"Sells under the name Bargain Depot on E-Bay. Sells defective merchandise as new and wants you to pay postage to send it back. Will refund original price, then resell to someone else. Sold me a defective laminator listed as brand new and working. Junk!!!"
"UPDATE 03/24/2006: Anyone having any new problems PLEASE EMAIL ME (****@****) so I can forward the information on to you regarding the Tennessee State's Attorney General's Office and the action they are taking against Martin Fike!
I guees enough voices have been heard!!!!!
UPDATE 03/20/2005: Martin Fike is now using the name swdiscounters on eBay, to hide from all of the negative publicity generated by all of our complaints to eBay.
UPDATE 02/23/2005:
I have received a reply from the Federal Trade Commission, and it looks like a regular auto-reply form. I would like everyone that has had a negative experience with BargainDepot04, AKA Consumer Depot, SurplusDealz, and Auction Logistix, to write to the FTC and use this number in the first line of the complaint form on their site at www.ftc.gov:
complaint Ref No. 5700020....the name of the owner is Martin Fike. The address is 3332 Powell Ave. Nashville, Tn. 37204.
If you haven't seen this yet, this is the link to the Channel 4 News in Nashville, where they conducted their own investigation of BargainDepot:
http://www.wsmv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2897899
Lets flood them with complaints on the SAME complaint number!!!!
I have contacted the Federal Trade Commission regarding this business's willfull selling of items on eBay that they KNOW are defective. In their auction details for an item that is defective, they describe the item exactly the same EVERY time. I am also filing a civil suit against bargaindepot04, (AKA ConsumerDepot, and Auction Logistix LLC), and will get it certified as a Class Action, as there are now over 100 members on eBay that are willing to join it with me. Look out bargaindepot. Get ready to pay!!
this company leaves retalitory negative feedback when it is rightfully left for them. i paid for 3 day shipping, and received my item 7 days later. Fed Ex shipped it in the 3 days AFTER it was ready to be shipped by bargaindepot. they held it until there was no time left for it to be returned.
anyone with similar experiences should contact me directly to join the suit. ****@****"
"I received the wrong item. I went to the site and followed instructions for an RMA, stating to the seller that I'd rather have the item I won. I paid $35 for the item, $10 for shipping, and $6.50 for USPS Priority S/H return shipping. After 2 weeks, I received $45 back, but no return shipping.
It was their fault, they charged almost $4 too much for s/h, I did everything I was asked, and I still lost money.
Extremely bad risk. Take a look at his feedback, almost 5000 bad, 3000 neutral, and many MANY good feedbacks that have negative comments out of 67000+. That translates into a no better than about 85%, which sucks. I have a 98.7% rating with over 700 positives, I think I know what customer service is. CS is something this joker knows NOTHING about. Poor to no customer service at all.
Buyer Beware!!"
"They sent me used junk that had probably been returned by someone to a store. There were even caller ID information left in the phone from previous user. Left me neutral feedback on eBay as a way to retaliate because I did."
"Very unhappy along with the rest of these users. Tried to correspond with seller only to find a response 2 days later (he requires a 3 day payment) via a form resonse that had nothing to do with my issue.
Now I am getting an unpaid strike against my user ID...I have no way of contacting this guy...what gives?"
"SELLER is a crook and would not sell item after auction was won. Seller will not respond to any emails or calls."
"They sent me a defective product and they are impossible to contact. I paid $14 shipping which they refuse to refund although the OPENED product should have been tested by them in the first place. Shady company, BEWARE"
"I bought a computer printer from this company via Ebay. Arrived DOA, broken case, power supply from another product. Total trash. I called and emailed company. No response. I should have read consumer reports on Ebay prior to buying. A LOT of similar stories. Clearly an unethical merchant."
"I won an bid from this company's ebay "branch" bargindepot. The pay site (Auction Logistix) didn't look secure, so I emailed the seller, only to recieve a few form letters reminding me to pay. I feel lucky now that I read comments from other unsatisfied customers. I havn't paid, and I registered a complaint with ebay. In regards to comments from the Consumer Depot rep. about his company not being affiliated with ebay...I needed to provide my order date and invoice number to have this comment posted. This was the worst expeirence I've ever had with ebay, and it's shameful to take advantage of the trusting nature of that site."
"I sent the following email to bargaindepot04:
"Dear bargaindepot04, I just won the auction for item# ***-***-****. I am concerned that your description specifically says there is "NO RESERVE..." for this item, yet it s reporting "Reserve Not Met". Please respond immediately so that I will know what action to take from here."
This is excerpt taken directly from the ebay listing:
"With NO RESERVE - Someone is going to get a DEAL !! High Bid WINS ! Don't miss out on this one."
