The holidays are only a few keystrokes away and with more consumers turning to online sales than ever before, NBC Responds wants to help you protect your next purchase.
According to Amazon, last year the company delivered more than two-billion products worldwide and a lot of those products came from third-party sellers. When it comes to buying products from third-parties, if the seller asks you to pay with Amazon gift cards instead of paying through Amazon Pay, experts say don’t do it.
“If they ask you to pay in weird tender, such as iTunes gift cards or other forms of payment that doesn’t exactly make you feel good,” Scott Peterson said, “It’s probably a red flag you should probably not do that.”
Scott Peterson is with Gap Intelligence. He both writes about online sales and does some shopping himself.
Amazon’s guarantee does not cover purchases made by giving gift cards or other card information directly to third-party vendors.
“I think it’s taken some hard moments for some people to learn the hard way through a bad experience,” Scott said.
Another tip: never send money to an Amazon seller outside of the Amazon website or app. Scott said third-party sellers may do this to circumvent the protection and infrastructure that is built into Amazon.
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The only safe way to buy something from an Amazon seller is to pay through Amazon or Amazon Pay. This way, if you don’t get the product you ordered, you can work with Amazon to get a full refund.
Scott said sellers might offer cheaper prices by going around the usual payment channels but it may not be worth it.
For more information on Amazon and third-party sellers, click here.
