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Bad Sellers – Disreputable, With a Shameful Bag of Tricks – Use Caution or AVOID

Talk about your experience, good and bad, here.
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PetWatch
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Bad Sellers – Disreputable, With a Shameful Bag of Tricks – Use Caution or AVOID

Post by PetWatch »

Share your experience with sellers who employ reprehensible tactics such as deception, falsehoods, outright fraud and general shady tricks of the trade as their standard operating practice.

List widespread sneaky tactics employed by sellers that have a negative impact on the bottom line purchase price, returns, refunds and general customer experience.

The purpose is make aware and warn other buyers about negative issues they may encounter with particular sellers.
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Re: Bad Sellers – Disreputable, With a Shameful Bag of Tricks – Use Caution or AVOID

Post by PetWatch »

Jomashop – Crooks

To the point, no need for nicety with this crooked seller. I placed an order with them through the Rakuten Marketplace that I decided to return untouched and unworn according to and within their 30 day return policy.

I submitted a return request for an RMA number through multiple channels, RM contact process, direct emails, tried to fill out their online return form, which never worked, multiple times each – silence. Completely ignored each and every time. I then called them a few times, only to be lied to again and again about having sent the RMA #, or not, depending on who I talked to, repeatedly being told they would be re-sending it the next day after confirming purchase and email address. Nothing but lies.

By this time I was through with Jomashop and decided to give RM a chance before I sent their untouched and unworn watch back and opened a credit card claim. RM stepped in (review in the Good Sellers thread), intervened on my behalf, was able to get the RMA #, but when it came time to issue the refund, not unexpectedly Jomashop begin to ignore them as well. RM refunded the purchase. Jomashop tried to defraud me, these crooks wanted to keep the watch and my money too. I suppose some would say to give them more time, beyond their specified time period for a credit return, but given all that transpired up to this point, that's foolishness I will not indulge in, and time was running out for recourse from a potential credit card claim.

I may well have purchased from them in the past with uneventful results, but taking this one time experience along with the many other crooked practices periodically retold by others who have experienced the devious, contemptible business practices that they carry out as a matter of normal operational procedures, leads me to emphatically say that I will NEVER again buy from them.

They keep listing products that they no longer stock and won't carry again at the lowest price they ever had, sometimes only for a few items and briefly (or lower than ever, I've also heard but can't vouch for) and arrange for it to show up at the top or near the top of Google's product searches.

Their own warranty service techs have been know to cause further damage to a watch and they refuse to provide restitution.

They take orders without disclosing product is not in stock or claim a shipping date that is not honored requiring customer follow up with cancellation.

And the list goes on............

Their prices may be very good at times so I can see why some of you buy from them, as I may have in the past, please know that by doing so you are supporting a business that employs deceit, lies and fraud as part of their normal operational business practices. One can generally find a similar or better deal elsewhere from more reputable honest businesses, not this snake that will turn around and bite you at the first chance it gets. Even paying a little more is very much worth it to avoid possibly having to go through what I just went through, not to mention I much rather give my support and hard earned money to an honest reputable shop.

AVOID this one.
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Re: Bad Sellers – Disreputable, With a Shameful Bag of Tricks – Use Caution or AVOID

Post by PetWatch »

Macy's – In regards to watches on Clearance only – CAUTION.

Based on several personal experiences over time as well as several reported by others here and elsewhere.

The new “Clearance” watch you receive may be:
New, with correct manual and packaging.
Missing manual, may only include partial packaging, or come with incorrect one's.
Display models with scratches, blemishes, showing signs of handling and even usage.
Possible customer returns being resold. Can't prove it, but have seen signs that lead me to believe this may take place at times.
Missing full or partial protective wrap on the watch.

Overall I have found their customer service to be very responsive to a satisfactory resolution.

Simple issues such as a return or exchange may be quickly resolved, but may not always go smoothly especially with more complicated returns or exchanges.

