The Sun has an article today berating Amazon for allowing dodgy cures and palliatives on their marketplace. At best the cures they’re touting will do nothing, at worse they could make your health even worse.
It should be pointed out that it is of course not Amazon selling stuff as dodgy as cancer cures and electronic zappers to treat HIV. As for the bleach enema offered as a fix for autism, surely no one would be so stupid… but apparently they are.
These miracle cures are being hawked to some of the most vulnerable in our society. If you have a life threatening illness and there’s little more that the doctor can do then it’s understandable to think anything that might help is worth a try. This false hope is how these third party Amazon sellers make their money.
Amazon are not only being rapped for allowing third party retailers to sell these dodgy pseudo medicines on their site, The Sun is also complaining that they have sponsored adverts to off-Amazon websites which sell even more of the bogus cures.
There are a ton of laws being broken, both retail law for false promises and The Cancer Act which bans the sale of cancer curatives.
The Sun article finishes up saying “Referring to the Dr Reckeweg R17 Tumour Drops, an Amazon representative said last night: “All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. The product in question is no longer available”.
I had a look found them this morning still readily available on Amazon for £29.85.
I’m sitting here thinking that this is all too familiar apart from normally it’s not Amazon being pilloried in the press. Normally it’s eBay and I’m guessing that the guys in Richmond are reading The Sun today and breathing a sigh of relief that it’s not them. eBay also shouldn’t rest easy though, for the same three packs the eBay cost is just £20.29.
I really don’t know if this product has any efficacy whatsoever, but at the end of the day if twenty quids worth of medicine could cure cancer then I’m sure doctors would be more than willing to prescribe it, instead of cancer drugs costing the NHS thousands.
We’d like to add that if anyone reading this is unfortunate enough to be suffering from Cancer or any other illness then you have our deepest sympathies. We’d also strongly encourage you not to even think of spending your money on miracle cures from marketplaces and instead follow your doctor’s advice.
6 Responses
What! That’s disgusting, there is no cure for Autism! Makes my blood boil grrrr
Looks like Amazon have already removed them.
This is another example of how Amazon is reactive to potentially major problems with Marketplace sellers. Counterfeiters, knock-offs, dangerous goods, fake cures and medicines. Where will it end?
Amazon seems to be able to wash its hands of all of this with the cry that they are merely the agent running a platform and essentially blaming the seller and putting the onus on the community to report the issues.
We all know that Amazon is simply not set up to deal with these problems, their UK quality team is overwhelmed and often misdirected, spending time on poorly executed and andon cords rather than serious matters like these reported today.
With the growth in Amazon sellers shipping direct from China, this will surely get worse. As it will for eBay as both seem obsessed for a race to the bottom in terms of quality and integrity.
Chris Tamebay are sending emails from the day before. Two days in a row I received the previous days posts.
In todays email I got
Amazon Student looks like a good deal →
Linnworks introduce new price plans to include 24/7 support →
eBay promise faster delivery in search than on the listing page →
eBay Expert Advice Growth Webinar – Postage Options →
Shipping Acronyms and what they mean for importers →
Amazon accused of hawking miracle cures →
Why don’t you sell overseas? →
Google could win PayPal’s cloud patronage →