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Almost every Amazon thread on HN seems to devolve into stories of receiving counterfeit goods. I order around 10 items per week on Amazon and have never receive

Almost every Amazon thread on HN seems to devolve into stories of receiving counterfeit goods. I order around 10 items per week on Amazon and have never received anything counterfeit or suspect over a decade of shopping. It takes very little effort to weed out bad actors imo. Perhaps this is a case of the negative experiences only being shared? Or...I'm better at online shopping. I'm guessing the former, but it gets tiring watching companies grow from loved to hated once they reach such a critical mass. Nobody likes to root for the favorite I suppose.

minhaz23 8y ago
It also depends on what you're shopping for. If its skincare, haircare, korean beauty items, accessories like sunglasses than theres a greater likelihood of running into counterfeit items.
- jstarfish 8y ago
  Batteries, car parts and model-specific computer parts (laptop chargers, etc) also have high rates of fraud.
  - minhaz23 8y ago
    Yep. Thanks to amazon's comingled inventory
    - brewrwe 8y ago
      This bit me the other day, ordered a Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD and got the Pro model instead. Returned it and ordered off eBay for a bit over $100, figure if I'm going to deal with fakes, might as well snag a deal.
  - realusername 8y ago
    For batteries, there's so much counterfeit on Amazon, it's even difficult to find real ones.
  - wcfields 8y ago
    USB sticks are rife. I had an AV project this past week; needed 40+ media players for TVs around a convention space that needed a USB stick to hold a small MP4 file. Ordered several sets of '5-Pack' PNY USB sticks over several days, first sets the write time was 1 minute, but the second/third orders the write times were abysmal taking 5-7 minutes.
tjr225 8y ago
I simply find the entire experience to be unenticing. Pay an ever increasing rate for 2 day shipping per year? Nah. Sift through an onslaught of phony reviews and hope You get some working cheap crap? Nah. It's just not that great. I'd rather drive to Trader Joe's or Safeway or even wait a week or so and order it directly from the company who sells the product. I can see it being pretty awesome for small business users who need stuff like paper, pens, ink, etc on a regular basis - but honestly ever since I stopped compulsively buying crap on amazon I can't say that my life has gotten any worse. In fact I'm probably way better off.
- dingo_bat 8y ago
  > Pay an ever increasing rate for 2 day shipping per year Just get a prime subscription and never pay for shipping again. > Sift through an onslaught of phony reviews and hope You get some working cheap crap I read reviews from all over the web and then just buy it from Amazon. Never got a fake product.
  - astura 8y ago
    You're still paying for shipping; Prime is not free. (Not only that but not all items on Amazon are eligible for Prime)
    - swsieber 8y ago
      Indeed - I think that's what tjr225 was actually referring to: "Pay an ever increasing rate for 2 day shipping per year?" (Emphasis mine)
- azhenley 8y ago
  The price of everything seems to be ever increasing. The cost of Prime seemed to be underpriced, and now it is just correcting.
- j79 8y ago
  > Sift through an onslaught of phony reviews and hope You get some working cheap crap? Nah. A major reason I've stopped shopping Amazon are the reviews. It's crazy thinking that my on-line shopping changed from: Researching for the best price (or searching for a coupon) to Researching if the reviews are actually "legit". The last few products I purchased, where even "Fakespot" gave an "A" grade, the product was absolutely piss-poor in quality.
deeg 8y ago
I'm the same. I do probably 90% of my non-food shopping on Amazon (and have for years) and I've had only one minor bad experience.
dnomad 8y ago
Yeah, there really must be some kind of alternative "even worse timeline" that these people live in. There are shady sellers on Amazon but all evidence indicates that the vast majority of Amazon shipments (I'm guessing 99%) are fine. In the last 20 years (!) I can think of only a single Amazon order that was not counterfeit but clearly suspect. I contacted Amazon via chat and not only did they refund it immediately they sent out a superior replacement for free. (This was a case where, I think, Amazon may have recognized some legal liability on their part.) > Nobody likes to root for the favorite I suppose. Paranoia is an acquired taste. There's certainly a powerful self-validation at work when you can count yourself among one of the few, wise ones who haven't fallen for the popular lie. Amazon conspiracy theories are a big thing, especially among the essential oils crowd, who are already prone to conspiratorial thinking. The extraordinary growth of Amazon actually speaks to the fact that most people -- 100 million households and counting -- are pretty happy with the service.
- rounce 8y ago
  Hi Jeff!
freehunter 8y ago
I’m pretty sure I’ve left this exact same comment multiple times in the past. Can’t believe people complain, what kind of research are you doing, I’m better at hunting down real items and you’re bad at it, etc. I could not believe people would fall for counterfeit items. Until one day, I got one. Brand name product that I could buy at Walmart, tons of 5 star reviews, sold by the real manufacturer, legit product page. But still I got a fake item. Obviously fake. I sent it back, no problem, got a real one in return. And then it happened again. And again. I buy probably 2-3 items per week on Amazon, and one item every month or two comes in a fake. SD cards are particularly awful, but brand name cables are just as bad. I’ve gotten fake bags and clothes too. I ordered a brand name, well reviewed shower curtain, got what was obviously a display model for a retail store because it was about 6” tall. Not a real shower curtain. I’ve also had their terrible quality control go the other way: four times in the past year I’ve bought one item and received one case of the item. Still only charged for one, so it’s a win. But it’s a sign of awful quality control. I ordered one 128GB USB drive and got a case of 6. I ordered one bag of sunflower seeds and got a case of 12. I used to leave comments just like you, telling everyone else that it’s their fault they get counterfeit items from Amazon. And then it started happening to me.
- aaron_m04 8y ago
  All _my_ shower curtains have been 6". What have you been doing wrong? /s
- TheRealDunkirk 8y ago
  Amazon is hanging itself with its own rope here, and leaving the door wide open to places like Wayfair. We need more focused, curated, and transparent shopping sites. I am buying MORE tech from Best Buy these days, because they've done the curation. No matter what the reviews say -- and they're basically all useless, at this point -- BB isn't going to carry a turd that has a high rate of return on their precious shelf space. And, if that does happen, a physical return is even easier than repackaging something and dropping it off at the UPS store. I hope others follow in the wake of the mess that Amazon has allowed to fester, and capitalize on the opportunity to be more trustworthy.
- cwilkes 8y ago
fma 8y ago
Luck of the draw for fraud. You could be buying from the highest rated seller, but if their product is comingle you can get a counterfeit. Additional, counterfeits can be good enough that you don't know it's fake. https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2014/07/01/pros-and-cons-commingling-amazon-merchants/ https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2014/07/01/pros-and-cons-...
- varrock 8y ago
  Would denoting if a seller under FBA is using the commingling service help solve this issue, or would that negatively effect the benefits Amazon reaps from this type of inventory model?
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    Exposing which FBA sellers commingled would lead to avoidance of those sellers by quality conscious consumers, which would lead to more opting out, which would drive up costs and prices on Amazon. Preference for commingling is a deliberate choice by Amazon that consumer transparency on sourcing and avoiding fraud is less important than minimizing prices.
    - fma 8y ago
      A seller can opt out of comingling, but it costs the seller money. I assume amazon calculated the increase cost of the inventory control and pasts those cost on, so it won't drive down Amazon's profit. Since Amazon doesnt label which seller opts out, it doesn't give much incentive to do it.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> It takes very little effort to weed out bad actors imo. It's practically impossible to weed out the bad actors, since any time you order some thing sold and shipped by Amazon or FBA (unless you know the latter has opted out of commingling), you might get something sourced by a different party than the notional seller. Filtering out bad actors doesn't work when there is zero transparency about the only actor involved—the one sourcing the item—that matters.
peteretep 8y ago
I never did, and then I started to. Especially clothes. I love Amazon, but they absolutely 100% need to get on top of this, as they've started losing significant business from me.

