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I've received multiple counterfeit, or tempered with items shipped & sold by Amazon.com. My most recent example was box containing six Lego Minifigs before Chr

I've received multiple counterfeit, or tempered with items shipped & sold by Amazon.com. My most recent example was box containing six Lego Minifigs before Christmas. Luckily we opened the outer box, to find all six of the Minifig bags had been opened, Minifigs removed, and random plastic put in the box (to make up the weight?), then box carefully resealed. Amazon did replace it, but ultimately Amazon cannot know if it was us or some previous returnee who committed the return fraud against them because they don't individually track previously returned items. That's the big problem with Amazon's process, when an item is returned, before it is released back into inventory, they need to uniquely track it. If it gets returned twice they need to know (and associate blame correctly).

LorenPechtel 4y ago
Yup, I think most of Amazon's issues would be solved if they could uniquely identify items. Unfortunately, that would take human labor (can't trust third parties to be honest about it) and there's still room for errors--after getting the same wrong item again I looked at it carefully. They were shipping me a wrong but very similar (to the point that someone without domain knowledge would likely mistake them) item with a label stuck on that was for the item I was actually after. The probably could do it with returned items, though.
wkat4242 4y ago
A lot of this is their own fault for starting a marketplace and doing nothing to curate it though. Everything I had problems with were marketplace items not sold by Amazon but some nonsense-name "company" from Hong Kong or Shenzhen.
fmajid 4y ago
Normally Amazon doesn't reuse returned items, they are sent straight to specialist recovery firms that bid for cratefuls of returned items by weight in the hope of finding some gold in the dross. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/amazon-returns-liquidation-warehouses https://www.wired.co.uk/article/amazon-returns-liquidation-w... Most likely your problem is linked to Amazon's "stickerless commingled inventory" program, where inventory from third-party merchants, including crooked ones, is mixed with Amazon's own, so even if you order "sold and shipped by Amazon" you might still get counterfeit goods or worse. Frankly, Amazon has reached a level of untrustworthiness you really want to shop anywhere else, specially for electricals and other items that potentially pose a safety hazard. I go to B&H Photo for all my electronics.
- fbdab103 4y ago
  Love this story. My fear would be that insiders at some point of the pipeline are routing the best stuff to their associates.

LorenPechtel 4y ago

Yup, I think most of Amazon's issues would be solved if they could uniquely identify items. Unfortunately, that would take human labor (can't trust third parties to be honest about it) and there's still room for errors--after getting the same wrong item again I looked at it carefully. They were shipping me a wrong but very similar (to the point that someone without domain knowledge would likely mistake them) item with a label stuck on that was for the item I was actually after. The probably could do it with returned items, though.

wkat4242 4y ago

A lot of this is their own fault for starting a marketplace and doing nothing to curate it though. Everything I had problems with were marketplace items not sold by Amazon but some nonsense-name "company" from Hong Kong or Shenzhen.

fmajid 4y ago

Normally Amazon doesn't reuse returned items, they are sent straight to specialist recovery firms that bid for cratefuls of returned items by weight in the hope of finding some gold in the dross. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/amazon-returns-liquidation-warehouses https://www.wired.co.uk/article/amazon-returns-liquidation-w... Most likely your problem is linked to Amazon's "stickerless commingled inventory" program, where inventory from third-party merchants, including crooked ones, is mixed with Amazon's own, so even if you order "sold and shipped by Amazon" you might still get counterfeit goods or worse. Frankly, Amazon has reached a level of untrustworthiness you really want to shop anywhere else, specially for electricals and other items that potentially pose a safety hazard. I go to B&H Photo for all my electronics.

fbdab103 4y ago
Love this story. My fear would be that insiders at some point of the pipeline are routing the best stuff to their associates.