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Shit, Amazon’s already doing this with other stuff. They have a giant counterfeiting problem across the board, and internal systems that only make it worse by f

Shit, Amazon’s already doing this with other stuff. They have a giant counterfeiting problem across the board, and internal systems that only make it worse by fulfilling an order from one vendor with stock from a different one if that happens to be closer to the customer. I first started hearing about it around the 2017 eclipse, when people ordering glasses designed to let you safely stare into the sun got fakes that wouldn’t do the job properly, but it seemed to already be pretty widespread by now. https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/12/13/how-to-protect-your-family-from-dangerous-fakes-on-amazon-this-holiday-season/#31bab2217cf1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/12/13/how-to-p...

fma 7y ago
Yep, I remember that - and I made the conscious decision to purchase my glasses from B&H Photo because of this exact reason.
- vanadium 7y ago
  The integrity of B&H over my years of ordering from them is literally unparalleled in my experience. Only if I can’t find an item from them will I check elsewhere at this point. If Amazon wants inspiration as to how to do things right...
  - codyb 7y ago
    I also have never had issues with REI for sporting goods/outdoor gear, or Barnes and Nobles for books. If I can avoid Amazon I will, if I can’t I try to order directly from the manufacturer and no other seller.
- on_and_off 7y ago
  I just wish there were more options :/ Often when I try to find something just a little bit out of the ordinary, Amazon tends to be the only option. And when there is another option, even something like best buy, their experience can be pretty bad (my best buy account is in some sort of limbo where I have been able to create it but can't access it .. so I have to do all my purchases in guest mode).
  - ahartmetz 7y ago
    Sometimes you can find a merchant on Amazon, search for its name (they are not allowed to link), then buy from the merchant's own store. For any readers from Germany, booklooker.de is great for books. You can buy used and new books with an extremely efficient, no-nonsense user interface. Fulfilled by large and small bookstores and even private sellers. You see the actual vendor before you buy.
  - StudentStuff 7y ago
    eBay is generally where I go for those kinds of things, as I get granular control over exactly what I'm buying.
foobarbecue 7y ago
The counterfeit climbing gear with fake safety logos in particular bothers me...
- nordsieck 7y ago
  > The counterfeit climbing gear with fake safety logos in particular bothers me... Another one is counterfeit tourniquets. It seems like you basically can't order them off Amazon with any confidence that you're getting the genuine article.
  - mcv 7y ago
    All of these examples sound like they should be rather serious crimes. Are people going to prison over this? There's quite a big difference between fake brand clothes or copies of novels, and fake safety/medical gear and badly copied medical books.
    - db48x 7y ago
      You can get fined for selling counterfeit goods, and apparently if you sell through Amazon you can get fined for it even though the goods were put in Amazon's warehouse by some other merchant.
      - mcv 7y ago
        For medical and safety gear, a fine is not good enough. This is intentionally putting people in danger.
        Bombthecat 7y ago
        The people sit in China, Japan, Malaysia and God knows where else and laugh there ass of at this "stupid money" Legislation is already weak there. International legislation is none existened..
        7y ago
Rapzid 7y ago
It's getting to the point where I'm wondering if "fulfilled by Amazon" is a negative when I'm adding to my cart.. Been shipped a lot of opened, damaged, and returned items from Amazon... Maybe my 700+ purchase is better served through a 50k+ reviewed seller instead; still get the same Amazon shopping and checkout experience without the Amazon fulfillment BS.
- Cthulhu_ 7y ago
  Reviews should also be taken with a big grain of salt, you know there's farms of people and bots just giving out good reviews for bad products constantly. And reviews only tell half the story. If a $700 product gets four stars but its $100 alternative does as well despite being nowhere near as good, what good are reviews? I mean people putting down reviews don't have both products to compare with one another.
  - saltminer 7y ago
    Yep, and plenty of people don't realize seller reviews != product reviews. You shouldn't complain about shipping times in a product review or talk about how much you disliked the plot of a book is in a seller review, but it happens all the time. Many people don't even realize you can rate a seller for shipping time, description accuracy, and responsiveness, so a legit seller might have a lot of happy customers but not much to show for it while a counterfeit seller has a boatload of paid reviews.
thrwo3213132 7y ago
I've found myself using Aliexpress more and more over Amazon due to this reason. I mean if it's something cheap you want - just get it straight from China. There are of course things that can't wait for the 2 weeks it takes for packages to get across the other pond.
- gingabriska 7y ago
  Exactly, I ordered lots of 3d printing parts from AliExpress. There are some sellers on AliExpress who stock top quality clones. Now, if I try to get the original one I'll have to pay 5x and even then I might receive a counterfeit. Getting it shipped from the source makes final price 7x of the clone.
- Tsubasachan 7y ago
  Yeah Amazon will likely be beaten by a Chinese company at some point. There is no domination in capitalism. A new competitor always shows up. Consumers are not loyal to Amazon- they will shop anywhere. If you don't believe me look at the airline industry.
  - Doubl 7y ago
    There is plenty of domination in capitalism, monopolies, cartels, oligopolies, political influence. Once you get to a certain size you become too big to fail and the government is then in your pocket. The current trade war with China is probably being fought in the interests of big business rather than the consumer
    - Tsubasachan 7y ago
      Allow me to say: in a well regulated capitalism. We all know Standard Oil. Don't blame Amazon if you can't be bothered to use another store. But I am Dutch, I would walk 10 kilometres just to save 50 cents as a matter of principle.
      - pluma 7y ago
nabla9 7y ago
When the Amazon Marketplace is used by a third party, Amazon don't have defective product liability. At least in the US. https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-otc-amazon/is-amazon-liable-for-selling-defective-products-three-appeals-courts-will-decide-idUSKCN1L51WM https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-otc-amazon/is-amazo...
everdrive 7y ago
Definitely got an unsafe ladder from Amazon. Nothing important gets purchased from them anymore.
0x5002 7y ago
It sometimes feels like they encourage it by not taking measures against obvious fakes. Take a look at this: https://smile.amazon.com/TNSO-Certified-Lightning-Charging-Compatible/dp/B07SV3YJ9Y/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=lightning+cable&qid=1561378983&s=gateway&sr=8-5 https://smile.amazon.com/TNSO-Certified-Lightning-Charging-C... The "top reviews" are all positive, but all for different products (this is supposed to be a pack of Lightning cables) - phone cases, LG G6 accessories, a rifle stand - and it's the 4th product when searching for "lightning cable". It looks like they can just completely change the content of an existing listing, including customer reviews, without any oversight.
- roland35 7y ago
  I made a huge mistake ordering the top rated boxer-briefs from amazon mindlessly - the reviews seemed good! It turns out that they were terrible and when I did a little digging I found out the reviews were completely fake and if I had looked at the "unhelpful" reviews which were all 1 star I could have avoided some problems!
  - valiant55 7y ago
    I ordered headphones from Amazon that had good reviews, over 1k. I was looking for a cheap pair to listen to music at work. What I got were really poorly made Chinese rip-offs of Sony. I went to process the return and all of the review except for a handful of 1 star reviews had been removed. Luckily the return went off with a hitch but it seems clear Amazon is at least trying to do something, even if their efforts are not sufficient.
    - silversconfused 7y ago
      Happened to me too. Useless things sound just like free airline headphones. I'm done with amazon.
  - zarmin 7y ago
    You need the FakeSpot extension :) https://fakespot.com https://fakespot.com

