Ordering from Amazon Marketplace

I do it all the time, but just had my first bad experience with a reseller there, although it all worked out in the end. I decided as one of my Christmas presents for myself (that I am ordering and then giving to DH to give to me :)), I would try out the Skratch Labs Exercise Hydration Mix. It isn't sold locally, so I searched for it on Amazon and ordered it from a reseller there, Xtreme Bike and Sports. When it came, it was their EVERYDAY Hydration mix, a very different product. I e-mailed them, and when they replied, it was to say they had sent what I ordered. Of course, I then replied, and several rounds of this occurred with them continuing to say that I received what I ordered, and me explaining that there were two different products, Everyday and Exercise, and I had ordered one and received the other! They said I could send it back if I was dissatisfied, but they would not pay return shipping.

Finally, I realized that while they called the product Exercise Mix, the picture posted was of the Everyday mix, so at least I understood where the confusion was coming from. Anyway, to make a long story short, I posted a one star review on Amazon and explained the star was for poor marketing and customer service and not the product, which is excellent, and copied Skratch Labs on it saying I was sure they would want to know about a problem with one of their resellers.

Skratch Labs was wonderful. They got Xtreme Bike (who was buying the product from one of their distributors) to give me a partial discount, which I thought was fair since I felt a little at fault for not looking at the picture and am getting to keep the product (although I don't want or need it). Skratch Lab then sent me a bag of the Exercise Mix and a bunch of individual packs of different flavors to try!

So, kudos Skratch Labs for excellent customer service. Buyer beware for Amazon orders. I will continue to purchase there. I'll just be more careful that the picture, product description and name all match up!

Ugh,

As some who sells on Amazon, all I can say is it can be very challenging. Often we have zero control over the product photo and have to email amazon a detailed request to fix photos - this occurs when another reseller attaches the wrong photo to a upc code. We do our best to try and review our items often but it can be tough. Is also hard when another reseller list something way below MSRP when we know for a fact the brand has strict limits on selling below MSRP or MAP. but I am not the Amazon police :)

Will be interested in hearing how you like the Skratch - I see the one of our suppliers is offering a special on it at the moment.

I love Amazon, probably because I hate shopping. For the most part I try to buy from Amazon instead of the resellers because I've had some issues in that area.

Recently I did buy some Wellgo pedals from a reseller on Amazon and the service was excellent.

There are bad apples on both side.

My girlfriend used to own a factory but she has scaled wayyy back and mostly does on-line sale through etsy. Insulated lunch bags, fabric case for cell phones, iPAD... She gets bad checks at craft and quilt shows. Small but still stings. And on-line customer who are literally impossible. She does custom embroidery. A whole box full of impossible requests. Think of crazy request and its in there. Even misspelled the name on the order and my girlfriend get the blame. To one that went to a big name company but it was meant for someone at the company. Well he didn't put his name on it or mail stop. He never got it. My girlfriend sent a copy of his order showing he didn't put his name on it. Not even on his pay-pal account. So she was willing to compromise at her loss to send him a replacement at half the selling cost. No personal name to a big name company is not all that unusual for her.

Then as a buyer side of things. Some small time sellers do not pack their items well enough. Or description has lots of imagination...

I prefer to buy direct from the seller instead of going through Amazon market place.

Enjoy it while you can. Latest proposal in congress is to have internet sales tax based on where the buyer is located. That means as a seller, you will have to file tax statements quarterly or monthly for each of nearly 10,000 tax districts in US. My girlfriend is already thinking what her game plan is going to be when that happens. I'm sure there will be whole new business opportunity for accountants to handle all the internet tax. And there will be small business who pays the "tax clearing house" and be scammed. What ever happened to interstate commerce laws where it prohibited states from collecting tax on interstate sales or was it something slightly different?