How to Avoid Scams When Buying Pallets Online

How to Buy Pallets Safely Online

Many pallet buyers turn to online Facebooks groups as a popular way to source cheaper pallets. Some of these groups such as Free Pallet Recycling or Pallet Flipping Business Group have thousands of members actively buying and selling pallets. Repackify is very active in moderating some of these groups and we have noticed an increase in pallet scams. Below is a guide to help avoid common scams in the pallet industry

Verify the Company Info:

Before engaging in any transaction, ensure you're dealing with a legitimate business.

Request a W-9, EIN, and other documents that all companies should legally have.
Check their website to ensure it looks legitimate. Look for things such as a company address, phone number and company emails.
Check Social media sites like LinkedIn to see that the company has employees
Check the Address in google maps to make sure the company physically exists

Safe Payment Methods:

The most common way people get scammed is by prepaying for pallets before delivery. You should almost never prepay for pallets and any legitimate company will offer up to NET 30 credit terms or at least let you pay after delivery. Real companies do ask for down payments or push you to pay immediately, if they do, they are not worth dealing with

If you are going to prepay, pay via CREDIT CARD. Your bank very likely refund fraudulent credit card charges and you will get your money back
Other payments like debit card, ACH or wire transfer, once you send that money it is gone. Which is a reason why scammers prefer this.

Use Common Sense Before Buying

If something is too good to be true, it likely is. At a lot these scammers will offer dirt cheap pallets to draw you in. Then will be very pushy with payment because they are pretending to offer such a great deal. Or they will ask you to place a cheap down payment to hold the pallets for you

Before buying pallets get familiar with the market. Get quotes from larger pallet companies like 48 Forty, Kamps, or PLA. While you will typically find slightly cheaper pallets in these Facebook groups, this will at least give you an idea of what the market is like. You can use tools like the pallet pricing index as well.

Repackify additionally has "verified vendor" badges on our pallet marketplace. This is for trusted vendors that we have verified the company info for.

Some General Tips

Do not do business with people over whatsapp, telegram or 3rd party platform. If someone is not using a regular phone number or email that is a huge red flag.
Scammers often target online payment platforms like Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, Square, and PayPal

Be Careful in Facebook Groups:

Scammers will frequently target facebook groups because there is a lot of activity and it it easy to look legitimate online.

Aside from the admins, nobody in this group is verified. Scammers will frequently say things like “You can ask the admin to vouch for me”. This is not true
There are plenty of legitimate companies in this group but no facebook accounts are verified. Even if you have delt with that person before there is always the possibly of the account being hacked.
One of the recent scammers had been regularly posting for over 2 years in this group and the post appeared normal. Just because someone posts a lot does not mean you should trust them
Most admins of these facebook groups have worked in the pallet industry for years and will happily refer you to local pallet yards in your area

Report Suspicious Activity:

If you notice anything suspicious, please report it to the group admins so they can handle it and prevent others from being scammed.