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Never once in my history of ordering on Amazon have I received a fake, spam, or bait-and-switch product. I have deliberately purchased non-name brand products,

Never once in my history of ordering on Amazon have I received a fake, spam, or bait-and-switch product. I have deliberately purchased non-name brand products, and sometimes I have received defective products, as one would shopping anywhere, but even then Amazon's customer services and return process is second to none. It shocks me that everyone on HN and other popular forums has very little success buying on Amazon.

cryptoz 4y ago
Are you sure you haven't received a fake product? How do you know? The fakes are so good much of the time that you may never know if you have received a fake. I have received 5+ fake products and stopped ordering on Amazon a few years ago. Not worth it, too much risk. Would never, ever, order food from there, or anything you put on your body, or anything electronic, etc. Way too risky.
- ipaddr 4y ago
  If it is a fake and you cannot tell the difference maybe it doesn't matter.
  - joe5150 4y ago
    The (legitimate) manufacturer will be able to tell the difference and won't service or provide support for counterfeits. And warranty claims are obviously out of the question.
  - matsemann 4y ago
    It matters when it catches fire because they saved a few cents skipping some failsafe in the power supply.
    - abawany 4y ago
      You are right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSE_Nm7pAw4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSE_Nm7pAw4 - this video from bigclivedotcom shows the unique failure of a usb-c power supply that also took out a MS Surface and associated monitor with it.
Retric 4y ago
5 of my last 7 items ordered from Amazon where either fake or defective. I don’t care how easy Amazon’s returns are, it’s not worth the hassle of not having the item let alone doing anything above and beyond that.
- gjs278 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- JoshCole 4y ago
  Weird. I've had a defect rate of less than 1% percent with a sample size of enough items to reduce the margin of error on that statistic to something rather negligible. To get your configuration you need to have two items that aren't defective and five items that are. P(!defect)^2P(defect)^5 = 0.99^20.01^5 = 9.801e-11 There are seven choose five ways you could have a particular configuration where you have five defects out of seven purchases. 7 Choose 5 = 21 So therefore the probability of what happened to you happening to me would seem to be: 9.801e-11 * 21 = 2.05821e-9 This written out in numbers is: 0.00000000205821 That number as a percentage is: 00.000000205821% For comparison the probability of being struck by lighting over the course of a person's life is 1-in-15,300 which is 0.00006535947. Many people struggle with reading really small numbers like that and so we often decide to round. If we do that the probability of what happened to you happening to me is roughly 0% if we choose to round at six decimal places. Seconding the OP claim that the general experience is shocking, because it is extremely divergent. It would be more shocking to be hearing everyone on Hacker News was regularly being hit by lightning bolts than that people are getting your defect rate.
  - Retric 4y ago
    When you see a result like that it’s a good idea to check your assumptions. That calculation assumes these probabilities are independent when they aren’t. What was ordered, when it was ordered, and where it’s being shipped to are all likely to impact the odds. On top of that are ability to detect fakes and defective items are likely to be different. Having said that, I have been hit by lighting. Or at least it stuck the car I was in and I felt some effects. I didn’t report it anywhere that records such strikes, which suggests non serious lightning strikes may be underestimated in those statistics.
joe5150 4y ago
I get plenty from Amazon but there are whole categories of products I won't buy there because of poor confidence that I'll receive a genuine product.
filoleg 4y ago
Same. The only category of products where I've personally encountered a fake was SD cards, and that's a large problem everywhere online. That's the only thing i buy now directly from manufacturer-authorized retailers. Idk if that's even common, because I've only gotten a fake once out of many times i ordered sd cards. Everything else? I've been buying all sorts of stuff from amazon, from electronics/hardware to clothing to furniture to almost anything you can think of, and not once was it fake. Before anyone asks how I know they weren't fake, most of them came with a "register on the manufacturer's website to get extended warranty/extra stuff" unique serial number, and i was able to do so just fine. Ofc that doesn't apply to everything I bought, because not every product allows registering itself on manufacturer's website. But for those that don't, I haven't noticed a single sign of fake/counterfeit items. Ofc this is all just anecdata and isn't an evidence of anything. But i gotta say, as others have mentioned, their extremely easy and efficient return process definitely makes my decision-making efforts much easier.
Supermancho 4y ago
> Never once in my history of ordering on Amazon have I received a fake, spam, or bait-and-switch product My wife and I both have. It's likely that there's a buying pattern you have that's been very lucky. If you want to assume that millions of people are lying, there's nothing more to talk about. I would suggest trying to buy parts for anything on amazon to see the inaccuracies + bait & switch behaviors.

