Is NexTag Rigged?
I’ve tried multiple times to write a review of The Violent Squirrel on NexTag. The Violent Squirrel is the illegal seller who ripped me off with a counterfeit version of Adobe Photoshop CS3 and he has a 5 star positive rating on NexTag which obviously is very misleading for potential buyers and one of the reasons why I was suckered into thinking he was legit. I have tried on numerous occasions to post a negative review in order to alert people to the scam but my review never gets posted on NexTag.
After submitting the review I see the message:
‘Thank you for submitting your review of The Violent Squirrel. Your review will not be displayed on NexTag until we confirm it meets our review guidelines.’
I have written it in multiple ways to in case it was a problem with guidelines, making sure to keep it brief and factual but all to no avail – my review is never published. So I’m wondering if NexTag is rigged in favour of the sellers and negative reviews deliberately blocked. If anyone has any insight on this please comment here.
Thanks for your valuable feedback. We’re looking into this matter.
NexTag Buyer Support
I wasn’t expecting someone from NexTag to comment on here but thanks for taking notice and I’m waiting to hear back what you find when you look into the matter.
I haven’t heard anything back from NextTag on this issue yet and as of yet I’ve still not been able to post my review for The Violent Squirrel.
Thank you for going to the effort of exposing a possible scam. When I was shopping online for software, I noticed that the Violent Squirrel was tremendously under-priced, which triggered my curiosity. I have found a number of warnings against them besides yours.
NexTag gives reseller ElectroZone their highest rating – 5-Star Trusted Seller – and claims 100 out of 102 positive customer reviews. In contrast, BBB gives ElectroZone their lowest rating – “F” – and citing complaints of “defective products”, “failure to respond to complaints”, and others, http://www.bbb.org cautions against dealing with this company. The Nevada Secretary of State reports that ElectroZone’s business license was revoked in 2002. Ripoffreport.com shows many complaints of defective merchandise, reconditioned merchandise sold as new, etc. My brief, courteous posting to NexTag regarding my negative experience with ElectroZone has failed to appear. Is NexTag Rigged? It appears so.
About a month ago I reported receiving a Samsung UN46B8500 HDTV from ElectroZone.com in Las Vegas NV, which soon ceased to function, and on closer examination was found to be so damaged that Samsung would not honor the warranty. EZ disclaimed all responsibility. I then discovered that “ElectroZone of Las Vegas NV” had a BBB rating of “F”, and that the Nevada Secretary of State reported their business license revoked in 2002. I made a chargeback request to AMEX, and complaints to BBB, the Nevada Secretary of State, and the Nevada Attorney General’s office. I boxed-up the dead TV and stuck it in my basement. I was out $3,000, and feeling like a schmuck for failing to vet EZ.
It took almost 2 months to resolve this problem, but in the end it was resolved by agreement, and better, everyone gets schooled:
[1] What’s In A Name?: Despite sharing its name and location, ElectroZone.com is not the same company as the one with the bad rep! Aron, VP and owner of EZ, had not known about Bad-old-EZ (I’m not the only one failing to do his homework!), but has since registered with the Nevada BBB, which corrected its records, confirming that EZ does have a valid business license and giving it a better rating (“B-” last I looked, expected to rise as data is collected). Here’s the BBB link:
http://southernnevada.bbb.org/bbb_rated_acc_rpt.asp?bbbid=78649&tr=rated&lg=B%2D&ex=15%2C26
[2] It’s A Guy Thing: A couple of weeks ago, Aron & I had a long phone call. Like a scene from “48 Hours”, we bargained, argued and generally beat the crap out of each other, finally achieving a level of mutual respect and an understanding about how to proceed: I get a new TV, delivered by a premium service that will allow me to properly inspect it before accepting shipment, he deals with the old one, and I update my reports. Also, he buys me a beer when he’s in SF for MacWorld next month.
[3] ElectroZone: Best as I can tell, Aron’s a good guy, trying to make a go of a company operating in a very competitive environment, on very small margins. I’m willing to believe that he broke off communication during December because of Holiday pressures, and because he determined, as I did, that Samsung would not fix the damaged TV and one of us would have to eat it.
[4] Samsung: They need to learn how to package a fragile $3,000 product. Their strategy of fitting the shipping box with quick-release laches, presumably to facilitate inspection, only allows it to be opened and closed undetectable en-route, making the notion of “factory sealed” meaningless. Having had the opportunity to compare inside packaging of damaged and an undamaged TVs, it is apparent that between leaving the Samsung assembly plant in Mexico and reaching me, the former had been carelessly repackaged.
[5] NexTag: As I and others have noticed, NexTag.com is selective about which consumer reports they publish (eg, none of mine). Some investigative reporter needs to have a look at all the comparison shopping sites that have sprung up to see which are actually just advertising vehicles for the companies rated.
