@thocran37,
If you look for an item whose price is significantly lower than RRP, put on your Caveat Emptor glasses.
- Examine the listing in scrupulous detail. Check for inconsistencies and caveats. Be particularly scrupulous in checking for the brand/manufacturer; if the seller has stated "unbranded", a red light should be flashing in your mind. Check through the item's supposed specifications, and bear in mind that it's not unknown for sellers to use puffery (to say the least).
- Look at the seller's positive feedback percentage. (I and many others posting on these boards recommend avoiding high-volume sellers whose feedback is lower than 99.5%.)
- Make sure that you click onto the seller's feedback score to get to their feedback profile page; once there, you will see the country of registration.(I and many others posting on these boards recommend avoiding sellers whose country of registration is China, for instance, unless you are buying items that don't need to meet Australian electrical standards, industry standards or be covered by a warranty.)
- You will also be able to click onto the seller's combined negative total over the last 12 months. You should read the negative comments to see whether there is a telltale pattern of problems. (I and many others posting on these boards recommend not purchasing from sellers where the negative comments point to consistent issues with item not meeting the description, seller refusing to resolve issues, misrepresented item location, etc.)
- WARRANTY. (I've touched on this in another point, but it is worth repeating.) No matter how many times and how vehemently a seller states in a listing that there's a warranty, you DO NOT have an enforceable warranty on an item if it's being sold by a Chinese seller. If you need a warranty, you must purchase from an Australian authorised seller.
Based on these activities, you will avoid being deceived and misled.
For GPS tracking devices, you should not even think about buying from a Chinese seller. Instead, search on Google.com.au, specifying your search to within Australia only, and look at the price range. There's no harm in looking for a bargain, but keep your expectations to within cooee of the RRP. Make sure the seller is an Australian business and is an authorised reseller for the item you want to buy. (Check with the local distributor if unsure.) Armed with that information, you can then also look on eBay for some of the sellers you've seen by googling, particularly if there's an eBay discount to sweeten the deal.
CAUTION:
If the price is too good to be true... I don't need to finish this truism.
