Is This Even Possible !?

[Plexipens]

Send your full details to jeff@amazon.com It will not got ignored. If can include the details of the Cust Rep you spoke with they are even more interested .....

[Karmabim]

Thanks, I will certainly do that. Meanwhile some developments. The pen I ordered has been marked as dispatched so now Amazon will pay the seller. Of course I can't say for sure it won't arrive but I'm very sceptical.

 

Now I have the bug for rooting out the rogue sellers on Amazon, I can't help looking and I have found a few more. I tried to report them to Amazon but the process is so slow that the seller is in and out and gone before any action is started. Maybe this Jeff fellow will put a rocket under it?

 

I'll keep you posted

[Chrissy]

Send your full details to jeff@amazon.com It will not got ignored. If can include the details of the Cust Rep you spoke with they are even more interested .....

 

I can confirm this is so, as I have done it. I must admit I considered sending him an email about this today.

 

However, the two scammer sellers I reported by sending an email with the link to their products have been removed very quickly, so Amazon are trying to get on top of this.

 

I search for 'Parker Duofold Centennial', and report the one that comes up at £9.99 who has 341 pages of products available at the same price.

[Chrissy]

Since yesterday, when there seemed to be a great deal of fun in seeing if and when the Sailor pen would arrive, I had a look at how many items this ‘seller’ had listed on Amazon. Over 17,000 were listed; mostly pen related but not all, I saw some 3D pens as well.

The one thing they all had in common was they were all listed at a fraction of the proper price.

 

Now I’m always up for a bargain but there has to be a limit, this seller’s activity will do no good at all to the general health of pen trade or whatever else falls into their grubby little hands.

I called the Amazon help line and spoke to a very helpful chap who checked my story with the listings and he agreed there was something very dodgy looking about them. He cancelled my order and sent an email to the seller informing them. He was then handing over the information to Amazon’s investigating team for a closer look.

 

It seems these scams work like this; the seller gets a bunch of orders and quotes long delivery times (usually 3 weeks or so). After a few days they mark the items as dispatched and Amazon pay them. Of course the items never arrive because they were never sent so the customer complains to Amazon and eventually gets a refund.

Meanwhile our greedy little friends make off with the cash.

If you consider 17,000 items at about £10 each, if they sold only one of each they would skim a nice lump of cash. The chap I spoke to said they are grateful for any information to stop these criminals and I for one was only too happy to help. After all, ultimately it will save us all from having to pay a higher price for our goods.

 

Stealing is never good; most of us have had to work hard to afford the little luxuries we enjoy. Then people like this come along and take it away effectively without having to do any work at all. Quite apart from being illegal it’s very, very annoying to think they are getting away with it.

 

For anyone interested the seller’s name in question here is Darlene Eva. I thought I had found a couple of others but when I went back to check I could no longer find them.

 

Maybe those of us having this type of experience should pool our findings and present them to Amazon. If more people were more vigilant we might help wipe this out.

 

Darlene Eva was one of the sellers I reported.

[Chrissy]

More I'm afraid...

 

While looking on Amazon again today for a present, I came across three new sellers who are quite obviously trying to pull the same scam. Two were identical to the one I encountered but the third was subtlety different. This seller had feedback from buyers as far back as 2010.

Now for a company listed as ‘Just Launched’ that seems a little odd, until you realise that Amazon don’t differentiate the feedback from different sellers. In fact the feedback even appears on this seller’s ‘Just Launched’ storefront listing. How?

So….… I called Amazon to let them in on what believe I had uncovered thinking they would jump at the opportunity of stopping fraudulent activity on their site. It was like having teeth pulled, the chap I spoke to really could not have been less interested. He offered to email the seller to tell them that I thought there was something wrong, what an idiot (like saying ‘look out I think you’ve been sussed’). I asked if I could speak to a supervisor, he went away to get one. 7 minutes later he came back without a supervisor and started to ask me all over again what was the problem. I asked if they were interested in preventing illegal activity on Amazon he said that they were and he would send an email to the team to investigate and they would contact me if any more information was needed.

 

I think that about sums it up, they have policies and algorithms and rules and guidelines but if nobody is bothered to use or invoke them they are pointless and nobody seems to really care.

