5 ms·

I have to say the variance has become very high. In the past, I have, for example - Ordered a brand product and gotten an obvious fake from China. Not good. -

by zwaps 7y ago

I have to say the variance has become very high. In the past, I have, for example - Ordered a brand product and gotten an obvious fake from China. Not good. - Ordered a brand product, got something that had obviously been opened and used before. - Searched for something, found only hundreds of mostly identical Chinese generic products. Ordered one, was complete and utter garbage. - Searched for something, found hundreds of mostly identical Chinese generics. Ordered one, and it was actually pretty decent! Sadly, this happens less often. Overall, I only buy electronic stuff on Amazon if it is cheap and/or no product with domestic (EU) assembly and QA exists. If it is a large purchase, or one which may put me, my family or the house in any sort of danger, I would never, ever trust Amazon anymore. I buy it directly or from a store that sources directly from the producer. Additionally, you pretty much have to buy stuff which you wouldn't bother to send back, because these things usually go nowhere. Edit: Oh and don't get me started on the reviews. I just to look at them. Now, they are mostly fake, especially for these Chinese generic brands. I am convinced that some of these generic brands just receive the products that got sorted out of some real brand QA process and sell them anyway.

jak92 7y ago
> Searched for something, found only hundreds of mostly identical Chinese generic products. This is my biggest problem with Amazon now and why I use it less and less.
- iamdbtoo 7y ago
  Same here. I used to love that I could browse a large selection of top quality choices in one place, from my home, rather than whatever the store happen to have in stock. Now it's mostly just the same item with different fake-seeming brands that mostly seem to compete on review count/quality.
duxup 7y ago
I'm finding similar things. Also I'm coming across a lot more garbage brands on Amazon that I'm having trouble plowing through to find what I want. It doesn't help that Amazon seems to be pushing me to buy a lot of garbage too with their suggestions, their own promoted sales, and etc. It feels like there is a very Wallmart type push for "hey this is 30 cents cheaper and look at all these reviews (fake, or by morons)!" Prime Day seems more like a garage sale than anything else ... I'm constantly seeing promotions for highly questionable health products / supplements... Lots of wrong categorized products that seem like spam almost. I feel like not just a lot of garbage but fewer quality products. I wanted a good HDMI switch, but all Amazon has are inexpensive (granted I have a couple and they're "ok") but not great switches and that is it. They really want me to buy these flimsy things that are all the same with these tiny annoying remotes. Oddly enough for me Amazon was a route to find a variety of BETTER quality things than I might find in a store, it is becoming harder to do that now.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Yup. Something I learned too: e-commerce platforms do not work as product discovery tools, not anymore. They're all full of bottom-feeders selling various combinations of generic garbage-quality brands, fakes, and used items presented as new. If you want to buy something of quality, you need to explore the space elsewhere - e.g. via /r/$niche recommendations, Wirecutter, Consumer Reviews, etc., and then preferably buy directly from the vendor/official distributor.
  - duxup 7y ago
    Yeah I've found a few brands that I now just would rather deal with directly. Shipping and cost whatever ... Amazon is more of a hassle filtering sometimes.
    - beenBoutIT 7y ago
      Direct is the future of e-commerce. At the end of the day ordering directly is the only way to be 100% certain you're getting an authentic product.
  - int_19h 7y ago
    This also affects crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo - a lot of "new products" there is just rebranded junk from Alibaba, that's often already sold on Amazon for half of what they ask for it.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      Ironically, there's also a reverse phenomenon happening on Kickstarter. Between start and end of a crowdfunding campaign you may discover the crowdfunded product has already been cloned by the Chinese and is sold cheaper on Aliexpress.
sanderjd 7y ago
Yep, I've lost a lot of trust in Amazon over the past year. I used to go and buy things there by default, now I think twice and often go to a brick and mortar on my way home from work instead. There is a huge opening here for someone (probably either Wal-Mart or Target in the US) to take back the market with a "you know it won't be total junk" sales pitch.
- mrkstu 7y ago
  I think Best Buy has already done this in the electronics segment- I now will often look at Amazon first then switch over to Best Buy to find the equivalent, buy it, and pick it up on the way home. Their willingness to match prices with Amazon has been key.
  - froindt 7y ago
    >Their willingness to match prices with Amazon has been key. Heck, I've had Best Buy associates whip their phone out and price check something without me even asking. I was super surprised because "don't price match unless the customer asks" would be the easiest thing for management to push for. I increased my loyalty a bit after seeing that.
    - RobertRoberts 7y ago
      I would consider price matching something before or during the same time with your own phone. As you have no idea of what algorithm is being used to show the price he is getting on his phone for the same item. Your's may be higher or lower than theirs.
      - froindt 7y ago
        If I remember right, Best Buy did get some heat years ago for setting their online prices higher if accessed through their intranet compared to their public website. Shady to say the least.
  - michaelmrose 7y ago
baybal2 7y ago
> - Ordered a brand product and gotten an obvious fake from China. Not good. > - Ordered a brand product, got something that had obviously been opened and used before. > - Searched for something, found only hundreds of mostly identical Chinese generic products. Ordered one, was complete and utter garbage. > - Searched for something, found hundreds of mostly identical Chinese generics. Ordered one, and it was actually pretty decent! Sadly, this happens less often. Well, that's a daily life experience in China. Globalisation works both ways... You have to cultivate your intuition. I have no idea how one gets it, but it helps. I'm shopping on Aliexpress since it opening in 2010, I see that for me Aliexpress is an "easy shopping experience," but for people from my college class shopping there unending frustration. Somehow, they got an almost natural talent getting into trouble with scam deals.
- zwaps 7y ago
  Actually, what I do is to just shop elsewhere, and buy from brands that I know either produce, assemble or do their QA checks outside of China. Luckily, such brands still exist for most products. Amazon was, before it got flooded by Chinese goods, quite useful. But rarely can I not wait a few days for my product, if it is not available locally. Case in point, when I did need something from Amazon per morning express, it did not arrive until one day later. I got a refund for the shipping, but I had to buy the thing elsewhere. Amazon's use to me is declining more and more. I already did cancel my prime...
Sharlin 7y ago
Well, yes, variance is the big thing. Even ignoring obvious fakes, the common argument, that brand products and cheap clones are probably made in the same factory, doesn't really hold water. They might very well come from the same assembly line, but the difference is in QA. Because there's always some copy-to-copy variation, it makes total business sense to make one hundred copies of a part, sell the top 10 to a big brand name with stringent QA criteria, and the rest to progressively less scrupulous companies. Edit: Oh, you mentioned this as well in your edit.
phreeza 7y ago
How so you actually tell if a brick and mortar store sources from the producer?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
afpx 7y ago
Amazon must have a good reason for tolerating the counterfeits for this long. My hunch is that they hope to use it as leverage to get brands to use them as their exclusive online sales channel. The brands know these counterfeit products are hurting their image. Most consumers think that the junk that they receive from Amazon is authentic (especially when sold by a 3rd-party with a similar name). One long-term challenge for Amazon will be not becoming a flea market of low-grade, generic ‘stuff’. Brands want to cut the middle-man and sell direct. You see similar things happening with big media: studios don’t want to have someone else distribute their experience. Plus, they don’t want to lose having direct access to their customers. But, without the brands, what will Amazon sell?

