Following on from my previous post, I have now got a refund authorised by
Amazon after one of the traders 'fulfilled by Amazon' sent me the wrong
stuff then disappeared off the face of the earth.

I am now looking to get the correct item from another supplier.

However looking at Amazon and the 'Store Front' for suppliers the 'About'
information for one is
"M&S is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of
customer service."
No details of full company name, location, registration, how long it has
been trading, nothing.

I have looked at a number of Store Fronts and they all look remarkably
similar.
Loads of 4* and 5* reviews over the last 12 months but little other
information.

My original vendor also had a store front with minimal information and a
load of 4* and 5* reviews.

So how do you check on the reliability of the supplier?

The reviews don't seem to help, and the item I tried to buy now comes up
under a different supplier but with the same Amazon reviews.
So you can't trust the Amazon reviews about good customer service because
they are not specific to one supplier.

Bizarre - I can find the same (apparent) item at prices ranging from £11.99
including delivery
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-HiFi-Di...56849&sr =1-2
to £90 + £6 delivery
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

As far as I can tell most (if not all) of these store fronts are boilerplate
for anonymous shippers in China.

Presumably Amazon just pops them up with minimal or no checks, creams off
the profit, and hopes not too many people claim when it all falls apart.

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 03/12/2012 17:54, David WE Roberts wrote:
Following on from my previous post, I have now got a refund authorised
by Amazon after one of the traders 'fulfilled by Amazon' sent me the
wrong stuff then disappeared off the face of the earth.

I am now looking to get the correct item from another supplier.

However looking at Amazon and the 'Store Front' for suppliers the
'About' information for one is
"M&S is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard
of customer service."
No details of full company name, location, registration, how long it has
been trading, nothing.

I have looked at a number of Store Fronts and they all look remarkably
similar.
Loads of 4* and 5* reviews over the last 12 months but little other
information.

My original vendor also had a store front with minimal information and a
load of 4* and 5* reviews.

So how do you check on the reliability of the supplier?

The reviews don't seem to help, and the item I tried to buy now comes up
under a different supplier but with the same Amazon reviews.
So you can't trust the Amazon reviews about good customer service
because they are not specific to one supplier.

Bizarre - I can find the same (apparent) item at prices ranging from
£11.99 including delivery
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-HiFi-Di...56849&sr =1-2

to £90 + £6 delivery
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new


As far as I can tell most (if not all) of these store fronts are
boilerplate for anonymous shippers in China.

Presumably Amazon just pops them up with minimal or no checks, creams
off the profit, and hopes not too many people claim when it all falls
apart.

I tend to pay for stuff by credit card and then beat up Amazon first and
Barclaycard second if an order is not properly fullfilled. It has only
happened once and for a high value transaction which had status "left
the warehouse" without ever reaching first base. It turned out to have
been at the bottom of the pile during the great Xmas mail freeze and
eventually resurfaced after 3 weeks. I had another where the delivery
status was "Tried to deliver but you were out". This was a surprise as
were were snowed in at the time with the village cut off.

I have had a couple of internet transactions go slightly pearshaped too
but nothing that could not be sorted out by invoking Barclaycard to
unwind the payment or threatening to do so. Merchants can only stay able
to accept Bcard etc if they keep below a certain threshold of customers
unwinding transactions for dubious practices or failure to supply.
Obviously overseas transactions are more risky for both parties.

Also watch out for customs and duty making US bargains more expensive. I
fairly often buy high value books on fulfilled by Amazon and have found
some incredible bargains. I don't need brand new reference books to work
from and second hand they can be incredible value.

Regards,
Martin Brown

On Monday, December 3, 2012 5:54:26 PM UTC, David WE Roberts wrote:
Following on from my previous post, I have now got a refund authorised by
Amazon after one of the traders 'fulfilled by Amazon' sent me the wrong
stuff

If it was 'fulfilled by Amazon' then it was Amazon that sent you the wrong item, not the seller. That's the whole point.

Mathew

"Mathew Newton" wrote in message
...
On Monday, December 3, 2012 5:54:26 PM UTC, David WE Roberts wrote:
Following on from my previous post, I have now got a refund authorised by
Amazon after one of the traders 'fulfilled by Amazon' sent me the wrong
stuff

If it was 'fulfilled by Amazon' then it was Amazon that sent you the wrong
item, not the seller. That's the whole point.

Mathew

Very good point - it didn't come out of the Amazon warehouse or there would
have been the SuperSaver option.
It is just Amazon Marketplace which has the A-Z Guarantee but not much
traceability of most of the companies.
My bad.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On Dec 5, 6:00*pm, "David WE Roberts" wrote:
Not had any problems so far with eBay

A cautionary tale from my own experience. Bought a second-hand laptop
from eBay (claimed to be in working order) only to find its hard drive
was dead. As the drive was a 'user replaceable' item I took it out
for a visual inspection before reporting the problem to the seller.
Stupidly (as it turns out) I admitted that I'd eyeballed the drive:
eBay judged that I had thereby 'dismantled' the laptop and therefore
voided my rights. So no refund was forthcoming, just 'case closed'.

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/