Track the source of Amazon sellers
THIS week, my look at popular online shopping platforms focuses on one of the best and most convenient.
Amazon offers nearly every conceivable product and with, generally, fast delivery. But the giant, founded by Jeff Bezos, below, has flaws you need to be aware of:
WHO ARE YOU BUYING FROM?
My advice is don’t buy from China or any trader outside the UK. None of our consumer laws, the world’s best, will protect you if the trader is based overseas.
In 2020 I wrote that, in my opinion, consumers were being misled about the identity of some of the sellers on the Amazon site.
I found many Chinese traders used English sounding trading names, leading many consumers to believe they were buying from a trader in the UK.
When you clicked on the trader’s name on Amazon it became clear it was not a UK company.
I invited Amazon to ban this and make the true identity and location of traders transparent by putting this information on the page with the product details. They ignored me, this practice still continues.
For example, there are items listed on Amazon from a trader named as “Kanars Crystal”. Click on the name and the identity of the trader is revealed as “shenzhenshinanwangtongxinkejiyouxiangongsi” based in China. I put this to
Amazon again and it said: “Should a customer want further details on the seller including their business and customer service address, that information is accessible in a single click.”
This misses the point. The average consumer will not do this, instead they will press buy now, rather than investigating the trader further. Next time you buy on Amazon make sure you click on the trader’s name to find out exactly who and where you are
buying from.
WHAT ARE YOU BUYING?
With such a big platform, it is inevitable Amazon will contain counterfeit goods. I have read many stories, on the likes of Trust Pilot, from consumers who ended up with fake goods from third party sellers on Amazon.
Amazon takes this very seriously and in 2020 launched its counterfeit goods unit. Amazon told me: “As a result, fewer than 0.01% of all products sold on Amazon received a counterfeit complaint from customers but we won’t rest until we have zero counterfeits in our store”
IS IT THAT GOOD?
Online fake reviews are rife. Again, the platform is working hard to deal with this but you need to be careful of what the reviews say.
WHILE YOU WERE OUT
On most occasions it appears that Amazon’s delivery service is very impressive. But consumers have told me that often parcels are left outside while they were out and have been stolen.
When this happened to reader Stephanie Benham she reported it to Amazon and was told drivers often report deliveries have been made before they actually have. Amazingly, someone found her parcel under a bridge near her house and returned it to her.
Amazon says consumers can add delivery instructions in their account settings. But the law is very clear. Unless the consumer says a trader can leave goods outside, while they are out, they must be delivered to them personally – so while they are home.
GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?
Amazon needs to look at its packaging policy. My experience is that Amazon boxes are far too big.
One reader bought a small umbrella which arrived in a box that could have been for 30.
Amazon told me “this should rarely be the case”. But later it said: “Since 2015, we have reduced the weight of outbound packaging per shipment by 36% and eliminated over one million tons of packaging material, equivalent of over two billion shipping boxes.”
Finally, Amazon says its A to Z guarantee protects consumers when they buy items sold and fulfilled by a third-party seller.