Online Rip-Offs! Beware!

How many times have you ordered something online only to find when it arrived that it was not as expected. It seems that this is too often a case where the consumer is misled. This not only hurts the consumer but it hurts all of the honest sellers out there as well. It seems that with some online merchants, the attitude is that of percentages. A gamble as to how many people will complain and/or return the item vs. how many will just let it go. Who do you trust?

Well here, we'll tell you who not to trust. We believe in fairness for all and have started this section to educate the consumer and expose those that use especially poor business practices.

Amazon.com Rip-Off Exposed! Consumer or Seller, Take Your Pick

Amazon Error
Buyer beware, better yet, Seller beware! In October of 2009, User Friendly PC purchased a Data Vac on amazon.com. Listed with it as "Frequently Bought Together", were extra bags. That sounded like a good idea so we purchased them as well. Imagine our surprise when they arrived and were about 1/10th the size that the vacuum required. This was brought to Amazon's attention, and they did refund our money, however, at the expense of the seller, both in product and shipping. The seller was not at fault here, Amazon was. Amazon was errant in bundling these two products together when they are not compatible.

After speaking with a representative from the seller, it was discovered that this is a common problem. The seller had this to say: "This, unfortunately, is a fairly common occurrence. We have notified Amazon of this discrepancy, but unfortunately they do not have a way of removing it."

Here is the evidence:
http://www.amazon.com/Metro-MDV-1BA-Data-Vacuum-Cleaner/dp/B000RMPXXK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1259218298&sr=8-1-catcorr

So after promising action against Amazon on behalf of the seller and all of us internet shoppers, they have ignored the warnings and still have not fixed the problem. I wonder how many other products they have done this with. Perhaps after seeing this, they will take action.

As of this date 11/25/2009, the problem remains. I have to wonder how many sellers have experienced this problem and if they got together and filed a Class Action Lawsuit against Amazon, how long would it take them to fix the problem? I bet they would find a way to fix the problem fast.

So there you have it. If you do purchase anything from Amazon and you add any other items, make sure that the items are compatible so that you and the seller don't get ripped off by Amazon. By the way, the Data Vac works great but until this problem is fixed, I think that we will be using other methods to purchase products we use.

Update: On 04/06/2011 we checked Amazon again with the above link and found that the problem was finally resolved. If only they had resolved the problem when it was first discovered, it would have prevented the supplier from losing money on countless transactions and prevented this article from being written.

Tip: If you find a product on Amazon or many other sites and it is bundled with other items that you may be interested in, you may be able to contact the seller directly to check the other items either by email or by checking their site directly.