minhaz23 8y ago

It also depends on what you're shopping for. If its skincare, haircare, korean beauty items, accessories like sunglasses than theres a greater likelihood of running into counterfeit items.

jstarfish 8y ago
Batteries, car parts and model-specific computer parts (laptop chargers, etc) also have high rates of fraud.
- minhaz23 8y ago
  Yep. Thanks to amazon's comingled inventory
  - brewrwe 8y ago
    This bit me the other day, ordered a Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD and got the Pro model instead. Returned it and ordered off eBay for a bit over $100, figure if I'm going to deal with fakes, might as well snag a deal.
- realusername 8y ago
  For batteries, there's so much counterfeit on Amazon, it's even difficult to find real ones.
- wcfields 8y ago
  USB sticks are rife. I had an AV project this past week; needed 40+ media players for TVs around a convention space that needed a USB stick to hold a small MP4 file. Ordered several sets of '5-Pack' PNY USB sticks over several days, first sets the write time was 1 minute, but the second/third orders the write times were abysmal taking 5-7 minutes.

tjr225 8y ago

I simply find the entire experience to be unenticing. Pay an ever increasing rate for 2 day shipping per year? Nah. Sift through an onslaught of phony reviews and hope You get some working cheap crap? Nah. It's just not that great. I'd rather drive to Trader Joe's or Safeway or even wait a week or so and order it directly from the company who sells the product. I can see it being pretty awesome for small business users who need stuff like paper, pens, ink, etc on a regular basis - but honestly ever since I stopped compulsively buying crap on amazon I can't say that my life has gotten any worse. In fact I'm probably way better off.

dingo_bat 8y ago
> Pay an ever increasing rate for 2 day shipping per year Just get a prime subscription and never pay for shipping again. > Sift through an onslaught of phony reviews and hope You get some working cheap crap I read reviews from all over the web and then just buy it from Amazon. Never got a fake product.
- astura 8y ago
  You're still paying for shipping; Prime is not free. (Not only that but not all items on Amazon are eligible for Prime)
  - swsieber 8y ago
    Indeed - I think that's what tjr225 was actually referring to: "Pay an ever increasing rate for 2 day shipping per year?" (Emphasis mine)
azhenley 8y ago
The price of everything seems to be ever increasing. The cost of Prime seemed to be underpriced, and now it is just correcting.
j79 8y ago
> Sift through an onslaught of phony reviews and hope You get some working cheap crap? Nah. A major reason I've stopped shopping Amazon are the reviews. It's crazy thinking that my on-line shopping changed from: Researching for the best price (or searching for a coupon) to Researching if the reviews are actually "legit". The last few products I purchased, where even "Fakespot" gave an "A" grade, the product was absolutely piss-poor in quality.

