Amazon Marketplace

Full review
I have never sold anything at the marketplace at Amazon.com, but I have bought several things with little or no problem. With the exception of the time that I bought a cd-rom for my son, and for some reason, either it did not go through or something, but it charged my mastercard twice, and showed that I bought two cdroms from the seller when I only ordered one. It was a hassle to deal with the seller, who would not contact me back, and would not refund me. Amazon promised a refund, but I never got one. The first one finally arrived after weeks of waiting, but they did not send two even though it was charged on my account. It made me angry enough to not use it after several times buying with honest sellers. Other items I have purchased with little or no problem have been: books, cds, rare toys, collectable items, postcards, sports cards, and more.

Another thing I do not like is that unlike regular amazon.com free shipping on orders more than $25.00, in the marketplace, you have to buy shipping for each item, and some sellers do not offer discount shipping on multiple purchases. Anything you find on Amazon, they give you the option of buying for less money used or new from the marketplace. Each seller has a rating, much like eBay, along with their terms of service, shipping options, and what other products they offer. While they do have comments about complaints or praises, it gives a percentage %, instead of a number or positive/negative like eBay does. It is just a different system that I feel makes it harder to determine who is legit and who is not. It seems the smaller sellers are more honest than the larger ones who have less one on one time with their customers.

Normally, I do not even use this service, unless it is for a rare or hard to find item that amazon no longer carries or is discontinued. It can be frustrating and make you feel like you just had buyers remorse. It is a gamble, as their rules are not as strict as eBay as far as complaints go. One good thing, they MUST ship within the time that amazon specifies, (even though that has not been my experience, it is still the rule of amazon, and they make the seller state that it was shipped, but do little to follow up on one's word of honor) and amazon is the one who charges your credit card, so the third party seller never sees anything other than your name, address and contact information. It does not ship as fast as regular amazon.com, and it is hard to get in touch with the sellers.