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At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from. Wait, how is this different with eBay compared to Amazon

At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from. Wait, how is this different with eBay compared to Amazon?

rhizome 7y ago
On eBay, purchase and shipping is in the context of the seller, their name is prominent, etc. with a little eBay branding around the edges. Amazon's checkout process is 99.99% in the Amazon context, only showing a "sold by" on the order page itself in a 12px font. There is no mention of the seller at all in Amazon's order notification emails.
magduf 7y ago
On Amazon, you don't know which seller's goods are being shipped to you, if it's "fulfilled by Amazon" or from Amazon directly. So if two sellers are selling the same item, with the same exact SKU, and both send their inventory to Amazon to be warehoused and shipped, Amazon will happily send you either seller's item, depending on which is more convenient to send. (Perhaps seller A's stuff is in a warehouse closer to you.) This sounds good in theory, because all those products are identical, right? What if seller B's products are all counterfeit? So you buy from seller A who you think is legit (and for the example is), but you get seller B's fake crap, and seller A was powerless to stop it.
- abtinf 7y ago
  I was under the impression amazon does not commingle it’s own inventory with FBA inventory. Is that false?
  - organsnyder 7y ago
    If nothing else, the UX makes it hard to keep it straight. eBay has always been more consistent with this, since they're solely the broker.
  - holdenk 7y ago
    So I've seen several folks say that they do.
  - wolco 7y ago
    This is false based on my impressions which were based on twitter / medium outcries for help type messages confirming this.
    - FPGAhacker 7y ago
      I am unable to parse that sentence.
      - wyclif 7y ago
        He's saying it isn't true based on customer complaints on Twitter.
- AnssiH 7y ago
  > seller A was powerless to stop it They could select the "Amazon barcode" option (instead of the default "Manufacturer barcode") under "Barcode preference" which prevents commingling (but requires the seller to apply seller-specific barcode labels to all units).
  - yowlingcat 7y ago
    Had no idea this was possible. I wonder if some more judicious process to make it easier for sellers to use this could stamp out the issue at the source.
    - MetalGuru 7y ago
      Yeah, I’ve never understood why companies aren’t doing this. Not commingling inventory seems like an easy fix to the increasingly widespread fraud issue.

At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the seller you bought it from. Wait, how is this different with eBay compared to Amazon?

rhizome 7y ago

On eBay, purchase and shipping is in the context of the seller, their name is prominent, etc. with a little eBay branding around the edges. Amazon's checkout process is 99.99% in the Amazon context, only showing a "sold by" on the order page itself in a 12px font. There is no mention of the seller at all in Amazon's order notification emails.

magduf 7y ago

On Amazon, you don't know which seller's goods are being shipped to you, if it's "fulfilled by Amazon" or from Amazon directly. So if two sellers are selling the same item, with the same exact SKU, and both send their inventory to Amazon to be warehoused and shipped, Amazon will happily send you either seller's item, depending on which is more convenient to send. (Perhaps seller A's stuff is in a warehouse closer to you.) This sounds good in theory, because all those products are identical, right? What if seller B's products are all counterfeit? So you buy from seller A who you think is legit (and for the example is), but you get seller B's fake crap, and seller A was powerless to stop it.

abtinf 7y ago
I was under the impression amazon does not commingle it’s own inventory with FBA inventory. Is that false?
- organsnyder 7y ago
  If nothing else, the UX makes it hard to keep it straight. eBay has always been more consistent with this, since they're solely the broker.
- holdenk 7y ago
  So I've seen several folks say that they do.
- wolco 7y ago
  This is false based on my impressions which were based on twitter / medium outcries for help type messages confirming this.
  - FPGAhacker 7y ago
    I am unable to parse that sentence.
    - wyclif 7y ago
      He's saying it isn't true based on customer complaints on Twitter.
AnssiH 7y ago
> seller A was powerless to stop it They could select the "Amazon barcode" option (instead of the default "Manufacturer barcode") under "Barcode preference" which prevents commingling (but requires the seller to apply seller-specific barcode labels to all units).
- yowlingcat 7y ago
  Had no idea this was possible. I wonder if some more judicious process to make it easier for sellers to use this could stamp out the issue at the source.
  - MetalGuru 7y ago
    Yeah, I’ve never understood why companies aren’t doing this. Not commingling inventory seems like an easy fix to the increasingly widespread fraud issue.