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All the ballyhoo about Amazon Transparency and UUID per item. This is a relatively well solved issue in other areas. Make become a seller a bit more difficult

All the ballyhoo about Amazon Transparency and UUID per item. This is a relatively well solved issue in other areas. Make become a seller a bit more difficult with some skin in the game ($2,500 deposit if you sell more than 15 items per year? In person identity verification?). Sellers used to meet with buyers agents (cost money and added identities). Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fake junk) enough times -> gone from marketplace and hard to get back in. The reality is Amazon doesn't care - there IS a market opportunity here for someone to take them on with trusted product catalog and quick shipping (using UPS / Fedex). I wish somebody would straight compete with them rather than all the complaining to politicians.

dvfjsdhgfv 7y ago
> I wish somebody would straight compete with them rather than all the complaining to politicians. One doesn't exclude the other.
- privateSFacct 7y ago
  The point is to generate choices / alternatives. If you go the government involvement route you ossify industries and actually can make it harder for folks to compete. Funeral home chains were famous for pushing for lots of crazy regs that only a system with big economies of scale could meet to push out smaller independents. In some cities like SF zoning hoops mean that only folks with HUGE pockets / attorneys and long time horizons can get through the planning / permitting and building process - all other restaurants etc basically need to rent (which means if they make the neighborhood nice they don't benefit). What I want to know - is there a trusted online seller available now that a reasonable amazon alternative?
  - finolex1 7y ago
    There are lots of alternatives for each category of products - Zappos for shoes/clothes, Mouser for electrical components, etc. though there is no one competitor to Amazon that is as comprehensive as it is. Edit: Turns out Zappos is owned by Amazon. But my point still stands if we replace it with something else.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - skuthus 7y ago
      I had not heard of Mouser until this moment - thank you!
      - JohnFen 7y ago
        Mouser (and Digikey) are both really excellent. They aren't cheap, but that's probably part of why they're excellent.
    - zepto 7y ago
      Zappos is part of Amazon.
    - alacombe 7y ago
      Mouser / digikey generally have inflated prices, and shipping on top of the order. I only go there for specific components, for day-to-day components Amazon is just fine.
  - Spooky23 7y ago
    Regulating that a retailer selling genuine products is nothing at all like zoning or funeral homes. We need to empower states to regulate Amazon like any other retailer or have reasonable federal standards. In some cases states can apply the death penalty to retailers (revoking sales tax license) if they are perpetuating a fraud. You need regulators with teeth to compel positive behavior from a company are large as Amazon.
    - privateSFacct 7y ago
      It is the same. If the only folks who can sell products are ones who have a deal with the rightholder and can prove they have the rights to sell - obviously the big players will be the ones able to do the deals with Nike, Apple, etc and little guys will not. If the federal government actually cared they can ALREADY intercept and even destroy imported counterfeit products - they do not because it's a bit time consuming and hard and they also don't care.
      - Spooky23 7y ago
        No it is not. Why would you socialize a problem by requiring the government to spend taxpayer resources and slowing down shipping with inspections in a stream of hundreds of millions of packages? It would be much easier to empower states to enforce existing concepts like the warranty of merchantability in interstate settings or have a regulatory framework that would allow predatory platforms like Amazon to be held accountable for their behavior.
        Nasrudith 7y ago
        Umm the state ia the government. It is socialized by definition already on every level.
        Spooky23 7y ago
        No, due to federal rules Amazon has an edge over normal retailers for following basic laws.
  - swiley 7y ago
    Ebay still exists and is way better for niche stuff anyway.
    - JohnFen 7y ago
      Yes. I have decided to change my buying priority. When I need something, I first look to local businesses. If I can't find what I want there, I look to manufacturer websites. If that fails, I used to go to Amazon, followed by eBay. I think I need to just go to eBay at that stage, and drop Amazon entirely.
dwoozle 7y ago
The market opportunity is already occupied by Target! Great products, shipped to you or delivered to your car in the parking lot. I’ve shifted at least 50% of my Amazon spend to Target. I won’t buy anything that I eat, that touches my children’s skin, that plugs in, or that has a Li-Ion battery from Amazon.
- privateSFacct 7y ago
  I'll try them, though I just did some searches for some random categories like sailboat products and got nothing back. We have switched a lot of our home goods shopping to them (in person).