[6] Consumer Complaints: I can’t know how effective my AMEX chargeback and BBB complaint would have been because they did not go to completion, but I do know that both contacted EZ, which probably helped communicate a sense of urgency. I also know, from talking with Aron, that my Internet complaints (ripoffreport, resellerratings, bogusware, eopinions, and amazon forum) were compelling. Unlike a behemoth, with lawyers on staff and big ad budget, a small company like EZ has to be mindful of its fragile reputation, and may ultimately be more responsive to consumer problems.
Finally, I’m enjoying my little home theater, attached to cable TV, and also driven by a Mac Mini (DVDs, internet video, and local photos, music & video), with a Bose CineMate upgrading the UN46B8500′s built-in audio. Sweet!
I became suspicious of NexTag because on the basis of their guidance, I bought a Samsung UN46B8500 HDTV from ElectroZone. The set arrived in a new box, and appeared to be OK, but stopped working in one week, and turned out to be so damaged that Samsung will not honor the warranty. ElectroZone appears to have swapped a physically damaged TV (why should they get stuck with it when they can stick me?) into a new box and sold it as new. They take no responsibility and don’t return my calls. Basically, NexTag steered me to what must be one of the worst electronics retailers out there, and consequently, I’m out $3,000.
Problem with ElectroZone resolved — see previous thread. NexTag still suspect!
i guess it’s not just me who thinks there is something fishy about Nextag reviews. my concern is with a company called myvitanet. i looked for reviews on the comapny and several sites have a massive majority of horrible reviews for them. Yahoo shopping shows an overall rating of 1.5 stars. a site called resellerratings has an overall of 1.71. yet nextag shows an overall of 4.5! that sure is a big difference!
oh P.S.
just went to close my tab for myvitanet and i see that at the top of the page they have “Nextag 5-star Seller”.
it seems pretty obvious that they have paid nextag to get that rating. lame.
I placed an order at myvitanet based on the NexTag rating of 5-stars and so far it is an absolute nightmare. I posted a rating at NexTag – based on the comments in this thread – it probably will never be published. I just won’t use any NexTag vendors in the future. A lesson learned the hard way. There really needs to be a reliable way to get these bad vendors off the internet. Why can’t the credit card companies refuse to take their sales?
Companies like Nextag don’t care about ethics as long as they are making a profit. But it could be a short-sighted strategy – their reputation is at risk. Credit card companies also profit form all transactions whether legitimate or not so they don’t have an incentive to turn down dodgy business unless they start losing out on it by having to give back too many refunds.
I was looking for AutoCAD 2011 software. The software retails for about $4,000.00 so I was trying to see if I could find it cheaper. Nextag showed 5 different vendors, 4 of them offered the software for about $4,000.00 and one of them (Associated Software) offered it for about $1,000.00. The reason, they said is because it wasn’t new. When I asked Associated Software if I would be able to register the software with Autodesk (the company that makes AutoCAD) they avoided answering the question. I have no doubt their software is pirated and I am disappointed that Nextag would allow such a vendor on their website. It really boils down to the saying that if it is too good to be true, it usually is. Based on my experience, I would never buy anything that is listed by Nextag.
Yep, sounds like pirated software. Nextag absolutely cannot be trusted – the unfortunate thing is that most people don’t realise that. The pirates can establish a false sense of legitimacy by being on Nextag in order to sell their con to the unsuspecting. Nextag are complicate in crime.
I work for Adobe and i can tell you that this company is an illegal company and they are actually being reported right this moment and they are very illegal and these copys are pirated. DO NOT BUY IF THE PRICE LOOKS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE
Hi Chantel,
Thanks for sharing your insight. I assume you are referring to The Violent Squirrel as the illegal company, not NexTag, although NexTag remain to be publicly unmasked for their illegal practices in helping the pirates scam consumers.
You say that they are ‘being reported right this moment’ – any idea why it takes Adobe so long to act? I (and probably several others) have reported them to Adobe back a year ago.
recently, i purchased nike dunks from nextag. little did i know that these shoes were fake. the price was a little bit cheaper than what i would normally pay for it, but when I bought it, i did not know when it was fake. my shoes broke after 1 mohnt. now i am angry. why would nextag sell fake shoes. definitley a scam
I wish I’d seen this web site sooner! I tried 4 times last year to post a one-star review of ValuePlasma, an electronics site where they post bargain prices, but the TVs simply aren’t available (or maybe they send people non-new TV sets!). I had ordered a flat screen TV, but regretted it within 2 days suspecting the 5-star reviews were bogus. I noticed spelling errors in the 5-star reviews that matched, even though they were purportedly from different people!! Also, out of many dozens of 5-star reviews, none was ever posted on a Saturday (when the store is closed!!).
They had charged my credit card immediately, even tho’ they never shipped… then they wanted a 15% restocking fee (for something that was never in stock!!!). I got the credit card company to reverse the charge, thankfully.
Nextag never posted my complaints, and my experience was similar to others’ on this list. I felt bad that was unable to warn other people about this scam store.
Yes mate, NexTag Sucks!