3 days Ago
Think you’re getting a great deal online? Think again. Sellers can use many legal, yet sneaky tricks to influence your buying decisions and squeeze more money out of you. Watch for these tricks from online sellers when buying online.
Many sellers increase prices shortly before a sale, giving the illusion of a significant discount when the sale goes live. In reality, the amount you are paying is close to the regular price, but you are tricked into thinking you are saving money. Unless you compare product prices before every purchase, it’s easy to fall for this trick, thinking you are getting a great deal.
The easiest way to detect this online sellers’ trick is to see the price history of the item, using a price drop tracker tool . CamelCamelCamel is a well-known website that tracks the price history of products on Amazon. Copy/paste the product’s URL in the search field, and CamelCamelCamel will show a graph with complete product history from the start.
If you notice a sudden spike in price before the sale, there is a good chance it was artificially inflated. For those who don’t shop much at Amazon, Honey is a good online shopping Chrome extension that supports price tracking of other websites too. If the product price history isn’t available, compare its price on other websites to ensure the discount is real.
Many subscription-based services offer a free or low-price trial but charge a full subscription fee later – unless you cancel. They depend on consumers either forgetting or not understanding the terms, forcing them to pay for a subscription. Even big service providers like Hulu, Netflix, Google One, and Amazon Prime use this free trial model.
The difference is that they clearly tell you that you will be charged later. This trick usually involves the seller asking you to provide payment details on the free trial page, making it easy to detect: simply check whether the online seller asks for payment details. If they only want to give you a free trial, they usually don’t need your that information.
If you do use the free trial, make sure you set a reminder to cancel it before the day you will be charged. Alternatively, sign up using a disposable virtual card – like from Privacy – with a low expiry date or spending limit so that no charges occur. Another common subscription-related trick is to make the subscription seem like a one-time purchase, while it’s actually recurring.
The word “subscription” already implies that it’s recurring, but many people don’t realize this. They see the words “pay $X for a month” and assume it’s just one month total. Usually, the service providers add the recurring part in a fine print.
You’ll probably find out when you see the bank statement or receive a related email. However, by then you have already paid for the subscription (probably for multiple cycles). Your best bet is to understand the meaning of subscription, which means recurring advanced payments.
You should also carefully read the subscription page to understand how much you will be charged and how often. In the end, manually canceling future subscriptions is your best bet to avoid charges. Offering a way to return the product is almost a must these days to stay competitive.
However, that doesn’t mean sellers won’t use tactics to minimize total return cases to increase revenue. Some sellers can have return policies that can make the process so difficult that people would prefer to keep the product rather than go through the process. They could put the return packaging and handling on the customer, charge restocking or return shipping fees, or refund the price only in store credit.
They could also add clauses that make it difficult to return the product, like requiring product photos before use, specific documents, or an unopened package. The website must have a clear return policy page, so make sure you read it thoroughly. When in doubt, contact the support team to eliminate any doubts.
Whenever possible, try to use safe payment methods like PayPal or a credit card that allow you to dispute the purchase if the seller refuses to accept a simple return. For low-priced items, sellers can add to the cost of shipping and handling to make up for it. For example, the seller can show the product price as $8 instead of $10 and add the $2 to the shipping fee.
The customer will believe they are getting a 20 percent discount. In many cases, the customer will not back out from the checkout page even if they feel something is off. Many customers don’t have time to make the necessary comparisons to other sites.
Most reputable sellers typically show the shipping fee on the product page. If it’s missing, it’s better to add the product and see the shipping fee before mentally committing. If the website supports it, sort items by “Price + Shipping Fee.
” This will show prices with shipping fees included. eBay is one site that does this. Sellers can create a sense of urgency in customers by using alerts like “Low Stock” or “Limited Time Offer.
” This can make some customers buy the product impulsively without evaluating the deal properly. This doesn’t mean the deal itself is a scam, but it can influence customer decisions. It’s possible that they could have bought it from somewhere else that was better or cheaper.
Of course, these alerts are not always fake, but you need to differentiate between fake and legit alerts. A low stock alert on a widely available item will probably be fake. Search for the product on Google to see if many sellers are offering it without a low stock alert – or even offering it at all.
Access the page using the browser’s private mode to see if the alert resets. Since private mode doesn’t use browser cookies , they will treat you as a new customer, and you may see a different offer. Adding the word “Warranty” on the product listing can greatly boost sales for the seller, as customers love security when buying online.
However, some sellers don’t want to entertain all warranty claims, so they use ambiguous language to circumvent most claims. They can use vague words like “limited warranty,” “manufacturer defects only,” “normal wear and tear,” “conditions apply,” etc. These words don’t explicitly explain what is included/excluded.
To find actual details, the customer has to go to a separate page/section with too much legal language that most customers won’t read. A clear giveaway would be the vague language itself. If you can’t immediately understand what the warranty specifically covers, there could be an issue.
Since sellers are legally liable to include detailed warranty terms, they will have a page where you can see all warranty terms. Usually, it’s a dedicated warranty page or part of the terms and conditions page. Of course, sellers will try to hide the terms as much as they can using other terms and legal jargon.
If you can’t read it all, you can copy/paste all the text into an AI chatbot like ChatGPT and ask it to summarize the warranty terms. This trick is so widespread that it’s now an expected behavior for all websites. The sellers strike through the original MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price), and show the current selling price as discounted.
Many customers think the difference between a strikethrough price and buying price is a special discount. Furthermore, some sellers list a product (without MSRP) at a higher price, then adjust it to the real price, calling the difference a discount. You shouldn’t consider these as “discounts” unless an actual discount event is active currently.
Online sellers offer use these common legal tricks, but it can still feel deceptive. Thankfully, they can only influence your buying decision, unlike common online shopping scams that can empty your bank. Image credit: Vecteezy .
Screenshot by Karrar Haider. Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox Karrar is drenched in technology and always fiddles with new tech opportunities. He has a bad habit of calling technology “Killer”, and doesn't feel bad about spending too much time in front of the PC.
If he is not writing about technology, you will find him spending quality time with his little family..