 

We just have to look out for ourselves and remember, if it looks dodgy and smells dodgy it’s probably dodgy.

 

Oh yes I nearly forgot the sellers I found

 

Swdc Qfcv

Kldc Rgdf

Rcdf Yht

 

Thy couldn't even be bothered to type proper names. Be warned!

 

I reported Kldc Rgdf this morning

[Karmabim]

The 341 pages and all the same price seems to be a trademark, I wonder if that is the maximum number you can list on Amazon. There are probably many, many traders pulling this stunt, I've found a number listed as trading from China that look a bit suspicious but I don't see the same trademarks.

 

The Parker Duofold is a good one to search but I've started to see the problem pop up on quite inexpensive items as well, for instance the rogue will undercut a £5 item at £2.99. It hardly seems worth it but if they sell enough the money will soon mount up.

 

I'll get in touch with Jeff and maybe post the rogue sellers names on here for all to see.

[WolvertonMountain]

Thanks, I will certainly do that. Meanwhile some developments. The pen I ordered has been marked as dispatched so now Amazon will pay the seller. Of course I can't say for sure it won't arrive but I'm very sceptical.

 

Now I have the bug for rooting out the rogue sellers on Amazon, I can't help looking and I have found a few more. I tried to report them to Amazon but the process is so slow that the seller is in and out and gone before any action is started. Maybe this Jeff fellow will put a rocket under it?

 

I'll keep you posted

 

"Maybe this Jeff fellow will put a rocket under it?"

 

Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha... Good one, Karmabim.

[Chrissy]

The 341 pages and all the same price seems to be a trademark, I wonder if that is the maximum number you can list on Amazon. There are probably many, many traders pulling this stunt, I've found a number listed as trading from China that look a bit suspicious but I don't see the same trademarks.

 

The Parker Duofold is a good one to search but I've started to see the problem pop up on quite inexpensive items as well, for instance the rogue will undercut a £5 item at £2.99. It hardly seems worth it but if they sell enough the money will soon mount up.

 

I'll get in touch with Jeff and maybe post the rogue sellers names on here for all to see.

 

Yes, I have seen these rogue sellers selling a Sheaffer converter by Cross for between £2 and 33 when regular UK sellers charge between £3.90 and £5.00. That's sad.

[Dubois]

I was looking on Amazon.uk for a mechanical pencil and found, entirely by accident, another seller with over 6,000 items for sale - all at £7.99. Includes some Cross pen sets, and Rotring 600 pencils.

 

"Seller" name is Kennedy Owen, based in the US, and "just launched", hence no feedback.

 

Clearly another scam.

[Chrissy]

I was looking on Amazon.uk for a mechanical pencil and found, entirely by accident, another seller with over 6,000 items for sale - all at £7.99. Includes some Cross pen sets, and Rotring 600 pencils.

 

"Seller" name is Kennedy Owen, based in the US, and "just launched", hence no feedback.

 

Clearly another scam.

 

Yes, he has the same 341 pages of products

[Karmabim]

I can't leave this alone now, I'm afraid it might become an obsession.

 

I emailed jeff@amazon.com as suggested with a list of some sellers that looked suspicious and asked him to keep me in the loop with what happens.

 

The sellers I found merely looked suspicious, I can't say for sure if they are but isn't it rather a coincidence that I found the same trader (Kennedy Owen) as Near Mint while searching for something completely different.

 

Here for anyone interested or concerned is a list of some traders I have found so far that fit the profile, that is 341 pages of storefront, all items at the same and very low price.

 

Swdc Qfcv
Kldc Rgdf
Rcdf Yht

Kennedy Owen
Karen Faber
SomerWuddie
JDUKP NJXYQA
BILLIE RENFROW
GERARDO MARTNEZ
canmeyen

These (below) maybe suspect but some of the characteristics are slightly different. Maybe they are getting wiser? The prices of some vary but repeat and others are low priced items but all items listed priced the same.

