9 ms·

This has become a frustrating part of shopping on Amazon, to the point that I typically filter to only show things sold by Amazon themselves. Too many of the ma

by macNchz 10y ago

This has become a frustrating part of shopping on Amazon, to the point that I typically filter to only show things sold by Amazon themselves. Too many of the marketplace items are fake crap with paid-for reviews. Since they're mixed in together by default, the effort in trying to discern good from bad makes for a pretty crummy experience overall.

syshum 10y ago
This will not always save you. If a company uses the "Fulfilled by Amazon" service they ship their stuff to amazon and it is co mingled with all of the other SKU's purporting to be the same item, including Amazons own stock
- epimetheus 10y ago
  Co-mingling isn't set by default (or wasn't last I was selling a couple months ago), you have to select it, and it can be bad news for a seller (one seller got banned from amazon and had to pay to destroy or ship home 50k products because one of the items in the stack that got sold "by him" was counterfeit)
  - ikeboy 10y ago
    I assume you're referencing https://startupnation.com/start-your-business/plan-your-business/amazon-fba-program/ https://startupnation.com/start-your-business/plan-your-busi..., which I've seen referenced a couple times as an Amazon seller. There are a couple of problems with his story. First, Amazon denied it was due to comingling: "I’m just calling to inform you that there were no other sellers of that item that were in the co-mingling program" Second, he apparently didn't show up to the lawsuit and had a judgement by default. Never a good sign. Third, he was moving hundreds of thousands of items, but couldn't afford a lawyer? Fourth, he cites as evidence that his items were comingled the fact that his returns came from a different warehouse than he sent them to. As someone who regularly sends items to FBA warehouses, this is bullshit. Amazon sends your own inventory between their warehouses, and you can track this in reports. Often I send to warehouse A, and it immediately goes to my reserved inventory, and then it goes to another warehouse a few days later. Anyone who doesn't know this didn't invest enough time to learn about Amazon policies, and you should doubt their story.
    - epimetheus 10y ago
      Good information, none of which I was aware of, thanks for the link!
- chrisper 10y ago
  He said sold by Amazon. There are two ways: Fulfilled by Amazon or Sold and Shipped by Amazon. I am pretty sure he is talking about the latter. With the latter, Amazon is actually selling the item not some 3rd party. With Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon only ships it to you, but the 3rd party is selling. It is pretty clear on the website.
  - skookum 10y ago
    The poster you are replying to probably understands this distinction. They are referring to Amazon's co-mingling of inventory. When you buy an item on Amazon which is offered by more than one FBA merchant, Amazon does not necessarily fulfill your order out of that merchant's inventory. They will ship you an identical item from whichever inventory makes most sense for your order based on such factors as proximity of FC to you, ability to bundle other items for your order from a given FC, etc. In Amazon's fulfillment systems, Amazon itself is just another merchant so ordering "Sold and Shipped by Amazon" is no guarantee of getting an item that Amazon sourced. The only time you can have any confidence is when Amazon itself is the only offer on a given ASIN.
    - chrisper 10y ago
      Oh wow. This is concerning considering I am buying flea medication from Amazon and make sure it is "sold by Amazon" so I do not get fake ones.
    - anexprogrammer 10y ago
      Grief. I've made a point of actively choosing items sold by (not fullfilled by) Amazon or other sellers I trust for certain types of product specifically to avoid the fake crap. Surely Amazon must have some clue the damage this is doing to their brand? Seems time has come to buy from retailers that don't have highly suspect marketplaces intermingled on their sites.
    - macNchz 10y ago
      I had no idea this was the case, makes me even warier now. Seems like a fairly big gamble to take with their brand image...most of the knockoff stuff I've encountered has been pretty obviously junk.
- manyxcxi 10y ago
  Exactly this. The article mentions that they basically take all the same products and put them together. So seller B's fake item may be sold as seller A's real item and seller A gets blamed for their fake stuff. It's gotten so bad with certain groups of items I don't even try. Sunglasses, handbags, all the usual stuff you'd expect. My anecdote: I like gold colored Ray-Ban aviators with a brown or dark polarized lens. The two stores near me didn't have them in stock, I couldn't find my old pair and I was leaving for a week long motorcycle ride in two days. I ordered them up and immediately knew they were fake. They were too light, the nose pads weren't right, all the usual tells. I returned them 3 different times until I just cancelled.
  - WillPostForFood 10y ago
    I understand the frustration, you can easily end up buying from a chinese seller if you aren't playing attention. But I have a hard time understanding how you were fooled three times. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000EYP57K/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000EYP57K/ref=dp_ol... Buy from Amazon - the second choice. Pretty sure that is the default purchase option on the main page as well.
    - ProblemFactory 10y ago
      Amazon considers all stock of the same product to be identical and exchangeable. If you order from Seller A on "Fulfilled by Amazon", then Amazon will ship you from the nearest warehouse that has the same product, even if it's technically stock of Seller B. And Seller B might have handed a crate of counterfeits to Amazon. Angering both the customer and Seller A who has no way to actually enforce the quality of what they sell on Amazon.
      - ikeboy 10y ago
        Sellers can turn off comingling when sending items in.
        10y ago
- ams6110 10y ago
  It has gotten to the point where the only stuff I buy on Amazon is stuff where I don't care about brand names. If getting a genuine brand name item (e.g. an Apple charger) is important, I will buy it at a local retailer. And even then I'm not always sure, but I assume that places like Target have enough control in their procurement to not end up selling fakes.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
blacksmith_tb 10y ago
Agreed. Though the article seems to be conflating bad business practices (like fake and/or paid reviews) with bad products. Counterfeit Birkenstocks are likely (though not automatically) inferior to the real deal; but the "Chinese kitchen goods shipped from Kentucky" are often the same products you could buy at your local big-box store.

