Shown here is an imported drill-attachable sheet metal nibbler attachment. It’s used for taking small bites of metal to create custom cut-outs or cut lines.
We’ll talk about the nibbler another time – maybe I’ll buy one for testing – but what I wanted to talk about today is a retailer so bad I couldn’t keep it to myself.
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Someone with the most American name you can imagine wrote in with an IP address tracing to Singapore:
By way of introduction, ****** is an online retail store focusing on home and home-improvement related products, with a sizeable social media presence. You can check out our Facebook page at: ******
We have recently launched our own ****** Multipurpose Nibbler, and have received a number of positive comments so far. We would therefore love to work with you to explore new advertisement/review opportunities to further market the product. You can visit our webpage at: ******
We would appreciate if you could advise the advertisement avenues possible for us, and the corresponding fees involved.
Thank you and look forward to hear from you soon.
I redacted the retailer’s name because I don’t want to send anyone their way.
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Everything about the email smelled funny, but for giggles I decided to take a quick look. I went to their website and was met with a popup for an email list subscribe, a countdown timer, and an inventory counter.
There are periodic popups at the bottom that tell you so-and-so from somewhere-USA just bought one.
First Offense: The Price
It’s “on sale” for $39.95 USD, with a slashed price of $67.00 USD. Amazon sellers have it at $30 or less!!
Here’s one. And another. And one more non-Prime seller that has it for less. $40 for a tool that sells for $21 to $30 on Amazon?
Second Offense: Misleading Me
I don’t like being lied to or misled. “We have recently launched our own…” Yea… no.
They’re using most if not all of the same photos that I’m seeing on Amazon.
Third Offense: Bogus Countdown
The countdown resets itself. It starts at around 1 hour and 10 minutes, and then resets itself at some point. I can’t find a repeatable stop point. There’s been around an hour countdown since yesterday.
Fourth Offense: Bogus Inventory
It starts by saying “Hurry! Only 12 left in stock.” And then it ticks down to there only being 5 left. Clear your cookies and it’ll start at 12 again.
Fifth Bogus Clue: Fake Social Clout
This retailer, which a Whois search says launched their website in November 2016, has over 16,000 likes and over 16,000 followers on Facebook. But there’s no activity, and they have 0 likes in the past week.
The posted a Facebook product promo video earlier this week, and Facebook says it has 854K views, 10K likes, 1.2K comments, 6.7K shares. Looking at the first bunch of comments, it’s “people” just tagging each other.
I know that lots of people, brands, bloggers, reviewers, and retailers buy social media likes and followers, but I don’t think I can ever accept it. It’s a dirty practice.
Sixth Bogus Clue: No Phone Number
The first sign of a scammy retailer or seller is that there’s no phone number or address on their website. If you’re selling something to the public, you should have a way for customers to contact you, other than “[email protected].”
Oh look, the countdown went from 40 minutes and change back to an hour and 10 minutes and some seconds.
Uch
They are also selling import-brand automatic wire strippers, for $30. Amazon has them for $13-15.
The first clue I had was to search on Amazon for comparative pricing, as the product looked vaguely familiar to me. After that, the other clues became apparent.
If they just launched this new product, why have countdown sales?
How many online shoppers could fall in their trap and be misled into making a purchase? If you don’t know what to look out for, it could look like a good deal.
Headshake
This was just so astoundingly bad that I had to share.
In the past 5 minutes, their promo video’s viewcount went up from 854K to 865,223. No, 865,313.
Always do your due diligence when encountering new retailers.
So let me ask you this – what could have made this retailer/reseller even worse?
Nathan
well any day now your “free” sample of _____ will show up in the mail and you’ll be spammed tonnes of e-mails to whatever address you gave them.
Also I suspect you might want to check your firewall settings or at least refresh everything.
sounds slimy as all get out.
Stuart
Overseas Amazon sellers or random imported goods are getting particularly buggy in their review solicitations.
Nathan
An email with a spoofed address and/or Reply To address from a different domain.
Hyperbolic claims and packaging /a la/ Super Thrive.
Nathan
See someone is spoofing me now 😛
Chris
You should drop the name of said company after reading about your experience with them. I don’t think anyone would rush to their website after reading your article thanks again for the info
Stuart
Nope. Don’t underestimate the power of morbid curiosity.
Paul
Stuart was there auto-playing sound? Because that is always a gem.
Ken
Even better if it’s video
Stuart
No.
Every now and then I catch a Google Adwords/Adsense spot on ToolGuyd where there’s auto-playing audio in a video. I immediately report the ad, ban the ad, and then sometimes the ad network/advertiser.
I’ve got zero tolerance for that kind of nonsense.
BikerDad
THANK YOU, THANK YOU. There are two things, nay, three, that I cannot abide in online advertising.
1) Auto-playing video/audio.
2) Ads that cover the content. In a related vein, I despise websites were more than 25% of the page (top PLUS bottom) is taken up with useless headers/banner/etc. I sure as heck don’t want to feel like I’m peering at someone’s website from a bunker.
3) Autoplaying video that keeps YANKING the page back up to the video. This is the WORST.
One reason I like this site, aside from the content, is that you don’t commit any of these sins. The interface is clean and uncluttered. Yes, there are ads, but they aren’t “in your face”. And yes, I have clicked on some of ’em.
ktash
Yep, those kind of sites will never get me to buy from them. I just leave immediately.
Stuart
You’re welcome!
I’m open to trying new things, and when I’m unsure I ask for reader input.
But I’ve always avoided any kind of stuff that I don’t like to see when I visit other websites. How could I in good conscience do otherwise?
Mau
You’re officially my hero. Thanks for your effort in making the world a better place.
Chris
Hmm. I’m not sure if scammers are smart, or the target consumer is just stupid. There always seems to be some sort of foreign scam going on. And people keep falling for it.
Nate
Doubtful if you’d even get said merchandise from them after ordering.
RC Ward
You should tell the name so we can know when we see it
Stuart
But here’s the thing – if one seller/pop up retailer is doing it, there will be others. It’s better to recognize the signs than the one retailer that tried to dupe me into promoting them.
Jim Felt
No one ever lost money underestimating the American consumer.
(Whether products or politics.)
Grady
We’ll send you this $67.00 Most Amazing Tool Ever, absolutely FREE! (Just pay shipping and handling).
Matthew Turner
of
43 easy payments of $29.99!Stuart
There, I fixed it for you. =)
DeeEyeWhyyyy
If its not a blatant money stealing scam it could easily be a drop shipping operation too. They list the price at $10 to $15 more than Amazon in order to get unknowing/stupid people to buy from their website. Then they buy the item from Amazon and have it sent directly to the customer and pocket the $10 to $15 profit. Drop shipping is a huge business where people make millions and millions from it, but Amazon and eBay are really cracking down on it.
Matthew Turner
So what makes this company different than places like Acme that advertises products at 2-3 times their retail value? two weeks ago, the 12″ slider Dewalt flexvolt kit, DHS790AT2, was marked down from $1400 to $1100, while the retail price everywhere else was $699 during Dewalt’s $100 of flexvolt promotion. I find this to be exceedingly prominent on Acme and Toolnut, but Acme still has very good sales on a moderately frequent basis, but that doesn’t make the $1100 “sale” price of a $700 tool package any less scammy to me. That being said, I’ve had great experiences with Acme, but I’ve caught myself several times about to add something to an order that is 3x the retail price because I didn’t check it out first at other avenues.