whitewolfowner

I have been buying from Amazon for years and more and more I have been having problems with them. They let anyone sell anything they want without being screened to see if the seller is legitimate, if the information they give about the product is correct or even an out right lie. To try to counter this, call them and go over the product with a rep. Then the problems really escalate. You get a foreign rep who barely speaks English, is almost impossible to understand and they have no idea what you are talking about but try to BS their way through the conversation with you, wasting your time and only showing over and over again that they have no idea what you are saying. Then when you ask for a rep in the USA (which they are required by law to connect you), they either refuse to do so or put you through hell to get them to connect you. Then when you get to the US rep (if they finally do connect you), you are fed a bunch of lies that you find about later after you spent your money. Then you call back to get the problem resolved and you are informed that everything the rep told you was untrue; but Amazon will nothing to resolve the problem. zThen you are left with the final resort to file a dispute with your credit card company that can take several months to have it put to rest.

I have experienced this exact scenario the last tow times I tried to order an item at Amazon. Neither purchase was photo equipment, but the point is, why would one continue to keep purchasing from Amazon when they keep treating their customers this way. Has anyone else had similar experiences with Amazon with purchases? I personally, think that I am done ordering from them and highly caution others from doing business with them; they re rapidly getting wore and worse. I could give details btt it would be like a chapter in a book to explain step by step problems and why they were a problem but the routine is as described.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I purchase a good amount of merchandise from or through Amazon.com and have never once had a problem. I've never had a problem returning an item and I've never has a problem with their customer service representatives. My wife and our daughters also buy from Amazon.com and I've never heard any complaints about Amazon.com from any of them.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

I know I wouldn't. If I had to make phone calls to talk to a rep every time I bought something I wouldn't buy anything. Luckily, I've never had to do that in the many thousands of transactions I've had with Amazon.



Never...and in all my years I've never heard of anyone going through this level of misery.

I'd say that the issue is not Amazon, but your method of deciding what to buy from Amazon.

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

The old saying "Buyer Beware" is true. When you are shopping check to see who is actually selling the product, if it's not Amazon check their ratings. I have only had a couple of instances that I have had to return items to them out of hundreds that I have purchased. If you are buying camera equipment and the price is lower than someone like B+H or Adorama beware, it probably is off shore equipment that doesn't carry an American warranty and if that's the case buy a warranty with it if one does not come with the equipment. I like Amazon because I know I can return the item and get a refund or get it replaced without any hassles and I have never had a problem with their representative's over the phone like you have, but if you are buying a product that is coming from China or Taiwan or Indonesia, your return policy will be a lot different. Buyer Beware!

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

This is getting to be a popular complaint and each time it is pointed out that Amazon sells advertising space to vendors and you leave the Amazon site and protection when you select the advertisers sites. It is in the Amazon disclaimer which many obviously do not read.

If you scroll down just below where the page number selection is,on the left side is a caption stating "Sponsored Links." Yeah,this is what most do not check.
If you click on it:
What is this? Close
SPONSORED LINKS

Sponsored Links are advertisements related to your recent product search query or content on the page and are always clearly labeled. Amazon.com displays sponsored links sourced from third party networks.

If you click on one of the links, you will be taken off amazon.com. We are not responsible for websites you visit by clicking on these links, and you should carefully review their privacy policy and conditions of use.

There are also other opportunities for advertising directly on amazon.com such as through the Amazon Media Group. Learn more about how to advertise on amazon.com.

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

It's simple, any item for sale on Amazon that ask you to call before ordering is a scam. There are so many of them right now that I doubt that Amazon can keep up with them. Hopefully they will come up with some sort of algorithm that will automatically flag these adds in the near future.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Gee,could you provide at least one or two examples? I have yet to face that issue or any others for that matter and I have been ordering at least bi-weekly for years. Guess I'm lucky...

whitewolfowner

I don't have to call on every purchase, but some you do; and this comes from past experiences with dishonest sellers. The problem comes from dishonest sellers and Amazon's failure to screen who they allow on their site and insistence of honesty in the descriptions. When one live sin a small town, most shopping has to be done on the internet when the shopping availability is not down the road.

whitewolfowner

My purchases were not from overseas. One Amazon claimed it was coming form them and turned out to be a third party purchase; which is what created the problem. Then Amazon would not stand by it and causede the dispute with the credit card. did nothing wrong; it was falsely presented on the web site.

