I have attempted to buy 2 used books on Amazon so far and I have to say both experiences were bad enough to mark them as indicative of something wrong. Amazon marketplace has a very low profit margin. The big sellers trying to make a profit have to really push out the books. Thus they try to spread their nets as far as possible.  A likely strategy to do this is to list books they think they can obtain quickly from locations other than their own local stock.  Of course this is a very difficult to work strategy that leads to the scenario of the incidents listed below.
Since originally writing this article I have sold a number of books on Amazon due to moving out of my condo. I did not want to carry them to yet another location. I shipped all my sales relatively soon after the customer clicked. They all received the correct book. This is why I could figure out the dynamics of the book sales on the Amazon. The older books are a race to the bottom on pricing. If you want to be the next to sell a book you need to list it at the lowest price for that book in the marketplace. Since I was moving I needed to sell. Everyday I had to log on and reduce the price of the book a little more to undercut the other seller or 2 that was trying to undercut me ! Â
Incident #1: The seller kept saying they were going to ship and the item kept on NOT arriving.  I think they advertised something they did not have and then would not fess up.  I think Amazon issued a credit to me for this but I am not absolutely sure now as its been a while.Â
Incident #2: Amazon Seller ID = frugalmedia01   ( email= customerservice@frugalmedia.com  ) send the wrong book. It had an invoice in the envelope with the book. The invoice had the correct title on it yet they sent the wrong book. The book as listed on Amazon was a cheapy and probably cost them more money to ship than they were paid so they sent a super THIN book that could be shipped for much less.  I think its a bait and switch scam. Their scam is to list a desirable book for a very low price. Then ship a super light thin book of any title so they can ship it UNDER the cost allotted and paid to make their spread.Â
Details on the book are summarized as follows:
Product Details
- Paperback: 756 pages
- Publisher: New Riders Publishing; 1st edition (December 28, 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0735709211
- ISBN-13: 978-0735709218
- Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4.41 pounds
 At 4.41 pounds this was going to be a loser for them. Thus they did the switch.Â
 I should have checked the rating of this seller before ordering. At 95% favorable their rating is extremely bad for the American business idiom. This is the kind of rating you expect in Latin America on www.mercadolivre.com.br or the like.
Amazon requires you wait a significant amount of time before filing for a refund. They are obviously hoping to some degree you forget about the item so they will get to keep the money.  But believe you me I want to make this persons life difficult so I’m filing for that refund the minute March 22 arrives.
18 Comments
Gentlemen,
I ordered a book called “Colonial Angels” Narratives of Gender and Spirituality in Mexico, 1580-1750″ . You sent the wrong book–“The
Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth Century History, 1900-1978”. Please
check the order number 1083397. If you do not have such textbook
I would like a refund of my money.
Joe H. galindo
I will be sending the study guide book back. Criminal Law 8th ed. Klotter, John C. Pollock Joycelyn M. I thought I was getting the textbook, so please send my money back ASAP.
Thank You
Wilma Campbell
I ordered a book from you I recieved the empty package with no book inside I think it was the way it was packaged I just want the book I payed 7.00 dollars for
guardians-eternally by maureen childs order number 1197883 market place order058-8282306-9022964.
If you need confirmation that I never got the book the postal supervisor has given her nae and number that you can call
lecanto p.o.
352-746=2424
linda bailey
delivery supervisor
thank you
susan quickley
Sheesh. LOL looks like the same routine is being pulled on ALOT of other people. If 3 people actually FIND my blog then how many others are getting the wrong book and NOT FINDING my blog? Very interesting ! I love to study business in all its forms. If you want to do business on the net you have to be familiar with the bad actors and bad actions. There is a spectrum I see. I’m used to seeing out and out frauds like the ebay / paypal turn around scam….but this one is an in the middle deal !! but in the end its a total scam too I suppose???
Another comment regarding this posting: It appears google tends to suppress posts like this. Its odd but any posts regarding this sort of online misbehavior that contains a name gets shunted to the bottom of the google stack….
I too have been sent the wrong book !!!
Price tag still on book received “Reduced to $1”
I guess the seller could not produce the correct title for the price I paid.
