5 Reasons Why NOT to Buy Sex Toys on Amazon
This global pandemic has meant that people are spending a lot more time at home than they used to. This has, quite naturally, led to an increased interested in sex toys - yay! However, because of the perceived convenience and price difference, a lot of people have been buying those toys on Amazon - boo!!!
I know, I'm a sex toy retailer who benefits from telling you not to buy your sex toys on Amazon. Still, please believe me when I say that buying anything, but particularly sex toys, on Amazon, is a bad idea. Here's why:
1. Poor Quality Products and Unsafe Products - the first and most important reason to steer clear of sex toys on Amazon is that no one checks any of those products for safety and quality. If you buy cheap electronics the worst thing that will happen is that it will break or not work and you've lost your money. If you buy cheap sex toys, you could actually hurt yourself. We've seen lots of products on Amazon that we know are not made of body safe materials. We've seen lots of products that are a poor quality version of another brand-name product. For example, a search for 'clit suckers' on Amazon returned 6000 results. Not one of those toys is made by the two companies that hold the only patents on this type of technology. You may think you're getting the same thing as a Womanizer but cheaper, when it's actually completely different technology. Many people have reported cuts, bruising, bleeding and abrasions from using toys like this. It's so important for your health and safety that you know the toys you buy are safe.
2. Fakes and Misrepresentation - Many sellers know what people are looking for and so they produce cheap products that look very similar to the brand names and then call them something very similar or, in some cases, even the same thing. The picture you see may look exactly like a Magic Wand and the name might sound like a Magic Wand, but the product is not actually a real Original Magic Wand. Even worse, some sellers actually use the name and picture of the brand name product but when it arrives, it's something completely different. Companies that have built a reputation around the quality of their toys are invested in making sure that these toys work properly and that they last. They care about the reputation of their brand. These one-off sellers on Amazon don't even have a brand to protect so they have no investment in making sure the products work properly.
3. Fake Reviews - Not only are many of the products fake, a lot of the reviews are as well. Sellers know that the algorithms will work in their favour if they have lots of 5 star reviews. If they are really lucky, a funny and interesting review can go viral and result in huge sales. In order the ensure this, they pay people to write positive reviews. Often the person who wrote the review has never even used the product. Be very wary of a fabulous funny and entertaining review - which is pretty easy to do for a sex toy - chances are good that it's not real. For more honest reviews of toys, checkout some of the many sex toy bloggers like Dangerous Lilly or Girly Juice.
4. No Defective Exchanges - Most of the sex toys on Amazon are sold by independents who simply work through Amazon for fulfillment. If you have a problem with a toy, you will have to go directly through them. Most of them do not offer returns at all, and if they do, they will make it a very difficult process so that most people just give up and keep the product. When you buy from a local retailer, it's easy to get in touch with them if you have a problem with a product. Most of them want you to be happy so that you keep coming back, so they are much more likely to help you with a defective product.
5. Lack of Choice and Personal Service - One of the most important functions of small, sex positive, sex shops is the information and support that they offer. Online retailers will not answers your questions. They will not listen to your health concerns and help you decide which product is best. They know very little, if anything, about the toys they sell. When physical stores go out of business because they can't compete with Amazon pricing, you lose your sex toy experts.
Those are just some of the reasons why it is not in your best interests to buy sex toys from Amazon. There are some other important reasons why it's much better to buy local than from Amazon, but I will leave that for another post.