KlearGear Revamps Website; New Address Traces Back To Scammy Penny Auction Site

from the coincidence-or-something-nastier? dept

KlearGear is on the move! Not content to simply dodge judgments against it by pretending to be a French corporation rather than the variety of remailers it appears to be, KlearGear has revamped its website and given itself a brand new address.

Gone are the legal threats claiming it has the "right" to charge customers $3,500 for bad reviews. Also gone are the claims that it will fight every chargeback to the death with a variety of tactics including reporting unhappy customers to a scam site shut down by the Federal Trade Commission and an ever-escalating number of punitive charges.

KlearGear's subtly updated site now shows the following as its new address.

427 North Tatnall Street
Wilmington, Delaware 19801-2230

KlearGear used to be "located" at a strip of nondescript warehouses in Grandville, Michigan. But that's all in the past now. The new KlearGear is nominally a Delaware corporation, one that shares its address with yet another scammy business, penny auction site Zbiddy, which boasts an absolutely gaudy 424 customer complaints over the last three years.

Zbiddy seems to have nearly as many pissed-off customers as KlearGear. Winning bidders report their items never arrived. Many more complaints call out the company for charging their credit cards $60-99 immediately after registration, without them ever placing a bid or winning an auction. Like other equally abysmal auction sites, Zbiddy lures people in with the chance to obtain stuff for low, low prices. And like other auction sites, it requires a credit card before a potential bidder can do anything. And (again) like equally shady sites, Zbiddy sells packages of bids, without which bidders can't even participate in auctions.

And, like KlearGear, customer service is nearly nonexistent and many, many people have complained about spending money but receiving nothing in return. At this point, Zbiddy's reputation is so thoroughly trashed that it has sought to hide its name behind a slightly less sketchy penny auction site, BeezId.

It appears that whoever actually runs KlearGear (whether it's Havaco Direct, Chenal Media or French company Descoteaux Boutiques) may have a fistful of scammy companies under his purview -- or at least has the dubious fortune of choosing the same remailer address as Zbiddy. KlearGear may be completely unrelated to Zbiddy, but customers of both suffer from the same form of abuse: not receiving the products they've paid for.

Various attempts have been made to scrub KlearGear's reputation since news of its $3,500 bad review fee surfaced. A very thorough expose of KlearGear's many corporate figureheads posted at RipOff Report notes that someone using the account "Havaco Direct" attempted to hire a freelancer to crank out 10 glowing reviews (all from separate email/IP addresses) and post them at ResellerRatings.com. (A 2011 request from Havaco Direct asks for the generation of 240 unique email addresses created by 240 unique IP addresses -- itself more than a little shady.) A quick scan of ResellerRating reviews pre-dating 2013's Streisanding shows KlearGear's inability to fulfill orders has been a problem (or not, if you're just running a scam) since day one.

Also of interest are recent DMCA takedown notices sent by a supposed representative of KlearGear with the made-up-on-the-spot name of "Consumer Guardian." Since the beginning of this month, it has sent out three notices to Google asking for the delisting of the expansive Ripoff Report noted above, further research into the company's inner workings by a blogger at Blagnet and Ken White's post at Popehat. So far, every request has been turned down. Searching for "Consumer Guardian" gets you the metaphoric phone book, which is presumably the impetus behind the bland name currently abusing the DMCA system.

Other findings:

1. The supposed address of Descoteaux Boutiques is also found on KlearGear's website. However, that address links back to an outsourcing firm (7-Conseil), one that also seems incredibly light on verifiable details. Who's behind it isn't exactly clear, but nowhere in the details will you find Vic Mathieu or the supposed company he claims owns KlearGear.

2. Placing an order with KlearGear now routes you through Yahoo!. On the shopping cart pages, one of KlearGear's lies resurfaces.


KlearGear very definitely does not have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau "as of 8/23/14." (This is a very recent update. The sitemap xml shows every page was last updated on 8/22.) Western Michigan's BBB notes that KlearGear isn't even accredited, thanks to its earlier false claims about its BBB rating. San Antonio's BBB (dating back to when KlearGear pretended to be located there) has very generously given KlearGear a "no rating." Delaware's BBB doesn't even have KlearGear listed at its fake local address. So, once again, KlearGear is lying about its rating, but it's hiding it from its critics and using it during the ordering process to give potential customers the completely false assurance that it's a trustworthy company.

3. KlearGear is hiring. And the email address to contact is wow@kleargear.com, which also doubles as its "Customer Care Center" email address, so don't expect to hear back on your application any time soon.

