Amazon reseller scam, how do they make this work?

[JimKiler]

I ordered my daughter an R/C car in December. Last week i got a postcard that said submit an amazon review and send the link to the reseller's gmail email and they would give me a $40 amazon gift card. Sure enough this morning I got two $20 amazon gift card codes and i had no issues redeeming them. The email said to redeem them within 24 hours. The reseller is supposedly in CA but i got a response at 5:36 AM central time so it is probably somewhere else like China. The R/C car is $80 but they now gave me $40 credit. It is the sandy land car and lots of resellers sell this same car all at the same price of >$70 give or take the reseller and coupon codes.

The fact that they did not use the amazon email system and wanted me to redeem the codes ASAP seem shady but i cannot figure out how. Are these simply stolen gift cards or something else like all those seed packages people are getting. Maybe i should send this to Planet Money and they can make an episodes out of it.

 

[fralexandr]

Seems more likely that they want the review to stay marked as a verified purchaser. If they refund or pay you through amazon, amazon may remove the verified purchaser mark and they may be going against amazons terms of service.

Giving you 24 hours could be to prevent someone else from randomly claiming the gift card by accident or maliciously or something.

 

[deadlyapp]

Yep this is very common.

I've only taken someone up on it once, it was for a shitty wifi camera but I never got it to work and gave them a very poor review. They were not happy campers.

 

[Midwayman]

Yep this is very common.

I've only taken someone up on it once, it was for a shitty wifi camera but I never got it to work and gave them a very poor review. They were not happy campers.

Usually I call out the people offering $$$ for reviews as well. Even if I'm okay with the product I think its important for people to know that the seller is shady.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I ordered a pair of Bluetooth headphones and left a 4 star review because they were decent for what they were. They offered me my choice of headphones and I got a second pair of the same ones from them. I ended up leaving the review at 4 stars as it should have been and gifted the free headphones to someone for Christmas.

The gift card thing seems more scammy and I wouldn't ever give a fake review or change mine. It sucks when you see people giving 5 stars for crappy products.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I ordered my daughter an R/C car in December. Last week i got a postcard that said submit an amazon review and send the link to the reseller's gmail email and they would give me a $40 amazon gift card. Sure enough this morning I got two $20 amazon gift card codes and i had no issues redeeming them. The email said to redeem them within 24 hours. The reseller is supposedly in CA but i got a response at 5:36 AM central time so it is probably somewhere else like China. The R/C car is $80 but they now gave me $40 credit. It is the sandy land car and lots of resellers sell this same car all at the same price of >$70 give or take the reseller and coupon codes.

The fact that they did not use the amazon email system and wanted me to redeem the codes ASAP seem shady but i cannot figure out how. Are these simply stolen gift cards or something else like all those seed packages people are getting. Maybe i should send this to Planet Money and they can make an episodes out of it.

huh???? You do know that just because you buy something from Amazon that it isn`t necessarily manufactured by Amazon......

 

[LikeLinus]

huh???? You do know that just because you buy something from Amazon that it isn`t necessarily manufactured by Amazon......

Well, we now know that you do not known the meaning of reseller or you're illiterate. He never said anything about who manufactured it.

 

[LikeLinus]

Actually, I just had a whole issue with a vendor on eBay on an HBA Card for a server. The seller was selling items that were supposed to ship out of Kentucky. So I got the tracking number and it sat for 3 days saying it was coming from California, but never moved. I emailed the seller and they claimed that KY was having bad shipping issues and they sent it from California because things were being delivered quicker there. I live in TN about an hour away from where it was being shipped from in KY. My BS meter went through the roof.

I went back and noticed that USPS updated 3 days later and started moving, but from California and it said "shipping partner WINIT" in the notes. I was like??? Doing some research, it turns out the eBay seller was not located in the US like they claimed, they were in Hong Kong. What they do is use a company called WINIT that ships the item from China to a facility in CA. Then they route it through USPS in California so that it all appears to be based in the US. They're using Covid shipping delays as an excuse for the delay. Took over a week to get the item that was supposed to be one state away and get here in 2 days. Aholes.

Needless to say, I made an eBay claim because I was pretty sure the card was counterfeit and got my money back.

Aside from that, I don't like the fact that Amazon is passing on our emails to resellers Getting all these BS emails on how to use a product and asking me to write reviews. I've had several do the whole gift card thing if I leave them a positive review. I ignore it.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Well, we now know that you do not known the meaning of reseller or you're illiterate. He never said anything about who manufactured it.

No he just assumed it was Amazon, without researching........but thats Ok!! You are dismissed!!

 

[LikeLinus]

No he just assumed it was Amazon, without researching........but thats Ok!! You are dismissed!!

That clears that up. Certainly illiterate. Thanks for sharing!

 

[JimKiler]

I ordered a pair of Bluetooth headphones and left a 4 star review because they were decent for what they were. They offered me my choice of headphones and I got a second pair of the same ones from them. I ended up leaving the review at 4 stars as it should have been and gifted the free headphones to someone for Christmas.

The gift card thing seems more scammy and I wouldn't ever give a fake review or change mine. It sucks when you see people giving 5 stars for crappy products.

I did an honest review so I don't feel bad and the product already had over 700 reviews so this seemed unnecessary.

 

[JimKiler]

Actually, I just had a whole issue with a vendor on eBay on an HBA Card for a server. The seller was selling items that were supposed to ship out of Kentucky. So I got the tracking number and it sat for 3 days saying it was coming from California, but never moved. I emailed the seller and they claimed that KY was having bad shipping issues and they sent it from California because things were being delivered quicker there. I live in TN about an hour away from where it was being shipped from in KY. My BS meter went through the roof.

I went back and noticed that USPS updated 3 days later and started moving, but from California and it said "shipping partner WINIT" in the notes. I was like??? Doing some research, it turns out the eBay seller was not located in the US like they claimed, they were in Hong Kong. What they do is use a company called WINIT that ships the item from China to a facility in CA. Then they route it through USPS in California so that it all appears to be based in the US. They're using Covid shipping delays as an excuse for the delay. Took over a week to get the item that was supposed to be one state away and get here in 2 days. Aholes.

Needless to say, I made an eBay claim because I was pretty sure the card was counterfeit and got my money back.

Aside from that, I don't like the fact that Amazon is passing on our emails to resellers Getting all these BS emails on how to use a product and asking me to write reviews. I've had several do the whole gift card thing if I leave them a positive review. I ignore it.

Interesting, glad you got it taken care of
I assume you had no issues returning it.

I had to return a knock off fire pit of all the things to knock off. Again an Amazon reseller, but I should have researched the seller first and avoided the hassle. After getting my refund they asked me to remove my review stating I got a knock off item. No way would I remove it!

 

[eelw]

I’m happy with my free for a good review laptop stand. They gave refund via PayPal