on: January 14, 2020, 12:42:29 PM »
Looks like Amazon is really going to make an attempt at cracking down on counterfeiting from here on in: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-counterfeit-idUSKBN1ZC25U

This will be good for everyone with exception of the scammers.

Offline ValentineWeather

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #14 on: January 14, 2020, 01:39:05 PM »
Sweet and about time. These counterfeit medical products are really dangerous.
Randy

Offline wxthomson

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2020, 07:14:59 PM »
There are companies that recruit people to buy certain products.
They will provide them with a list of select products to buy.
If they purchase them and give them a 5 star review they will be reimbursed by that company for their purchase.
Apparently these companies are hired by manufacturers to get them 5 star reviews.


Offline capeweather

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2020, 10:05:44 PM »
Bought Energizer AA lithium batteries for my Blink XT2 cams. They were dead in a week. First set lasted 7 months

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Offline CKayaks

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #17 on: January 15, 2020, 11:15:28 AM »
Bought Energizer AA lithium batteries for my Blink XT2 cams. They were dead in a week. First set lasted 7 months
Same experience here. I use a lot of them in field equipment, kayaking, and backpacking. I gave up on buying batteries from Amazon. Several batches of these lithium batteries came in way under-voltage right out of the package. Costs a bit more but I now only buy from Batteries Plus or through a retailer like REI or CVS. At least I get the real thing then.

I used to work for a couple different network equipment companies. We had major issues with "gray market" products that even our engineers had a hard time distinguishing from our production goods. Indications were two things were happening. One, the factories (Singapore, China) had rejects from the assembly lines ending up in the gray market instead of being destroyed. In other cases the product was copied and run in affiliated factories. I suspect this was not unique to the hi-tech products.   
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Offline worachj

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2020, 12:26:28 PM »
There are companies that recruit people to buy certain products.
They will provide them with a list of select products to buy.
If they purchase them and give them a 5 star review they will be reimbursed by that company for their purchase.
Apparently these companies are hired by manufacturers to get them 5 star reviews.

I was asked twice to write five star Amazon reviews and gladly did it. I got a $20 gift card for a pair of $35 headphones I bought. And I got $20 Paypal credit for a $11.95 wireless cell phone charger purchase.



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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #19 on: January 15, 2020, 01:20:02 PM »
I was asked twice to write five star Amazon reviews and gladly did it. I got a $20 gift card for a pair of $35 headphones I bought. And I got $20 Paypal credit for a $11.95 wireless cell phone charger purchase.

My soul and integrity don't come that cheap.


Offline worachj

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #20 on: January 15, 2020, 03:35:12 PM »
I was asked twice to write five star Amazon reviews and gladly did it. I got a $20 gift card for a pair of $35 headphones I bought. And I got $20 Paypal credit for a $11.95 wireless cell phone charger purchase.

My soul and integrity don't come that cheap.
Why do you think I sold my soul? I liked the product and had no problem with a recommendation and endorsement!


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Offline wxthomson

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #21 on: January 15, 2020, 08:48:37 PM »
There are companies that recruit people to buy certain products.
They will provide them with a list of select products to buy.
If they purchase them and give them a 5 star review they will be reimbursed by that company for their purchase.
Apparently these companies are hired by manufacturers to get them 5 star reviews.

I was asked twice to write five star Amazon reviews and gladly did it. I got a $20 gift card for a pair of $35 headphones I bought. And I got $20 Paypal credit for a $11.95 wireless cell phone charger purchase.


That's why I don't attach much importance to their reviews.
Especially the 5 star ones.

Offline WeatherHost

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #22 on: January 16, 2020, 04:13:57 AM »
When the five bangers became paid ads (some of them being short novels or movies), I found there was no reason to even read them.  One bangers tend to be rants and complaints.  Twos, threes and some fours are where the meat is.  They're the ones that give generally more fair and accurate opinions.

Offline K5GHS

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #23 on: January 17, 2020, 12:25:35 AM »
Yes you basically should toss out the one's and fives.  The ones are people who are just totally pissed off (and it may not be the fault of the product) though if you see a bunch its probably an avoid.  The fives are likely paid off unless the review is more than a few paragraphs.

The median ones are where you'll usually find truth. 
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Offline ocala

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Re: Amazon Prime turning into another Flea Bay
« Reply #24 on: January 17, 2020, 05:50:53 PM »
Not to change the subject but a while back I downloaded a new android weather weather app.
Developer contacted me after I had some issues and asked that in return for getting the paid version for free would I give it a 5 star review.
Hail no! Told him he was lucky I didn't contact some one at the Play Store about it.
The app has since turned out to be OK but it's sad what people will do to get those favorable reviews.
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