KlearGear -- whoever's actually behind it -- still owes the couple, whose credit it wrecked, over $300,000. But it appears it's well-practiced in the art of hiding behind meaningless names, nonexistent media contact people and a host of shell companies that exist solely as mailboxes. 7-Conseils, the French company that is actually registered at the address listed on KlearGear's site, has been in existence since 2008, but its website still claims to be under construction. The longer-running Chenal name also has a bare-bones website and a bogus address. Vic Mathieu's grandstanding at Ars Technica did little more than show that whoever are running the shop (and whatever their actual names are), have nothing but contempt for every person they've screwed. KlearGear may not be associated with the scammy Zbiddy, but both entities deploy the same tactics (bogus charges, confrontational response to criticism) and have the same abysmal customer service record. What may look like nothing but a coincidence may actually be just another shady operation by the crooked braintrust behind KlearGear.

Filed Under: ecommerce, reputation, scams
Companies: beezid, chenal media, descoteaux boutiques, havaco direct, kleargear, zbiddy

Senate Approves Online Shopping Sales Tax Bill

from the fairness? dept

We have a variety of concerns with the so-called "Marketplace Fairness Act," which will require companies selling things online to track, collect and distribute taxes based on where buyers are coming from. For small and medium-sized businesses, this is likely going to be a big burden online (and for buyers in many places, this will likely increase what you have to pay on checkout). Given the fact that the bill is mostly supported by brick and mortar stores and shopping centers, it's not difficult to see how it's an attack on online shopping (for what it's worth, Amazon was initially against the bill, but eventually flipped when it realized that it could use the bill to hold back smaller competitors).

Unfortunately, the Senate passed the bill by a decent margin, 69-27. The bill will move to the House where it may be more difficult to pass. So it may die on the vine, even as the administration has said it will support it.

Filed Under: brick and mortar, ecommerce, marketplace fairness act, online shopping, retailers, sales tax

Guy Who Bragged About How Bad Reviews Helped His Online Store's Ecommerce Ranking Arrested

from the so-much-for-that-plan dept

Remember the recent story of the ecommerce store operator who claimed he was thriving by being obnoxious, because all of the bad reviews were increasing his Google rank? It's been interesting to watch what's happened since that NY Times article was published. Within days, Google announced that it had tweaked its algorithms to deal with that and similar situations, noting that being bad to customers is unlikely to be a good long term business strategy. It also might lead to jail. The NY Times is now also reporting (as sent in by Robert Ring) that the guy profiled in that original story, Vitaly Borker, who seemed so proud of his angry tirades against customers, has now been arrested for mail fraud, wire fraud, making interstate threats and cyberstalking. So much for that strategy.

Filed Under: ecommerce, reputation, threats

Trolling As An Ecommerce Strategy? Online Store Increases Google Rank Via Obnoxious (Perhaps Criminal) Service

from the that-can't-last dept

A few folks sent over this rather bizarre, but entertaining, story in the NY Times about a guy who operates an online ecommerce shop for eyewear out of his home office, and seems to have done quite well... in part by being a total jackass. The story is almost unbelievable. I'm not going to name the site, because, as is noted in the article, the guy thrives on having his site named in various places, which has only served to boost the Google juice for it. However, the guy discovered that the more complaints he got online, the higher his site ranked in Google, leading to more sales. Yes, if you do a search on the site's actual name, there are tons of complaints warning people to stay away -- but many of his customers don't actually do that. They just search on a brandname of glasses, and his site pops out at the top. The guy seems proud of his strategy of being totally obnoxious to "psycho" customers. It's clear that this is a cultivated strategy -- as the guy runs another store on Amazon where he's careful to take care of customers, since Amazon apparently will kick you off pretty quickly over complaints.

It's pretty clear that the big problem here is in how Google ranks such sites. As the article points out, again, Google has plenty of information about such ecommerce providers in its system -- such as on its shopping site, where there are tons of negative reviews -- but Google doesn't currently surface such information.

It seems like this is a temporary situation, though, as search filters should only get better over time, and will provide more ways of filtering out the bad players like this guy. Though, from the sound of things in the article, other issues may take care of this guy first, as it sounds like almost every other service provider the NY Times spoke to about this guy canceled his account about the time the article was published -- and the guy also may have been arrested for some of his statements to customers that certainly appear to be threats to do them bodily harm. Of course, a quick check on his website shows that it's still up...

Filed Under: ecommerce, search rankings
Companies: google

Books Still Front And Center At Amazon

from the just-a-side-business dept

So far, the earnings of the major internet bellwethers have been pretty ho-hum, as eBay, Google and Yahoo have all come in with less-than-stellar results. But at least the forth horseman, Amazon, came through, blowing past analyst estimates. For a long time, Amazon's been dogged with the stigma of being just a faux-internet company, since it actually has to deal with things like warehouses and shipping costs. It's been trying hard to transform itself, through its attempts at becoming an e-commerce platform, rather than just a retailer. While these moves have done a lot for the company's reputation, they're still not moving the needle when it comes to the bottom line. Instead, its traditional business continues to carry the day, as it's seeing strong adoption of its Amazon Prime free-shipping plan. It also saw a boost from Harry Potter; although the book didn't come out until the current quarter, interest in it is said to have driven a lot of traffic to the site, which led to sales of other items. Meanwhile, the company's efforts to sell digital goods, like movie downloads, don't seem to be doing much of anything. Until these other businesses actually prove themselves, the company is still highly dependent on the whims of the consumer and whatever hit items happen to be coming out.

