My problem with Amazon is not that it sells cheap low-quality stuff, it's that the cheap products are not really cheap. I buy off-brand Chinese stuff on AliExpress and could not be more happy with them; the prices on Amazon can easily reach 10x those of Ali.
Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
81–90 of 134 posts
Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
You probably have not seen how it really works in China: https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=284 https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297 There is no "stagnation in innovation", in fact I'd say things happen much faster because there's far more competition.
There absolutely is a loss of "savoir faire" in the west in every industry China has completely taken over. Furthermore we basically exchanged real growth for credit backed one AKA fake growth, because of all the real jobs moving to China. That's why we have all these housing market crisis. It is something the west will deeply regret 20 years down the road. Business is war, globalism won't change that fact.
Heh, you should see the current housing bubble that rages through out china today. The large amounts of fraud, the huge amounts of capital flight, the government backed credit bubbles.
Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their EC2 servers are pretty good quality.
This reminds of something I read - apparently, for whatever reason, not all EC2 instances of the same class perform the same. So, some large AWS customers (like Netflix) keep spawning instance, run some benchmarks on them, then if the instance is in top X% as far as performance goes, they keep it; otherwise they drop it. Which means that, what a regular customer gets, is an instance that someone (or multiple someones…
Regular customers can run benchmarks and drop sluggish servers, too.
Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#84The product I've seen crash and burn in quality on Amazon UK is Koss PortaPro headphones. Loved those for many years, but the last few broke inside weeks. I am wondering if I should try to buy a last pair directly from the manufacturer. I am quite happy with my new Sennheiser, but they don't feel right... Anyone in the US with recent experience?
I bought a small "SanDisk" branded USB-storage device, I plugged it in, and started transferring files to it while I went to lunch. When I came back, the transfer was complete, I unplugged the device, and I burned my fingers! So now I have a broken USB-port in my Macbook, because I trusted Amazon to not sell me a fake product. I wrote a review, and rated it poorly, but they are still selling it[0], and most reviews a…
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Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#85The biggest problem with Amazon reviews is that they'll let you post a review of something you never bought! Sure, they do add the "verified purchase" tag for things you bought; but for calculating the aggregate stats, etc. Amazon will cleverly ignore the fact that you could just be talking out your ass (or selling reviews). I find this very dirty on their part, and it's something that can be fixed with 1 line of cod…
This seems like the most sensible solution and would easily weed out 99% of these fake paid for reviews. Is there a way to filter ratings by verified purchasers? Why don't they do this by default?
1) It's not necessarily effective if the seller reimburses shills for purchased products (as already mentioned)
2) It marginalizes legitimate reviewers who bought the product somewhere other than Amazon
Regardless, I agree that it's a reasonable and sensible default.
Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#86Ironic anicdote: I order a cheap ($50) generic waterproof jacket from Amazon and got what was obviously a counterfit Northface (with branding and everything). Thankfully they sold and priced it as a generic so I knew what I was getting. Overall a reasonable coat but the detail elements (velcro and straps) were of poor quality.
Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#87The biggest problem with Amazon reviews is that they'll let you post a review of something you never bought! Sure, they do add the "verified purchase" tag for things you bought; but for calculating the aggregate stats, etc. Amazon will cleverly ignore the fact that you could just be talking out your ass (or selling reviews). I find this very dirty on their part, and it's something that can be fixed with 1 line of cod…
This seems like the most sensible solution and would easily weed out 99% of these fake paid for reviews. Is there a way to filter ratings by verified purchasers? Why don't they do this by default?
This isn't automatically a good thing. Let me give you an example. I had a very persistent Amazon Marketplace seller who kept deleting and re-posting a listing for a specific mobile phone dock I was trying to find. They were selling a fake phone dock using the image and details of a hard to find one I really wanted. I ordered it several times and they shipped a completely different product - different look, color, brand, it was the cheapest garbage ever. Amazon refunded all my costs each time, and because the seller was a punk and refused to pay return shipping I threw them all away. No money out of my pocket.
The reason they would keep deleting and re-listing the item is because I would leave bad (but factually correct) reviews when I kept trying to find the phone dock and seeing their new listing in Amazon's search results. Their re-listing action caused my reviews to disappear because it was a 'new' product listing with their same fake photo every time. I flagged this repeatedly to Amazon as fraud via chat, email, and telephone and they never took any action. This went on for months, and Amazon never addressed it.
So my point is that by allowing anyone to post a review, you give consumers one more tool to warn each other about fraud and unethical sellers. Yes there are a lot of fake reviews, but there are also legit buyers out there too and we are willing to pester fake sellers for months and cost them a fair amount of losses (postage, abandoned fakes because they don't want them back).
Sellers know they can delete & re-list fakes all day long to disassociate negative feedback for an item , and they know Amazon will never ban them.
Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#88This 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.
I think the main problem is that Amazon is making no real effort to fight it,not that solutions don't exist.
Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#89Earlier 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…
Could SellerA withdraw his iPad from stock, effectively trading a fake iPad for a real one?
Let's say there was a SellerB with a real iPad for sale, located closer to the buyer. Could Amazon swap ownership in that case? Would SellerB be liable for fraud and damaged reputation if his real iPad was switched with a fake?
Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
#90Earlier 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…
Could SellerA withdraw his iPad from stock, effectively trading a fake iPad for a real one? Let's say there was a SellerB with a real iPad for sale, located closer to the buyer. Could Amazon swap ownership in that case? Would SellerB be liable for fraud and damaged reputation if his real iPad was switched with a fake?
They'll still be liable, as the buyer will report it and Amazon will track it back to Seller A.