I have encountered:
Returns not marked received after tracking shows delivery confirmation, an issue that is more likely to occur when the return was directed to a store instead of a returns dept, this results in repeated emails asking to return the product back or you may be charged for a non return.

Star Rewards used during purchase have not be credited back to the account.

Complications and mix ups when an order includes multiple items needing different disposition.

Been assured several time these issues would be resolved but were not.

When these and other related issues arise expect to contact customer service several times and be transferred to multiple representatives having to explain the same issue several times until it is finally resolved. Best to ask to be transferred to a supervisor or higher up the customer service chain for a faster resolution. In total it could take an hour or longer on the phone until issue is fully resolved.

Some of these issues are not exclusive to this store or limited to clearance items. They can and do occur with other department stores, brick and mortar stores as well as online shops.
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Re: Bad Sellers – Disreputable, With a Shameful Bag of Tricks – Use Caution or AVOID

Post by BostonCharlie »

Reflecting on Macy's selling returns as clearance items, I now take for granted that this is a common (but unfortunate) practice. I base this only on reports last year from Helzberg's clearance deal on Seiko monsters.

I didn't bite, but I had posted the deal so was watching reports closely. Early buyers sounded happy, but the price was probably good enough (~$200) to overlook small issues like missing manuals. One buyer, toward the end (they were OOS at that point), was very unhappy -- he had received a very used and disgustingly dirty watch. He said he would return it. Long afterwards I recall seeing a post about somebody else getting a deal on a monster from Helzberg but then receiving what sounded like this same, disgusting watch. Helzberg -- a national chain -- seemed to still be selling a watch that they must have known by then was completely unacceptable!

Since then I have tried to keep my expectations low for clearance watches. I don't buy much, but in these cases I take into consideration how hard it would be to return. My atomic square from Zumiez was a deal, but when it arrived it was clearly a return -- some packaging was missing and the band showed some distress. I kept it because the price made up for it.

A couple possible warning signs: a model that has been on clearance for a long time, or a listing that goes OOS but then unexpectedly is back in stock.
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Re: Bad Sellers – Disreputable, With a Shameful Bag of Tricks – Use Caution or AVOID

Post by PetWatch »

Kohl's - Specific to online Kohls Cash redemption – CAUTION

While in the process of making an online purchase last week, after putting several items in the shopping cart I went to the online Kohl's wallet to see available offers and Kohl's Cash coupons. I noticed that a couple of KC coupons showed the current date as the expiration date. Seemed odd, as I distinctly recalled it being a later date, so I went and looked at the physical KC coupons to verify the date. Sure enough, the online date was incorrect.

I logged out, closed browser, logged back in, same incorrect date stating the current date was the expiration date. I ended up using one KC coupon. The next day I logged in again and the remaining KC coupon now showed the correct expiration date.

In addition, be careful inputting discount offer codes since some may not stack and adding another may remove one that has already been applied that may have a greater discount. I have also noticed the order total price changes due to shipping and tax from checkout screen to screen until the final one.
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Re: Bad Sellers – Disreputable, With a Shameful Bag of Tricks – Use Caution or AVOID

Post by MAAHHH THE FRENCH! »

What I've seen online has been enough to steer me away from Joma. To add to what's been said here already:

Some time back I was browsing through BBB complaints against Joma and came across a real gem. Someone had suspicions the watch they received might not be genuine, and so took it to an authorized service center for that brand. They confirmed, it was indeed a counterfeit, so the buyer tried to RMA with Joma. They refused, which led to the BBB complaint. Joma responded to the complaint with the explanation that, because the buyer had let a "third party" (ie, anywhere other than Joma) open the watch, the return policy was invalidated. The sheer slimy audacity of that response forever marked them as Do Not Touch in my book.

I've also noticed any uncomplimentary comments in Slickdeal's posts for Joma deals will get downvoted to oblivion.
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