5 ms·

Long-term, it would be good business sense for Amazon to address the counterfeit issue to remove the bad actors from their platform to stay in good standing wit

Long-term, it would be good business sense for Amazon to address the counterfeit issue to remove the bad actors from their platform to stay in good standing with consumers so people continue to use their platform and purchase items without worry about getting scammed. Short-term, at least one idea to fix this is to implement more stringent checks/QA with their FBA policies. Do more stringent verification of imported items going into Amazon FBA warehouses. Or at least add a mark to branded items received from other third-party sources. Simply adding "Shipped by: X, Sold by: X" text on the product page doesn't really help. There's probably other/better ideas out there. This has been a recurring problem that has kinda gotten swept under the rug so far, but at some point is going to need to be reckoned with. If Amazon wants to be the best customer experience, then it has to position itself in such a way that it does not devolve into one big flea market + Aliexpress + dropshipping junk bin.

dd36 6y ago
*scammed or injured
bitcoinbutter 6y ago
It's crazy to me that if I want to buy Ray Ban sunglasses off Amazon, I am routed by default to random third party sellers. I have purchased these once before and I'm almost positive that I received a fake product. How can I know for sure though? How does Amazon know for sure? Since that experience I have looked at Amazon in a different light, and I've realized how difficult it is to source name brand products with confidence. This is as good a time for blockchain as any. Register genuine products on a blockchain and have them scanned once they hit the Amazon warehouse to ensure they are authentic.
- Tarragon 6y ago
  > How does Amazon know for sure? Since that experience I have looked at Amazon in a different light, and I've realized how difficult it is to source name brand products with confidence. You buy them wholesale from the manufacturer?
- chaostheory 6y ago
  This the example I point out whenever an Amazon employee mentions letting customer QA 3rd party garbage.
- foepys 6y ago
  How does blockchain help here? The database would be extremely large - too large to hold for any ordinary computer system. The basic problem is solveable without blockchain by simply registering products by their serial number on the brand's website, which a lot of brands actually already do for higher priced products.
  - ss64 6y ago
    Then the scammers would just copy the serial numbers, you would have to link every number with a customer name
    - mrob 6y ago
      You don't need to link it to any customer details. The way it usually works is the website records every serial number checked, and warns you if somebody has already checked that serial number. For additional assurance the serial number can also be concealed with tamper-evident packaging, e.g. scratch-off paint.
      - colejohnson66 6y ago
        D’Addario has a “serial number” check webpage for their guitar strings. If you enter an invalid (or previously used) serial number, supposedly (I’ve never had a counterfeit set) they’ll send you a genuine set for free. Sure, some people will input fake serial numbers to get a free product, but they probably weighed the cost of counterfeit strings affecting brand image (if I don’t know mine are counterfeit, I’ll assume it’s D’Addario’s fault if they’re bad) with the cost of sending a free set of $5 strings.
- outsomnia 6y ago
  Sorry, this doesn't seem to be the fabled, elusive use-case for the Blockchain Industrial Complex either.
- heavyset_go 6y ago
  > Since that experience I have looked at Amazon in a different light, and I've realized how difficult it is to source name brand products with confidence. This has been a solved problem for any legitimate business. The only other place I've seen such lack of quality control were at flea markets, which doesn't say anything good about Amazon.
- opencl 6y ago
  They already have exactly that, minus the unnecessary blockchain bit. It's called Transparency. The problem is that manufacturers need to opt into it and there is no way as a consumer to tell on a product listing whether or not the product is part of the registry. https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency/learnmore https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency/learnmore
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
> Long-term Short term, it would be a good idea to fine Amazon $1,000,000 a day until the problem is fixed. There's no way Bezos doesn't know how to fix this, he's a smart guy.
- CamperBob2 6y ago
  $1MM/day is a bargain compared to what ignoring and neglecting this problem is going to cost Amazon in the long run. It's inexplicable that search/discovery and commingling of substandard/counterfeit merchandise are not both considered five-alarm fires at Amazon HQ.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
    Rigtheo then. Prohibit Amazon doing business until they fix the problem. You can bet the problem will be fixed overnight. My wider point is this: Bezos knows this is happen, and the only way he gets away with it is because the USA doesn't have enough consumer protection and no desire to. This has gone beyond fraud, it's abuse of customers.
    - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
      I prefer the option of financial penalties. Amazon is a useful logistical system; you don't want to kill it (nor disproportionally punish employees with no real influence on the immoral actions), just make it not profitable unless it's moral. The system should also be holding anyone in the decision tree accountable for fraud: something like "if test purchases show fraud in >1:20 cases then CEO fine := last month's income from all sources".
Hokusai 6y ago
> Long-term That is the trick. If short-term Amazon accumulates enough money it can later on purchase businesses with a better reputation and repeat the trick again. I have seen this done by General Electric. It purchases a medium size company with good reputation and loyal customers. GE reduces costs (quality, employee salaries, etc.) and milks the cow for a decade. When many customers have left because higher prices and lower quality then GE sells the company and repeats the trick with a new one. For mega-corporations there is no incentive for quality beyond what regulations force them to assure by law. Making Amazon liable for defective 3rd party is the only way that Amazon will care about fraud and counterfeits.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  So the demos should be able to improve quality by increasing regulation - like the EU's goods regulations that dictate a minimum 2 year warranty (AIUI); which I hope they're going to gradually increase. The people need to cede power from the Capitalists sufficiently to do that in USA; apply some democracy to the situation. We need to build longevity into our planetary systems of production.
donmcronald 6y ago
I think a big theme in tech in the last decade has been there's a lot of extra margin to be made if you can find a way to circumvent regulations designed to protect the general public.
efreak 6y ago
> Simply adding "Shipped by: X, Sold by: X" text on the product page doesn't really help. Amazon doesn't even do this, though. Recently I was helping someone look for memory on Amazon. We couldn't tell the difference between two different listings for crucial ram, both with the same model, speed, size, etc. Figuring out who the seller was can be difficult; the place that used to say the store name simply had a link to Amazon's products manufactured by Crucial. We eventually noticed that in the comparison at the bottom it says who's selling the product you're looking at; searching the page for this store name found no other instances of it.

