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Why does Amazon even allow FBA sellers to be registered in another country like this? Forget about counterfeiting and taxes, what about basic issues of safety a

Why does Amazon even allow FBA sellers to be registered in another country like this? Forget about counterfeiting and taxes, what about basic issues of safety and liability? A family member of mine recently bought a wearable electronic device from Amazon.com. I got a phone call from them asking what charger to use because it came with a USB cable and a note saying to use only a 1A charger. (Hang on, that’s not how USB charging is supposed to work!) I looked up the “company” selling this product; their web site is a Shopify site with no address, no phone number, masked whois. Their “returns” page is lorem ipsum. Amazon’s public seller record says the company is actually just a random dude in Ukraine, but I was unable to verify that the registered address is even real. The product itself is the first result on Alibaba when doing a search for this kind of wearable. When the battery in this cheap crap explodes because it has clearly shoddy power management, who’s going to be liable? Good luck collecting damages from someone halfway around the world. There’s currently zero incentive for anyone in this supply chain to ensure the products are even minimally safe. Most consumers are completely unaware of the distinction between a product sold by Amazon and a product that is being sold using FBA.

donmcronald 6y ago
I think I'm actually paying MORE for chargers and cables now than before Amazon existed because the market is so flooded with garbage that it's hard to find a brand that isn't there just to mug you. It's hilarious (or terribly sad) how we used to laugh at the the garbage house brands at stores like BestBuy, but now those are the "good quality" products on the market.
xnyan 6y ago
> because it came with a USB cable and a note saying to use only a 1A charger. I might not understand, but current-limited power supplies are a real thing. In America/UL speak its called LPS (limited power supply, the limit being current/amperage).
- csnover 6y ago
  I’m not a hardware engineer, but my understanding is that a USB device isn’t supposed to draw that much current without performing either negotiation or sensing. Including a note that the user must use a 1A charger suggests that the device is violating the USB spec and will try to pull 1A no matter what. It then makes me worry about what other power safety systems are absent, since it’s a device with a lithium battery that gets strapped directly to a body part.
  - xnyan 6y ago
    What is the specific unsafe condition are you worried about? I don’t know everything but I did evaluate consumer tech for Underwriters Laboratories to IEC 60950 and 62358. I think your caution is commendable but nothing you’ve described is inherently wrong. USB is just a connector. When the product said it needs 5w (I assume you mean 1A @ 4.8-5.1Vdc) by itself means nothing without more information. One really obvious point, did the instructions say it’s a) dangerous with a power supply that can’t provide 1A or b) not/less functional without the 1a supply? If they were not specific, I’m happy to easy your mind - it was the latter.
    - csnover 6y ago
      The specific unsafe condition I am worried about is that the power management electronics lack any sort of fault protection, and this ends up causing a shock, burn, or fire. I have a hard time imagining a situation where a wearable with a USB charging port is designed so cheaply that it only works with specific USB chargers, but still includes over-temp, over-volt, over-current, etc. protection. Needless to say, there is not even a suggestion of this thing being either UL or USB-IF certified.
    - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
      > did the instructions say it’s a) dangerous with a power supply that can’t provide 1A or b) not/less functional without the 1a supply? To me, the real red flag is: what happens when you plug it into an 3 A USB charger? Being a constant voltage supply, the load should only draw as much current as needed, and it should work with no problems (which is the usual expectation of 90% of consumer electronics with a USB port). The warning of "only use 1 A charger" notice is suspicious because it may suggest that the product doesn't include any internal overcurrent protection by itself (like a $0.1 polyfuse), and solely depends on the current limiting of the USB charger for its safety. While it's possible that it's not inherently wrong, but it's certainly a bad design practice.

donmcronald 6y ago

I think I'm actually paying MORE for chargers and cables now than before Amazon existed because the market is so flooded with garbage that it's hard to find a brand that isn't there just to mug you. It's hilarious (or terribly sad) how we used to laugh at the the garbage house brands at stores like BestBuy, but now those are the "good quality" products on the market.

xnyan 6y ago

> because it came with a USB cable and a note saying to use only a 1A charger. I might not understand, but current-limited power supplies are a real thing. In America/UL speak its called LPS (limited power supply, the limit being current/amperage).

csnover 6y ago
I’m not a hardware engineer, but my understanding is that a USB device isn’t supposed to draw that much current without performing either negotiation or sensing. Including a note that the user must use a 1A charger suggests that the device is violating the USB spec and will try to pull 1A no matter what. It then makes me worry about what other power safety systems are absent, since it’s a device with a lithium battery that gets strapped directly to a body part.
- xnyan 6y ago
  What is the specific unsafe condition are you worried about? I don’t know everything but I did evaluate consumer tech for Underwriters Laboratories to IEC 60950 and 62358. I think your caution is commendable but nothing you’ve described is inherently wrong. USB is just a connector. When the product said it needs 5w (I assume you mean 1A @ 4.8-5.1Vdc) by itself means nothing without more information. One really obvious point, did the instructions say it’s a) dangerous with a power supply that can’t provide 1A or b) not/less functional without the 1a supply? If they were not specific, I’m happy to easy your mind - it was the latter.
  - csnover 6y ago
    The specific unsafe condition I am worried about is that the power management electronics lack any sort of fault protection, and this ends up causing a shock, burn, or fire. I have a hard time imagining a situation where a wearable with a USB charging port is designed so cheaply that it only works with specific USB chargers, but still includes over-temp, over-volt, over-current, etc. protection. Needless to say, there is not even a suggestion of this thing being either UL or USB-IF certified.
  - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
    > did the instructions say it’s a) dangerous with a power supply that can’t provide 1A or b) not/less functional without the 1a supply? To me, the real red flag is: what happens when you plug it into an 3 A USB charger? Being a constant voltage supply, the load should only draw as much current as needed, and it should work with no problems (which is the usual expectation of 90% of consumer electronics with a USB port). The warning of "only use 1 A charger" notice is suspicious because it may suggest that the product doesn't include any internal overcurrent protection by itself (like a $0.1 polyfuse), and solely depends on the current limiting of the USB charger for its safety. While it's possible that it's not inherently wrong, but it's certainly a bad design practice.