by macNchz 10y ago

syshum 10y ago

This will not always save you. If a company uses the "Fulfilled by Amazon" service they ship their stuff to amazon and it is co mingled with all of the other SKU's purporting to be the same item, including Amazons own stock

epimetheus 10y ago
Co-mingling isn't set by default (or wasn't last I was selling a couple months ago), you have to select it, and it can be bad news for a seller (one seller got banned from amazon and had to pay to destroy or ship home 50k products because one of the items in the stack that got sold "by him" was counterfeit)
- ikeboy 10y ago
  I assume you're referencing https://startupnation.com/start-your-business/plan-your-business/amazon-fba-program/ https://startupnation.com/start-your-business/plan-your-busi..., which I've seen referenced a couple times as an Amazon seller. There are a couple of problems with his story. First, Amazon denied it was due to comingling: "I’m just calling to inform you that there were no other sellers of that item that were in the co-mingling program" Second, he apparently didn't show up to the lawsuit and had a judgement by default. Never a good sign. Third, he was moving hundreds of thousands of items, but couldn't afford a lawyer? Fourth, he cites as evidence that his items were comingled the fact that his returns came from a different warehouse than he sent them to. As someone who regularly sends items to FBA warehouses, this is bullshit. Amazon sends your own inventory between their warehouses, and you can track this in reports. Often I send to warehouse A, and it immediately goes to my reserved inventory, and then it goes to another warehouse a few days later. Anyone who doesn't know this didn't invest enough time to learn about Amazon policies, and you should doubt their story.
  - epimetheus 10y ago
    Good information, none of which I was aware of, thanks for the link!
chrisper 10y ago
He said sold by Amazon. There are two ways: Fulfilled by Amazon or Sold and Shipped by Amazon. I am pretty sure he is talking about the latter. With the latter, Amazon is actually selling the item not some 3rd party. With Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon only ships it to you, but the 3rd party is selling. It is pretty clear on the website.
- skookum 10y ago
  The poster you are replying to probably understands this distinction. They are referring to Amazon's co-mingling of inventory. When you buy an item on Amazon which is offered by more than one FBA merchant, Amazon does not necessarily fulfill your order out of that merchant's inventory. They will ship you an identical item from whichever inventory makes most sense for your order based on such factors as proximity of FC to you, ability to bundle other items for your order from a given FC, etc. In Amazon's fulfillment systems, Amazon itself is just another merchant so ordering "Sold and Shipped by Amazon" is no guarantee of getting an item that Amazon sourced. The only time you can have any confidence is when Amazon itself is the only offer on a given ASIN.
  - chrisper 10y ago
    Oh wow. This is concerning considering I am buying flea medication from Amazon and make sure it is "sold by Amazon" so I do not get fake ones.
  - anexprogrammer 10y ago
    Grief. I've made a point of actively choosing items sold by (not fullfilled by) Amazon or other sellers I trust for certain types of product specifically to avoid the fake crap. Surely Amazon must have some clue the damage this is doing to their brand? Seems time has come to buy from retailers that don't have highly suspect marketplaces intermingled on their sites.
  - macNchz 10y ago
    I had no idea this was the case, makes me even warier now. Seems like a fairly big gamble to take with their brand image...most of the knockoff stuff I've encountered has been pretty obviously junk.
manyxcxi 10y ago
Exactly this. The article mentions that they basically take all the same products and put them together. So seller B's fake item may be sold as seller A's real item and seller A gets blamed for their fake stuff. It's gotten so bad with certain groups of items I don't even try. Sunglasses, handbags, all the usual stuff you'd expect. My anecdote: I like gold colored Ray-Ban aviators with a brown or dark polarized lens. The two stores near me didn't have them in stock, I couldn't find my old pair and I was leaving for a week long motorcycle ride in two days. I ordered them up and immediately knew they were fake. They were too light, the nose pads weren't right, all the usual tells. I returned them 3 different times until I just cancelled.
- WillPostForFood 10y ago
  I understand the frustration, you can easily end up buying from a chinese seller if you aren't playing attention. But I have a hard time understanding how you were fooled three times. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000EYP57K/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000EYP57K/ref=dp_ol... Buy from Amazon - the second choice. Pretty sure that is the default purchase option on the main page as well.
  - ProblemFactory 10y ago
    Amazon considers all stock of the same product to be identical and exchangeable. If you order from Seller A on "Fulfilled by Amazon", then Amazon will ship you from the nearest warehouse that has the same product, even if it's technically stock of Seller B. And Seller B might have handed a crate of counterfeits to Amazon. Angering both the customer and Seller A who has no way to actually enforce the quality of what they sell on Amazon.
    - ikeboy 10y ago
      Sellers can turn off comingling when sending items in.
      - 10y ago
ams6110 10y ago
It has gotten to the point where the only stuff I buy on Amazon is stuff where I don't care about brand names. If getting a genuine brand name item (e.g. an Apple charger) is important, I will buy it at a local retailer. And even then I'm not always sure, but I assume that places like Target have enough control in their procurement to not end up selling fakes.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

blacksmith_tb 10y ago

Agreed. Though the article seems to be conflating bad business practices (like fake and/or paid reviews) with bad products. Counterfeit Birkenstocks are likely (though not automatically) inferior to the real deal; but the "Chinese kitchen goods shipped from Kentucky" are often the same products you could buy at your local big-box store.