cryptoz 4y ago

Are you sure you haven't received a fake product? How do you know? The fakes are so good much of the time that you may never know if you have received a fake. I have received 5+ fake products and stopped ordering on Amazon a few years ago. Not worth it, too much risk. Would never, ever, order food from there, or anything you put on your body, or anything electronic, etc. Way too risky.

ipaddr 4y ago
If it is a fake and you cannot tell the difference maybe it doesn't matter.
- joe5150 4y ago
  The (legitimate) manufacturer will be able to tell the difference and won't service or provide support for counterfeits. And warranty claims are obviously out of the question.
- matsemann 4y ago
  It matters when it catches fire because they saved a few cents skipping some failsafe in the power supply.
  - abawany 4y ago
    You are right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSE_Nm7pAw4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSE_Nm7pAw4 - this video from bigclivedotcom shows the unique failure of a usb-c power supply that also took out a MS Surface and associated monitor with it.

Retric 4y ago

5 of my last 7 items ordered from Amazon where either fake or defective. I don’t care how easy Amazon’s returns are, it’s not worth the hassle of not having the item let alone doing anything above and beyond that.

gjs278 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
JoshCole 4y ago
Weird. I've had a defect rate of less than 1% percent with a sample size of enough items to reduce the margin of error on that statistic to something rather negligible. To get your configuration you need to have two items that aren't defective and five items that are. P(!defect)^2P(defect)^5 = 0.99^20.01^5 = 9.801e-11 There are seven choose five ways you could have a particular configuration where you have five defects out of seven purchases. 7 Choose 5 = 21 So therefore the probability of what happened to you happening to me would seem to be: 9.801e-11 * 21 = 2.05821e-9 This written out in numbers is: 0.00000000205821 That number as a percentage is: 00.000000205821% For comparison the probability of being struck by lighting over the course of a person's life is 1-in-15,300 which is 0.00006535947. Many people struggle with reading really small numbers like that and so we often decide to round. If we do that the probability of what happened to you happening to me is roughly 0% if we choose to round at six decimal places. Seconding the OP claim that the general experience is shocking, because it is extremely divergent. It would be more shocking to be hearing everyone on Hacker News was regularly being hit by lightning bolts than that people are getting your defect rate.
- Retric 4y ago
  When you see a result like that it’s a good idea to check your assumptions. That calculation assumes these probabilities are independent when they aren’t. What was ordered, when it was ordered, and where it’s being shipped to are all likely to impact the odds. On top of that are ability to detect fakes and defective items are likely to be different. Having said that, I have been hit by lighting. Or at least it stuck the car I was in and I felt some effects. I didn’t report it anywhere that records such strikes, which suggests non serious lightning strikes may be underestimated in those statistics.

joe5150 4y ago

I get plenty from Amazon but there are whole categories of products I won't buy there because of poor confidence that I'll receive a genuine product.

filoleg 4y ago

Same. The only category of products where I've personally encountered a fake was SD cards, and that's a large problem everywhere online. That's the only thing i buy now directly from manufacturer-authorized retailers. Idk if that's even common, because I've only gotten a fake once out of many times i ordered sd cards. Everything else? I've been buying all sorts of stuff from amazon, from electronics/hardware to clothing to furniture to almost anything you can think of, and not once was it fake. Before anyone asks how I know they weren't fake, most of them came with a "register on the manufacturer's website to get extended warranty/extra stuff" unique serial number, and i was able to do so just fine. Ofc that doesn't apply to everything I bought, because not every product allows registering itself on manufacturer's website. But for those that don't, I haven't noticed a single sign of fake/counterfeit items. Ofc this is all just anecdata and isn't an evidence of anything. But i gotta say, as others have mentioned, their extremely easy and efficient return process definitely makes my decision-making efforts much easier.

Supermancho 4y ago

> Never once in my history of ordering on Amazon have I received a fake, spam, or bait-and-switch product My wife and I both have. It's likely that there's a buying pattern you have that's been very lucky. If you want to assume that millions of people are lying, there's nothing more to talk about. I would suggest trying to buy parts for anything on amazon to see the inaccuracies + bait & switch behaviors.