I WILL NOT BE USING AMAZON AGAIN !!!!!
I got the book but Amazon claims to have the best prices and a book that they listed for
1.00. Come on, if you are going to increase the price 100% and claim it’s a good deal, at least have the brains to remove the clearance tag.
I ordered a video for a child. The cover was correct, the video was not.
Amazon can be a really great place to buy….including the used stuff. I find that on both ebay and Amazon I find that the really big sellers are busy. As a result they have little time to keep their communications tight. The smaller sellers have more time and many times have better pricing due to the fact they are not trying to make a living off of the items being sold. In reality they are liquidating not simply selling.
looking for Drive Right Books 9th edition
Bait& switch & don’t reply. The worst experience I have had on the internet. Never again frugalmedia- Never again Amazon!
After ordering a very low priced book from frugal media [and paying the international parcel postage] I was concerned by the comments posted here. I contacted their customer service and received prompt and courteous replies. The book I ordered has now arrived in excellent condition within the estimated time. I now wouldn’t hesitate to deal with them again.
Good for you Barry….Maybe Frugal has changed his / her ways. Was an obvious game they ran on me. Wasn’t alot of money but it was a waste of time. But if changed its better for everybody including frugal.
Hello I was actually looking for a different site when I ran into your blog, I want to say that what happened to you was not a scam, Frugal Media at has an inventory system that tracks books supposedly in real time so if it was listed we did actually have it. what likely happened is that you either got some one else’s book (they get packaged then stickered with addresses in lots so this does occasionally happen) or quite simply the wrong book was grabbed off the shelf (our system doesn’t organize the way a book store does) since our “pickers” (the people who get the books off the shelf) usually pick based solely on the slot number the book is supposed to be in they may have grabbed the wrong book accidentally.
I wish i could say oh we have your book here sorry for the mix up but i can’t because it’s been too long.
I cannot rectify the problem you had but i can in all honesty say that it was a mistake and NOT malicious intent on the part of Frugal Media, also Amazon has ABSOLUTELY no hand in any of the “used Book seller’s” processes it’s like e-bay they just charge for sellers to list and provide payment options they have NOTHING i repeat NOTHING to do with the stock of the Used Book Sellers selling through their site.
Well its not only me who had this experience. And its pretty suspect because I got the delay delay delay tactic whilst it appeared Frugal was waiting. One gets the idea sappleton == Frugalmedia. In any event if Frugal cleans up their act then maybe they’ll get some posters who go positive. I encourage frugal to do so. I love business and love to see people succeeding.
I am not frugal media in total frugal media is a business that has well right now about 5 employees, a retail store and a warehouse so no I do not = frugalmedia, and as i stated this is something that happens due to the sheer number of orders processed in the last 5 years sometimes the wrong book is labeled with the wrong pick number and sometimes the wrong book is picked
this is not an issue of “cleaning up” any sort of “act” this is a business and I want you to be clear there was no “bait and switch” we don’t list books that we have not physically scanned into the inventory in fact we can’t, not with our proprieary inventory software program.
Simple human error is at fault not some sort of nefarious plot to jip honest people out of their money…
I realize that this is simply fanning flames but i work for frugal media and i take offense at the implication that we are “scamming” people.
Whatever the case may be large sellers seem to be slow shipping. Then they send the wrong book many times. In the end this is a few peoples experience with frugal recounted faithfully. All you have do to is get the books out correctly / promptly and no new comments will occur. As they are dated a person reading them will see this. I personally would not ever risk it again because I have a very sensitive dissembling detector. I NEVER RECEIVED THE CORRECT BOOK FROM FRUGAL. I finally just had to complain to Amazon.
What frugal needs to do is if they discover they don’t have a book after taking the order is take initiative to inform the client and refund their money. Had frugal done this it would have left me open to ordering again. But even that were it to happen repeatedly would drive me away so be careful! Dynamic would be “hey I want the book and I don’t want to miss the OTHER used one that is available for a short time”
This is in all probability one #of the# best article that ever cross my reference. I don’t see why anybody should disagree. It may be too easy #for them# to comprehend…anyway nice work i’m coming again right here for Extra Great Stuff!!