Amazon has been around for years, and with its fast shipping options and inexpensive prices, the online retailer is more popular than ever. However, though many products sold on Amazon are reputable, there are several shady or otherwise untrustworthy sellers currently using the site. How can you sort out the good from the bad? Here are the clues that can help you spot a deceptive Amazon seller.
Pay attention to the product description.
Before you add that must-have item to your cart, take a minute to review the description provided by the seller. First, look for any nonsensical brand names. According to experts, these brand names can tip you off to sellers who are distributing bulk-quantity, low-quality items. You should also keep an eye out for odd syntax, punctuation, and grammatical errors, as these can all be signs of a company selling fraudulent or low-quality products from outside the United States.
Check the quality of the images.
Quality Amazon sellers want to promote quality product images, too. So, if you’re eyeing a product but can’t get past the grainy or blurry images of it, that should tip you off to a potentially untrustworthy seller. This is especially true if the product image doesn’t change when you select a color option or different variety, or if the photo is too distorted for you to clearly see the product’s many parts. You should be able to clearly see the product you’re buying before purchasing it.
Don’t forget the reviews!
If you’re shopping on Amazon, you should always make it a point to read through customer reviews. These will clue you into whether the product is really as advertised, or if the price is too good to be true. You should also make sure that the reviews attached to the product page pertain to the right product, and that they haven’t been posted in a strange timeframe – say, days apart from each other. That could indicate that the seller is creating fake reviews or encouraging employees to rate their product well. Real reviews from real customers will be posted more organically.
The team at The Enclave at Woodbridge Apartments in Sugar Land, Texas finds it important that our residents lead healthy, well-informed lives. By presenting new ideas in our resident blog, we make it easy to stay up-to-date with the latest information on health, wellness, finances, and more.