fma 7y ago

Yep, I remember that - and I made the conscious decision to purchase my glasses from B&H Photo because of this exact reason.

vanadium 7y ago
The integrity of B&H over my years of ordering from them is literally unparalleled in my experience. Only if I can’t find an item from them will I check elsewhere at this point. If Amazon wants inspiration as to how to do things right...
- codyb 7y ago
  I also have never had issues with REI for sporting goods/outdoor gear, or Barnes and Nobles for books. If I can avoid Amazon I will, if I can’t I try to order directly from the manufacturer and no other seller.
on_and_off 7y ago
I just wish there were more options :/ Often when I try to find something just a little bit out of the ordinary, Amazon tends to be the only option. And when there is another option, even something like best buy, their experience can be pretty bad (my best buy account is in some sort of limbo where I have been able to create it but can't access it .. so I have to do all my purchases in guest mode).
- ahartmetz 7y ago
  Sometimes you can find a merchant on Amazon, search for its name (they are not allowed to link), then buy from the merchant's own store. For any readers from Germany, booklooker.de is great for books. You can buy used and new books with an extremely efficient, no-nonsense user interface. Fulfilled by large and small bookstores and even private sellers. You see the actual vendor before you buy.
- StudentStuff 7y ago
  eBay is generally where I go for those kinds of things, as I get granular control over exactly what I'm buying.

foobarbecue 7y ago

The counterfeit climbing gear with fake safety logos in particular bothers me...

nordsieck 7y ago
> The counterfeit climbing gear with fake safety logos in particular bothers me... Another one is counterfeit tourniquets. It seems like you basically can't order them off Amazon with any confidence that you're getting the genuine article.
- mcv 7y ago
  All of these examples sound like they should be rather serious crimes. Are people going to prison over this? There's quite a big difference between fake brand clothes or copies of novels, and fake safety/medical gear and badly copied medical books.
  - db48x 7y ago
    You can get fined for selling counterfeit goods, and apparently if you sell through Amazon you can get fined for it even though the goods were put in Amazon's warehouse by some other merchant.
    - mcv 7y ago
      For medical and safety gear, a fine is not good enough. This is intentionally putting people in danger.
      - Bombthecat 7y ago
        The people sit in China, Japan, Malaysia and God knows where else and laugh there ass of at this "stupid money" Legislation is already weak there. International legislation is none existened..
        7y ago