whitewolfowner

As I mentioned in the reply above you; this was not the case. It was improperly listed on the site. Of course it has been corrected since, but does not change the fact that at the time of purchase, the wrong doing was on the web page; not my fault, nor should I have to take the ax for it, nor be inconvenienced because of their problem.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

whitewolfowner

To be clear here no one ever asked me to call before hand. I called to get some answers to questions that were not answered in the add on the site. One thing that Amazon is very guilty of is that they do not include proper information for many of the items they sell. I am not a blind, ignorant buyer. I know what ai am buying and what to expect from the item I buy; it's called being a smart shopper.

whitewolfowner

One purchase was for R Alpha Lipoic Acid. It is very good for anyone and especially helpful for diabetics that have neurapathy. There are even claims out there that one can cure neurapathy with it (neurapathy is the feeling of your arms or legs going to sleep; it's caused from nerve damage and lack of blood flow to the extremities in diabetics and eventually will lead to having them cut off to stall death). There two kinds of Alpha Lipoic Acid; R and S. R is the good one (absorbs much easier and better and is more effective). It is also quite expensive for a supplement. I have been buying it in bulk form and loading it capsules at home while I watch TV; it's much cheaper that way. R Alpha Lipoic Acid has one problem and that is that it has a very low melting temperature (not much over 100 degrees F), so I order it during the cold months. I had been getting it for the last few years from a company off the internet. The last two purchases I made with them, it came melted and seized back together in lumps that could not be broken up. It had been exposed to heat and destroyed. The first time it happened was in the fall. I waited a couple of months, called the company and asked if they had a new shipment of it and they said, no, not yet but claimed that my first shipment was a fluke and insisted what they had in the warehouse was good and if I ordered it again, it would be fine. So I reordered in February and when it came it was hard as a rock; in much worse shape than the first one.

I noticed that Amazon sold the same product and was advertised as coming from Amazon. So I called Amazon and wanted to verify that they had their own shipment of it in their warehouse. If this was true (the web site claimed this to be true), then hopefully they had a shipment of it in good condition. The rep claimed that they had their own shipment of it and the people in the warehouse knew to verify that the product was good before shipping it (you can tell by squeezing the pack; if it's in powder form, as it should, or if it is all lumped up). So, on the word of the Amazon rep, I proceeded to order a packet from them. The next day I got the email of it being shipped and instead of coming from Amazon, it was coming for the company. I called Amazon, expressed my anger for being lied too and feared it would be damaged. The rep told me that he would make note of the incident on my account and if it came damaged again to call them right back and they would immediately credit me for the purchase since I was misinformed by the earlier rep. Of course it came as bad as the other ones (getting quite obvious that the company is either shipping it bad or Fed Ex is holding it somewhere in a very hot warehouse during delivery) and when I called up to get the credit issued, the story now changes on a 180 degree twist claiming that I had to deal with the company, not Amazon, to get my refund. Now, not only having been lied to, but also note that if I buy directly from the company, I get a 10% discount that I do not get from Amazon. Now they were changing their story completely, went back on everything I was told, even though I called ahead of time to avoid all this bull to begin with. If I was told the truth in the beginning, I never would have placed the order. I did everything I could to avoid this; Amazon was totally wrong all the way and now refusing my refund, insisting I go through the other company. I did not buy it from the other company, I bought it from Amazon. That is when I just turned it over to my credit card company; now Amazon can pay a penalty for their lies.

All I can say is that we can be grateful for one thing and that buying camera equipment is not as complicated as supplements are; not to say that camera gear buying does not have its pitfalls.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

I appreciate your answer,but my query was specifically to address a statement made by :

"rwilson1942 wrote:

It's simple, any item for sale on Amazon that ask you to call before ordering is a scam. There are so many of them right now that I doubt that Amazon can keep up with them. Hopefully they will come up with some sort of algorithm that will automatically flag these adds in the near future."

whitewolfowner

You are correct. For some reason I thought you were asking me. No problem though, glad to share the experience as it can hopefully spare others problems in the future. The fact is that Amazon is not as good as they have us believe they are and like most businesses in America, once they get big, they think they can screw us over any way they wish. All I say, is thank the Lord that we have disputes with our credit cards to step in on and stop dirty business. I have found it to work about (as an estimated guess) 95% of the time.