Red Cardinal Industries LLC is interesting. I decided to Google it and got a mixed bag of mostly bad results. Also although some items are low priced every one, no matter what size has a £50 charge for delivery to the UK. This one probably won't work well for them

matthew Johnson

Red Cardinal Industries LLC
PRISCILLA ALSTON
houguoruieu
Frank Woolley

 

 

Please remember though, I can't accuse any of them for advertising on Amazon, the only point at which anything illegal occurs is when they accept payment for goods they don't have or don't intend to get or ship. I believe it used to be the case in the UK that you weren't allowed to advertise items that you didn't have in stock but these days with 'Just In Time' ordering that may have changed.

 

Please remember this is not an accusation, merely an observation, it will be up to Amazon to investigate, if they see fit.

Meanwhile I don't think I'm likely to order from any of the above just yet.

 

I would suggest be careful buying on Amazon, if you don't want too much trouble. Look at the trader's profile and if it looks wrong or dodgy or too cheap, buy from another trader.

[Dubois]

This is becoming tedious. I was looking for a Rotring 600, and found one at £7.99, shipping from Florida. So, looking at the seller's storefront, I fing 5000+ items, all at £7.99. Seller name Adolph Edison.

 

As Karmabim says, it's worth being careful on Amazon these days.

[Karmabim]

I believe Amazon must have almost an infestation of rogue traders.

I found the names listed above and for some reason I decided to do a search for matthew Johnson, what came up first was lots of iPhone cases (of course it's obvious when you know). I followed the More buying choices link of one of these and there were pages and pages of 'Just Launched' sellers. Every one I looked at had the, by now, familiar 341 storefront pages, a low price (same) on every item and three weeks delivery. I sent another email to Jeff. I looked again just now and get different results so maybe matthew Johnson has disappeared? I don't know. However there were plenty more 'Just Launched' sellers with the same profile.

Just a few more of them.

Adolph Edison
PRISCILLA ALSTON
Frank Woolley
MCNESE AKAT
LubaHwals
BKimpeletam
Travis D. Gunnels

The list goes on but far too many to keep tabs on.
Have a quick look if you like 34 of them listed here and all but two fit the formula and that's just on one item, just think........

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00VFXQS66/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1501008388&sr=1-1&keywords=matthew+Johnson&condition=new

It looks like someone at Amazon has a heck of a task to get stuck into.

I'll keep you posted on the developments.

[Karmabim]

Another (quite) interesting development or revelation, I looked at the Amazon dispatch details. Surprise, surprise the courier is shown as China post (not American post then?). I put the tracking number into China post tracking and the result was 'we are awaiting tracking info from the carrier'.

 

So the sellers are not in America or at least the goods (if they exist) are being sent from China and the couriers don't have it yet, even though it's supposed to be on its way.

 

Oh well I'll wait and see.

[Flounder]

Amazon reimbursed my payment, that was pretty quick.

Edited July 26, 2017 by Flounder

[usk15]

I've managed to cancel my order, also flag this as fraud to Amazon.

[Karmabim]

Latest development

 

I'm now in contact with an Executive of Customer Relations at Amazon. They finally bucked up and took some notice. This chap has asked me to send him a list of all the suspect sellers, I have told him it's far too big a task, it will probably be a full time job for the right person. I would have tackled this easily in the past but I'm retired now and quite content to be so.

Oh and it seems some of these the sellers are starting to get a bit wiser, there are still some hallmarks to identify them but some are putting a sort of wave in their prices (they vary up and down a pound or so but then repeat). They have also started listing inexpensive items, that way they are more hidden in with the other sellers. However they can still take on loads of orders and get paid and probably get away with it for longer. After all if you order something for £3.99 and it doesn't turn up who's going to lose any sleep or even bother to complain? But a few hundred £3.99s is worth it for the seller (and don't sender).

 

I kind of hope for Amazon and us (mostly us) that there aren't as many of these rogues as it seems but sadly I think there are.

 

Time will tell they may conquer it or they may just bury it and jack up the prices to compensate.

 

I'll keep you informed.

[alc3261]

Bartholomew Gosse

[Karmabim]

How do people fall for this kind of thing? But presumably they do, ........ Oh yes I did.

[Chrissy]

When I reported Kldc Rgdf I received back a message from Amazon UK seller support suggesting they couldn't understand the problem I was experiencing with my seller account, and could I clarify it.

 

So I forwarded that message to Jeff and told him what the problem was. Trying to report the fraudsters is almost as much of a problem. And I'm only looking at pens.