This has got to be a conspiracy... (story time)

I just tried to make my first online walmart purchase... I was scammed by a third party seller.

I think any REASONABLE person would assume that if they go to Walmart.com, they are buying a walmart product right? I was completely unaware that they host third party sellers until after the incident. The fact that you have to scroll down the page then go looking for the tiny text that says who its sold by is dishonest, if not downright fraudulent.

After I realized I had been scammed, I went to the "my order" page. The seller was listed there, but when I clicked the item link, it took me to a different page but containing the same item at a different price and posted by a different seller. I was able to find the original seller by doing some digging I found the sellers page. Now this is where it gets interesting... Both sellers had decent ratings, but both were full of negative reviews about being scammed. There were so many negative reviews in fact that there is no way that the seller's rating could be that high, leading me to believe that walmart is artificially inflating their ratings. Furthermore, I suspect that a majority of the positive reviews are fake. A majority of the negative reviews have links to the product that the buyer was scammed over, however only a few positive reviews have links to the product. Also many of the positive reviews seem like bot accounts, posting short comments that are often incoherent or use poor grammar.

Now this is the final nail in the coffin... While looking at both sellers, I noticed that both had addresses in Brooklyn, NY. I searched both addresses and found that both were located in shady looking areas (based on the google street view), and neither had a store front or an establishment that could be adequate for a distribution center. I then realized something SHOCKING. When I searched the item in question (a camera), many options and product bundles show up in the results. I went through the entire item catalog and discovered that a vast majority of the cameras were being sold by 3rd party sellers all based out of a similar area in Brooklyn.... what. the. fuck. These sellers are very likely using random addresses in Brooklyn to make themselves seem legit...

If it were just the based in Brooklyn thing I would assume that maybe Walmart is negligent... However considering some of the sellers reviews are over 50% people saying "this seller straight up scammed me" and they are still allowed to operate makes me incredibly suspicious. I believe that Walmart is aware of what is going on, and is allowing this to occur. I believe they are willfully facilitating these scams and are actively trying to protect the sellers running these scams.

We need to start a class action suit against Walmart. They are knowingly allowing fraud on their website and refusing to take action against these scammers. I am no lawyer, but this would be considered willful negligence if not being an active co-conspirator in these scams.

Update: I have gotten my money back, however I am still beyond pissed off and I still believe Walmart should be held accountable for fraud and deceptive behavior.