Amazon experience

Just thought I'd share a recent experience I had with Amazon. Something I wasn't aware of but should have been!

I ordered a Casio G-Shock watch from Amazon Spain. What attracted me was the price. A good discount, although not too cheap to raise undue suspicion.

Having ordered it, something alerted me to the fact that it was SOLD BY xxxxx and FULFILLED by Amazon ES.
Delving a bit deeper, I discovered it was actually being sent from the UK even though the Seller didn't appear on Amazon UK website.

So even before the item arrived, I had a feeling that the item was going to be a fake. Which it most certainly was.

I was naive enough to believe that buying something from Amazon was 100 percent safe. Seems that this is only the case if an item is Sold AND Fulfilled by Amazon.

In my case it was Sold by a third party using Amazon's delivery infrastructure.
So it seems that you need to use the same level of diligence when dealing with third party sellers on Amazon as you would with Ebay.

Hope this prevents others being stung!

I am not even going to try for a refund - I don't want the hassle of dealing with Amazon Spain. It was an impulse buy that converted to 45 GBP so not a fortune. The watch although fake, is wearable even though the accuracy is worse than the specification. Also probably not waterproof or shockproof.

It appears to be pretty easy for unscrupulous sellers to market through Amazon so it pays to do your homework. Or as you say buy from Amazon as the seller.

I seek on amazon on the UK. I am pestered weekly to sell on amazon throughout Europe.

I always say no for 2 reasons. When there is a problem its a complete pain in the backside for me and secondly, when there is a problem, dealing with people on a different country is a complete pain in the backside for the customer also.

I don't get why amazon want that.

I know it's money, but amazon are soooooo customer focused, it amazes me why they allow fakes on their site and for people to sell in different countries which will cause problems.

If I were you, start an AtoZ claim for it being not as advertised, you will win, get your money back and the seller will have his account deducted points and in the end be kicked off if they keep doing it.

Just a thought

It’s not all bad using Amazon.es. I have ordered a number of items from them, two were late delivery in both instances I received emails stating that due to late delivery I would be refunded the delivery charges, the third item did not arrive from China, I requested a refund the supplier requested another 5 days to ensure that the item was not delivered, after 5 days I requested a refund which I received within a few hours. No complaints from me.

Always good to remind folk but this is nothing new and is a problem Amazon has been plagued with for some time.

With something like 50% of products on the platform being from 3rd party vendors though you cannot help but question the strength of their commitment to reign it in.

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/ ... es-2001069

The tactic of low but plausible pricing is well known and should automatically raise suspicions.

I would say to always check a sellers feedback and reviews but unfortunately with writing fakes seemingly becoming a career choice for many it's increasingly difficult to put much faith in them.

What amazes me is the effort that is put in to producing tech fakes. I would have thought that production and tooling costs alone would be quite considerable compared to producing fake designer handbags or perfume.
Physically the Casio watch I received really looked the part and appeared to be well engineered. It was the functionality that was sub standard.

Returns to Amazon.es are easy. Request the return online, print off the label and drop the package at the Post Office down by Quesada Fish and Chips.

Glassfull wrote:Returns to Amazon.es are easy. Request the return online, print off the label and drop the package at the Post Office down by Quesada Fish and Chips.

And if it's faulty or not as advertised they refund the postage as well.
If you pick ordered in error or (I love the Google translation) "I don't love it anymore" you just pay the postage.
Done it with uk and es sites and with items provided by other sellers via Amazon.
Never had a problem.

Just thought I’d add my experiences with Amazon. I’ve got nothing but praise for Amazons services when ordering from U.K. or Amazon.es Occasionally the delivery company's they use make the odd error but this is put right immediately by amazon. Returns are easy and sometimes you don’t even need to return the item for them to replace it without arguing about it.

Just to add.

I use Amazon a lot in the UK, but generally for low value items. Never had a problem.

The reason I made this post was to highlight something that I wasn't aware of until now. In essence I unwittingly ordered a fake watch because I didn't do my homework on the third party seller. Something I always check on Ebay for example.

I honestly thought that Amazon was lower risk in this regard. But it seems that bad sellers can ply their trade quite easily especially when doing it through another country. In my case a UK seller marketing on Amazon ES.