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Agreed. The only thing they need to change to fix this is to stop co-mingling. I know that makes their logistics harder but then people stop buying products fro

Agreed. The only thing they need to change to fix this is to stop co-mingling. I know that makes their logistics harder but then people stop buying products from bad vendors as they have low reviews and the vendors lose money because of all the returns of the crap. In this kind of marketplace, it is deceitful to say you are buying a product from company A but really you are buying from a random company. It would be like DoorDash delivering a Wendy's cheeseburger in a Burger King wrapper.

nugget 7y ago
A better analogy would be delivering an odd-looking home made cheeseburger wrapped in a Burger King wrapper. A couple of my recent Amazon purchases have felt like this.
- AJ007 7y ago
  Or they are both from Burger King, but two different restaurants, one that repeatedly is closed for rat infestations. Then there is the not new, new items issue, which is like you got a cheeseburger, but someone else got it first, licked the bun, decided they didn’t want it and returned it to the counter. For all of the billions of dollars Walmart is spending trying to be like Amazon, this is the one area they can nail Amazon directly in the gut. Amazon’s entire cashflow positive low margin growth model falls apart if Amazon was the one that had to try to be like Walmart. Once consumers think of Amazon like eBay or Craigslist, the cost to reverse that view will be massive or impossible. Ironically, I get electronics that are in great shape and undamaged from eBay, not the same experience from Amazon. Right now Amazon is a giant flea market. It’s on par with Craigslist, and a little worse than eBay. When you buy something on eBay you know who it came from. Amazon, you know nothing. Try ordering 5x of the same thing from Amazon and see the wild variations in quality and condition they are in.
  - saghm 7y ago
    > Ironically, I get electronics that are in great shape and undamaged from eBay, not the same experience from Amazon. I've had the same experience as you. I'm not sure what the cause is (maybe there's lower volume, so scammers don't use eBay as much), but I've bought things like top-of-the-line noise cancelling headphones refurbished at huge markdowns on eBay and had zero issues, but I've not had great experiences buying similar things from Amazon.
  - randycupertino 7y ago
    > Right now Amazon is a giant flea market. It’s on par with Craigslist, and a little worse than eBay. I'd argue eBay is actually safer than Amazon now, because at least the reviews are less sketchy and easier to trust and also buyers can self-select from more legit products by going for higher prices. And can guarantee you're buying from the same seller every time who will ship direct to you. Whereas for things like makeup on amazon even if you choose higher priced you're still at risk of getting knockoffs due to comingling.
ikeboy 7y ago
As I've pointed out numerous times previously, commingling doesn't significantly add to the counterfeit problem. Amazon internally tracks which product was sold by which seller, so if a customer leaves a bad review or complains about counterfeit, Amazon will know which seller it was and will punish them. Even if there are no complaints but simply a higher than average return rate, Amazon will shut down a listing, and this is done based on the actual supplier of the stock, not the commingled seller. Source: have gotten such emails from Amazon when I was selling that specifically said "you may not have actually sold the orders these complaints are for but it's your inventory".
- snarf21 7y ago
  The issue is that the review is now co-mingled too. You weren't the seller but it was your inventory. That review needs to go against you and your inventory, not the other seller. That is another area with reviews that is bad. You should only see reviews for this product and seller combination.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    Amazon sees the review and knows which seller to punish. Reviews shouldn't be used for describing problems with the seller, anyway. Use seller feedback for that.
    - alistairSH 7y ago
      Are you saying that if I buy a widget from vendorX, but due to co-mingling, the seller is actually vendorZ, Amazon correctly files my review against vendorZ? So, they co-mingle but still know exactly which seller put a specific instance of the widget into circulation?
      - ikeboy 7y ago
        Yes. See https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480 "For inventory tracked with the manufacturer barcode, each seller’s sourced inventory of the same ASIN is stored separately in our fulfillment centers. We can also track the original seller of each unit."

nugget 7y ago

A better analogy would be delivering an odd-looking home made cheeseburger wrapped in a Burger King wrapper. A couple of my recent Amazon purchases have felt like this.

AJ007 7y ago
Or they are both from Burger King, but two different restaurants, one that repeatedly is closed for rat infestations. Then there is the not new, new items issue, which is like you got a cheeseburger, but someone else got it first, licked the bun, decided they didn’t want it and returned it to the counter. For all of the billions of dollars Walmart is spending trying to be like Amazon, this is the one area they can nail Amazon directly in the gut. Amazon’s entire cashflow positive low margin growth model falls apart if Amazon was the one that had to try to be like Walmart. Once consumers think of Amazon like eBay or Craigslist, the cost to reverse that view will be massive or impossible. Ironically, I get electronics that are in great shape and undamaged from eBay, not the same experience from Amazon. Right now Amazon is a giant flea market. It’s on par with Craigslist, and a little worse than eBay. When you buy something on eBay you know who it came from. Amazon, you know nothing. Try ordering 5x of the same thing from Amazon and see the wild variations in quality and condition they are in.
- saghm 7y ago
  > Ironically, I get electronics that are in great shape and undamaged from eBay, not the same experience from Amazon. I've had the same experience as you. I'm not sure what the cause is (maybe there's lower volume, so scammers don't use eBay as much), but I've bought things like top-of-the-line noise cancelling headphones refurbished at huge markdowns on eBay and had zero issues, but I've not had great experiences buying similar things from Amazon.
- randycupertino 7y ago
  > Right now Amazon is a giant flea market. It’s on par with Craigslist, and a little worse than eBay. I'd argue eBay is actually safer than Amazon now, because at least the reviews are less sketchy and easier to trust and also buyers can self-select from more legit products by going for higher prices. And can guarantee you're buying from the same seller every time who will ship direct to you. Whereas for things like makeup on amazon even if you choose higher priced you're still at risk of getting knockoffs due to comingling.

ikeboy 7y ago

As I've pointed out numerous times previously, commingling doesn't significantly add to the counterfeit problem. Amazon internally tracks which product was sold by which seller, so if a customer leaves a bad review or complains about counterfeit, Amazon will know which seller it was and will punish them. Even if there are no complaints but simply a higher than average return rate, Amazon will shut down a listing, and this is done based on the actual supplier of the stock, not the commingled seller. Source: have gotten such emails from Amazon when I was selling that specifically said "you may not have actually sold the orders these complaints are for but it's your inventory".

snarf21 7y ago
The issue is that the review is now co-mingled too. You weren't the seller but it was your inventory. That review needs to go against you and your inventory, not the other seller. That is another area with reviews that is bad. You should only see reviews for this product and seller combination.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  Amazon sees the review and knows which seller to punish. Reviews shouldn't be used for describing problems with the seller, anyway. Use seller feedback for that.
  - alistairSH 7y ago
    Are you saying that if I buy a widget from vendorX, but due to co-mingling, the seller is actually vendorZ, Amazon correctly files my review against vendorZ? So, they co-mingle but still know exactly which seller put a specific instance of the widget into circulation?
    - ikeboy 7y ago
      Yes. See https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480 "For inventory tracked with the manufacturer barcode, each seller’s sourced inventory of the same ASIN is stored separately in our fulfillment centers. We can also track the original seller of each unit."