This works! We are about ready to stop selling on both eBay and Amazon because of scammers.

Amazon not only allows it they make sure that sellers loose their product and the money for it because of bogus A-Z complaints from scammer buyers. If you question or defend your service and product you get bad feedback and Amazon will kick you off their site for it.

They state that you MUST give refunds…This is not right.

This works! We are about ready to stop selling on both eBay and Amazon because of scammers.

Amazon not only allows it they make sure that sellers loose their product and the money for it because of bogus A-Z complaints from scammer buyers. If you question or defend your service and product you get bad feedback and Amazon will kick you off their site for it.

They state that you MUST give refunds…This is not right.

Precisely! Amazon.co.uk are more than happy to aid buyers to defraud sellers via their A-Z guarantee. Buyers can now get items at sellers’ expense by simply awaiting the arrival of their item & filing an A-Z guarantee. They can then send empty packages with tracking numbers and claim that they have returned the merchandise. Amazon then issue a full refund in response. I’m not surprised such a book exists – unfortunately there are people who really are scum. The author of the book seems as though he was a good seller who has turned to the ‘dark side’ after being repeatedly conned. However, having been in the same position, I can say that it is possible to just take the moral high ground and keep fighting the good fight.

Precisely! Amazon.co.uk are more than happy to aid buyers to defraud sellers via their A-Z guarantee. Buyers can now get items at sellers’ expense by simply awaiting the arrival of their item & filing an A-Z guarantee. They can then send empty packages with tracking numbers and claim that they have returned the merchandise. Amazon then issue a full refund in response. I’m not surprised such a book exists – unfortunately there are people who really are scum. The author of the book seems as though he was a good seller who has turned to the ‘dark side’ after being repeatedly conned. However, having been in the same position, I can say that it is possible to just take the moral high ground and keep fighting the good fight.

I think this is happening to me right now on half.com. I only sell 4-5 used books at a time. I sold an expensive textbook to a buyer who has never purchased anything before. They sent en email saying that the book never arrived and they would have to file grievance if it didn’t show up. I stated the date and location it was sent from and estimated date of arrival (email was sent before it should have even arrived). Their next email stated package arrived with different book. I know what book I sent, but worry that half.com will cancel my account. This is ridiculous. Warning to others sellers to not sell to buyers who have never bought before or have no feedback. Still not sure what I will do.

I think this is happening to me right now on half.com. I only sell 4-5 used books at a time. I sold an expensive textbook to a buyer who has never purchased anything before. They sent en email saying that the book never arrived and they would have to file grievance if it didn’t show up. I stated the date and location it was sent from and estimated date of arrival (email was sent before it should have even arrived). Their next email stated package arrived with different book. I know what book I sent, but worry that half.com will cancel my account. This is ridiculous. Warning to others sellers to not sell to buyers who have never bought before or have no feedback. Still not sure what I will do.

I left Ebay because of all the fee hikes and the DSR (five star rating system). With Ebay sellers losing all their rights, I decided to leave and go to Ecrater. I also tried Amazon. I started selling in the general Marketplace (“Everything Else category”) and all was fine. I upgraded to “Pro Merchant” and all went down hill. Amazon makes sure the buyer makes a legitimate purchase, but the “ship to” address can be a land fill or any address on the planet and Amazon does not check to see if that address is even in existence. The rule of Amazon is that the seller MUST ship to the address they provide you – no questions asked. If you feel leery, you can cancel the order and get negative feedback. If you ship to the address and the item is returned with “Return to Sender – Atttempted Unknown” and the buyer claims they never received their package, negative feedback is left, they file an A-Z complaint and you're out of luck as well. I sold a pricey item, emailed the buyer with her delivery confirmation number and all pertinent information. The emailed me back with F##K as every other word, stating she never made the purchase and not to send to to “that other person.” She wanted me to re-route the item to her. I spoke with Amazon Customer Service and was told to intercept the package, keep it until she inquired as to it's whereabouts. One month later, she filed an A-Z complaint, I was found to be at fault even though I uploaded every email she sent and the customer sevice emails.

I have deleted my listings and will never sell on Amazon again. I also found my user id used by 6 other people and my feedback under those names. Aren't we supposed to be unique???????

I've found that Amazon is NOT a safe place to sell.

We are supposed to use UPC codes to list our items. One seller used her Crabtree & Evelyn items to list her Tupperwater items. When I went to list my Crabtree items, the UPC was taken, and I was blocked from listing. Her Crabtree listings were grocery items (beans, corn, bread). I reported her and Amazon did NOTHING.

