Online shopping do's and dont's | GTAMotorcycle.com

Online shopping do's and dont's

Wingboy

Wingboy

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Post your tidbit of wisdom up.

Mine. Read the reviews! I bought my grandson a 3' long dinosaur for his coming birthday a few days ago from CDN Tire. It is supposed to "eat" mini dinos. Couldn't find them, so i went to Amazon. Amazon has a selection of them for $6. Seemed cheap, but they are only 2" bits of plastic.
Jurassic World Mini Dino Assortment Jurassic World Mini Dino Assortment, Figures - Amazon Canada
What came to my door was 1 tiny plastic dino. The reviews would have sent me elsewhere. :(
 
5 star reviews are fake. I only trust 4 star reviews or lower. It's usually pretty easy to tell which reviews were written by a real customer and which ones were written by a paid/fake reviewer.

Occasionally 1 star reviews are also fake, but this is more common with local businesses who are trying to sabotage each other.
 
Always pay via PayPal / other reputable payment services if it’s an option to avoid exposing your CC number. PayPal provides good customer protection in case something will go wrong as well.

When using PayPal don’t use their currency exchange option - their rates suck.
 
I've reduced my shopping on Amazon to basically zero...so much garbage showing up in searches and I'm moving toward going to the actual source of what I need (FortNine for instance) as I'm more comfortable with what I'm getting, and the pricing isn't all that different (if not better than Amazon).

Plus if I can, I go to the store as I miss browsing HD/CT and all the other stores.

Review...never trust 1 or 5 star reviews. They're most likely fake.
 
Generally I have had good luck with Amazon but for tools etc. I always check Lowes, HD, CT, Rona, et al as more times than not they are cheaper and I would rather still buy B&M. For some HW items sometimes Amazon is the only place I can find it. Anything not name brand and made in China I always also check Aliexpress but you have to wait.

I was doing some bicycle donations and the odd flip a while back. One thing I needed was a cheap source of seats as that is one part that is usually trashed. Searched on the Amazon site, low to high, etc. and at the time the cheapest ones were near $20 (which adds up fast on bikes you are fixing and donating). I used Google to search Amazon and I found numerous ~$5 seats (same seats as the $20 ones) on Amazon.ca, shipped from Canada by Amazon! So their search engine does not always hit you with the lowest price. I also avoid anything that is not "Fulfilled by Amazon" with very few exceptions. On the few "Fulfilled by Amazon" items that were not to my liking, they have always given me a full refund and paid for return shipping or they said keep it.

Same for BestBuy, etc. I never buy from their "marketplace", only direct. If I can buy in person from B&M that is my first choice.

I always start by reading the 1 and 2 star reviews for any product, look for patterns. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
 
I know our usual Amazon delivery driver by name as he comes to our house so much. Even fixed his van when he was delivering in rain and his wipers broke.
Amazon is great, but when I order online I always look around for the best price because it rarely shows up in the quick google search for the item.
I’ve found if you’re looking for smaller things Amazon is not often the cheapest but sometimes the free shipping makes it so.
For example, ordered cat toys bag of fabric mice. $18 for 3 on Amazon but also strangely $19 for a bulk bag of 20 from same supplier. Stores the 3 pack is cheaper but no bulk available.
Car oil filters etc are more on Amazon and you’re better hitting CT especially when they’re on sale.
 
Amazon said:
@Wingboy The dino is pretty awesome. Had to talk myself out of it a couple days ago.
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Hahahaha.My 2yr old grandaughter would love that.My 6 yr old grandson Harley not so much.Here's the one i got him.Gotta have lots of teeth! He thinks a funny movie is Jurassic Park.The part where the guy gets eaten on the porta potty is a riot.
Yr3YWhZ.jpg
 
mimico_polak said:
Review...never trust 1 or 5 star reviews. They're most likely fake.
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Reviews are another interesting game. I believe five star reviews should be few and far between. People tracking reviews consider anything less than five as the kiss of death. I'll leave a five very occasionally, a one if the product is useless but rarely two, three or four.

Aggregate Amazon reviews suck as half of the reviews rate shipping not the product. I know what to expect from amazon shipping, cluttering up product reviews with personal experiences about shipping makes the average star rating useless. I'll normally read some five star text, some one star text and if it is expensive or looks really dodgy run fakespot through the review.
 
I tend to try to buy direct from the brand as much as I can. For xmas, I bought lego for my niblings directly from Lego.com for example.

I have not bought from ebay in a long long time - between the possibility of fakes and the extortionist shipping prices, i avoid.
If I buy amazon, I only buy products sold by amazon, so no resellers. I more or less ignore reviews.
 