by zwaps 7y ago

jak92 7y ago

> Searched for something, found only hundreds of mostly identical Chinese generic products. This is my biggest problem with Amazon now and why I use it less and less.

iamdbtoo 7y ago
Same here. I used to love that I could browse a large selection of top quality choices in one place, from my home, rather than whatever the store happen to have in stock. Now it's mostly just the same item with different fake-seeming brands that mostly seem to compete on review count/quality.

duxup 7y ago

I'm finding similar things. Also I'm coming across a lot more garbage brands on Amazon that I'm having trouble plowing through to find what I want. It doesn't help that Amazon seems to be pushing me to buy a lot of garbage too with their suggestions, their own promoted sales, and etc. It feels like there is a very Wallmart type push for "hey this is 30 cents cheaper and look at all these reviews (fake, or by morons)!" Prime Day seems more like a garage sale than anything else ... I'm constantly seeing promotions for highly questionable health products / supplements... Lots of wrong categorized products that seem like spam almost. I feel like not just a lot of garbage but fewer quality products. I wanted a good HDMI switch, but all Amazon has are inexpensive (granted I have a couple and they're "ok") but not great switches and that is it. They really want me to buy these flimsy things that are all the same with these tiny annoying remotes. Oddly enough for me Amazon was a route to find a variety of BETTER quality things than I might find in a store, it is becoming harder to do that now.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
Yup. Something I learned too: e-commerce platforms do not work as product discovery tools, not anymore. They're all full of bottom-feeders selling various combinations of generic garbage-quality brands, fakes, and used items presented as new. If you want to buy something of quality, you need to explore the space elsewhere - e.g. via /r/$niche recommendations, Wirecutter, Consumer Reviews, etc., and then preferably buy directly from the vendor/official distributor.
- duxup 7y ago
  Yeah I've found a few brands that I now just would rather deal with directly. Shipping and cost whatever ... Amazon is more of a hassle filtering sometimes.
  - beenBoutIT 7y ago
    Direct is the future of e-commerce. At the end of the day ordering directly is the only way to be 100% certain you're getting an authentic product.
- int_19h 7y ago
  This also affects crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo - a lot of "new products" there is just rebranded junk from Alibaba, that's often already sold on Amazon for half of what they ask for it.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    Ironically, there's also a reverse phenomenon happening on Kickstarter. Between start and end of a crowdfunding campaign you may discover the crowdfunded product has already been cloned by the Chinese and is sold cheaper on Aliexpress.