I called Ebay, and it turns out they will be changing their rating system. If they do, I may go back. In the mean time, I'll be on Ecrater and Bonanzle, whre I have my own unique user id, store name, prices and shipping rates.

I've just ordered it, so I'll let you know what's in it…!!

Should we encourage him with sales?

Seriously, though, I'd be interested to hear what it's really like.

Is depressed to learn just how many people find my website my searching for “How to scam on eBay”

Feel cheered about your SEO instead

I worry about the moral fiber of my average visitor.

But is guess if people are going to search for info on how to scam eBay, they might as well get sent to my site

Amazon Buyer Scams

The following shows how Amazon encourages unscrupulous buyers to obtain free merchandise at the expense of their reseller community. The Amazon reseller can expect to provide merchandise for buyers, ship the merchandise, issue a refund, and not receive the merchandise back from the buyer. The reseller may also be rewarded by not being allowed to sell on Amazon when the buyer scam is complete. Here is how it works:

Feedback blackmail:

Amazon encourages customers to rate their transactions with the Amazon Resellers. The buyers are also encouraged to communicate with the sellers prior to the writing of any negative feedback so that the seller can respond and correct any problem with the item. Unfortunately, over the past year more and more buyers use this contact to demand a full refund of the item without returning the item. They threaten to write a negative feedback unless their demands are met. Other sites provide a method of informing the site management when a buyer threatens the seller with this action. Amazon offers no such methodology and in fact does not encourage or provide a method to show resellers which buyers repeat this activity or constantly try to cheat resellers. No buyer rating systems is encouraged.

Resellers have noted a sharp increase in attempts by buyers to claim that merchandise is damaged, in poor condition, or did not arrive. Savvy resellers find that when they ask the buyer to return the merchandise or threaten to have the post office investigate that the buyer drops the claim. Some buyers will place a bogus bad feedback without sending an email in advance so that the seller can correct any problem. They assume that the seller will refund the sale and let them keep the merchandise if they remove the feedback. They probably do not realize that Amazon gives resellers a negative rating for any and all refunds. Refunding the buyer at this point would merely substitute one negative rating for another.

Buyer manipulation is not the most serious buyer scam method. Experienced buyers quickly learn that other methods to receive free merchandise have become nearly 100% guaranteed:

Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee:

When customers have a problem with a transaction made through Marketplace Payments by Amazon they may request that Amazon arbitrate the situation. They are asked to first contact the seller to give them a chance to address the issue at hand. The prior contact request is only a suggestion and is not required by Amazon. Many buyers now go directly to the A-to-Z Guarantee page to submit their claims.

Several years ago, claims appeared to be researched by Amazon and obviously bogus buyer claims were handled by Amazon. Amazon either refunded the buyer’s money or denied the claim. Legitimate claims seemed to be mostly handled directly by the sellers prior to any A-to-Z submission. At least that was the experience of the author of this site, an Amazon Reseller since 2001.

For the past few years, nearly 100% of all Amazon A-to-Z Claims have been automatically decided in favor of the buyers, regardless of any evidence presented by Amazon Resellers. The refunds now are deducted from reseller funds held by Amazon. The buyer keeps the merchandise and has no obligation to return the item. The buyers are not required to return the merchandise to Amazon or the seller. They are not required to show the damaged, copied media, or wrong merchandise to Amazon or the reseller. The reseller is not allowed to see whether the so-called suspect item was what was actually shipped.

The author of this comment was a victim of the above scam. The buyer claimed that a DVD was “recopied media”. This seller explained to Amazon that the item was a factory-sealed DVD. It was a standard Amazon listing item that happened to be in the public domain and is available from several manufacturers. No copyright infringement was possible. Since it was sealed and there was no way of determining the actual quality of the item, this reseller told Amazon to refund the full cost of the item. Amazon issued an automated warning to the seller about selling “recopied media” apparently based on the buyers unsubstantiated claim. This bogus claim was used as a “prior warning” to terminate this Amazon Reseller when a second bogus claim under the following scam method was submitted by a buyer.

The Amazon Reseller Community Rules Scam:

Amazon has an extensive list of rules that the resellers must adhere to in order to sell merchandise on the site.

Prohibited Content is listed:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display….

Buyers are instructed by Amazon to report any violations:

“Report a Community Rules Violation If you receive an item from a third-party Marketplace seller that may be in violation of our Community Rules, report it to us via our Contact Us form. Select “Report a Community Rules Violation” from the drop-down menu, and include all relevant information. All reports are investigated thoroughly, though for privacy reasons we do not share the results of our investigations. “

Amazon states for the buyer that they do not share any results [or information] of any investigation. That includes informing the buyer so they may know what sale was being investigated and whether the item the buyer is complaining about was what was actually sent. Even if a buyer was required to send the item to Amazon, Amazon would not be able to verify that that was what the seller sent to the buyer. The seller has no way of knowing what item was in question and is not allowed to defend themselves against the scammer.

