Ignore That Man Behind the Curtain! Make Sure You Know Who You Buy from Online

Dec. 3, 2011 - PRLog -- Just like the Wizard in the “Wizard of Oz” was really a huckster, so are many people who sell on Amazon or eBay.

We’re not saying all, because both Amazon and eBay quickly remove sellers with complaints against them.  That being said, an unusually great deal on either site that seems too good to be true usually is. And, an unscrupulous merchant can be on either sites for a while before they are removed.

Because we regularly check the price of our products against the competition, we always see ridiculously low prices on both eBay and Amazon.  Not surprisingly, many of these listings have no company name listed with the product. Coincidence, we think not!

Here are a few things to remember:

Many manufacturers and wholesalers have Minimum Asking Prices, so ANY price dramatically lower than the average price for any given product should raise suspicion. We regularly see prices on Amazon and eBay that we just don’t understand how the merchant is doing this legitimately.  The most common thing we see: prices far below the wholesale price of units bought in large quantities.

If you don’t know who you are dealing with, do you know whether the product is really what they say it is?

If it is counterfeit, because there are lots of them out there?

If it really is “New?”

Or, did the seller obtain the products by less than honest means?  Con artists contact our store often wanting to buy bulk orders of products, which is why we have strong anti-fraud procedures in place.

Lots of folks try to buy large orders of us and something about the transactions just doesn’t smell right. When we check them out, we find out the credit card is stolen. Sometimes, we can’t tell so we contact our payment processor to check out the card and see if the real cardholder has “lost it” and just doesn’t know yet.  Each time, our suspicions have proven to be true.  But not all merchants are as careful, particularly inexperienced store-owners or those who are desperate for a big sale.

If you don’t know who the store is, how do you know who to contact if there is a problem? Yes, Amazon offers some protection, but if the seller is no longer in their system, odds are you are out of luck.

So, “Ignore the Man behind the Curtain,” and make sure you can easily find a store name, email address and phone number from anybody you do business with online!

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