MYS Buying Group Issues

Over the years, we've seen major issues in the points & miles space. The Plastic Merchant and Hardbody Supplements immediately come to mind for many. It is why Mark wrote an article about understanding exposure and risk. If you're unfamiliar with either or both of those, you're lucky. Folks lost millions of dollars in too-good-to-be-true businesses. Are we now on the precipice (or already experiencing) the next shoe to drop? Currently, MYS Buying Group is showing signs of major issues. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, so to speak. What is happening and why are questions we don't have specific answers for. But this is seriously enough that everyone should know the issues and proceed upon the principle of Caveat Emptor.

May 8, 2024 Update: MYS Buying Group has issued all payments and is up-to-date on all monies owed. Read our updates here.

What is MYS Buying Group?

For many years prior to the current issues, MYS Buying Group was a notable buying group in the credit card arena. At its core, a buying group asks its customers (read: suppliers) to source highly sought after products, like electronics, gadgets, event tickets, coins from the U.S. Mint, etc. The customers agree to a reimbursement price from the buying group, which is typically between a small profit and a small loss versus the actual purchase price. The idea is that credit card rewards, cash back, welcome offers and shopping portals help offset the slight loss, if there is one.

Once an item is purchased, the customer decides whether to ship the item directly to the buying group or ship it somewhere else and then forward to the buying group. All in all, this was a business that you had which had a similar set up to a reselling business. The difference was you traded in potential outsized gain to secure much lower downside risk when buying items.

In the world of buying groups, MYS Buying Group, until recent issues, was a major player in the space. It offered numerous deals, oftentimes buying items that no one else was buying. It was known for prompt checkins, reasonable time periods for payments (2 weeks or less, historically) and good communication. Over the years, you dealt with the same employees, which was definitely believed to be a sign of stability. My, how times have changed.

First Chinks in the Armor

Hindsight 20/20, we started seeing MYS Buying Group issues as early as 2022. Whether it was pure greed, cashflow issues, or something else, checkins of products oftentimes slowed down, communication slowed down, and payments slowed down. By early 2023, payments began taking upwards of 30 days to be issued. Customers regularly had to file a “ticket,” which was a request for someone to take a look at an issue and rectify the situation. Luckily, payments were generally processed very quickly once a ticket was filed.

From Bad to Worse

Unfortunately, the MYS Buying Group issues in 2022 and early 2023 were only a precursor for the rest of the year. Sometime around the fall rush, mostly centered around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, check-ins crept up to 2+ weeks and payments flat-out stopped. After filing multiple tickets, most folks finally got paid around day 45-50. It is worth noting that NO other buying groups have payment timelines anywhere close to this. Even in the busiest of times, all other buying groups pay well before the 30 day mark.

But, alas, that is not the worst of the news. Some users, like this online user, allege they have not been paid at all since November 2023. It is now late April 2024.

Additionally, since November 2023, we have heard not a single data point of ANY payment being issued without filing a ticket. The general excuse was that the bank was holding up payments. Communications over MYS Buying Group payment issues seemingly blamed others, not MYS, for failure to provide payments.

Current Status of MYS Buying Group Issues

Currently, things are very, very bad. We are personally aware of dozens of folks that are missing payments, some as far back as December 2023. All recent communications are that MYS cannot do anything and to contact the owner. The owner, Yosef, or at least the person whose email is shared as the owner, is not responding to communications.

Despite the instructions to reach out to “Yosef,” nothing is happening.

The worst part of this whole debacle is that MYS Buying Group continues to send out daily deals via email, Whatsapp, and other distribution channels. It seems unfathomable it would continue to solicit merchandise, and continue to promise payments for said merchandise, when it has failed to reimburse hundreds (or thousands?) of other customers for many months. We strongly encourage anyone that has, is, or is considering doing business with MYS Buying Group to apply the principal of Caveat Emptor and approach this company with a “Buyer Beware” mentality.

MYS Buying Group Issues: ToP Thoughts

Why is MYS Buying Group having issues? We may never know. It might be a cashflow issue or it might be pure greed. After all, who wouldn't like hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions of dollars, sitting in high-yield savings accounts at 5.0% APY or higher for months longer than expected? Hopefully, greed is the answer here and everyone is made whole sooner rather than later. We fear something much worse is at play here though. There are just too many issues to continue to ignore the troubling trends we're seeing. If you are considering doing business with MYS Buying Group, please consider Caveat Emptor and really consider your options before proceeding.

Are you involved in the MYS Buying Group Issues? If so, come over to our Facebook group and let us know.