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Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

cnbc.com

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Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#31

Post by saosebastiao »

chrisper wrote: post #14
syshum wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will not always save you. If a company uses the "Fulfilled by Amazon" service they ship their stuff to amazon and it is co mingled with all of the other SKU's purporting to be the same item, including Amazons own stock

He said sold by Amazon. There are two ways: Fulfilled by Amazon or Sold and Shipped by Amazon. I am pretty sure he is talking about the latter. With the latter, Amazon is actually selling the item not some 3rd party. With Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon only ships it to you, but the 3rd party is selling. It is pretty clear on the website.

Co-mingling refers to inventory pooling, where physical units can exchange ownership at amazon's discretion. For example, let's say that SellerA has a fake iPad for sale via FBA and it is located in Philly, and Amazon has a real iPad located in Los Angeles. If someone from New York buys an iPad from Amazon, Amazon may swap ownership of their iPads in order to ship it a shorter distance. Then, in their records, SellerA now owns a real iPad, and the Amazon-only buyer in New York just got a fake.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#32

Post by chrisper »

saosebastiao wrote: post #31
chrisper wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said sold by Amazon. There are two ways: Fulfilled by Amazon or Sold and Shipped by Amazon. I am pretty sure he is talking about the latter. With the latter, Amazon is actually selling the item not some 3rd party. With Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon only ships it to you, but the 3rd party is selling. It is pretty clear on the website.

Co-mingling refers to inventory pooling, where physical units can exchange ownership at amazon's discretion. For example, let's say that SellerA has a fake iPad for sale via FBA and it is located in Philly, and Amazon has a real iPad located in Los Angeles. If someone from New York buys an iPad from Amazon, Amazon may swap ownership of their iPads in order to ship it a shorter distance. Then, in their records, Seller…

Oh wow. That sounds super shady.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#33

Post by chrisper »

skookum wrote: post #30
chrisper wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said sold by Amazon. There are two ways: Fulfilled by Amazon or Sold and Shipped by Amazon. I am pretty sure he is talking about the latter. With the latter, Amazon is actually selling the item not some 3rd party. With Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon only ships it to you, but the 3rd party is selling. It is pretty clear on the website.

The poster you are replying to probably understands this distinction. They are referring to Amazon's co-mingling of inventory. When you buy an item on Amazon which is offered by more than one FBA merchant, Amazon does not necessarily fulfill your order out of that merchant's inventory. They will ship you an identical item from whichever inventory makes most sense for your order based on such factors as proximity of F…

Oh wow. This is concerning considering I am buying flea medication from Amazon and make sure it is "sold by Amazon" so I do not get fake ones.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#34

Post by saosebastiao »

chrisper wrote: post #32
saosebastiao wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Co-mingling refers to inventory pooling, where physical units can exchange ownership at amazon's discretion. For example, let's say that SellerA has a fake iPad for sale via FBA and it is located in Philly, and Amazon has a real iPad located in Los Angeles. If someone from New York buys an iPad from Amazon, Amazon may swap ownership of their iPads in order to ship it a shorter distance. Then, in their records, Seller…

Oh wow. That sounds super shady.

They only do it with standardized products (like those that have registered UPC codes), so that they should be indistinguishable. They try to control the situation, but it has gotten so bad with some product types due to chinese knockoffs that they have had to shut it off for entire categories.

A particularly humorous situation has evolved from this with matchbox toy cars. With matchbox cars, any 1 car box is entirely indistinguishable electronically from another 1 car box, as all 1 car boxes share the same UPC (as well as 2 car boxes and so on). Collectors now refer to buying from amazon as 6 bullet roulette, because it is now virtually impossible to actually get what you think you bought.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#35

Post by manyxcxi »

syshum wrote: post #6
macNchz wrote: post #4

This has become a frustrating part of shopping on Amazon, to the point that I typically filter to only show things sold by Amazon themselves. Too many of the marketplace items are fake crap with paid-for reviews. Since they're mixed in together by default, the effort in trying to discern good from bad makes for a pretty crummy experience overall.

This will not always save you. If a company uses the "Fulfilled by Amazon" service they ship their stuff to amazon and it is co mingled with all of the other SKU's purporting to be the same item, including Amazons own stock

Exactly this. The article mentions that they basically take all the same products and put them together. So seller B's fake item may be sold as seller A's real item and seller A gets blamed for their fake stuff.

It's gotten so bad with certain groups of items I don't even try. Sunglasses, handbags, all the usual stuff you'd expect.

My anecdote: I like gold colored Ray-Ban aviators with a brown or dark polarized lens. The two stores near me didn't have them in stock, I couldn't find my old pair and I was leaving for a week long motorcycle ride in two days. I ordered them up and immediately knew they were fake. They were too light, the nose pads weren't right, all the usual tells. I returned them 3 different times until I just cancelled.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#36

Post by lisper »

saosebastiao wrote: post #34
chrisper wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow. That sounds super shady.

They only do it with standardized products (like those that have registered UPC codes), so that they should be indistinguishable. They try to control the situation, but it has gotten so bad with some product types due to chinese knockoffs that they have had to shut it off for entire categories. A particularly humorous situation has evolved from this with matchbox toy cars. With matchbox cars, any 1 car box is entirel…

> they should be indistinguishable

That seems to me to be missing the point rather badly (by Amazon, not by you). Counterfeits are designed to be indistinguishable, at least to casual inspection. Forging a UPC code is trivial.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#37

Post by stordoff »

jeffdavis wrote: post #19

This can be solved by requiring higher-risk merchants to put money in escrow for a while (maybe an initial amount plus some fraction of revenue). If they turn out to be selling counterfeits, amazon could use the money to set things right. Otherwise the merchant gets the money.

Don't Amazon already do this? IIRC from the few things I have sold on Amazon, I had to wait 2-4 weeks after an order for the money to be paid into my bank account.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#38

Post by anexprogrammer »

skookum wrote: post #30
chrisper wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said sold by Amazon. There are two ways: Fulfilled by Amazon or Sold and Shipped by Amazon. I am pretty sure he is talking about the latter. With the latter, Amazon is actually selling the item not some 3rd party. With Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon only ships it to you, but the 3rd party is selling. It is pretty clear on the website.

The poster you are replying to probably understands this distinction. They are referring to Amazon's co-mingling of inventory. When you buy an item on Amazon which is offered by more than one FBA merchant, Amazon does not necessarily fulfill your order out of that merchant's inventory. They will ship you an identical item from whichever inventory makes most sense for your order based on such factors as proximity of F…

Grief. I've made a point of actively choosing items sold by (not fullfilled by) Amazon or other sellers I trust for certain types of product specifically to avoid the fake crap.

Surely Amazon must have some clue the damage this is doing to their brand?

Seems time has come to buy from retailers that don't have highly suspect marketplaces intermingled on their sites.

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