It doesn't come up very often, but when it does, I am always left scratching my head a little bit. Someone will come into the forums either asking if Zazzle is a scam, or insisting that it is. Just today, a gentleman (I use the term loosely) was looking for a "financial backer" to help him sue Zazzle and Google. Mind you, the Zazzle forums aren't really the best place to find support for something like that, seeing as how they're populated by avid Zazzle shopkeepers, many of which make their living there. All the same, we checked out his complaints, and what did we find? This "gentleman" believed Zazzle and Google were stealing his images and selling them without his permission, because 1.) when customers clicked his links in google they were taken to a simple list of products on Zazzle instead of his storefront and 2.) when he visited one of the international domains like the Canadian or Australian versions of Zazzle, his products were different prices.
OK, number 2 is obvious, or at least it should be. Different countries have different currencies and different exchange rates, so yeah, the same product is going to show up as a different price in another nation's currency. As for number 1...well... This fella should have made a trip to the New To Zazzle forum and asked for help on this one, rather than embarrassing himself to such a degree. The fool has his shop set to "Private", so, yeah, customers aren't going to see his storefront! Instead, they're taken to a list of his products in the Zazzle marketplace. He can still make sales (Though, I can't imagine anyone shelling out over $1,000 for a pair of his shoes like he wants), but customers won't see his storefront.
If anyone has doubts about Zazzle or thinks it might be a scam, let me set the records straight. I've been on Zazzle since 2005. I've watched them go through many changes in that time, and they just keep getting better. They are by far the most versatile, easy to use, trustworthy, and profitable POD (Print on Demand service) I have ever used, and their customer service has been above and beyond expectations every time I've had an issue with an order.
It's because of Zazzle that I am able to make a living doing what I love. It's because of Zazzle that I've been able to leave the abusive employment situations I was in and focus on taking care of my health and my home. Zazzle lets me decide what my work is worth, and when I make sales, that's exactly what I get. Zazzle takes care of its designers and shopkeepers, and they treat their customers right.
There are plenty of real scams out in the world today (I know, I get about a dozen of them a day in my inbox), but Zazzle is not one of them. If you're an artist, photographer, or designer looking to get your work out into the world, there's really no better way to go than a site that asks nothing of you but your time and talent.
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Well I hope they are like that to everyone and not just to the non controversial stores.
ReplyDeleteI've been working hard on my zazzle store for about 6 weeks with around 350 products and promoting my store on linkreferral.com and other ways but zazzle has not informed me of one sale yet. My concern is that they have the option of choosing to report sales or not report sales to the store designer and how would we know if they are honest or not? I am thinking of going back to making all my own products and selling them on eBay again even though there are fees. At least I will know for sure if my product sells or not.
I think someone at zazzle or a hacker may be messing with my pages. I had my commission amount set at 10%. Today when I went to list my last product I looked and it said 99% is commission (which I did not type in) for my t-shirt which would jack the price WAY up. Then I went to buy some of my own products so I could see what they are like. My commission is set at 10%. According to their order form 10% of $10.95 is 88 cents which is the discount they gave me for that item! Each one of the items from my store had an incorrect amount and less than the 10% discount I was supposed to get discounted.
I called customer service only to be put on hold after 1/2 hour on my cell phone. So I called back again and was put on hold for a long time again without a good explanation except that it was "cosmetic" and would give the right amount when I complete the order. I think they just wanted to make sure I completed the order whether or not it's correct and plus then they might get my credit card number. I don't know if they don't like my bible products or not. Perhaps they are discriminating and playing with my pages.
They also deleted 2 of my forum posts where I tried to explain and copied and pasted their order page where the math was wrong.