Upset With Amazon

[Brian Elfert]

How is Amazon supposed to verify that a third party seller is really shipping items from where they say they are shipping from? I bet the seller you bought from ships most of their books from Illinois, but they had to order that one from overseas.

I have noticed a lot of Ebay sellers now just United States as their location instead of the city and state. Sometimes I want to know where the seller is located so I can have an idea of how long a shipment might take. Many sellers drop ship stuff from elsewhere so that doesn't always help.

[Art Mann]

Blaming Amazon for sales from other vendors is like going to a mall to buy a cheap radio from Radio Shack and then blaming the mall owner when it doesn't work.

[Dick Strauss]

The mall owner isn't taking your payment and acting as a middleman...

[Matt Meiser]

OK, then its about like buying something at an antique mall/gallery/etc and blaming the owner when the item turns out to be a fake.

[Kent Adams]

The mall owner isn't taking your payment and acting as a middleman...

That depends. Many malls sell purchase gift cards which can be used to purchase anything from the retailers in the mall. Amazon is essentially doing the same thing and then charging their reseller's rent for Amazon's space. Amazon does a pretty good job of culling bad resellers.

[Dave Lehnert]

Anyone see on the Today Show where in New York City Amazon offers an one hour delivery service? They placed an order for some DVD's and Cd's and were delivered in much less than an hour time.

[Bonnie Campbell]

I've learned to read where things are shipped through pretty good. I've been looking for a Hugga Bunch movie for my sister. One on Amazon said straight out it shipped from England. Another said Illinois, but had 'international shipping' in the description. They'll try slipping that by you, knowing you want USA shipping.

I'd learned my lesson when ordering a "Russian" scarf from an American shipper. Yep, waited two months for it to arrive from Russia.....

[Dick Strauss]

Lots of international sellers on Amazon don't state their shipping location and use names like MiamiElectronics to make you think they are US based. You find out if you look closely at the shipping dates. As an example, I was looking for a potentiometer to fix a machine. I found several that promised free shipping as long as you were willing to wait until Dec 20-27th. They could expedite the $6 worth of parts (2oz) for me and I could get it by Dec 10th for only $30 extra. Needless to say, I chose another vendor.