Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sellers printing counterfeit books and selling under Amazon's brand

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 319 posts

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

#221

Post by kalleboo »

mattwinslow wrote: post #205
emaste wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ordered a pair of SD cards from a FBA Amazon seller which turned out to be counterfeit. I used Amazon's contact form to report these, and was told to just initiate a return. I think I chose "Item not as described" as the reason in a drop-down, and entered "Counterfeit" in a comment box, but someone later changed it to some benign-sounding reason. I got a refund on my credit card, but now have the impression that Am…

If you want to ding the seller further, leave a negative feedback response (for the seller) on that order. Mark the reason as "item not as described" and don't add any additional text that would allow the seller to claim the feedback was "product related / a product review". Speaking from experience as an FBA seller for the past seven years, those are nearly impossible to dispute with Amazon's seller support staff...…

But if the item was commingled, then it wasn't that FBA seller's fault and you're punishing someone who's innocent...

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

#222

Post by nathancahill »

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…

Yeah, it's terrible. I pretty much won't touch anything new on Amazon unless it has: been recommended by a friend or been well-received on /r/BuyItForLife or Sweethome/Wirecutter.

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

#223

Post by dawnerd »

kalleboo wrote: post #221
mattwinslow wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to ding the seller further, leave a negative feedback response (for the seller) on that order. Mark the reason as "item not as described" and don't add any additional text that would allow the seller to claim the feedback was "product related / a product review". Speaking from experience as an FBA seller for the past seven years, those are nearly impossible to dispute with Amazon's seller support staff...…

But if the item was commingled, then it wasn't that FBA seller's fault and you're punishing someone who's innocent...

Guess the lesson here is, if you're a FBA seller and you don't want that risk, opt out of comingling.

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

#224

Post by kogepathic »

a3n wrote: post #163
blobbers wrote: post #63

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…

Crap, "fulfilled by Amazon" was my last line of defense against crap products, variable shipping, unacceptable state at arrival, etc etc. Even at that, I recently bought two books, both arrived damaged. Returned them (I really don't want to have to do that, and I thought "fulfilled by" would reduce that likelihood), and the replacements were damaged. I gave up.

I bought a pair of dress shoes from Amazon on Cyber Monday.

The first pair arrived in a plan white box, and were damaged (not due to the courier).

I returned them to Amazon for replacement, and the pair I got back were in a fully branded box, with a lot more accessories than the first pair (storage bag, shape retainers).

So I'm left thinking that even though these were "Fulfilled by Amazon" there must have been some counterfeit mixed in with legit inventory. Otherwise I can't explain how the first pair seemed so... illegitimate in light of what I received as a replacement.

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

#225

Post by [deleted] »

blobbers wrote: post #132
freyr wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't believe they let this go on while trying to market groceries. There's no way I'd ever consider buying anything edible from them. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't even realize they're being sold counterfeit goods.

Doesn't look like they commingle things with expiration dates.

[deleted]

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

#226

Post by kogepathic »

andyzweb wrote: post #95
jrnichols wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>poor experiences with cheap phone chargers/etc are the reason I've been sticking to the Amazon Basics line. This is a brilliant strategy on Amazon's part.

> This is a brilliant strategy on Amazon's part.

Indeed. I was recently in the market for a small mono/tripod to bring with me on vacation.

Looking at the "Best Sellers" for this category, it's blatantly obvious that Amazon is just taking the existing top 3 models, copying them almost 1:1, and then undercutting the original product price with their "Amazon Basics" branded product.

How are you supposed to survive selling a product when even Amazon is out there copying it and selling it for less?

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

#227

Post by [deleted] »

andyzweb wrote: post #95
jrnichols wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>poor experiences with cheap phone chargers/etc are the reason I've been sticking to the Amazon Basics line. This is a brilliant strategy on Amazon's part.

[deleted]

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

#228

Post by notatoad »

themagician wrote: post #178
blobbers wrote: post #63

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…

I've been running into his problem personally. About 25% of our business now is done via Amazon. We sell to Amazon retail directly and also use Amazon FBA internationally. The problem is that "other sellers" keep beating us to the buy box for certain SKUs. Amazon keeps asking us to sell to them for a lower price. The funny thing is, Amazon already gets the lowest price, by far, compared to all other distributors. I k…

>Some of the SKUs we don't even sell to anyone else anymore but Amazon.

It seems crazy to me that they don't have an easy process to support this. Amazon must have as much to gain by being the sole reseller as you do from them blocking other suppliers. I don't see why they don't offer a one-click agreement that a manufacturer can sign saying essentially "we won't sell this through any other channels if you won't accept any other sellers"

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

#229

Post by aninhumer »

kalleboo wrote: post #221
mattwinslow wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to ding the seller further, leave a negative feedback response (for the seller) on that order. Mark the reason as "item not as described" and don't add any additional text that would allow the seller to claim the feedback was "product related / a product review". Speaking from experience as an FBA seller for the past seven years, those are nearly impossible to dispute with Amazon's seller support staff...…

But if the item was commingled, then it wasn't that FBA seller's fault and you're punishing someone who's innocent...

The seller is responsible for delivering the product you paid for.

If they use a fulfilment service which cannot reliably achieve that, it's their problem, just as it would be if they used an unreliable courier.

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

#230

Post by notatoad »

s917 wrote: post #120
blobbers wrote: post #63

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…

Wouldn't this be the perfect time to do a chargeback?

Not as long as amazon is perfectly willing to do a refund when you receive a product that wasn't as-advertised. And i haven't seen any evidence that amazon is unwilling to give a refund.

Not only will doing a chargeback destroy your amazon account, issuing a chargeback without first asking for a refund is probably against your credit card's ToS. A chargeback should be a measure of last resort, not the first solution you jump to.

Post reply on HN