Finally Ciao have sorted the design problems! Many thanks to everyone who reads and rates my reviews...
Finally Ciao have sorted the design problems! Many thanks to everyone who reads and rates my reviews.
Member since:11.07.2000
Reviews:106
Members who trust:103
Surprisingly, looking at other reviews on the Amazon Marketplace there haven't been a lot of negative comments about it. I use the word 'surprising' because I have personally had a lack of confidence over buying from Amazon compared to the high standards we would normally expect from the company. The Amazon Marketplace is a way of allowing individuals or companies to sell products on their website whether new, used or refurbished at a fixed price which appear along side all their other products.
I first stumbled across this scheme over a year ago when I went to make a purchase and was informed that I was not actually buying the item from Amazon, but I was buying it from another company as Amazon did not stock this item. Lots of questions kept floating around my head at the time such as 'What happens if it is faulty?' or 'What do I do if it does not arrive?', 'Will Amazon palm responsibility over to the seller?' A lot of these questions needed answering before I made my purchase decision.
The
answers aren't really written in stone but from what I could gather, you are entering into an Ebay type scenario but without the auction format. This means that any problems you get have to go through the seller directly. You can see the type of problems that amount from this, as if all goes well then the experience is a happy one, but if it doesn't then it can be very frustrating. I can quite easily see people who stay clear from Ebay ending up not going near the Amazon Marketplace.
Ratings for sellers work in the same sort of way as Ebay, if it's a positive experience then they get a nice comment, if it's a bad experience then they get a negative comment.
The reason why I rate the Marketplace on Amazon as a bad idea is explained by comparing 2 identical products on this site and Ebay. To cut a long story short, a few months ago I made a purchase on Ebay for an official Sony PSPlong life battery. The item arrived from the seller quickly and I instantly began using the product. I then started noticing problems with the battery life where it amazingly only took an hour or so to charge compared to the several hours it should have taken and it only lasted for about 2 hours compared to the 9 hours it should have lasted. I then decided to do some digging and discovered all the tell tale signs that this item was a fake and I had been ripped off. Looking at the Amazon Marketplace I have noticed that the same item is on sale for only £7.50. Alarm bells start ringing immediately as this item should cost around £20. When I e-mailed the seller to ask if this was a fake or genuine item I never got a response, which increased my suspicions that this item is also not authentic. Looking at the only comment listed for this item from a buyer, they mention that the item was difficult to remove from the PSP and this is because the fakes are not entirely identical in size. A genuine product will be fit for purpose and will not deviate in quality.
The only benefit I can see from the Marketplace is that you are widening your market to hundreds of different sellers in order to find what you are after and you get a secure payment option which is designed to make all your transactions as safe as possible. Amazon does have an A-Z Safe Buying Guarantee which means you could be eligible for protection 30 days after the transaction but no longer than 90 if for example you request a refund for an item that was not as described or of poor quality. Amazon then say that if you still have a problem you can e-mail them but it doesn't tell you what they would do about it. At the end of the day you can keep yourself safe if you check a seller's feedback before making a purchase.
From a selling point of view I can see lots of benefits as you simply get free traffic to your items, the Amazon brand is already in place and you just come along and put a few of your items on their website.
The Marketplace can be misleading in the fact that a lot of buyers won't realise that they are entering into a contract with another seller and not Amazon. This will only damage Amazon's reputation and as the title suggests, will give them a bad name. I've had the luxury of shopping with Amazon over the past few years and never had a problem. The service you receive is second to none and the prices are very competitive. I can only see from now on, that customers will be pushed away from the site as soon as they encounter a bad experience with a seller. Listings contained on item searches on sites such as Pricerunner.co.uk or Kelkoo.co.uk which look like a bargain will suddenly feel far from that. I know personally that I would more likely be willing to pay a few quid more for the same item on a more reputable site that isn't a Marketplace.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of people have had no problems with the Amazon Marketplace and value its addition, but I don't see it as a gain for Amazon. After all, if a seller gets banned from Ebay for fraud or other malicious means, what's stopping them setting up on the marketplace to swindle a bit more along the way?
I welcome any opinions that others may have as I have not actively used the Marketplace on a regular basis but I have given my thoughts on what I believe is a mistake on behalf of Amazon. They would have been better off creating a new site to rival that of Ebay (but offering fixed prices) so that at least the consumer would know where they stand and what to expect.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Sorry for the rate but it seems to me that this is all based on supposition and not from actually having used the site. Without having had any problems on it how can you actually know that Amazon will not refund/contact seller/sort out your problem?
Advantages: Wide selection Of Products, Speedy Delivery, Better Prices Achieved Than Ebay For Selling Disadvantages: Charges For selling On Marketplace Are Expensive
criple 15.02.2003 (27.02.2003)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Amazon.co.uk Marketplace
Advantages: one of the top 2 market places to sell you products Disadvantages: email correspondence / questions from buyers gives them access to you private email address
Apr 16th, 2008
very helpful by (98%):
somewhat helpful by (2%):
