Unethical Amazon Marketplace Seller Story

I have been buying used books on the Internet for years. Lately my positive experiences with Amazon Marketplace sellers is less frequent than the problems are.

Here is a story of a situation that is happening to me (as a buyer) right now. I am speechless over this unethical seller’s practice.

After writing this and blogging about it, my next step will be to contact Amazon to alert them to this unethical practice and in the best case scenario they will terminate their relationship with this Amazon Marketplace seller. I am not confident that this will happen, though.

In August 2006 I read about a book published in the 1970s which was a small print run book and it is currently out of print. I searched the Internet for a copy and located one on Amazon Marketplace, used, of course. It was stated to be the best condition that I could find on the Internet compared to some other used bookselling sites.

Note to everyone who loves to question me about this---yes, I did check the seller's feedback rating, history of quantity of sales, and I even read the most recent comments before I made the purchase. If my memory serves me correctly the feedback was over 95% positive with no recent negative ratings, and the sales were close to 4000 sales. I took this to be a high volume experienced bookseller who could be trusted. So then I placed my order.

The first issue was that I received no email from the seller confirming my order.

Second, I received no notification that the book shipped.

Quite frankly I was busy and was actually not fretting about either of those things. Not all Amazon Marketplace sellers do these steps in the communication process so I was just patiently waiting. I assumed media mail was being used as the shipping method and so I patiently waited for the delivery, which can take three weeks or a little more sometimes.

After 30 days from the time of purchase had gone by, I rechecked my order to review the order date, I confirmed the sale did go through, and I checked to see that indeed my credit card was billed.

I looked at the seller’s profile to get the email address or to link through to email the seller. I was very surprised to see a bunch of negative feedbacks from within the last month, all stated the book was never received, and that the seller does not answer emails of inquiry. Some also specifically stated that numerous emails to the seller were ignored only until negative feedback was left then suddenly the seller did contact the buyer to resolve the issue. Then I got worried.

That day, I sent the seller a polite email inquiring as to the status, noting also I never received a confirmation of the order, the shipping, or anything. I asked by what method it was sent, was delivery confirmation used, etc. That email was not answered. My email was dated 9/27/06 11:22am. At that time I did not leave feedback for the seller as I was awaiting their response. (I have a copy of my email for my proof which I just checked for accuracy and dates before blogging about it.)

On 9/30/06 Amazon sent me an email asking that I leave feedback on this order. I double checked my emails and realized that I had not heard from the seller at all since my first email was sent three days prior. I then followed Amazon’s directions and decided to leave negative feedback for the seller, rating her at 1 star out of five. I have a copy of that Amazon email as proof of the date they asked for feedback.

Next, on 9/30/06, I sent a second email to the seller. (I have a copy of that email saved and just verified the dates and times.) I noted my disappointment and mentioned that my first email was not responded to. I also mentioned that I was surprised to see the feedback score had plummeted to much lower than it was when I placed the order. At that time I also left negative feedback, and I politely mentioned that in my email.

I then (finally) received a polite email telling me that the package was sent by USPS Media Mail with no delivery confirmation. I was offered a full refund. That did go through Amazon and to my credit card. Hooray.

I then received another, separate email stating that to make this up to me the seller was offering me a free book valued at up to $5.00 and that she would send it to me with no additional shipping charges. That sounded very nice and I was happy. I was busy at the time so I did not go searching for a free book at that moment, deciding to do that later or the next day.

A while later on that same day, a new email came from the seller. She states again she will give me a free book but it is in exchange for a promise from me that I will REMOVE the negative feedback and place POSITIVE feedback in its place. So that explains why her feedback scores fluctuate! Depending on what day you view the feedback, it can look great and she can appear trustworthy but on another day you may catch the numerous books that were ‘no shows’.

I am highly opposed to lying about a past negative transaction with this seller in exchange for a free book---to me that is a form of bribery. I will not be taking her up on that offer for a free book if I change my feedback.

Just now I checked the seller’s feedback page. Amazon Marketplace allows a seller to rebut what the buyer has said. I am annoyed to read her rebuttal to me which states this:

We would never ignored an e-mail.... buyer didn't even wait 24hrs.. We did response to buyer and now await her response.." Date: 9/30/2006

So right now I am fuming that in her response she has lied by saying I didn’t even wait 24 hours (when I waited three days) and I am annoyed that she stated she didn’t ignore my email. As I stated above I waited from 9/27/06 to 9/30/06 for a response and didn’t get one. Note as with the other buyers she did not respond to me except for when I left negative feedback.

I am unsure of the process for me to edit my feedback and I don’t want to spend time doing that right now. I could choose to edit it to reveal her offer of a bribe and I could also reveal the dates to defend myself. Frankly I am annoyed by all of this and don't even want to spend the time doing that.

I have a feeling that this bribery attempt is in violation of a good faith trust agreement that Amazon has with its Amazon Marketplace booksellers.

I plan to forward this blog entry to Steve Weber, an ethical used bookseller who has written a book praising Amazon Marketplace as a trustworthy place for small home based booksellers to use to have either a small part-time business or even a full-time business. I really enjoyed reading his book and I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering starting a home based business of selling used books, it is a very helpful book. One thing that I really like about Weber’s book is that he recommends only the highest ethics, honest statement of conditions of books offered for sale, advises packaging the books well so they are protected from damage while in transit, as well as encouraging steady communications with sellers so they are informed of the status of the transaction. If you would like to read a detailed book review of his book that I wrote about, you can read it here.



I really would love to hear what others think about this. Do you have any comments about this situation?

I also should post over on the Amazon Marketplace discussion boards about this situation and get a buzz going over there. I am registered as an Amazon Marketplace bookseller and have sold only one book there, choosing instead at this time to resell my used books to used book shops for store credits or to swap out my used books for free to other readers via Paperbackswap.

One reason I choose to blog about this is that on my blog I write about books, buying books, selling books, finding used books, and homeschooling. I have readers who use the services of Amazon Marketplace sellers and I think they should know of this story.

Technorati Tags: Amazon Marketplace, Amazon.com, bookselling, used book buying, used books.