7 ms·

I have started buying most products directly from manufacturer's websites or in physical stores now. The amount of fake products on Amazon is appalling, I wonde

I have started buying most products directly from manufacturer's websites or in physical stores now. The amount of fake products on Amazon is appalling, I wonder why they don't put effort into stopping this.

marcinzm 7y ago
>I wonder why they don't put effort into stopping this. Because they make more money than they lose as a result while driving competitors into bankruptcy. Eventually they'll make a big public spectacle of getting it fixed (once the economics stop being in their favor) and everyone will forgive them.
- miked85 7y ago
  Agreed. I assume they have ran the numbers and decided that the small number of customers they lose (like myself) don't matter in the grand scheme of things.
agrippanux 7y ago
I started buying electronics at my local physical Best Buy. I thought 4 years ago I would never step inside a Best Buy again but a string of obvious fakes from Amazon changed my mind.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  I bought a tv at best buy recently. it was my first time stepping inside the store in ten years. I had very low expectations, but it turned out to be a great experience. the sales associate I spoke to was actually super knowledgeable; it was almost as good as buying pc hardware at microcenter.
- gdulli 7y ago
  Best Buy even price matches Amazon so I've gotten the same item from there at the same price, same day, no shipping wait, no $120/year charge for "free" shipping.
- jschwartzi 7y ago
  Their in-store pickup is very convenient. And their prices are pretty good. I'm avoiding buying anything from Amazon since August because of the numerous problems I was having with them. I did have to buy one technical book about database design from them because I couldn't find what I was looking for anywhere else. Otherwise it's been really painless not using Amazon for any purchases.
jccooper 7y ago
The actual solution would require them giving up being a "platform" or would require changes that would make logistics and/or management of the platform take much more effort. They'd rather let a "fraud department" keep chopping off hydra heads at a much lower cost.
VLM 7y ago
Very few products on Amazon are sold by the creator. Virtually everything is sold by a mixture of middlemen and importers and drop shippers. Its virtually impossible to tell the difference between a product I'm middle-manning that's interpreted by investigators as real, vs a product that's interpreted as fake. With books, nobody really minds if conceptually a book sat unopened on a bookstore shelf with the general public touching and pawing it occasionally vs a book that sat pristine untouched and cleaner on my home bookshelf, although one is marketed as "new" and one as "used", but in practice it usually doesn't matter. Also see the weirdness with $10 "indian subcontinent only" textbooks that normally sell for $200 to sucker american students, nobody complains their book was "fake" with a 95% discount to keep them quiet. On the other hand, do that same game with toothbrushes and in roll the complaints. This may be a problem inherent to online shopping in the long term. A copy of "Numerical Recipes in C edition 3" is a fungible commodity. Apparently, as per the linked article, that is not the case with fad overpriced gloves and toothbrushes. Possibly that type of product is inherently unsuitable for online purchase.
- Symbiote 7y ago
  > fad overpriced gloves and toothbrushes. That description is unfair. Regardless of whether the product is overpriced or fashionable, I want the correct product, without the shortcuts taken by a fake: unsafe paints, plastics etc. I don't mind "Philips-compatible" brush heads being listed, but the description should be clear. Otherwise we may as well repeal all trademark, copyright and product safety laws.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    Several of the examples in OP are admittedly not counterfeit but simply look too similar to a name brand, or are older versions. Neither is illegal per se. (Assuming there's no design patent, and the product page doesn't specify year of manufacture or exact model number, which is common.)
    - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
      Almost all of them were using the brand name of the product they were faking.
derekp7 7y ago
A couple years back I impulse purchased a Google Chromecast at a local Walmart. When I went to open it up at home, the seal looked a bit funky like it had been carefully pealed back and put back in place. What it contained looked like a Chromecast, but was actually a knockoff, which I never could get to associate with my network or get working. Apparently someone bought this cheap one online, didn't like it, bought the real one at Walmart and put the fake one back in the box and returned it to the store.
IshKebab 7y ago
Is this an American problem? As far as I know I've never received a fake product from Amazon in the UK.
- zwaps 7y ago
  I have received a fake product from Amazon UK. Several, in fact.
- benhurmarcel 7y ago
  I have received fake products from Amazon in France and Spain. It's not just the US. But what's more common from Amazon is to receive an obviously refurbished product as new. The products people return are just sent to the next buyer, without check or cleaning.
mrweasel 7y ago
I honestly don't think Amazon really care, unless you sell fake Amazon branded products.
arbitrage 7y ago
I tried this recently. Bought something from the manufacturer, paid extra for shipping & handling, waited longer, the whole bit. I felt good about myself, because I don't want to be taken advantage of anymore, and hey ... I'm buying directly from the manufacturer, so they get a higher cut. Right? No. I bought directly from the manufacturer's website, paid them, got email from them, the whole bit ... and it was fulfilled and delivered by Amazon. I got an amazon box, and an amazon invoice, and an amazon product. You can't win anymore. Online commerce is subverted. What you see, no matter how savvy of a consumer or how much experience you have with online shopping, is not guaranteed to be what you get, anymore.
- Loughla 7y ago
  It's like there was real value in a physical store where you could go, look at the product, and speak to experts about said product. Weird. All snark aside, though, I see a resurgence in small, boutique mom-and-pop shops for goods in the next 5-10 years as Millennials and Gen-Z get sick of being scammed online. The biggest new thing is that unlike gen-x and boomers, Millennials and Gen-Z are savvy enough to have tried to remedy the situation for themselves and understand it's a whack-a-mole game with no winners.

