Pricebreak.com Knowingly ships broken merchandise for profit New York, Internet
I believe this company knowingly ships non-working merchandise to profit from returns.
I ordered a bluetooth headset and was essentially shipped a bag of broken parts. I was given the option of returning it at a 15% loss + the $7 shipping or for an exchange. I then researched and learned this was common and decided just to take the small loss and report the situation.
Ironically this is more profitable than shipping working merchandise. It cost me $2.50 shipping to return it, so they made 12% on shipping. Combined with the 15% to return the incomplete, non-working bag of broken parts, they make a whopping 27%, which is way more than the margins legit companies profit on new merchandise. Better yet (for them) they will ship out the returned junk to another person and make another 27% with no additional cost of goods sold.
It's a pretty good con as I'm only going to fight them so much over the $12 I lost. I'm guessing they would send out a working item if you opt for it. They would then make 24% on the charging shipping twice, which is an above-market margin for this type of business.
This is why they can advertise such a low price and come up on top when you sort search results. I found them through bing.com shopping.
Interesting little scam they have going. I'm glad my loss was relatively small.