  - dwoozle 7y ago
    Yeah, sailboat products ain’t gonna happen at Target. Amazon is like a giant Goodwill: half the stuff is obvious crap, another 30% is non obvious crap, and 20% is quality products. If you want verified quality in specialty categories, you need to use a specialty retailer like West Marine.
- joemi 7y ago
  Target doesn't have nearly the same amount of products as Amazon, even if you don't count the junk on Amazon.
  - ummonk 7y ago
    There lies the trade off. Quality control / trust verification is hard, and you will have way more products available if you forego it. You’ll also have a ton of junk mixed in too.
  - dwoozle 7y ago
    Of course. I’m talking about for household essentials. Amazon has built a gigantic marketplace by instituting zero quality control. Target is a marketplace with much stricter quality control and a vastly smaller selection. If you’re fine with caveat emptor than Amazon is the better choice.
ikeboy 7y ago
>Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fake junk) enough times -> gone from marketplace and hard to get back in. This is what they have now. Many sellers get suspended over used sold as new and inauthentic complaints. They also have velocity reviews; if your sales increase too quickly you may get suspended for a bit.
- CamelCaseName 7y ago
  I think you're missing the key part: >hard to get back in It's been discussed to death, by overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    >It's been discussed to death Where? >overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon. Why would it be any easier for an overseas seller to start a new account after being banned? Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it. Sellers can get around that by having employees or relatives open accounts in their name. This is just as easy or difficult in the US as elsewhere. Regardless, it's something Amazon can't completely fix: they need a way to determine an account is related to a previously banned account. When they do determine that they will quickly ban the new account.
    - CamelCaseName 7y ago
      >Where? In fairness, mostly in FBA-related forums. I'm a 3P seller so I apologize for that comment as I certainly have a skewed view of what is commonly known. >This is just as easy or difficult in the US as elsewhere. Wrong. How much would I have to pay you to borrow your passport to set up a seller account? $100? $1000? $10,000? -- You can get this in rural India / China for $20-$100. (And maybe even less than that, I'm not interested in finding out) >Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it. Key phrase: whenever they can track it >When they do determine that they will quickly ban the new account. I really don't know what to say other than that this is patently false. Here is one (or 50?) of countless examples: https://old.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/comments/8rnqmb/just_how_bad_is_the_fake_reviews_issue_on_amazon/ https://old.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/comments/8rnqmb...
ummonk 7y ago
> The reality is Amazon doesn't care - there IS a market opportunity here for someone to take them on with trusted product catalog and quick shipping (using UPS / Fedex). Target? Walmart?
mitchdoogle 7y ago
Amazon is a retailer - there are already millions of competitors - you just have to start buying from them.
siruncledrew 7y ago
Amazon's active "solution" is customer service to address these problems. "Oh jeez, you ordered a GoPro and got a "YiGorProHD" knockoff. Here, we'll credit your Amazon account with a gift card or try to resend you the item again. Thanks so much for your patience, I'm so sorry for the error." Amazon doesn't give a shit about everything being sold on the marketplace. They aren't going to track down who put the rotten egg in the basket. It's cheaper and more effective to just give the customers what they want so they shut up and go away happy to continue buying stuff. Plus, in the returns/refunds area, it's the sellers who pay for those costs, so Amazon has nothing to lose by just being a marketplace and customer service sounding board. It's a win-win for Amazon.
- JohnFen 7y ago
  So I hear, but my experience with Amazon on this front has not been so positive. I pretty much count them as not having a return policy at all anymore. If I get broken garbage from them, I just eat the loss and get more suspicious of Amazon. It beats having the hassle of talking to Amazon in order to end up just eating the loss anyway. This is in contrast to eBay, which has always done right by me when I've had a problem with something I've purchased.
  - OJFord 7y ago
    That's the polar opposite of my experience, and really weird to read, I order from Amazon so much in large part because returns (when I need them) are so easy.
    - JohnFen 7y ago
      I don't understand it either, particularly because I've been a customer for over a decade and have spent a ton of money with them over that time... and I've only had problems with orders four or five times. But each time, they treated me very poorly and I was never able to actually resolve the issue.
- the-pigeon 7y ago
  Which is why regulators need to step in.

