GTrusted

As Amazon has increasing become a search engine, Google has also increasingly become a place where you can price compare, read reviews, and find retailers.

Unfortunately, a recent experience with buying a product through Google Shopping reveals some of the potential pitfalls for consumers.

After doing a search on Google for the LG B6 OLED 4K HDR Smart TV - 65" Class, Google Shopping results appear on the right side of the search results.

If you go to the Google Shopping Page, you can see Google choose one of the retailers as listed right above the Shop button.

In our case, the retailer chosen was East Coast TV's.

After placing an order with East Coast TV's, we immediately received a phone call from East Coast TV asking if we wanted to upgrade shipping to receive the order quicker.  We replied that free ground shipping was acceptable and we were willing to wait several weeks to receive the purchase.

Eventually, after 5-6 weeks of not receiving the purchase and beyond the number of days East Coast TV claimed the shipment would take, complaints and order inquiries were made resulting in the order being mysteriously canceled even though by phone we were told the order had not been canceled.  Every day we called about the issue (often they were not open during their stated business hours), we were told someone would call the company actually importing and delivering the product, making you wonder who was actually the seller of the product.  After several days of not getting any promised phone call-backs on this issue, we did cancel the order which East Coast TV seemed more than happy to oblige.  

Unlike Amazon's third party retailers, there is no obvious way to provide feedback to Google or directly rate retailers found through Google Shopping.  Given Google's dominance in search, it is too easy for the average user to find questionable retailers that seek to lure buyers with ultra low prices but don't actually have anything to ship to the customer, making them wait in limbo while their delivery is delayed.  Until Google can do a better job in policing retailers that list products through Google Shopping, for now it's Caveat emptor.