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Buyer Beware: Shady electronics retailers

The web gives us (the consumers) a lot of buying power. All you have to do is search for a product and dozens of retailers are listed with their prices for the product you are looking for. The downside to this is that you really never have any direct contact with the merchant. Anybody can hire a web designer to make their business look big and reputable, but you never know if the company behind that web presence is actually two guys selling stolen goods out of an abandoned warehouse.

So how do you know if an online electronics retailer engages in shady business practices? There are several telltale signs.

Signs that an electronics retailer is shady

Prices too good to be true
If you’ve ever been to the hot deals page of this site, then you know that you can sometimes find some unbelievable deals on electronics. If you scan the page, though, you’ll notice that most deals come from less than a dozen retailers. All the deals I post are from large, established, and reputable companies, and most of them have rebates. If you do a search for a product at a pricing search engine, you’ll likely see some very low prices from companies you’ve never heard of. If you find a price that is considerably lower than everyone else without rebates, proceed with caution.

Calling you to sell accessories
There are electronics retailers out there that will call you after you place your order online, trying to sell you very expensive accessories. They will often claim that the product you purchased will not work without them.

Charging your credit card before the item ships
Some companies will do this and claim that they are out of stock even though their site indicated the item was in stock when you ordered. They will then make you wait for a long time, or call you and try to sell you a more expensive product.

Doing business under multiple names
Have you ever been to a site and thought it looked eerily similar to a site you’ve been to before? This happens often in the electronics business. There isn’t anything illegal about this and it makes good business sense to do business under multiple names if a company is selling to different markets. However, many electronics retailers simply change their name and website address if they have been getting bad press, lots of negative reviews on vendor-rating websites (like the Better Business Bureau), or to avoid law enforcement.

Located in Brooklyn
I’m not making this one up. For some reason, most shady electronics retailers are located in Brooklyn, NY. Find the Contact Us or About Us link to find where the company is physically located.

How to protect yourself

If a price is too good to be true: It probably is. Most likely, the price doesn’t include shipping, handling, or service fees. The item could be a grey-market item. This means that it was meant to be sold in another country, so the manufacturer’s warranty does not apply. Also, the package could have been opened, the product might be refurbished, or all of the accessories that are supposed to come with the item in the box have been taken out.

Read the fine print and call and ask questions if you need to. If you decide to buy and there is a problem, you can always return the item and do a chargeback on your credit card.

If they call you to sell you accessories: Don’t ever buy them! They are extremely overpriced to make up for the low price of the item you bought. If they tell you that what you bought won’t work without the accessories, they probably opened the box and are trying to sell you the accessories that were supposed to come in the box anyway. If you don’t accept their offer to buy the accessories, they will probably tell you that the item is not in stock or that the price you bought it for was a mistake. An online retailer should never call you except to possibly verify your credit card information. Now take your business elsewhere.

If they charge your credit card before the item ships: No reputable company does this. If you notice you have been charged before the item ships, call and demand an explanation. If they tell you that the item that you ordered is not in stock, I would cancel my order immediately and take my business elsewhere.

If a company is doing business under multiple names: This is not always a bad thing, but if you notice it, you should do your homework. Check sites like www.resellerratings.com to see if people had a lot of problems with one of the sites. The company may have opened a new web store to escape the bad publicity.

If a company is located in Brooklyn: Buyer beware! Almost every shady electronics business is located in Brooklyn. Watch out for everything mentioned above and be sure to do a check on www.resellerratings.com to see if others have had a problem dealing with them. Not every retailer located in Brooklyn is bad, but a very high concentration of shady business call Brooklyn their home.

The Bottom Line

Any company that does any of the things mentioned above is not worthy of your business. There are just too many very good companies with great prices to waste your time with them.

Whenever you are researching a vendor on the web through sites like www.resellerratings.com or www.bizrate.com, remember that every company is going to have some negative reviews. Also remember that someone who had a bad experience is much more likely to write a review. How many times have you written a letter or review about a transaction that occurred how it was supposed to?

When reading reviews of online vendors, any of the telltale signs that I mentioned above is a very good reason to move on. Saving a few bucks is not worth the potential time and energy you’ll spend fighting these shady businesses.

If you are looking to buy a product and aren’t sure where to get the best deal, drop me a line on the Ask the Geeky Jock page. I’d be happy to help you out.