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That's not the point. Retailers use a known supplier for their products. Amazon uses any one and anyone else (3rd party) can sell on amazon. Common products th
by esaym 8y ago
That's not the point. Retailers use a known supplier for their products. Amazon uses any one and anyone else (3rd party) can sell on amazon.
Common products that are normally sold at a high mark-up at retailers, are usually always counterfeit if bought from amazon. Case in point are the expensive electric tooth brush replacement heads by Oral-B.
You will pay $5-$8 per head from a physical retailer. Yet on amazon, there are tons of them being sold for much less. If you do buy one from amazon, the product will not be the same as from a physical store even though the packaging is identical. Its a cheap counterfeit.
Another time, I bought a hand cranked can opener. It was supposed to be a heavy duty "Made in America" can opener. Yet once I got it, the construction was nothing at all like the product images showed (was held together by cheap pop rivets instead of solid rivets) even though all the brand markings (including a big print "made in America") were there. It broke quickly. Looking on ebay I discovered an identical item only instead of it have a printed "made in America", it said "China"...
- paulie_a 8y agoBanana republic uses multiple suppliers and apparently 32 inches mean different things in different countries. By upwards of half a foot. I bought 3 pairs, three different countries, three different lengths. There is no guarantee from a normal retailer either.
- branchless 8y agoI would so love it if clothes retailers standardised on measures. This stops me ordering clothes online.
- ajmurmann 8y agoThe fashion industry is completely crazy that way. It's not just banana republic. Years ago I worked on a ordering system for a fashion retailer and it was mind-blowing. Orders would be filled on a best-effort basis. You order 1k black M and 1k blue L and you receive 1.5k L white and 500 XXL red for example. So we'd have not only to store the order but also what was received. On top of that the designer might change vendors between orders and now you have different SKUs for what's supposed to be the same product.
- fashionrob 8y agoHuh? There are genuine Oral B and Phillips heads on Amazon.
- hanklazard 8y agoThe point is not that there are only counterfeits, but that your chance of getting one is much higher due to mixed supply
- Buge 8y agoHave you bought them?
- jhou2 8y agoI’ve bought both the brand name and cheaper knockoff Oral-B electric toothbrush heads. Haven’t been able to distinguish them yet in terms of quality and performance. YMMV.
- pravda 8y agoThe Chinese have gotten much better with the Oral B toothbrush head counterfeits. I bought some on eBay, advertised as genuine but not. The packaging was near perfect. The only thing that gave them away was the different mouth-feel and two misplaced mold release marks. Genuine Braun dual-action brushheads have two divits on top of the brushhead. The copies have the two divits on the side. I sent a note to the seller warning him that some counterfeits might have gotten into his supply. Seller refunded me. If you get counterfeits from Amazon I am sure the 3rd party seller will refund you.
- skookumchuck 8y agoI'm surprised retailers don't explicitly take advantage of this by advertising: "Don't be rooked by comingled inferior knockoffs. Get the genuine quality at BrandX stores!"
- dsjoerg 8y ago"usually always" ?! Where does that go on this chart? https://flowingdata.com/2018/07/06/how-people-interpret-probability-through-words/ https://flowingdata.com/2018/07/06/how-people-interpret-prob...
- pjc50 8y agoIs this a US problem that's better in Europe, or is it a worldwide problem with Amazon? I've not heard much about it except via HN.