marcinzm 7y ago

>I wonder why they don't put effort into stopping this. Because they make more money than they lose as a result while driving competitors into bankruptcy. Eventually they'll make a big public spectacle of getting it fixed (once the economics stop being in their favor) and everyone will forgive them.

miked85 7y ago
Agreed. I assume they have ran the numbers and decided that the small number of customers they lose (like myself) don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

agrippanux 7y ago

I started buying electronics at my local physical Best Buy. I thought 4 years ago I would never step inside a Best Buy again but a string of obvious fakes from Amazon changed my mind.

leetcrew 7y ago
I bought a tv at best buy recently. it was my first time stepping inside the store in ten years. I had very low expectations, but it turned out to be a great experience. the sales associate I spoke to was actually super knowledgeable; it was almost as good as buying pc hardware at microcenter.
gdulli 7y ago
Best Buy even price matches Amazon so I've gotten the same item from there at the same price, same day, no shipping wait, no $120/year charge for "free" shipping.
jschwartzi 7y ago
Their in-store pickup is very convenient. And their prices are pretty good. I'm avoiding buying anything from Amazon since August because of the numerous problems I was having with them. I did have to buy one technical book about database design from them because I couldn't find what I was looking for anywhere else. Otherwise it's been really painless not using Amazon for any purchases.

jccooper 7y ago

The actual solution would require them giving up being a "platform" or would require changes that would make logistics and/or management of the platform take much more effort. They'd rather let a "fraud department" keep chopping off hydra heads at a much lower cost.

VLM 7y ago

Very few products on Amazon are sold by the creator. Virtually everything is sold by a mixture of middlemen and importers and drop shippers. Its virtually impossible to tell the difference between a product I'm middle-manning that's interpreted by investigators as real, vs a product that's interpreted as fake. With books, nobody really minds if conceptually a book sat unopened on a bookstore shelf with the general public touching and pawing it occasionally vs a book that sat pristine untouched and cleaner on my home bookshelf, although one is marketed as "new" and one as "used", but in practice it usually doesn't matter. Also see the weirdness with $10 "indian subcontinent only" textbooks that normally sell for $200 to sucker american students, nobody complains their book was "fake" with a 95% discount to keep them quiet. On the other hand, do that same game with toothbrushes and in roll the complaints. This may be a problem inherent to online shopping in the long term. A copy of "Numerical Recipes in C edition 3" is a fungible commodity. Apparently, as per the linked article, that is not the case with fad overpriced gloves and toothbrushes. Possibly that type of product is inherently unsuitable for online purchase.

Symbiote 7y ago
> fad overpriced gloves and toothbrushes. That description is unfair. Regardless of whether the product is overpriced or fashionable, I want the correct product, without the shortcuts taken by a fake: unsafe paints, plastics etc. I don't mind "Philips-compatible" brush heads being listed, but the description should be clear. Otherwise we may as well repeal all trademark, copyright and product safety laws.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  Several of the examples in OP are admittedly not counterfeit but simply look too similar to a name brand, or are older versions. Neither is illegal per se. (Assuming there's no design patent, and the product page doesn't specify year of manufacture or exact model number, which is common.)
  - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
    Almost all of them were using the brand name of the product they were faking.

derekp7 7y ago

A couple years back I impulse purchased a Google Chromecast at a local Walmart. When I went to open it up at home, the seal looked a bit funky like it had been carefully pealed back and put back in place. What it contained looked like a Chromecast, but was actually a knockoff, which I never could get to associate with my network or get working. Apparently someone bought this cheap one online, didn't like it, bought the real one at Walmart and put the fake one back in the box and returned it to the store.

IshKebab 7y ago

Is this an American problem? As far as I know I've never received a fake product from Amazon in the UK.

zwaps 7y ago
I have received a fake product from Amazon UK. Several, in fact.
benhurmarcel 7y ago
I have received fake products from Amazon in France and Spain. It's not just the US. But what's more common from Amazon is to receive an obviously refurbished product as new. The products people return are just sent to the next buyer, without check or cleaning.

mrweasel 7y ago

I honestly don't think Amazon really care, unless you sell fake Amazon branded products.

arbitrage 7y ago

I tried this recently. Bought something from the manufacturer, paid extra for shipping & handling, waited longer, the whole bit. I felt good about myself, because I don't want to be taken advantage of anymore, and hey ... I'm buying directly from the manufacturer, so they get a higher cut. Right? No. I bought directly from the manufacturer's website, paid them, got email from them, the whole bit ... and it was fulfilled and delivered by Amazon. I got an amazon box, and an amazon invoice, and an amazon product. You can't win anymore. Online commerce is subverted. What you see, no matter how savvy of a consumer or how much experience you have with online shopping, is not guaranteed to be what you get, anymore.

Loughla 7y ago
It's like there was real value in a physical store where you could go, look at the product, and speak to experts about said product. Weird. All snark aside, though, I see a resurgence in small, boutique mom-and-pop shops for goods in the next 5-10 years as Millennials and Gen-Z get sick of being scammed online. The biggest new thing is that unlike gen-x and boomers, Millennials and Gen-Z are savvy enough to have tried to remedy the situation for themselves and understand it's a whack-a-mole game with no winners.