We Need To Talk About WhatNot [Scams, Trolls, Fakes, Favoritism, and Minimal Customer Service]

WhatNot is gaining a lot of popularity lately due to their large ad spend on TikTok, but a lot of people are joining with little to no direction of what they're getting themselves into. I hope this helps in preparing some users and possibly answers some questions about the app and influx of downloads.

WhatNot is a marketplace that's more-so similar to Ebay in terms our auctions, but WhatNot focuses mainly of livestream auctions from both businesses' and regular people alike. However, there isn't nearly enough vetting from WhatNot for sellers which means lots of scams, frauds, fakes, and more...

Favoritism:

While it's easy for WhatNot to identify and punish some sellers whom do these issues, there is very blatant favoritism within the app for its larger sellers. Small sellers like the average person cleaning out a closet face harsher punishments for minor issues and mess-ups while larger sellers - such as NicoleState, Backyard Breaks, and Dolls Kill - get little to no punishment for vastly worse issues. Small sellers with issues like shipping late or saying words prohibited by the app may face bans from days to forever, while huge sellers like NicoleState can not ship orders at all with no ban. Sellers like Dolls Kill get to auction off bongs and take forever to ship with no punishment. Huge TCG streamers can steal cards or cancel high value pulls with no punishment.

Scams & Trolls:

It is getting worse on the app everyday with scams and trolls. Between sellers commonly notorious for selling and not shipping - or shipping the wrong items - and little vetting of new sellers the app is a scammers Topia. We have resealed TCG packs, cards taken off screen and switched out, mystery/game show high value items not being sent, etc. While WhatNot does have a "high value loss" policy - it is extremely hard to enforce. For example: if you pull a large card from a TCG or win a designer bag from a Mystery Pull game, and the seller sends you the wrong item with lesser value - you have to prove to WhatNot you lost a high value for reimbursement - which they like to fight. However, sellers workaround that by canceling the orders instead, citing "unforseen issues", making your high value loss claim totally worthless.

There is also an influx of trolls. I am using this term to identify new accounts with no photo or followers whom live-hop around streams with the sole purpose of max bidding high amounts with no intentions to pay. Their sole intention is to have someone after them swipes last second - known as a snipe on the app - in hopes someone else is changed exuberant amounts for what they want to purchase. Example being at last second and item is at $24. The troll submits an immediate max bid for $1000, but at that same time Stacy from Texas who thinks she's bidding $25 swipes - seeing $1100. While most sellers see this and immediately go for canceling the bid, Stacy is out of that $1100 for days while her bank waits for the pending charge to drop (or completed charge to refund).

Fakes:

From Disney pins to designer handbags, WhatNot is riddled with countless fake items - but wait, what about WhatNot's authentication?! Their about as good as watching a 5 minute YouTube video titled "How 2 Authentik Deeziner Bag". WhatNot uses 3rd party places such as Entrupy to validate legit good. If you're unfamiliar with Entrupy and websites alike - they use AI and very commonly pass fakes. WhatNot is not like Ebay - where the items get sent through authentication before being sent to buyer. The buyer themselves most the times have to send the items in to WhatNot after receiving which is a total waste of time considering the amount of passing fakes they get.

Minimal Customer Service:

A lot of issues simply boil down to very poor customer service. There's long responses at times, and more often than not there is little to no help given to buyers - especially against a beloved big seller. You'll be stuck with $10 credits for your issues, no punishment to sellers reported, and after all your money spent on the app - YOU as a buyer are more likely to be removed than the sellers.

As always... Proceed with caution on this app and if you second guess - it's probably too good to be true. Stay safe and "bid responsibly".