deeg 8y ago

I'm the same. I do probably 90% of my non-food shopping on Amazon (and have for years) and I've had only one minor bad experience.

dnomad 8y ago

Yeah, there really must be some kind of alternative "even worse timeline" that these people live in. There are shady sellers on Amazon but all evidence indicates that the vast majority of Amazon shipments (I'm guessing 99%) are fine. In the last 20 years (!) I can think of only a single Amazon order that was not counterfeit but clearly suspect. I contacted Amazon via chat and not only did they refund it immediately they sent out a superior replacement for free. (This was a case where, I think, Amazon may have recognized some legal liability on their part.) > Nobody likes to root for the favorite I suppose. Paranoia is an acquired taste. There's certainly a powerful self-validation at work when you can count yourself among one of the few, wise ones who haven't fallen for the popular lie. Amazon conspiracy theories are a big thing, especially among the essential oils crowd, who are already prone to conspiratorial thinking. The extraordinary growth of Amazon actually speaks to the fact that most people -- 100 million households and counting -- are pretty happy with the service.

rounce 8y ago
Hi Jeff!

freehunter 8y ago

I’m pretty sure I’ve left this exact same comment multiple times in the past. Can’t believe people complain, what kind of research are you doing, I’m better at hunting down real items and you’re bad at it, etc. I could not believe people would fall for counterfeit items. Until one day, I got one. Brand name product that I could buy at Walmart, tons of 5 star reviews, sold by the real manufacturer, legit product page. But still I got a fake item. Obviously fake. I sent it back, no problem, got a real one in return. And then it happened again. And again. I buy probably 2-3 items per week on Amazon, and one item every month or two comes in a fake. SD cards are particularly awful, but brand name cables are just as bad. I’ve gotten fake bags and clothes too. I ordered a brand name, well reviewed shower curtain, got what was obviously a display model for a retail store because it was about 6” tall. Not a real shower curtain. I’ve also had their terrible quality control go the other way: four times in the past year I’ve bought one item and received one case of the item. Still only charged for one, so it’s a win. But it’s a sign of awful quality control. I ordered one 128GB USB drive and got a case of 6. I ordered one bag of sunflower seeds and got a case of 12. I used to leave comments just like you, telling everyone else that it’s their fault they get counterfeit items from Amazon. And then it started happening to me.

aaron_m04 8y ago
All _my_ shower curtains have been 6". What have you been doing wrong? /s
TheRealDunkirk 8y ago
Amazon is hanging itself with its own rope here, and leaving the door wide open to places like Wayfair. We need more focused, curated, and transparent shopping sites. I am buying MORE tech from Best Buy these days, because they've done the curation. No matter what the reviews say -- and they're basically all useless, at this point -- BB isn't going to carry a turd that has a high rate of return on their precious shelf space. And, if that does happen, a physical return is even easier than repackaging something and dropping it off at the UPS store. I hope others follow in the wake of the mess that Amazon has allowed to fester, and capitalize on the opportunity to be more trustworthy.
cwilkes 8y ago

fma 8y ago

Luck of the draw for fraud. You could be buying from the highest rated seller, but if their product is comingle you can get a counterfeit. Additional, counterfeits can be good enough that you don't know it's fake. https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2014/07/01/pros-and-cons-commingling-amazon-merchants/ https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2014/07/01/pros-and-cons-...

varrock 8y ago
Would denoting if a seller under FBA is using the commingling service help solve this issue, or would that negatively effect the benefits Amazon reaps from this type of inventory model?
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  Exposing which FBA sellers commingled would lead to avoidance of those sellers by quality conscious consumers, which would lead to more opting out, which would drive up costs and prices on Amazon. Preference for commingling is a deliberate choice by Amazon that consumer transparency on sourcing and avoiding fraud is less important than minimizing prices.
  - fma 8y ago
    A seller can opt out of comingling, but it costs the seller money. I assume amazon calculated the increase cost of the inventory control and pasts those cost on, so it won't drive down Amazon's profit. Since Amazon doesnt label which seller opts out, it doesn't give much incentive to do it.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> It takes very little effort to weed out bad actors imo. It's practically impossible to weed out the bad actors, since any time you order some thing sold and shipped by Amazon or FBA (unless you know the latter has opted out of commingling), you might get something sourced by a different party than the notional seller. Filtering out bad actors doesn't work when there is zero transparency about the only actor involved—the one sourcing the item—that matters.

peteretep 8y ago

I never did, and then I started to. Especially clothes. I love Amazon, but they absolutely 100% need to get on top of this, as they've started losing significant business from me.