Amazon.com Marketplace - eek Technology
I am currently working on the long and detailed experience I recently had with eek Technology (who is currently a Marketplace seller within Amazon.com). The premise of this post being: Just because a seller operates under the umbrella of Amazon.com does not necessarily mean they are reputable and honest.
Please watch this post for details within the next few days.
Want more details now?
Okay. Well on May 23rd, I happened along this product page on the Amazon site. As you can see, eek Technology Storefront was offering the “SanDisk 2 GB SD Memory Card ( SDSDB-2048-A10/A11, Retail Package)” for $6.56 each. Well, that sounded like a great deal, so I went ahead and scrolled down to eek Technology Shipping Information link to check on shipping rates. This is a screenshot of that page. Great! So I decided to order 5 of these cards. Well, according to my calculation (based from their shipping rate info) I assumed: 5 X $6.56 = $32.80 plus $5.35 (weight / lb) plus $2.50 per shipment =
$32.80 (product) + $7.85 (shipping) = $40.65
So imagine my surprise when I received my order confirmation from Amazon and found that I was being charged $29.95 shipping when, as you can also see, the options chosen are:
Shipping Method: Standard
Shipping Preference: Group my items into as few shipments as possible
So how did they come up with a shipping figure of $29.95?
Hell if I know!
But no big deal … everyone makes mistakes, so I emailed them and pointed out their mistake, and requested a credit for the difference of $21.40.
They responded with an email that said (in part): Our standard shipping and handling rates are $2.50 per order plus $5.35 per item.
So how do they justify charging exhorbatent fees outside of what is officially listed on their seller profile?
Hell if I know!
Anyway, this could go on and on, but the summary of what followed is this:
I emailed eek a couple more times requesting that they honor our transaction and refund the mistake in shipping. They only responded with: “If the package ships, please REFUSE it for a full refund.” They MISSED THE POINT! I wanted the memory cards, but I only wanted to pay the shipping rate that is advertised on their storefront.
I spent hours upon hours on the Amazon site looking for a direct email address (other than a form so that I could forward Amazon the emails from eek as well as the screenshots as posted in this site. I even filled out a couple of their forms asking someone to either call me or send me an email address that I could forward everything to. I never heard back from anyone. I even sent off about 6 emails to email addresses that I guessed would be logical addresses, such as:
-complaints@amazon.com
-spoof@amazon.com
-customer.service@amazon.com
-and about a dozen others
… and each one came back with an Failed Delivery Notification saying: Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients…
So, in the end I received a notice from Amazon.com this afternoon telling me that eek Technology had canceled my order. Well now, isn’t that convenient for them!
How does Amazon regulate the quality of their Marketplace sellers if customers can not offer feedback without jumping through a dozen hoops?
Hell if I know!
How does eek Technology get away with not having to honor transactions and fees as listed on their storefront?
Hell if I know!
eek really has the system beat! If you complain to them about their refusal to correct their shipping charges, they cancel your order. Hence, there is no way to leave negative feedback so that others can see what they do.
Also, once they cancel your order there is no way for you to File a Claim because once you enter in your original order number, the page states: You were not charged for this order, so you cannot make a claim against it. So why would I want to file a claim? Well, I don’t but I wanted Amazon.com to force eek Technology to honour their transaction with me. I can’t find any other way to contact them, so I tried to use this claim form.
So how do I warn people on the Amazon.com site that eek Technology did not adhere to their stated shipping rates with me (and possibly other people as well)?
Hell if I know!
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May 27th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
That boggles my mind. I’d write Amazon and be glad the order was cancelled, but I agree there should be a way to rate them.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:13 am
I agree that they are overcharging for their shipping rates, but that’s how these companies that sell memory cards in bulk make their money. If you go on Ebay, you will see 2 and 4GB cards selling for less than 10.00 each but by the time you add in shipping you will usually end up paying anywhere from 15.00 to 20.00 for the cards, and it’s still a good price.
The way eek has this set up, you end up paying around 12.00 each for the 2GB cards. That’s less than you would pay retail if they were not on sale. The error that eek made is that they should have their listing state there is a charge for each shipment, and they do not give shipping discounts (which by the way is the normal policy for Amazon marketplace sellers.)
I’m so sorry you had a negative buying experience, but I really think this is a case of “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is”.
They refunded your money, I think that’s all you can reasonably expect.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Wow! More and more merchants are hooking people in with low product prices but charging exorbitant shipping charges. It’s easy to cancel the order, but they get you with still charging you the shipping. It’s not right and it makes me uneasy about buying from unknown (to me) merchants. Thanks for sharing your experience and I hope you get your problem resolved fairly.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Hi, Friends. Thanks for taking the time to comment on this situation. Nightshadow & Anita: well, I guess the bottom line for me is this … even with those high shipping rates it was still a good price, BUT that price was arrived at through deceptive means. Had their site stated $ / per item, then I would not be complaining about anything. However, it is just a matter of principle I guess. I would rather purchase from someone else who is honest about their rates even if I have to pay a little more, than to purchase from someone that got my business by ‘tricking’ me.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
The shipping is a killer!!!! Its a really good reminder to read the fine print. But also to be persistant if things don’t go properly. I’m glad you were able to have it resolved!
May 28th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Hi Joane. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
As I follow up, I’d like to state:
Yes, well, the thing is that I HAD read the fine print … I was very careful to check the sellers information regarding shipping charges and that is where I found them stating 0.00 per item - however, that is not what they charged me. >:(
Anyway, I will consider this matter ‘resolved’ when Amazon starts taking action against sellers that misrepresent their fees and either make them follow what they post as their shipping rates, or change the misleading information on their rates page.
Don’t get me wrong, Joane, I have to state this again, I got all of my money back - that is not a problem. I am just making a fuss because Amazon USED to be one of the most reputable online sellers on the net … however, now that they have opened the door to 3rd party sellers they HAVE TO find some way to regulate the Marketplace sellers in order to uphold their once impeccable reputation. The fact that it is next to impossible for the average customer to find a conscientious customer service rep. on the other end of an email address, makes it difficult for Amazon to receive customer feedback directly about storefronts that misrepresent themselves.
ARE YOU READING THIS AMAZON?
Hell if I know!
May 29th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
AACKKKK… I hate having to deal with stuff that goes wrong. I did have an issue with Amazon at one time, and trying to get in touch with a person was really exasperating.
BTW, I love your theme.
Peggy
May 30th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Hmmm. I buy from amazon resellers, though I can only buy books and CDS from Australia (I only buy books). I’ve had good experiences so far, but this warns me that it won’t necessarily be the case in the future.