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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

#311

Post by nommm-nommm »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #204
themagician wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>And ideally, actually, I'd like Amazon to offer a feature that essentially "bans" third parties from listing a SKU at the manufacturers request. I'd gladly pay to few thousand a year to ensure that the only one that can sell our products is Amazon themselves. Isn't this what owning a trademark is for? Can people advertise that they have M&M's for sale without the permission of Mars Candy Inc?

>Can people advertise that they have M&M's for sale without the permission of Mars Candy Inc?

Yes.

Lets say I buy a box of M&Ms. I didn't get around to eating them. Next month I decide to change my diet and get rid of the M&Ms. Copyright and trademark does not (and should not) prevent me from advertising "1 box M&Ms, $10" and then a buyer giving me $10 for my M&Ms.

The first sale doctrine gives me this right. Retail would be totally and completely non-functional otherwise.

Amazon, however, is free to disallow someone from selling something if they want to.

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

#312

Post by jrnichols »

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.

It really is. There's at least some level of trust there as well.

At least I was pretty sure they're Apple MFI certified. I've never had any issues with them at all, they're well priced, and so far, reliable. And they have a 1 year warranty, which is nice for a cable.

the Amazon Basics line has a lot of stuff. Dishes too!

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

#313

Post by fencepost »

jrs235 wrote: post #279
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…

We recently ordered 6 iPad mini's fulfilled by amazon. They were shrink wrapped and we use them as promo contest swag. After we had sent one out to a customer/prospect they called us and told us they received a piece of plastic that looked looked an ipad mini. Like a prop piece. We immediately opened the remaining 5 we had in our office and they were all fakes. We can no longer trust fulfilled by Amazon which greatly…

While this may not be a perfect solution for you, you may be able to purchase locally and price match - I know I've use Best Buy's price matching policy on multiple occasions.

You might also find it worthwhile to simply find other providers who may be slightly more expensive but with better reliability - places like B&H Photo Video come to mind.

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

#314

Post by bdrool »

diminoten wrote: post #135
bdrool wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've stopped using Amazon for: - Anything eaten - Anything that consumes or stores power (too much fire risk) - Anything worn on the body (even socks) And now, based on this article, it appears I'll have to stop using them for books, as how can I be sure it's word-for-word the same? What's left?

I use Amazon for all of these things on a regular basis and have experienced zero problems, to provide a counterpoint to your anecdote.

You may not have had a problem (or at least not realized it), but plenty of other people commenting on this article have, and there is now a new article at the top of HN that shows how big the fake / counterfeit problem is getting:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13955981

Amazon is due for a reckoning. They've let this get completely out of control.

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

#315

Post by hnaparst »

jrs235 wrote: post #279
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…

We recently ordered 6 iPad mini's fulfilled by amazon. They were shrink wrapped and we use them as promo contest swag. After we had sent one out to a customer/prospect they called us and told us they received a piece of plastic that looked looked an ipad mini. Like a prop piece. We immediately opened the remaining 5 we had in our office and they were all fakes. We can no longer trust fulfilled by Amazon which greatly…

If Amazon is knowingly selling fake items, that is a criminal offense, and the company should be prosecuted and put out of business.

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

#316

Post by quanticle »

bdrool wrote: post #98
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 stopped using Amazon for: - Anything eaten - Anything that consumes or stores power (too much fire risk) - Anything worn on the body (even socks) And now, based on this article, it appears I'll have to stop using them for books, as how can I be sure it's word-for-word the same? What's left?

- Anything that consumes or stores power (too much fire risk)

So, where do you get, for example, external batteries for phones from? Amazon, eBay and Alibaba are pretty much the only online sources for these things, and I trust eBay and Alibaba even less than I trust Amazon.

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

#317

Post by quanticle »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #291
zero_intp wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a fellow layman I disagree with your anecdotal definition. I definitely consider this excess production to be counterfeit.

It's counterfeit branding but it's not counterfeit production. It's worth distinguishing the two, at least in terms of consumer harm.

I would disagree. It is counterfeit production. The entire notion of factory overruns being of the "same quality" as the original brand is very dubious to me. When the ODM ordered X instances of a part, the factory delivered X instances to them. There's no reason for them to create X instances for the order and an additional Y instances for themselves. Factory overruns, therefore, are instances that the original brand rejected because they were out of spec in some way. Now, that might be fine - the rejection might have been due to a quality issue, such as the silkscreened logo not being in the correct spot. Or, it might not be fine - the rejection might have been due to the chip not living up to its specified clock speed or memory capacity. The problem is, as a consumer, I have no way of knowing whether the "factory overrun" I'm buying is of the first sort or the second sort. That's why I'd consider it counterfeiting.

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

#319

Post by SantiagoDraco »

SantiagoDraco wrote: post #265
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…

Inventories are not "commingled" they are completely separate in the warehouses. Just because multiple vendors sell the same product and use the "fulfilled by Amazon" service to fool you doesn't mean Amazon is accidentally sending you an item from the wrong seller. If you purchase from Amazon and don't check that it's "shipped and sold by Amazon" then you are asking for trouble. The biggest issue is that Amazon has a…

My apologies... I violated my own pet peeve and spoke as if I knew when I hadn't taken the time to actually research for the truth... the truth being, as you all have said, that Amazon does commingle inventories. It's a sad day for me as it's just another mark against Amazon and it further erodes my trust in them as a consumer friendly company.
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