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fake/dangerous products are the bigger issue with Amazon. I have seen prenatal fish oil supplements that are supposed to retail for $50, on Amazon fulfillmen
by jakelarkin 9y ago
fake/dangerous products are the bigger issue with Amazon. I have seen prenatal fish oil supplements that are supposed to retail for $50, on Amazon fulfillment for $40 and on Alibaba for $18. Who's to say 3rd party merchants aren't reselling the fake Alibaba ones on Amazon for tidy profits? Odds are the fake ones are just repackaged low quality supplements, chock full of mercury.
With the breakneck pace of scams can anyone really trust Amazon fulfilled Merchants for items with very specific safety tolerances? (medication/supplements, hepa air filters, electrical components, just to name a few things) I have just started ordering more things direct from manufacturers web-stores rather than deal with the stress.
- pricechild 9y agoGoing on previous stories I understand that you can't even trust trustworthy sellers... since Amazon will mix inventory up unless they pay extra? And you can't tell if they are paying extra?
- j-c-hewitt 9y agoThis is not entirely true. You can opt out of commingling. It's true that you cannot tell if they are commingling or not as a shopper. It depends on the seller's setup but commingling has lighter labeling requirements. Depending on the product type that can either be an insignificant added cost or a significant one. For higher priced products the benefits of commingling aren't worth the risks.
- x0x0 9y agoSince purchasers can't tell this is basically worthless.
- jjeaff 9y agoI always opt out of comingled but have still had products get comingled. Which makes me think that they are pretty loose with their processes and procedures when it comes to some products.
- blibble 9y agoyeah you can, if the barcode of the product has been covered over with a new barcode starting with X it's seller specific inventory
- toast0 9y agoThat's useful, but if you don't know until it arrives, it's hard to pick the right one.
- abalone 9y agoShampoo & conditioner is another big area that's easily scammed. Very easy to fake product, very hard for customers to detect, and the costs are so low that getting caught isn't much of a deterrent.
- ajross 9y agoTo be fair: that's largely because shampoo and conditioner are largely fake products to begin with, differentiating themselves on the basis of color and scent instead of performance.
- stordoff 9y agoYou should still know what you are getting. If you are purchasing a specific product, it may because of (for example) a skin disorder and you know that specific brand does not cause you any problems. There's also the question of how many corners are being cut - you can cut some and still get a safe, working (if inauthentic) product, but cutting too many (which a manufacturer of fake products is more likely to do) may result in a product which either doesn't work or is actively dangerous.
- nasredin 9y agoWouldn't perfumes be much more juicy targets for counterfeiters? Or do the perfume companies actually try to protect their brands? Shampoos are probably $10 a bottle while peefumes are at least 5 times that. (Also you can buy Alberto brand shampoos for $1 at a dollar store. Hopefuly nobody counterfeits $1 shampoos!)
- abalone 9y agoSome shampoos are at least 5 times that. But more importantly, most people buy at least 5 times as much shampoo and conditioner as they do perfume.
- robryan 9y agoHaven't seen this at all, even in the $100+ shampoos. Much more likely you will get a product that is past its shelf life with shampoos than a fake. Fakes are more likely in fragrances, and mid to high value but still high volume makeups and skincare.
- loteck 9y agoIf it goes inside or is applied directly onto our bodies, or our pet's body, we generally no longer shop for it at Amazon, because Amazon will not take responsibility for authenticating the product. Other retailers will, without much of a price difference.
- chiefalchemist 9y agoMaybe it's just my old school expectations and ethics but to me you've just made an arguement for not buying anything at all from Amazon. If they don't care about me and mine, why should I show them any love at all?
- danudey 9y agoI also won't shop for a lot of electrical-related products on Amazon ever since Apple bought a bunch of (sold and fulfilled by Amazon) counterfeit "Apple" macbook power adapters.
- donarb 9y agoApple bought a bunch?
- noitsnot 9y agoAmazon sourced charging cables from a third-party (Mobile Star) and listed them as 'by Apple' and 'shipped and sold by Amazon'. Apple then purchased them, probably realizing they didn't sell them to Amazon or people were having problems like fires. In the end, Apple sued Mobile Star for counterfeiting. http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2016/10/apple-sues-mobile-star-for-selling-counterfeit-power-adapters-and-charging-cables-through-amazon.html http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2016/10/apple-su...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- robryan 9y ago
- nasredin 9y ago>Who's to say 3rd party merchants aren't reselling the fake Alibaba ones on Amazon for tidy profits? Hmmm. Have you looked at Amazon? A lot - or most IMHO - of the products ARE Chinese (So you get the famous "Made in China Quality Control"). Sellers usually add $10-$20 markup over Alibaba/Aliexpress. (Don't know how Aliexpress is so profitable since their website is worse than Amazon (yes, that is possible); they couldn't even hire a native English speaker to copyedit it.) Depending on the product $10 markup is probably a good deal, since you get Amazon-quality shipping as opposed to the Chinese sellers stuffing your purchase into a trashbag with zero padding.
- chrischen 9y agoThey run taobao, whoch operates primarily in China.
- Sevii 9y agoDropshippers front for aliexpress so their website doesn’t matter.
- bigbugbag 9y ago> Don't know how Aliexpress is so profitable since their website is worse than Amazon (yes, that is possible); they couldn't even hire a native English speaker to copyedit it. Aliexpress sells to Chinese people which makes it profitable, but also to drophippers and reseller which makes it even more profitable but also to international buyers across the world and (with alibaba) sells bulk. All at affordable prices and with a glitch in the matrix in shipping fees. They also charge you in your local currency to avoid additional currency exchange fees. This beats amazon.com not selling their products outside the US and having to contract a US reshipper and adding customs fees and international shipping on top of it. I'm not sure why the bad mouthing of aliexpress and Chinese sellers, I've been doing business on aliexpress for several years and I'd say 95% of my orders went flawlessly and maybe 2-3% were not up to par in term of shipping. I got 99% refund for those. Also yes amazons and ebays have a lot of Chinese sellers and resellers of Chinese stuff, most of the time with a hefty markup but sometimes cheaper than aliexpress, go figure.
- novaleaf 9y ago
- sjg007 9y agoHopefully in the US women taking prenatal vitamins are getting them through a pharmacy or via planned parenthood or a state run program. Given all of those options there’s no reason to buy medications from amazon.
- chrisper 9y agoFor products like that I do two things: 1) Ask Amazon support if they use commingled inventory 2) Only buy from "Shipped and Sold by Amazon"
- a3n 9y ago> I have just started ordering more things direct from manufacturers web-stores rather than deal with the stress. In many ways ordering from Amazon used to be a no-brainer for convenience. But now I have to wade through competing suppliers merely to find the best price. WTF? I'll just go to the store, or order from a manufacturer like you, or some other supplier like New Egg (yay patent-troll warriors!) where available. But I do still use Amazon to find products and reviews, I just don't order from Amazon.
- paulmd 9y agofwiw Newegg is also going down the path of turning into a "third-party marketplace".