Thus the buyer receives free merchandise and the cost is refunded. If, as happened to the author of this site and many other resellers, the buyer claims that the item was “recopied media”, the reseller is suspended permanently by Amazon. Amazon uses this no tolerance, no verification policy to destroy legitimate long-standing, highly rated resellers and award these scammers merchandise stolen from these resellers.

Amazon provides a form so that scammers may easily obtain their free merchandise that resellers have no recourse to prevent. They merely click on the “contact us” in the Report a Community Rules Violation as shown above on the Amazon.com website to obtain the following form:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/reports/contact-us

To:
Amazon Reports

From:

Subject:

Report a violation of our rules

Comments:

Please visit Your account to check on the status of your orders.

Order #:

Comments:

Thank you for reporting a community rules violation. Please provide as much information as possible.

Seller Nickname:

Order #:

Listing ID (0000-Z-000000):

Comments:

During the several weeks in October 2009 surrounding the period of the reseller destruction event described in the letter to Jeff Bezos on the main page at the site amazonresellers.info, the following was observed. A search on the subject “recopied media” produced the Amazon prohibited contents list which at the time included the above form and instructions on the same page. Amazon has since moved the form to a separate page. It is no longer the top search result. The scammers may now be well educated and do not require the search information in order to continue the scam,

A large number of those surveyed regarding these policies of Amazon and how they are being utilized to eliminate Amazon Resellers suspect that many of the scammers are other Amazon Resellers. If this is true, these resellers could order merchandise, obtain a refund for the merchandise, resell the merchandise, and eliminate a competitor reseller in one swoop. Amazon claims to provide extensive tracking procedures to insure that a suspended reseller cannot rejoin the Amazon Marketplace using a different name. They check credit cards, ISPs, zip codes, and any other relationships to suspended accounts to prevent the reseller’s return. If Amazon were interested in eliminating scams or protecting their legitimate resellers, they would be implementing these same procedures to try and identify buyers and resellers who are behind some of these scams.

Refunds are bad!;

During 2009 Amazon initiated an additional evaluation criteria for resellers. They began tracking this negative rating methodology for resellers on the basis of the number of refunds they issued to buyers. These rating are not compared with the actual orders but rather they were like other rating criteria were judged only against positive ratings by the buyers who chose to submit a positive feedback.

These ratings are utilized as one evaluation criteria to suspend or stop Amazon Resellers from continue to sell on Amazon. This has proved especially detrimental to newer resellers who have yet to establish enough positive feedback to offset a few refunds. Amazon does not discriminate as to what may have caused the refund. Any refund for any reason is considered to be negative. This includes buyer remorse when the buyer cancels the order before it is shipped or before or after it arrives. Once Amazon has collected their fees, any refund is bad for the reseller. If the buyer also submits a poor feedback rating, the reseller will receive a negative report in two different lists for the same transaction.

Amazon Resellers are becoming more and more reluctant to give buyer refunds, even when they are deemed to be legitimate. The negative Amazon refund evaluation has to be weighed each time against a potential negative feedback.

Amazon provides no discount on the shipping and handling costs to the buyer for multiple items from the same seller on the same order. The author of this site began offering buyers a rebate for a portion of the shipping and handling costs for additional items ordered. It was stopped as soon as it was noted that even these rebates of a few dollars were treated as being full refunds on the refund negative rating list.

Amazon encourages their buyers to return any merchandise for a refund as part of their “Buyer-Centric” mantra. They then turn around and punish the resellers who actually implement this policy. Catch 22? Amazon hypocrisy?

For more information visit http://www.amazonresellers.info

I use to sell on ebay, apple iphones. What a mess!! I lost thousands and the people got free apple iphones. I had a Russian client that got a free apple iphone. He simply disputed the $1,299.99 and Paypal took the money from my bank!! Never be a seller on ebay or amazon. They will keep your money and the buyer will get there merchandise for free. It's all a big scam. Ane were having the CEO of ebay as our next California governor. Sounds scary. Im sure she'll screw us up even more.

I use to sell on ebay, apple iphones. What a mess!! I lost thousands and the people got free apple iphones. I had a Russian client that got a free apple iphone. He simply disputed the $1,299.99 and Paypal took the money from my bank!! Never be a seller on ebay or amazon. They will keep your money and the buyer will get there merchandise for free. It’s all a big scam. Ane were having the CEO of ebay as our next California governor. Sounds scary. Im sure she’ll screw us up even more.