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Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

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Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#91

Post by ikeboy »

berntb wrote: post #44
copperx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whose knockoffs? There are some quality ones.

... and how do you know which one is of high quality when you buy? Since the products are copies -- how would you know you don't get ripped off next week, when Amazon sell some other copies? The packaging etc look the same, by definition... It is just not realistic to keep up with the exact details and doing a complete quality check whenever you buy anything , from toilet paper to cars. Every time. I predict that thi…

The way to deal with it is for consumers not to buy from individual sellers with no or bad feedback. Amazon will kick them off once they have too many complaints.

The vast majority of sales go through without any problem.

I think Amazon maybe should restrict access to the comingling program to new sellers, which would help somewhat. They already won't let you get the buy box as a Merchant Fulfilled seller when you're just starting or when you're below metrics.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#93

Post by dharmon »

The book The Everything Store talks about how Amazon uses counterfeit goods to sort-of blackmail high-end goods to letting them sell.

I think the book gave the example of a high-end kitchen knife brand, maybe Wüsthof, that would not allow Amazon to sell their knives. Before you know it, cheap knockoffs appeared claiming to be Wüsthof knives. When they let Amazon sell the real deal, suddenly the knockoffs disappeared from the store.

I have a feeling the same thing is happening with the high-end perfumeries, like Creed. Everything sold on Amazon is a knockoff because the company doesn't sell there. I bet if they did, the fake stuff would magically disappear...

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#94

Post by awqrre »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #81

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.

But there is more bad sellers on aliexpress... so you have to make sure that you check sellers reviews...

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#95

Post by awqrre »

grendelt wrote: post #40
kakuri wrote: post #16

It's infuriatingly difficult to buy anything of quality on Amazon. I really hope they improve the situation.

The books and digital videos I get have been great quality.

Do they let you download the videos or do you have to stream them?

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#96

Post by hrktb »

lisper wrote: post #36
saosebastiao wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The system was not designed to fight counterfeit, but to optimize delivery for industrialy produced goods.

Think ipod earbuds for instance, imagining they all actually Official ones, you wouldn't care which seller the one you ordered came from, as long as the product reference is the good one.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#97

Post by toomuchtodo »

ikeboy wrote: post #80
ProblemFactory wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon considers all stock of the same product to be identical and exchangeable. If you order from Seller A on "Fulfilled by Amazon", then Amazon will ship you from the nearest warehouse that has the same product, even if it's technically stock of Seller B. And Seller B might have handed a crate of counterfeits to Amazon. Angering both the customer and Seller A who has no way to actually enforce the quality of what t…

Sellers can turn off comingling when sending items in.

Is there an additional cost to do this? I would assume there is if most sellers aren't doing it.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#98

Post by ikeboy »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #97
ikeboy wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sellers can turn off comingling when sending items in.

Is there an additional cost to do this? I would assume there is if most sellers aren't doing it.

There are pros and cons.

Pros to comingling:

1. Makes customers happier to get their item sooner

2. You don't need to label your items, which either saves you time or saves you the 20 cents per item fee Amazon charges

3. Your items get processed quicker. If your items are in between warehouses, they can still be "shipped" to the customer.

Cons:

1. Counterfeit possibility. This varies by item. Amazon claims to track which seller inventory was sold from.

2. Bad returns, may hurt your account or require time to deal with.

Basically sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it doesn't. I use a prep center which labels for me, and when I send in items myself I have Amazon label them.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#99

Post by tabio »

userbinator wrote: post #23
kev6168 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short-term gain, long-term loss for the American consumers. If the Chinese will simply copy and crush many honest businesses then not many people will want to spend on R&D, on developing novel designs. The result is stagnation in innovation and the decline in business ethics in the market.

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.

Yes, the intense competition drives minor incremental improvements. Not capital-intensive major inventions.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#100

Post by tabio »

tombrossman wrote: post #87
techthroway443 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, br…

> and because the seller was a punk and refused to pay return shipping I threw them all away

That's not "punk" -- the seller doesn't want the garbage anymore than you do. Most vendors of inexpensive products don't want you to mail back returns. It's not worth it.

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