dd36 6y ago

*scammed or injured

bitcoinbutter 6y ago

It's crazy to me that if I want to buy Ray Ban sunglasses off Amazon, I am routed by default to random third party sellers. I have purchased these once before and I'm almost positive that I received a fake product. How can I know for sure though? How does Amazon know for sure? Since that experience I have looked at Amazon in a different light, and I've realized how difficult it is to source name brand products with confidence. This is as good a time for blockchain as any. Register genuine products on a blockchain and have them scanned once they hit the Amazon warehouse to ensure they are authentic.

Tarragon 6y ago
> How does Amazon know for sure? Since that experience I have looked at Amazon in a different light, and I've realized how difficult it is to source name brand products with confidence. You buy them wholesale from the manufacturer?
chaostheory 6y ago
This the example I point out whenever an Amazon employee mentions letting customer QA 3rd party garbage.
foepys 6y ago
How does blockchain help here? The database would be extremely large - too large to hold for any ordinary computer system. The basic problem is solveable without blockchain by simply registering products by their serial number on the brand's website, which a lot of brands actually already do for higher priced products.
- ss64 6y ago
  Then the scammers would just copy the serial numbers, you would have to link every number with a customer name
  - mrob 6y ago
    You don't need to link it to any customer details. The way it usually works is the website records every serial number checked, and warns you if somebody has already checked that serial number. For additional assurance the serial number can also be concealed with tamper-evident packaging, e.g. scratch-off paint.
    - colejohnson66 6y ago
      D’Addario has a “serial number” check webpage for their guitar strings. If you enter an invalid (or previously used) serial number, supposedly (I’ve never had a counterfeit set) they’ll send you a genuine set for free. Sure, some people will input fake serial numbers to get a free product, but they probably weighed the cost of counterfeit strings affecting brand image (if I don’t know mine are counterfeit, I’ll assume it’s D’Addario’s fault if they’re bad) with the cost of sending a free set of $5 strings.
outsomnia 6y ago
Sorry, this doesn't seem to be the fabled, elusive use-case for the Blockchain Industrial Complex either.
heavyset_go 6y ago
> Since that experience I have looked at Amazon in a different light, and I've realized how difficult it is to source name brand products with confidence. This has been a solved problem for any legitimate business. The only other place I've seen such lack of quality control were at flea markets, which doesn't say anything good about Amazon.
opencl 6y ago
They already have exactly that, minus the unnecessary blockchain bit. It's called Transparency. The problem is that manufacturers need to opt into it and there is no way as a consumer to tell on a product listing whether or not the product is part of the registry. https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency/learnmore https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency/learnmore
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago

> Long-term Short term, it would be a good idea to fine Amazon $1,000,000 a day until the problem is fixed. There's no way Bezos doesn't know how to fix this, he's a smart guy.

CamperBob2 6y ago
$1MM/day is a bargain compared to what ignoring and neglecting this problem is going to cost Amazon in the long run. It's inexplicable that search/discovery and commingling of substandard/counterfeit merchandise are not both considered five-alarm fires at Amazon HQ.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
  Rigtheo then. Prohibit Amazon doing business until they fix the problem. You can bet the problem will be fixed overnight. My wider point is this: Bezos knows this is happen, and the only way he gets away with it is because the USA doesn't have enough consumer protection and no desire to. This has gone beyond fraud, it's abuse of customers.
  - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
    I prefer the option of financial penalties. Amazon is a useful logistical system; you don't want to kill it (nor disproportionally punish employees with no real influence on the immoral actions), just make it not profitable unless it's moral. The system should also be holding anyone in the decision tree accountable for fraud: something like "if test purchases show fraud in >1:20 cases then CEO fine := last month's income from all sources".

Hokusai 6y ago

> Long-term That is the trick. If short-term Amazon accumulates enough money it can later on purchase businesses with a better reputation and repeat the trick again. I have seen this done by General Electric. It purchases a medium size company with good reputation and loyal customers. GE reduces costs (quality, employee salaries, etc.) and milks the cow for a decade. When many customers have left because higher prices and lower quality then GE sells the company and repeats the trick with a new one. For mega-corporations there is no incentive for quality beyond what regulations force them to assure by law. Making Amazon liable for defective 3rd party is the only way that Amazon will care about fraud and counterfeits.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
So the demos should be able to improve quality by increasing regulation - like the EU's goods regulations that dictate a minimum 2 year warranty (AIUI); which I hope they're going to gradually increase. The people need to cede power from the Capitalists sufficiently to do that in USA; apply some democracy to the situation. We need to build longevity into our planetary systems of production.

donmcronald 6y ago

I think a big theme in tech in the last decade has been there's a lot of extra margin to be made if you can find a way to circumvent regulations designed to protect the general public.

efreak 6y ago

> Simply adding "Shipped by: X, Sold by: X" text on the product page doesn't really help. Amazon doesn't even do this, though. Recently I was helping someone look for memory on Amazon. We couldn't tell the difference between two different listings for crucial ram, both with the same model, speed, size, etc. Figuring out who the seller was can be difficult; the place that used to say the store name simply had a link to Amazon's products manufactured by Crucial. We eventually noticed that in the comparison at the bottom it says who's selling the product you're looking at; searching the page for this store name found no other instances of it.