Play.com now just a broker like Amazon sellers? 31 December 2009 at 4:56PM in Shop but don't drop 11 replies 1.8K views

buglawton

Confused, I was searching for a Tomtom and got to play,com. They only list the product against 3rd party sellers (all who I have never heard of), not shipping it direct themselves. For how long has this been going on?

savemoney

Its been gong for best part of a year maybe more

buglawton

Too many muddlemen involved then.

Lakeuk

I stay clear of these areas on play and amazon so I don't have the hassle of dealing with a middle man who provides little details on who they are

jumbojuice

I think they show items if they are out of stock at play, otherwse, most products they offer are in stock..

TehJumpingJawa

Having been both a buyer from 'muddlemen', and a seller as a 'muddleman' - I have no problem trusting 3rd party sellers.
Have a little bit of faith - not everyone is out to scam you!

Most are private sellers who are able to undercut the bigger suppliers because they don't have the same running costs as a business - undervaluing time costs; [no/less] tax liabilities; cheap clearance stock; minimal warranties etc.

Be warned though, such sellers have minimal profit margins - so they tend to make every effort not to mis-sell their products.
Consequently there will be little sympathy for buyers who mis-buy products that have been well represented & sold in good faith.

Obviously the law is on the side of the buyer.
However as the ideal goal is for a transaction to leave both the buyer & seller happy; I think a simple but effective piece of advice is:
When in doubt, contact the seller before placing your order!

Jersy

The play market place has been going a while!

To be honest I dont think that I Would but Tom Tom from them

But for text books etc it is fine

silkcutblue

I often buy from 3rd parties on Amazon. Not had any problems to speak of.

buglawton

I had a mis-described item and on a 2nd go a non-arriving item, with Amazon 3rd party. Never had an issue using Amazon direct. Don't really believe the feedback scores.

[ BTW both were low value items, Amazon 3rd party already did not feel very secure ]

DCFC79

jumbojuice wrote: »

I think they show items if they are out of stock at play, otherwse, most products they offer are in stock..

if an item isn't sold by play then they offer a list of play traders as an alternative

im a play trader and ive sold a bit on there and used a few play traders

sharpe106

same as on ebay look at their feedback if its good the chances are you will have no problams, I have used plenty of different ones without any problams