sanderjd 7y ago

Yep, I've lost a lot of trust in Amazon over the past year. I used to go and buy things there by default, now I think twice and often go to a brick and mortar on my way home from work instead. There is a huge opening here for someone (probably either Wal-Mart or Target in the US) to take back the market with a "you know it won't be total junk" sales pitch.

mrkstu 7y ago
I think Best Buy has already done this in the electronics segment- I now will often look at Amazon first then switch over to Best Buy to find the equivalent, buy it, and pick it up on the way home. Their willingness to match prices with Amazon has been key.
- froindt 7y ago
  >Their willingness to match prices with Amazon has been key. Heck, I've had Best Buy associates whip their phone out and price check something without me even asking. I was super surprised because "don't price match unless the customer asks" would be the easiest thing for management to push for. I increased my loyalty a bit after seeing that.
  - RobertRoberts 7y ago
    I would consider price matching something before or during the same time with your own phone. As you have no idea of what algorithm is being used to show the price he is getting on his phone for the same item. Your's may be higher or lower than theirs.
    - froindt 7y ago
      If I remember right, Best Buy did get some heat years ago for setting their online prices higher if accessed through their intranet compared to their public website. Shady to say the least.
- michaelmrose 7y ago

baybal2 7y ago

> - Ordered a brand product and gotten an obvious fake from China. Not good. > - Ordered a brand product, got something that had obviously been opened and used before. > - Searched for something, found only hundreds of mostly identical Chinese generic products. Ordered one, was complete and utter garbage. > - Searched for something, found hundreds of mostly identical Chinese generics. Ordered one, and it was actually pretty decent! Sadly, this happens less often. Well, that's a daily life experience in China. Globalisation works both ways... You have to cultivate your intuition. I have no idea how one gets it, but it helps. I'm shopping on Aliexpress since it opening in 2010, I see that for me Aliexpress is an "easy shopping experience," but for people from my college class shopping there unending frustration. Somehow, they got an almost natural talent getting into trouble with scam deals.

zwaps 7y ago
Actually, what I do is to just shop elsewhere, and buy from brands that I know either produce, assemble or do their QA checks outside of China. Luckily, such brands still exist for most products. Amazon was, before it got flooded by Chinese goods, quite useful. But rarely can I not wait a few days for my product, if it is not available locally. Case in point, when I did need something from Amazon per morning express, it did not arrive until one day later. I got a refund for the shipping, but I had to buy the thing elsewhere. Amazon's use to me is declining more and more. I already did cancel my prime...

Sharlin 7y ago

Well, yes, variance is the big thing. Even ignoring obvious fakes, the common argument, that brand products and cheap clones are probably made in the same factory, doesn't really hold water. They might very well come from the same assembly line, but the difference is in QA. Because there's always some copy-to-copy variation, it makes total business sense to make one hundred copies of a part, sell the top 10 to a big brand name with stringent QA criteria, and the rest to progressively less scrupulous companies. Edit: Oh, you mentioned this as well in your edit.

phreeza 7y ago

How so you actually tell if a brick and mortar store sources from the producer?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

afpx 7y ago

Amazon must have a good reason for tolerating the counterfeits for this long. My hunch is that they hope to use it as leverage to get brands to use them as their exclusive online sales channel. The brands know these counterfeit products are hurting their image. Most consumers think that the junk that they receive from Amazon is authentic (especially when sold by a 3rd-party with a similar name). One long-term challenge for Amazon will be not becoming a flea market of low-grade, generic ‘stuff’. Brands want to cut the middle-man and sell direct. You see similar things happening with big media: studios don’t want to have someone else distribute their experience. Plus, they don’t want to lose having direct access to their customers. But, without the brands, what will Amazon sell?