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Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

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Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#101

Post by tw04 »

emodendroket wrote: post #82
bonestamp2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon isn't going to take this seriously until a major company gets burned and the FBI gets involved. Then Amazon will experience what every other company does that gets burned for selling counterfeit goods... the FBI will raid their warehouse and hold all the inventory as evidence until they complete their investigation. Like you said, Amazon doesn't seem concerned that they're selling counterfeit goods -- probably…

There is probably a calculation that the feds will be reticent to do that to an Amazon warehouse as they're generally major employers in the areas they're built in.

I guess I'm curious how you came to the conclusion they're major employers where their warehouses are. As far as I can tell each warehouse is about 1,000 full-time jobs. If I look at a list of warehouse locations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon.com_locations

They're pretty much universally a rounding error for total population and jobs in their respective metro areas.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#102

Post by evilduck »

danjayh wrote: post #67
johansch wrote: post #20

I feel like there's so much idiocy going on with Amazon sites. How can such a successful company make something so idiotic such as the current Amazon.com? It's beyond belief. People visiting Amazon.com intending to buy various items: a) want the shipment and customer care to be handled by Amazon. (Since they have showed that they area really good at that kind of thing) b) want to have the goods vetted for basic safet…

A lot of the bazaar style stuff is handled by Amazon through the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program. For instance, this rather nice ratcheting wrench set: https://smile.amazon.com/GearWrench-Metric-Flex-Head-Combina... is fulfilled by Amazon.com, but sold by tooldeals. Tooldeals ships the product to an Amazon warehouse, and Amazon handles all of the selling and logistics. If Amazon were to eliminate the FBA program, t…

But is a vast product selection valuable if everything is assumed to be counterfeit junk?

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#103

Post by dawnerd »

scurvy wrote: post #42
new299 wrote: post #30

Counterfeit products seem to becoming a near universal problem. It's not just amazon, but other marketplaces (eBay, taobao etc). Even seems like major electronic component suppliers fall foul of this sometimes (digikey). I can really only see three solutions: 1. We just buy everything direct from the supplier. Companies like amazon manage distribution. 2. We provide tools to allow the consumer to track the supply cha…

Even #1 isn't 100% safe. Ubiquiti had counterfeit product get mixed into their own fulfillment chain. Let me repeat that, they had counterfeit product make its way into their own fulfillment chain, which was then sold legitimately to customers. Then again, this is the same company that fell prey to Nigerian spammers. Wouldn't go near any of their products as they definitely have some roomtemp IQ's in that joint.

Well that's good to know after buying a bunch of their aps off amazon. Although I feel it would be really easy to detect a fake with them.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#104

Post by dsr_ »

jrs235 wrote: post #44
Hnrobert42 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit confused by the article, but it sounded like unless the seller opts out and pays extra fees, it is always FBA.

Correct to not comingle your stuff with others costs extra. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13932231

And that's where I think Amazon open themselves up to fraud charges. They should never comingle goods under any circumstances, and they certainly shouldn't be deriving revenue from doing so.

Amazon seems to be acting as a counterfeit goods launderer.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#106

Post by nkrisc »

jrs235 wrote: post #51
cookiecaper wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FBA sellers can opt-out of commingled stock. If you know an FBA seller sells authentic goods, you're better off buying from them than from Amazon.com or an unknown FBA seller. There is no way to know before buying whether an FBA seller uses commingled stock or not; it would just be a matter of recognizing the merchant from past authentic purchases or credible word of mouth.

Amazon needs to signal co-mingled and non-co-mingled stock so buyers can purchase with more certainty. The problem is Amazon doesn't want to admit to their co-mingled mess yet. It will hurt their brand admitting that there is a material difference between co-mingled and non-co-mingled stock.

If they clearly label commingled stock, they might as well call it "genuine" vs. "counterfeit." There'd be no reason to buy the commingled stock since odds are it'll be fake.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#107

Post by Chathamization »

This is unsettling. Not only are many counterfeit goods being sold through Amazon, but Amazon's policies (co-mingling inventory, lack of ability to signal counterfeit goods in complaint, lack of ability to review a counterfeit seller of a good instead of the good itself) are directly encouraging this situation. And Amazon's response seems to be a collective shrug.

The news media's response is probably just as much to blame - they're more interested in writing fluff pieces about Amazon's hypothetical drone delivery than in informing the public about the current major threat to consumers posed by Amazon's policies. I'm willing to bet a lot of customers have received faulty counterfeit goods and don't even realize it.

This also underscores one of the problems with quasi-monopolies - once they feel they have a captive audience, they're only more than happy to screw over their customers in order to make a bit more money. If everyone gravitates towards one company, we end up in a very precarious situation when the company invariably decides that we have no where else to go and then can do whatever they want to us.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#108

Post by JohnTHaller »

emodendroket wrote: post #79
JangoSteve wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't even buy from any third party sellers, including fulfilled by Amazon, for this reason. Except, according from the information in the article, this doesn't matter: > Shipped and sold by Amazon.com means that the product is shipped and sold by Amazon Retail (via Vendor Central or Vendor Express) directly. Basically, the manufacturer sends product to Amazon.com at a set price through a traditional PO process.…

I don't think that means that buying direct from Amazon can get you third party inventory.

Buying direct from Amazon can get you third party inventory. Amazon mixes their inventory for many product verticals with third party vendors and will ship out counterfeit goods "sold by Amazon" according to numerous product reviews on their own site.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#110

Post by [deleted] »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #89
emodendroket wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is probably a calculation that the feds will be reticent to do that to an Amazon warehouse as they're generally major employers in the areas they're built in.

Hopefully you're right (for the employee's sake). But given the Bezos/Trump feud, if I were Bezos I'd be very cautious about giving the feds any valid reason (with lots of precedence) to shut down any warehouses for an investigation.

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