Ash said:
5 star reviews are fake. I only trust 4 star reviews or lower. It's usually pretty easy to tell which reviews were written by a real customer and which ones were written by a paid/fake reviewer.

Occasionally 1 star reviews are also fake, but this is more common with local businesses who are trying to sabotage each other.
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Disagree. I leave lots of legit 5 star reviews on things as do others.

Maniac said:
Always pay via PayPal / other reputable payment services if it’s an option to avoid exposing your CC number. PayPal provides good customer protection in case something will go wrong as well.

When using PayPal don’t use their currency exchange option - their rates suck.
Click to expand...

As someone who's had PayPal not only lock my account, seize money that was in it, but also forcefully take money out of my bank account and credit card to reimburse a fraudster, I disagree. PayPal is scum, and is just as apt to protect scammers as they are buyers. Been there, done that, got the Tshirt.

What I do with anything dodgy is to use my Stack Mastercard. It's basically a prepaid credit card with an online portal/app on which you can load money (conveniently using Interac etc, they're Canadian) and use that. It comes with a physical card as well if you want, but the app also provides a "virtual" credit card number which is the one I use online.

Best part is that you can "Freeze" the cards instantly via their app, so for some online purchases where I don't want to use my real CC I load money onto my Stack account, unfreeze the card in the app, process the transaction, and then immediately go back into the stack app and freeze the card again.

I use the physical card for things where I also have a level of skepticism that the card might be skimmed or whatever. Not only do I never keep much money in my Stack account to begin with, but with the card instantly frozen after I use it, it's useless to them anyways.

Works awesome and presents zero risk.

One of my own personal tidbits is...if you're ordering anything from the USA and UPS is the only shipping option, run away....far, far away. Anyone who's ever been stung by the UPS brokerage fee nonsense knows what I'm talking about.

And on the topic of Amazon reviews, checkout FakeSpot - you just dump an Amazon item URL into it and it spits out what almost always ends up being the items "real" rating with all the fake junk separated out.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Disagree. I leave lots of legit 5 star reviews on things as do others.



As someone who's had PayPal not only lock my account, seize money that was in it, but also forcefully take money out of my bank account and credit card to reimburse a fraudster, I disagree. PayPal is scum, and is just as apt to protect scammers as they are buyers. Been there, done that, got the Tshirt.

What I do with anything dodgy is to use my Stack Mastercard. It's basically a prepaid credit card with an online portal/app on which you can load money (conveniently using Interac etc, they're Canadian) and use that. It comes with a physical card as well if you want, but the app also provides a "virtual" credit card number which is the one I use online.

Best part is that you can "Freeze" the cards instantly via their app, so for some online purchases where I don't want to use my real CC I load money onto my Stack account, unfreeze the card in the app, process the transaction, and then immediately go back into the stack app and freeze the card again.

I use the physical card for things where I also have a level of skepticism that the card might be skimmed or whatever. Not only do I never keep much money in my Stack account to begin with, but with the card instantly frozen after I use it, it's useless to them anyways.

Works awesome and presents zero risk.

One of my own personal tidbits is...if you're ordering anything from the USA and UPS is the only shipping option, run away....far, far away. Anyone who's ever been stung by the UPS brokerage fee nonsense knows what I'm talking about.

And on the topic of Amazon reviews, checkout FakeSpot - you just dump an Amazon item URL into it and it spits out what almost always ends up being the items "real" rating with all the fake junk separated out.
Click to expand...

Hmm….I’ve been avoiding Sirius XM for months as they keep hounding me with offers only if I subscribe with a credit card. They are terrible to get hold of to cancel so the free/cheap months may not be worth the hassle. So…could this Stack card be a solution? Load it with a few bucks, subscribe to Sirius for the free/discount offer. Then cancel everything?
 
Yep, it's perfect for that.

Sirius is indeed hell to cancel. I cancelled it on my wife's Ioniq when we sold it (and wanted to cancel it on my 2011 as well, I rarely used it anymore honestly) and the guy just wouldn't take no for an answer when he tried to sell me a standalone radio, etc etc etc.

I eventually had to go full Karen and ask for his manager after 20 minutes of negotiation.

I'll never subscribe again using my actual CC - Stack card only.
 
jc100 said:
Hmm….I’ve been avoiding Sirius XM for months as they keep hounding me with offers only if I subscribe with a credit card. They are terrible to get hold of to cancel so the free/cheap months may not be worth the hassle. So…could this Stack card be a solution? Load it with a few bucks, subscribe to Sirius for the free/discount offer. Then cancel everything?
Click to expand...
Isn’t that a good way to get them to report you to the credit bureau if you’re a ‘no payment’ type? Technically if your card runs out but you don’t cancel….you’re on the hook.
 
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