Filed Under: ecommerce
Companies: amazon

eBay's Core Auction Business Is Looking Like A Drag

from the show-me-the-money dept

eBay has reported its latest quarterly earnings, and like Intel's latest results, they offer something of a mixed bag. eBay's revenues and profits are up strongly, but its auction business is stagnating. While it showed revenue growth in the quarter, that's attributed to currency effects and increased commissions for sellers, rather than growth in the number of listings or the value of goods sold. eBay's been able to generate growth by expanding its scope of operations, which is certainly helpful, but the weakness in its core auctions business remains a concern. Questions still remain about some of those expanded operations: for instance, though Skype's earnings grew, usage is flat. But perhaps the bigger problem for eBay is that it's struggling to get the new units to feed off of each other. Buying PayPal was a masterstroke for the company, since a simple and comprehensive payments system delivers benefits to (and derives benefits from) the auctions business. But other new businesses don't integrate so well. Part of the justification for buying Skype was to ease communications between eBay auctions' buyers and sellers, but that hasn't panned out, or turned into a money-spinner. Similarly, some observers say the US launch of its Kijiji classifieds site will drive usage of Skype and PayPal, but judging by the Skype acquisition, that's far from being a sure thing. Clearly eBay's got the ability to get some M&A work done, but its ability to meaningfully integrate its purchases to spur growth among its other businesses still isn't so clear.

Filed Under: ecommerce, m&a
Companies: ebay, kijiji, skype

Surprise: Auction Bidders Not Always Rational

from the zoon-economicon dept

In an attempt to gain a better understanding of human economic behavior, a group of economists studied the buying patterns of eBay auctions. What they found was that humans are not always rational, at least in the econ 101 sense of the word. One of their most surprising realizations was that bidders would often pay a higher price than the "Buy it Now" price, presumably because they got so caught up in the heat of the auction. This is an odd quirk, though its discovery was hardly needed to demonstrate that humans don't always operate in a purely rational manner. Another thing they discovered was that bidders didn't pay much attention to shipping prices, and that they'll typically opt for an item that can be won for less, even when shipping costs eat up any savings. Ultimately, there's more to auctions than simple price discovery. Not only are they successful because they help arrive at an equilibrium price for goods, but participation in them makes for a fun, game-like experience. Thus, it shouldn't be a surprise that those involved aren't always shining examples of homo economicus.

Filed Under: auctions, ecommerce, economics
Companies: ebay

Zappos Sells More By Encouraging Returns

from the outrunning-the-competition dept

Although it may not get that much hype, Zappos has built up an impressive and successful online shoe retailer. While shipping costs are often the bane of online retailers, Zappos has thrived, not only by offering free shipping, but by offering free return shipping as welll (via Knowledge Problem). Obviously, shipping is expensive, but by subsidizing product returns, the company has removed the risk of buying shoes online. Customers don't have to worry about a pair of shoes not fitting right, because they can always send them back at no cost. In fact, the company approves of customers that buy multiple pairs, just to see which pair fits, while sending the others back. Of course this cuts into its margins to some extent, but the alternative is for customers to buy shoes at traditional stores. The basic lesson is one that plenty of retailers recognize: making it easier to return items will make customers more comfortable with purchasing them. But it's the application of this lesson online, to such an extreme degree, that has separated Zappos from the pack.

Filed Under: ecommerce
Companies: zappos

Can Borders Be The Next Amazon.com?

from the doubtful dept

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, George Jones, the CEO of Borders, discusses his company's plans to remain relevant as more and more commerce is done online. Borders' story is an interesting one, in that its struggles are being felt by a wide variety of traditional retailers right now. Jones' insights into the changing nature of e-commerce is interesting. He notes that when Borders first decided to sell online, it pretty much had to partner with Amazon, because of the infrastructure that it had built up. Now, however, options for third-party fulfillment (also an area that Amazon is interested in) will allow Borders to launch its own site (whether it's able to gain any traction remains to be seen). That being said, parts of his vision seems a little off. He imagines that one day customers will come into the store to buy digital goods, like music and e-books, an idea reminiscent of Starbucks' ill-conceived fill up stations, where customers could get music for their MP3 players. The idea of tying a digital good to a physical location is not a model that customers are likely to embrace. Ultimately, there's no easy answer for a company like Borders. It can embrace the internet all it wants, but it's hard to see its fortunes being tied to much else than the continued success of selling physical books in actual stores.

Filed Under: ecommerce
Companies: amazon, borders