dvfjsdhgfv 7y ago

> I wish somebody would straight compete with them rather than all the complaining to politicians. One doesn't exclude the other.

privateSFacct 7y ago
The point is to generate choices / alternatives. If you go the government involvement route you ossify industries and actually can make it harder for folks to compete. Funeral home chains were famous for pushing for lots of crazy regs that only a system with big economies of scale could meet to push out smaller independents. In some cities like SF zoning hoops mean that only folks with HUGE pockets / attorneys and long time horizons can get through the planning / permitting and building process - all other restaurants etc basically need to rent (which means if they make the neighborhood nice they don't benefit). What I want to know - is there a trusted online seller available now that a reasonable amazon alternative?
- finolex1 7y ago
  There are lots of alternatives for each category of products - Zappos for shoes/clothes, Mouser for electrical components, etc. though there is no one competitor to Amazon that is as comprehensive as it is. Edit: Turns out Zappos is owned by Amazon. But my point still stands if we replace it with something else.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - skuthus 7y ago
    I had not heard of Mouser until this moment - thank you!
    - JohnFen 7y ago
      Mouser (and Digikey) are both really excellent. They aren't cheap, but that's probably part of why they're excellent.
  - zepto 7y ago
    Zappos is part of Amazon.
  - alacombe 7y ago
    Mouser / digikey generally have inflated prices, and shipping on top of the order. I only go there for specific components, for day-to-day components Amazon is just fine.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  Regulating that a retailer selling genuine products is nothing at all like zoning or funeral homes. We need to empower states to regulate Amazon like any other retailer or have reasonable federal standards. In some cases states can apply the death penalty to retailers (revoking sales tax license) if they are perpetuating a fraud. You need regulators with teeth to compel positive behavior from a company are large as Amazon.
  - privateSFacct 7y ago
    It is the same. If the only folks who can sell products are ones who have a deal with the rightholder and can prove they have the rights to sell - obviously the big players will be the ones able to do the deals with Nike, Apple, etc and little guys will not. If the federal government actually cared they can ALREADY intercept and even destroy imported counterfeit products - they do not because it's a bit time consuming and hard and they also don't care.
    - Spooky23 7y ago
      No it is not. Why would you socialize a problem by requiring the government to spend taxpayer resources and slowing down shipping with inspections in a stream of hundreds of millions of packages? It would be much easier to empower states to enforce existing concepts like the warranty of merchantability in interstate settings or have a regulatory framework that would allow predatory platforms like Amazon to be held accountable for their behavior.
      - Nasrudith 7y ago
        Umm the state ia the government. It is socialized by definition already on every level.
        Spooky23 7y ago
        No, due to federal rules Amazon has an edge over normal retailers for following basic laws.
- swiley 7y ago
  Ebay still exists and is way better for niche stuff anyway.
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    Yes. I have decided to change my buying priority. When I need something, I first look to local businesses. If I can't find what I want there, I look to manufacturer websites. If that fails, I used to go to Amazon, followed by eBay. I think I need to just go to eBay at that stage, and drop Amazon entirely.

dwoozle 7y ago

The market opportunity is already occupied by Target! Great products, shipped to you or delivered to your car in the parking lot. I’ve shifted at least 50% of my Amazon spend to Target. I won’t buy anything that I eat, that touches my children’s skin, that plugs in, or that has a Li-Ion battery from Amazon.

