Some suspect looking Amazon dealers selling mounts

[Pete Presland]

Due to having some funds in my Amazon account i have been looking for a new mount on there. I bought a HEQ5 from Tring at the weekend, but unfortunately it is out of stock on there Amazon shop.

So continuing the search this week, i have started to notice quite a few suspect looking sellers on there selling used EQ6-R, Orion atlas mount. They all seem to be sold as used - like new and the price is £598.38 + £13.15 delivery, seller Pluskaufenmbh.

I knew the price was to good to be true when i saw it only my mobile at dinnertime. So tonight i have a had a proper look into them and i am sure there are a couple of bogus sellers doing this at the moment. I naively thought Amazon were strict on this sort of thing.

[PembrokeSteve]

Hi,

I also today was looking at Amazon and came across the Orion EON 115mm Triplet APO Refractor.
Also being sold as Used/Like New with prices which seem "far too good to be true" , via three sellers (2 from Germany and 1 from the UK).
Don't know what to make of it, but very tempting!
Regards,

Steve

[Pete Presland]

1 minute ago, PembrokeSteve said:

Hi,

I also today was looking at Amazon and came across the Orion EON 115mm Triplet APO Refractor.
Also being sold as Used/Like New with prices which seem "far too good to be true" , via three sellers (2 from Germany and 1 from the UK).
Don't know what to make of it, but very tempting!
Regards,

Steve

Exactly what i saw as well. I have had chat with customer services tonight to report the activity. They are going investigate, they also said if they remain on there they are safe to purchase, as Amazon will back any buyer who has genuine problems with a purchase.

When i did a little "Google" detective work 🙂  work there seemed to be no evidence of these sellers. They all seem to be registered in Germany, hence the GMBH suffix. 

[Pete Presland]

Also new seller status, but a whooping 200,000 items for sale?

[johninderby]

First two sellers are brand new with zero feedback and the third has only 5 feedbacks but not for anything astro.

One other possibility is that they have made a mistake in entering the part number and may not be selling a scope after alll.

Edited February 26, 2020 by johninderby

[Sunshine]

Having watched a two hour documentary lately on Amazon's rise to power, i would steer clear of those ads. They pressed amazon execs regarding dangerous and, fraudulent goods sold on the site, their execs 

kept skirting the questions and passing the bucket to the sellers which are trusted to adhere to amazon standards but, amazon can only police a fraction of them. They claim that if the product is stated as "fulfilled by Amazon"

then it has been screened, if it says "fulfilled by seller" being someone who opened an amazon store, then its a crap shoot.

[Floater]

5 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

... then its a crap shoot.

There are cheats and and charlatans both sides of the Atlantic. But there’s only one side where ‘it’s a crap shoot’.

@Sunshine, you made me smile. Thanks. 🙂

[johninderby]

Not really relevant but an amusing read on UK vs US slang. 😁

https://www.effingpot.com/chapters/slang/