Online Retailer Fraud?

Capt Gerkin asks: "While debugging a hardware problem on my system, I had the opportunity to take a good long look at my RAM chips. The DDR memory, that I purchased online two months ago, had some interesting product codes, and the descriptions didn't match with anything at Micron's website. Although I understand they may not publish all memory on their site, it brought up an interesting question for online retail. With the hard return procedures, no name companies and faceless dealers, how often is the product we think we are purchasing really a fake? It would be interesting to find out how many times others have placed orders for something online, only to get something entirely different, instead."

hmmm..

[turbine216]

well, you've got two options here...

- buy from reputable distributers with good return policies...

- buy from no-name companies with dodgy return policies, and run the risk of getting screwed.

Sometimes peace of mind is worth the extra couple of bucks you'll have to spend.

(by the way, how come this story never made it to the main page???)

Hot button topic...

[juliekins]

It's one with me, anyway. All of my computer geek friends insist on buying their parts from companies listed on PriceWatch because they swear up and down they can get the absolute best prices there. Never mind that sometimes they end up buying parts from joebobschickenshackandcomputerparts.com, and Joe Bob charges three times normal shipping costs to make his money back since he's selling computer parts at ridiculously low prices. Plus, Joe Bob almost ALWAYS has a bizarro, convoluted, screw-the-customer-at-every-turn return policy. I'm all about being frugal, but as a previous poster said a few extra dollars is worth my peace of mind. Are you really saving that much money when you risk getting crap merchandise that can't be returned?

I'm trying to get my boyfriend to stop shopping at these places, but he's gotten lucky and not been screwed the few times he's shopped there, so he continues to do it. I'll stick with the bigger name places for my parts, thankyouverymuch.

Re:hmmm..

[stilwebm]

I agree 100%. The price premium for buying from a reputable dealer online these days is negligable. The most important thing to remember: if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. I learned the hard way too. Thankfully I used a zero-liability credit card for that purchase.

I have a completely different problem..

[Anonymous Coward]

I always use a combination of pricewatch.com and resellerratings.com (best price vendor that maintains a minimum rating, usually 6.0/7).

Last order I placed I got more than I asked for - they ended up sending me about three times the stuff I actually ordered. Thats a double shipment of what I wanted, and an extra shipment of what appears to be someone else's stuff (not sure if it's a dupe of their order or if they're sitting around waiting for it - only name on the packing slip is me on the "ship to" field".

Past experience with returning a double shipment (again from a vendor with a 6.X/7 resellerrating) was barely even a thanks, for about $350 worth of stuff.

So I'll figure out in a month or so if they try to charge my card for it. Then off to Ebay I go.

Re:Hot button topic...

[cymen]

Shopping via Pricewatch and not getting screwed isn't all that hard. You just need to cross reference the company you are buying from with the companies ratings on ResellerRatings.com. Of course it helps to take the ResellerRatings with a grain of salt as the system can be force fed but in general you can weed out the bad guys with seconds of work.