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Is counterfeiting an US problem? I buy a lot, lot of things from Amazon, I never, never got a counterfeit - or, at least, I never got a counterfeit that I could

Is counterfeiting an US problem? I buy a lot, lot of things from Amazon, I never, never got a counterfeit - or, at least, I never got a counterfeit that I could spot :-)

bb88 9y ago
Counterfeiting has been a problem in China for years. Companies like Walmart have in the past used Chinese companies fairly responsibly, e.g. forcing them to use new brands that are no one else's, or selling under Walmart's brands. When Amazon moved to compete along the lines of ebay say, they didn't really care that much if it sold counterfeit goods. It's the brand's fault for not flagging Amazon's products.
lev99 9y ago
I suspect many buyers in the United States are not skilled at determining counterfeits. Sometimes this is obvious, but other times the symptoms are masked as something else. When an electronic item is defective, when an item you buy reoccurringly degrades in quality over multiple purchases, or when something stops working before it should those are all warning signs of a counterfeit. I highly suspect 0.5% of my Amazon packages have been counterfeit. I've had hundreds of orders over the last 3 years.
- smt88 9y ago
  > When an electronic item is defective, when an item you buy reoccurringly degrades in quality over multiple purchases, or when something stops working before it should those are all warning signs of a counterfeit. Yeah, those things all happen to genuine products, too. It doesn't tell you much.
- dahdum 9y ago
  The problem is growing, so past purchases arenot really indicative of the current experience. I’m now getting fakes sold and shipped by Amazon.com, any small electronics and accessories are a big crap shoot now.
GordonS 9y ago
I'm in the UK and was about to post the same thing. I see a lot of posts on HN about receiving counterfeit goods from Amazon in the US, but I've been spending a lot with Amazon for years now, and I've never come across anything dodgy. I actually prefer to use Amazon over others because their customer service is incredible and their returns process is completely hassle free. I don't need to return stuff often, but they make it super easy when I do - they immediately send a replacement, and a courier comes to the house the next day to collect the return!
- sdhgaiojfsa 9y ago
  Same here. HN has a bit of an outrage bandwagon issue, and this seems to be an instance of that. I have no doubt that counterfeiters are present on Amazon. What I doubt is the size of the problem as filtered through the echo chamber here.
Can_Not 9y ago
The US is the largest English speaking market, so it actually makes a lot of sense that large scale counterfeiting efforts would be targeting it. A foreign manufacturer stands to get the highest margins if they can successfully counterfeit our brands here. The US has both the largest population and the largest reputation for "having money". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English...

Is counterfeiting an US problem? I buy a lot, lot of things from Amazon, I never, never got a counterfeit - or, at least, I never got a counterfeit that I could spot :-)

bb88 9y ago

Counterfeiting has been a problem in China for years. Companies like Walmart have in the past used Chinese companies fairly responsibly, e.g. forcing them to use new brands that are no one else's, or selling under Walmart's brands. When Amazon moved to compete along the lines of ebay say, they didn't really care that much if it sold counterfeit goods. It's the brand's fault for not flagging Amazon's products.

lev99 9y ago

I suspect many buyers in the United States are not skilled at determining counterfeits. Sometimes this is obvious, but other times the symptoms are masked as something else. When an electronic item is defective, when an item you buy reoccurringly degrades in quality over multiple purchases, or when something stops working before it should those are all warning signs of a counterfeit. I highly suspect 0.5% of my Amazon packages have been counterfeit. I've had hundreds of orders over the last 3 years.

smt88 9y ago
> When an electronic item is defective, when an item you buy reoccurringly degrades in quality over multiple purchases, or when something stops working before it should those are all warning signs of a counterfeit. Yeah, those things all happen to genuine products, too. It doesn't tell you much.
dahdum 9y ago
The problem is growing, so past purchases arenot really indicative of the current experience. I’m now getting fakes sold and shipped by Amazon.com, any small electronics and accessories are a big crap shoot now.

GordonS 9y ago

I'm in the UK and was about to post the same thing. I see a lot of posts on HN about receiving counterfeit goods from Amazon in the US, but I've been spending a lot with Amazon for years now, and I've never come across anything dodgy. I actually prefer to use Amazon over others because their customer service is incredible and their returns process is completely hassle free. I don't need to return stuff often, but they make it super easy when I do - they immediately send a replacement, and a courier comes to the house the next day to collect the return!

sdhgaiojfsa 9y ago
Same here. HN has a bit of an outrage bandwagon issue, and this seems to be an instance of that. I have no doubt that counterfeiters are present on Amazon. What I doubt is the size of the problem as filtered through the echo chamber here.

Can_Not 9y ago

The US is the largest English speaking market, so it actually makes a lot of sense that large scale counterfeiting efforts would be targeting it. A foreign manufacturer stands to get the highest margins if they can successfully counterfeit our brands here. The US has both the largest population and the largest reputation for "having money". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English...