Who’s the richest of them all?
Shoppers warned about ‘deliver now, pay later’ internet retailer
Jeff Bezos’ net worth has reached US$105.1 billion ($146b) on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as Amazon shares added to a 12-month surge that’s lifted the online shopping giant’s market value by almost 57 per cent.
This fortune led Bloomberg to declare Bezos the richest man in the history of the publication’s records.
Amazon shares have risen 6.6 per cent this year, with a report showing the Seattlebased company captured 89 per cent of online spending The Commerce Commission is warning shoppers to be wary of the Denmark-based e-commerce retailer LuxStyle, which uses a “deliver now, pay later” scheme.
The consumer watchdog has received 50 complaints about LuxStyle since May 2016, with many people claiming they were unaware goods were sent out before a purchase was made.
LuxStyle, operated by Lux International Sales ApS, runs local website luxstyle.co.nz and reaches many customers through social media advertisements. among dominant holiday retailers in the five-week period beginning the day after Thanksgiving in the US.
The latest jump has pushed Bezos’ fortune definitively above the high reached by Microsoft’s Bill Gates in 1999.
The Amazon founder passed Gates in October with a net worth of US$93.8b and his fortune crossed US$100b for the first time a month later when the holiday shopping season kicked off on Black Friday.
Gates, 62, would have a net
The site’s operating model sees goods sent to consumers before payment — a worry for the commission, which says consumers are being misled into circumstances where they do not intend to make a purchase.
Commission general manager of competition Antonia Horrocks said consumers were familiar with the concept of adding items to an online shopping cart — but that didn’t mean a person had committed to making the purchase.
LuxStyle portals did not work that way, Horrocks said: “Prices for goods are not prominently displayed on the sites and by clicking an ‘order now’ button consumers find that LuxStyle sends them the goods and an invoice. If they don’t pay, LuxStyle adds fees and threatens debt collection.”
When contacted by the commission, LuxStyle denied breaching consumer laws.
Those who do not want to receive goods should not press the “order now” button, Horrocks said.
A cancel order option is available through a link in the order confirmation email.
LuxStyle has been the subject of warnings from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Danish Consumer Ombudsman. Join 1000’s of other businesses that are using LocknLoad to take care of their Health & Safety needs Successfully used in the Contracting industry and now available across multiple industries Easy to use app