privateSFacct 7y ago
I'll try them, though I just did some searches for some random categories like sailboat products and got nothing back. We have switched a lot of our home goods shopping to them (in person).
- dwoozle 7y ago
  Yeah, sailboat products ain’t gonna happen at Target. Amazon is like a giant Goodwill: half the stuff is obvious crap, another 30% is non obvious crap, and 20% is quality products. If you want verified quality in specialty categories, you need to use a specialty retailer like West Marine.
joemi 7y ago
Target doesn't have nearly the same amount of products as Amazon, even if you don't count the junk on Amazon.
- ummonk 7y ago
  There lies the trade off. Quality control / trust verification is hard, and you will have way more products available if you forego it. You’ll also have a ton of junk mixed in too.
- dwoozle 7y ago
  Of course. I’m talking about for household essentials. Amazon has built a gigantic marketplace by instituting zero quality control. Target is a marketplace with much stricter quality control and a vastly smaller selection. If you’re fine with caveat emptor than Amazon is the better choice.

ikeboy 7y ago

>Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fake junk) enough times -> gone from marketplace and hard to get back in. This is what they have now. Many sellers get suspended over used sold as new and inauthentic complaints. They also have velocity reviews; if your sales increase too quickly you may get suspended for a bit.

CamelCaseName 7y ago
I think you're missing the key part: >hard to get back in It's been discussed to death, by overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  >It's been discussed to death Where? >overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon. Why would it be any easier for an overseas seller to start a new account after being banned? Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it. Sellers can get around that by having employees or relatives open accounts in their name. This is just as easy or difficult in the US as elsewhere. Regardless, it's something Amazon can't completely fix: they need a way to determine an account is related to a previously banned account. When they do determine that they will quickly ban the new account.
  - CamelCaseName 7y ago
    >Where? In fairness, mostly in FBA-related forums. I'm a 3P seller so I apologize for that comment as I certainly have a skewed view of what is commonly known. >This is just as easy or difficult in the US as elsewhere. Wrong. How much would I have to pay you to borrow your passport to set up a seller account? $100? $1000? $10,000? -- You can get this in rural India / China for $20-$100. (And maybe even less than that, I'm not interested in finding out) >Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it. Key phrase: whenever they can track it >When they do determine that they will quickly ban the new account. I really don't know what to say other than that this is patently false. Here is one (or 50?) of countless examples: https://old.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/comments/8rnqmb/just_how_bad_is_the_fake_reviews_issue_on_amazon/ https://old.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/comments/8rnqmb...

ummonk 7y ago

> The reality is Amazon doesn't care - there IS a market opportunity here for someone to take them on with trusted product catalog and quick shipping (using UPS / Fedex). Target? Walmart?

mitchdoogle 7y ago

Amazon is a retailer - there are already millions of competitors - you just have to start buying from them.

siruncledrew 7y ago

Amazon's active "solution" is customer service to address these problems. "Oh jeez, you ordered a GoPro and got a "YiGorProHD" knockoff. Here, we'll credit your Amazon account with a gift card or try to resend you the item again. Thanks so much for your patience, I'm so sorry for the error." Amazon doesn't give a shit about everything being sold on the marketplace. They aren't going to track down who put the rotten egg in the basket. It's cheaper and more effective to just give the customers what they want so they shut up and go away happy to continue buying stuff. Plus, in the returns/refunds area, it's the sellers who pay for those costs, so Amazon has nothing to lose by just being a marketplace and customer service sounding board. It's a win-win for Amazon.

JohnFen 7y ago
So I hear, but my experience with Amazon on this front has not been so positive. I pretty much count them as not having a return policy at all anymore. If I get broken garbage from them, I just eat the loss and get more suspicious of Amazon. It beats having the hassle of talking to Amazon in order to end up just eating the loss anyway. This is in contrast to eBay, which has always done right by me when I've had a problem with something I've purchased.
- OJFord 7y ago
  That's the polar opposite of my experience, and really weird to read, I order from Amazon so much in large part because returns (when I need them) are so easy.
  - JohnFen 7y ago
    I don't understand it either, particularly because I've been a customer for over a decade and have spent a ton of money with them over that time... and I've only had problems with orders four or five times. But each time, they treated me very poorly and I was never able to actually resolve the issue.
the-pigeon 7y ago
Which is why regulators need to step in.