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Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

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Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#61

Post by jerf »

Pica_soO wrote: post #53
danjoc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All those rebrands are coming from alibaba. Just go to ali express and buy direct if you want one. The "entrepreneurs" using jungle scout are flooding amazon with rebranded alibaba stuff.

Yes, its those Americans ripping off books and printing them for near free, ruining English artists and writers. Remember the HMS Pinafore- what a royalty massacre, by those lawless Bösentals! There is only one way, to bring those evil-doers back to the light of justice. Tax them for whatever they stole! Oh, sorry, wrong century, wrong villain!

I assume you're trying to imply that danjoc is racistly assuming that these "entrepreneurs" are Chinese? It seems to me you're the one who brought that assumption in. Alibaba is Chinese, sure, but the "entrepreneurs" in question are not necessarily.

Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#62

Post by danjoc »

devnull42 wrote: post #44
lsaferite wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, then you are saying the shipper should verify every product they ship? I mean, Fulfilled by Amazon is providing a storefront and fulfillment services for things people ship to them. If you are making the argument they should verify every item they ship then that should extend to all fulfillment providers, no? Don't get me wrong, I think FBA and 3rd party sellers are a huge mistake for Amazon as a whole. I just di…

Amazon is directly selling these not acting as a third party. They are the counterfeiters in this case totally different than buying something from someone on ebay and ebay facilitating the deal.

I'll be extremely surprised if that is the case. I'm going to wait for the official response before passing judgement. Amazon can easily afford a $150,000 fine for copyright infringement, but the damage to their reputation would be colossal.

Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#63

Post by blobbers »

Counterfeits in comingled inventory has become pretty common on Amazon these days. "Fulfillment by amazon" has led them to comingle inventories on common products, meaning every seller's product gets jumbled together.

I've gotten counterfeit huggies diapers from amazon (invalid serial number for huggies 'points' and different build quality), Mach 3 razor blades, GE MWF Water filters, even a counterfeit baby bath.

The baby bath counterfeit was obvious I got a box with only chinese characters on the box:

Here is there response: " We had a recent issue with an Amazon seller selling “knock-off” Blooming Baths on our Amazon account. We have since had this seller removed entirely from Amazon, as these are counterfeit items and NOT the Blooming Bath. The product you have received is not ours, I suggest returning it and ordering again from Amazon or from www.bloomingbath.com. Just make sure the seller you buy from is “Blooming Bath” if you buy from Amazon.

Very sorry for this inconvenience. "

I no longer trust amazon for anything health related - it just seems too easy to get counterfeit products into their system.

Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#64

Post by __jal »

danjoc wrote: post #47
UnfalseDesign wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that Google isn't pirating the book. It is being hosted on Google Docs. This is no different than if someone put the PDF on Dropbox and made it public. It isn't Google's pirate link. It is a link to a pirated file that just happens to be hosted on Google Docs. The difference here is that Amazon is actually printing the pirated book. Google is just hosting a file that happens to be made publicly view…

>The difference is that Google isn't pirating the book. Neither is Amazon as I understand it. >It is being hosted on Google Docs. Amazon is just printing the book. >This is no different than if someone put the PDF on Dropbox and made it public. This is exactly what's happening on Amazon. Someone uploaded the pirated file, as their own. Amazon is simply printing the book, and helping you find it via a search interface…

Analogies are dangerous, but perhaps one will help here.

The book on Google Docs is similar to someone's cocaine falling out of their pocket and hiding in your couch cushions. You didn't know it was there, and when your partner finds it, you flush it.

The book being printed by Amazon is you finding the bag of coke, cutting it and selling it, splitting the take with your friend.

I'll note that "benefit from" is a construction that can do a huge amount of work. I have "benefited from" some truly horrific historic crimes, despite having nothing to do with them (or even having been born yet). I bet you have, too.

Using less attenuated language that makes clear what's going on is a lot more convincing. It also tends to expose differences, like what is going on here.

Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#65

Post by jrnichols »

peterjlee wrote: post #51
HoppedUpMenace wrote: post #7

Its ridiculous the amount of energy and effort you have to waste in order to find a product that you don't suspect as being counterfeit on Amazon these days. The other day, I wanted a super bright flashlight that ran on AAA batteries and was of decent quality and price. I had to pour over the millions of listed flashlights, most looking physically identical, with the exception of the brand name printed on the flashli…

When I buy phone chargers from Amazon I intentionally avoid the manufacturer branded ones because I know it's going to be fake. I usually choose a well known 3rd party brand with good reviews.

poor experiences with cheap phone chargers/etc are the reason I've been sticking to the Amazon Basics line.

and then Anker, because the cats won't chew through those.

Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#66

Post by riskable »

losteverything wrote: post #56
benmorris wrote: post #45

Amazon is turning into a mine field for legitimate sellers. I have a customer I work closely with to integrate their customer products into Amazon. They have a catalog of 3,000 stock parking signs listed on Amazon. We took considerable time to buy custom SKUs and get them listed. We discovered in the last month two separate Chinese sellers utilized the Amazon buy box feature and listed on our product page for less mo…

I'm curious. Did you ever send an order to China? So if I make a thing that can't be digitally copied easily I'm safe???

Bespoke everything is the future of retail goods.

Imagine if every product on Amazon was custom made for you. A Chinese seller could do it sure but you might get suspicious of the 4-6 week shipping time and it would be blatantly obvious where it was coming from.

With the cost of 3D printing, CNC, and laser engraving dropping faster than a Miami facelift it's inevitable.

Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#67

Post by fredophile »

esMazer wrote: post #27
HoppedUpMenace wrote: post #7

Its ridiculous the amount of energy and effort you have to waste in order to find a product that you don't suspect as being counterfeit on Amazon these days. The other day, I wanted a super bright flashlight that ran on AAA batteries and was of decent quality and price. I had to pour over the millions of listed flashlights, most looking physically identical, with the exception of the brand name printed on the flashli…

I only buy when is sold directly "by amazon" if the seller is not amazon then all bets are off.

My understanding is that Amazon mixes their stock with items from other sellers as long as they have the same sku. If this is true there is no benefit in buying things sold directly from Amazon.

Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#69

Post by paulcole »

benmorris wrote: post #45

Amazon is turning into a mine field for legitimate sellers. I have a customer I work closely with to integrate their customer products into Amazon. They have a catalog of 3,000 stock parking signs listed on Amazon. We took considerable time to buy custom SKUs and get them listed. We discovered in the last month two separate Chinese sellers utilized the Amazon buy box feature and listed on our product page for less mo…

>In the end Amazon has banned the two sellers, but moving forward it is difficult to police 3,000 listings so we have not been expanding what we are doing on there.

Does the API still return offer count? If you're truly the only legit seller, set up an alert if offerCount >> 1. Even without the API this should be pretty trivial to scrape.

Re: Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

#70

Post by [deleted] »

lsaferite wrote: post #60
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that "under Amazon's brand" meant that the item is being "sold by Amazon" rather than a merchant using Amazon as a platform. I think eBay should verify items that are being sold by eBay, and Amazon should verify items that are being sold by Amazon, but eBay shouldn't be responsible for items being sold VIA eBay, nor should Amazon be responsible for items being sold VIA Amazon.

I'd be interested to have more detail than the tweet to understand the specifics. If they are saying Amazon is producing and selling these themselves, then that's a big deal. If they got a shipment of them that are counterfeit and are selling those, then it's a slightly less big deal IMHO, but still a serious problem.

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