Rapzid 7y ago

It's getting to the point where I'm wondering if "fulfilled by Amazon" is a negative when I'm adding to my cart.. Been shipped a lot of opened, damaged, and returned items from Amazon... Maybe my 700+ purchase is better served through a 50k+ reviewed seller instead; still get the same Amazon shopping and checkout experience without the Amazon fulfillment BS.

Cthulhu_ 7y ago
Reviews should also be taken with a big grain of salt, you know there's farms of people and bots just giving out good reviews for bad products constantly. And reviews only tell half the story. If a $700 product gets four stars but its $100 alternative does as well despite being nowhere near as good, what good are reviews? I mean people putting down reviews don't have both products to compare with one another.
- saltminer 7y ago
  Yep, and plenty of people don't realize seller reviews != product reviews. You shouldn't complain about shipping times in a product review or talk about how much you disliked the plot of a book is in a seller review, but it happens all the time. Many people don't even realize you can rate a seller for shipping time, description accuracy, and responsiveness, so a legit seller might have a lot of happy customers but not much to show for it while a counterfeit seller has a boatload of paid reviews.

thrwo3213132 7y ago

I've found myself using Aliexpress more and more over Amazon due to this reason. I mean if it's something cheap you want - just get it straight from China. There are of course things that can't wait for the 2 weeks it takes for packages to get across the other pond.

gingabriska 7y ago
Exactly, I ordered lots of 3d printing parts from AliExpress. There are some sellers on AliExpress who stock top quality clones. Now, if I try to get the original one I'll have to pay 5x and even then I might receive a counterfeit. Getting it shipped from the source makes final price 7x of the clone.
Tsubasachan 7y ago
Yeah Amazon will likely be beaten by a Chinese company at some point. There is no domination in capitalism. A new competitor always shows up. Consumers are not loyal to Amazon- they will shop anywhere. If you don't believe me look at the airline industry.
- Doubl 7y ago
  There is plenty of domination in capitalism, monopolies, cartels, oligopolies, political influence. Once you get to a certain size you become too big to fail and the government is then in your pocket. The current trade war with China is probably being fought in the interests of big business rather than the consumer
  - Tsubasachan 7y ago
    Allow me to say: in a well regulated capitalism. We all know Standard Oil. Don't blame Amazon if you can't be bothered to use another store. But I am Dutch, I would walk 10 kilometres just to save 50 cents as a matter of principle.
    - pluma 7y ago

nabla9 7y ago

When the Amazon Marketplace is used by a third party, Amazon don't have defective product liability. At least in the US. https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-otc-amazon/is-amazon-liable-for-selling-defective-products-three-appeals-courts-will-decide-idUSKCN1L51WM https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-otc-amazon/is-amazo...

everdrive 7y ago

Definitely got an unsafe ladder from Amazon. Nothing important gets purchased from them anymore.

0x5002 7y ago

It sometimes feels like they encourage it by not taking measures against obvious fakes. Take a look at this: https://smile.amazon.com/TNSO-Certified-Lightning-Charging-Compatible/dp/B07SV3YJ9Y/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=lightning+cable&qid=1561378983&s=gateway&sr=8-5 https://smile.amazon.com/TNSO-Certified-Lightning-Charging-C... The "top reviews" are all positive, but all for different products (this is supposed to be a pack of Lightning cables) - phone cases, LG G6 accessories, a rifle stand - and it's the 4th product when searching for "lightning cable". It looks like they can just completely change the content of an existing listing, including customer reviews, without any oversight.

roland35 7y ago
I made a huge mistake ordering the top rated boxer-briefs from amazon mindlessly - the reviews seemed good! It turns out that they were terrible and when I did a little digging I found out the reviews were completely fake and if I had looked at the "unhelpful" reviews which were all 1 star I could have avoided some problems!
- valiant55 7y ago
  I ordered headphones from Amazon that had good reviews, over 1k. I was looking for a cheap pair to listen to music at work. What I got were really poorly made Chinese rip-offs of Sony. I went to process the return and all of the review except for a handful of 1 star reviews had been removed. Luckily the return went off with a hitch but it seems clear Amazon is at least trying to do something, even if their efforts are not sufficient.
  - silversconfused 7y ago
    Happened to me too. Useless things sound just like free airline headphones. I'm done with amazon.
- zarmin 7y ago
  You need the FakeSpot extension :) https://fakespot.com https://fakespot.com