Is there a place here to warn fellow wooters about bad-faith websites?
I purchased a didgeridoo that went popular on deals.woot on Dec 2nd from goingtoday.com. Though the paypal payment went through pronto, I never rec'd any confirmation from goingtoday. I've emailed, did the contact form, and now even through paypal, and still no response. Okay, so I'll deal with this biz, but what about future purchasers and other bad websites? What's the best way to warn folks to check a list of bad sellers before they hit the "I Want One" button? Is resellerratings.com the only way to go? Or could we have an ongoing dialog in this here community section?
by
pamfenway
asked 5 months ago
You've just started such a dialog. If there's another deal for their site here, you can comment on it then, too.
@magic cave: I most certainly will! Unfortunately, most times you don't see a deal until it gets popular, and that's what concerns me. By the time you post that the site is a scam, a bunch of folks have already bought into it. But, thanks, this is a start. :)
more than less, "free" item sites are usually scam sites, they are just grabbing info so they can send you tons of junk mail. Look into all the company info or at least have a junk mail only email address if you are trying to get free stuff when a deal is posted
Good call using PayPal, and good luck getting your issue resolved. There are a few deals.wooters that are good at tracking down info on problem sites, and the moderators will take an interest if a number of people have problems.
Thanks for the warning. They just got a big check in my "will not buy from" column. Plenty of other good, ethical, sellers out there.
for sure always use paypal, also do a quick google search ("name of site" reviews) then if you find nothing check out the BBB, if by now you havn't found any good reviews for it (or even if you havnt found bad reviews) dont buy.
The design of Deals.Woot doesn't allow for long-term discussions.
The subject of trustworthy sites has been discussed before a few times, but you'd have to search for those threads. And if you did find a thread and add a new post, that would never be seen by the majority of wooters.
Sure, you can start a new thread, but then all of the information in earlier threads is lost.
As in life, at Deals.Woot everything is transient.
(sent from my new phone I'm still getting used to; sorry for any typos)
@anotherhiggins: Thanks for the info. (Even with the dozen or so typos....nah, j/k!)
@pamfenway: I've actually purchased numerous times from GoingToday.com and have always received the item. Their communication is non-existent. And it may take a month to get the item. But it's always, eventually, arrived. I just received something yesterday from them, in fact, that I ordered back in late November.
It's one of those sites I will only buy from if it's not time-critical. I don't think they are sourcing from China directly, but it has the same wait time for some reason.
@eneref: That's interesting. I wonder what the story is that they won't even respond to the folks who are seeing that they get paid, i.e. PayPal. Kind of shooting themselves in the proverbial foot, no? And if there's no communication, how do you know if or when they'll send your item? Even when I buy from someone shipping from China (think Meritline or BrilliantStore), they at least confirm my order, and later let me know that it's shipped. I usually don't mind waiting if I know something's on the way. But with no communication at all, waiting means I'm wasting the time away from that window of opportunity that PayPal gives you to put in a claim.
Just so you know, I am NOT trying to give you a hard time here! I thank you for your response. I'm just wondering what makes you trust these folks.
@pamfenway: Yeah. My first few items from them arrived in days, so I got used to things being quick. And then they started taking forever after a while. I've tried contacting support, and have once received a terse reply with a shipping number. But for the most part, I get nothing. Usually, by the time the item arrives, I've almost forgotten I ordered it.
It's NOT a good scenario. And for this, I wouldn't trust them with a lot of money. And if it's up against the PayPal deadline, I would most certainly advise you file a claim. But I'm just letting you know that, eventually, all of my items have arrived.
@eneref: Thanks again for responding! It makes much more sense to me now, after learning your first orders came quickly, that you'd anticipate receiving the others even with poor communication. Whatever they were doing right before, though, they seem to have lost at this point.
@anotherhiggins: +1
a wiki or forum based system would really be more apropos to trying to track bad sites. alas, we can only comment and thumb up (er, vote up) questions/comments when bad sites show.
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