The automated email response I received follows:
"To improve our level of service, We provide CUSTOMER SERVICE / SUPPORT via WEBFORM only.
Your comments will be recorded in our database for accuracy and forwarded to a customer service representative for a timely response.
We will reply to your issue/comment. Our Customer Service Department operates Monday thru Friday during our normal business hours. We are not open on the weekends.
Customer Service / Support Web-Form click here: http://www.kingliquidation.com/bargaindepot/contact.asp"
When you go to this website to initiate a communication, it asks for the ebay auction # and your ebay ID. When I entered this, is said this was not for a valid auction, because they are not showing that I won this, because they the item listed with a reserve, despite their cleary specific statement (pronounced "bait") that is listed above.
When you click on questions about auctions, it takes you to a stock FAQ page with no means of contacting the seller.
Oh, did I mention that their website is conveniently an IP address, versus a domain name that can easily be traced back to the domain name holder? But if you do a google on their IP, you can see there clear affiliation with Con$umerDep0t.
Maybe it IS best that I can not contact them to claim my item from the other comments I have seen. Claiming one thing for the purpose of attracting customers (bids) and then applying totally different business practices is nothing short of FRAUD.
Yes, you may have 92% positive feedback from others but my experience is related to this one transaction with you on ebay. And based upon that, your feedback is 0% positive and my suggestion to other would be, "if it looks shady, is misleading, and hides from attempts to be contacted... then this is likely an attempt to defraud you!""
"I would just like to know where I can get my Tracking Number. I was sent a package by Bargaindepot04 and he sent it to a combination of my parents house and my apartment. FedEx can't tell me anything without it. I am really upset and need it immediately and Bargaindepot04 doesn't list any contact information. That is not right if something like my case happens. And now I am worried about the quality of the product I bought. What do I need to do to return the item if it is not the quality that I paid for?"
"This guy simply buys merchandise that has been returned to stores for cents on the dollar. He does not check items at all, but sells them to suckers on ebay (like myself). His RMA for returns never works and he never responds to emails. You can see his 92% feedback which is extremely low. Almost one in every ten buyers gets ripped off - one of the worst ratios on eBay. But, it is good enough for him to continue selling crap to trusting people. If I could find this guy, I would hurt him."
"HORRIBLE E-Bay experience! It amazes me that with all the complaints this company has it hasn't been shut down. I don't even know where to start with all my dissastifaction. I ordered a new/open box item (fax machine) and received it pretty quickly with no film. No big deal - went and bought the film for 18.00 only to find out that the cover was broken and would not close properly preventing you from making or receiving faxes which DUH! is what I bought it for. I paid 24,00 for shipping and 20.52 for the item. I could ship it back to them for aother 24.00 which was more than I paid for it, so why bother? After a lot of after the fact research I realize that I am only one of many dissastified customers, and this company could care less. They do not respond to complaints, they leave you feedback depending on what feed back you leave them. I paid immediately, yet I got a negative response (my only negative with E-bay) just because that is what I left them. They responded with "Buyer didn't read entire auction". What a crock! I DID read their entire auction stating that "This item is in the Original Box - LIKE NEW - This is as close to FACTORY SEALED as you can get without paying retail store prices. Bid NOW on this CREAM OF THE CROP item" (exact quote from their item description). How much more fraudulent can you get than that? BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!! If you have the money to gamble away then go for it - cause that is what you are doing when you do business with this company. You are merely playing a game of russian roulette to see if you will receive a piece of non-working junk or if you get REALLY lucky - a working item. I am not finished with this company yet. If anyone knows a way that I can quickly report this to someone that can get the ball rolling to get these people out of business, please e-mail me at ****@****. One individual on this site recommended a class action lawsuit. That would be great! I received e-mail from another dissastified customer telling me to report it to the Tennessee attorney general - but it seems that there have already been many complaints placed there and these idiotic retards are still doing business re-selling their junk over and over again. There has to be a way to at least ban them from EBay!"
"Purchased a cell phone that was advertised as "- This item works great and is in it's original box." The item took longer than a week to arrive, and when it did, it was not working. Furthermore, the han-written word DAMAGED is clearly visible on the original box. When I tried to get an RMA, they approved it, but only for the cost of the item, which was $15.50. They had charged me $14.00 for shipping, and want me to pay for the freight (to return the item.) I have written to them several times, and only automated e-mails come back. This is a ripp-off, a SCAM. These people should not be allowed to remain in business. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM... they do not sell any BARGAINS."
"I had a great experience. I got my order on time, in great condition, and at a great price. "