Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/12/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Purchased a paif of sunglasses in ******. I admit it was a little *****, meaning, I didn't not hide in a corner and ****** to make sure the price was fair. However, the merchant seemed reputable. Shortly thereafter, I ******d. I noticed the price in ******* was $90USD but I paid 275 euros (about $300 USD) for the same item. We travel all the time, and we shop. I have never been in a position where there is such an INSANE spread. I thought it was a mistake. I tried to return the glasses. The merchant freaked out. He told me the 9five.com website was fake. His website seemed to redirect to 9five.world.com or something like that. The parent company confirmed both websites are real. Please see my attempt to try and feel better about the situation. The 9five.com customer service rep started out by telling me I should drop the glasses and file a charge dispute - he missed the point. It gets far more unprofessional from there. It is not OK to cheat people. I went into stores like ****** and I went into local stores NO ONE is taking advantage of people like this.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/14/2023

  Hi *****,

  9five.com the main website for our brand 9FIVE. 9FIVE is based here in *******, and the site can be accessed by customers worldwide. 9five.world is also our website and it is a redirect for customers shopping from the *** ***************, and other some parts of ***************. This redirect exists because we work with distributors in those countries and we have agreed to allow them to sell our product at a higher rate since the distributors primarily sell to retail shops. Margin requirements in those countries are much different than here in the *** and that is why the product is priced higher in those countries. Our brand in the *** is much more direct to consumer focused so we are able to price are products more competitively. That's why you saw the pricing difference when you went to 9five.com, since you are from the *** you likely didn't get redirected. This is all to say that the pricing they had at the store in ****** is accurate based on ** pricing, and the pricing you saw on our site is accurate based on our *** pricing. There is likely little I can do to enforce that store's pricing or policies, but it is unfortunate that they would not allow you to return the item.
  

  As we explained it would be difficult to rectify a transaction that we were not party to. If the complaint is that we have different pricing in Europe than we have in the ***, we are not disputing that, that is a fact. The reasons for that price difference are outlined above. We have no association to the retailer in ****** so we are unable to provide a sufficient remedy, if the store had a no return policy we can not enforce them to. Again, if the transaction had taken place directly with 9FIVE we would have no issue resolving this for the customer.

  **********************

   

   

   

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/14/2023

  I think the response is total ***** have shopped for all kinds of goods outside the US - everything from food to luxury goods. I have NEVER seen a markup like this. Its really shady.  The store merchant took the price right off of the website. He was also the one that said ******* website was fake. That was not his fault. It just goes to show that we were both shocked by the same spread - neither of us thought both sites were real.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/16/2023

  Hi *****,

  At this point I am not sure what we can do to help resolve your complaint. You have stated that you don't believe the price difference between the two territories is warranted and you are *********** your opinion. When you reached out to us I made sure to confirm that 9five.com and 9five.world are both legitimate websites and both are owned by 9FIVE. The two sites are designed to accommodate the separate markets and the separate pricing. If the retailer in ****** was unaware of this maybe it was a mistake on his behalf or a miscommunication.

  9FIVE sells to the ** market through a distributor that covers the entire **, ***********, and ***************. That larger distributor then works with local distributors in each country which in turn work with local retailers. I mentioned that retailers in the ** tend to require larger margins when compared to similar stores in *****************. Our product sells well in that market and it is priced to accommodate the large amount of middle steps to get to the retailer (2 distributors in most cases). There is nothing malicious being done on 9FIVE's behalf and that is why we can offer better pricing in the *** since we are able to sell directly in most cases.

  I hope this brings more clarity to the matter. We don't feel there is a proper way to remedy this complaint as it is more a matter of opinion rather than something we resolve for you.

  Best Regards,

  ***

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/17/2023

  The only thing I agree with the business about is that there is nothing left to say. Having owned a retail business for 9 years, whereas the majority my inventory came from Europe, and was also sold in Europe, I am very aware of international business practices (including price differentials). I have NEVER seen anything like this - as a business owner or as a consumer.  I will NEVER do business with this company again, and I will factually repeat my story in an effort to educate other consumers.

  I would also recommend to this company that they come up with a better approach, then to prey on consumers that didn't spend time googling and researching every purchase so that they didn't walk away feeling cheated.

  Sincerely,

  *************************