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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

#241

Post by nextos »

ninv wrote: post #166
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…

8 out of 10 people cannot spot counterfeit goods. I bought a major brand perfume, Sold and fulfilled by Amazon. When i used it after 2 months i was suspicious a. One day i was in Macy's, saw the same perfume (on same price). I tried the tester and i realized that perfume at home is a cheap knock off. Initially i though that Amazon did not store it properly and warehouse heat must have destroyed the smell. Then i saw…

Not to mention grey market items, which are a commonplace in Amazon UK.

If you buy many items from Korea or Japan, expect to get some plain plastic bag without instructions or traces of original packaging.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#242

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

sk5t wrote: post #211
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hold all the inventory as evidence With the FBA situation, why would amazon even care? Amazon will just tell the seller, "X from your inventory was just sized by the FBI, talk to them if you want it back" The seller has no leverage against Amazon, Amazon is out no money, Amazon will just get another shipment of counterfeit widgets the next day.

Amazon might care when entire warehouses are locked down for investigation. It's systemic after all.

I find it unlikely to believe that they would lock down entire warehouses for any significant period. I think this is the equivalent of shutting down an entire port because of a (or a few) containers of cargo are counterfit.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#243

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

chimeracoder wrote: post #232
mynameisvlad wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe FBA stock is comingled with other FBA and Amazon.com stock for the same SKU in the warehouse.

Then how would they know when to credit a seller for a sale? I believe the seller doesn't receive the money until someone actually buys it.

Amazon credits you when someone buys your item, but the item Amazon ships the buyer might not be yours, but an equal equivalent.

And, before you ask: Yes, this results in situations where 100% legitimate sellers on Amazon can sometimes ship (via Amazon/FBA) their buyers counterfeit goods. Shitty situation to be in as a seller.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#244

Post by user5994461 »

double0jimb0 wrote: post #214
crazygringo wrote: post #114

Is there anyone here who can shed some light as to why ? It's impossible for me to believe that it's part of Amazon's strategy to encourage, or even allow, counterfeits -- it might be fine for a smaller company, but it appears to be doing real brand damage at this point. Yet Amazon shows no signs of stopping it -- this has been going on for years. Is it just a really hard problem for some reason that isn't obvious? (…

Manufacturers selling direct via ecommerce is a very new phenomenon (last 10 years). Before Amazon, there was an entrenched network of distributors and exclusive contracts in both directions of the supply chain. Amazon has busted this wide open. It is important to understand that FBA largely pushes the administration and supply chain overhead down to small time individual resellers, utilizing their willingness to do…

Not exactly accurate.

There is eBay that is a big player and allows anyone to distribute products. These days 90% of sales are done by professional in fix price format (not an auction).

eBay has a proper reputation system, sellers are clearly identifiable and so is the location of the product.

Amazon doesn't do any of that on purpose.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#245

Post by lexalizer »

This is starting to be a big problem for me. The time I lose figuring out if a seller is listing counterfeit products or not(not always possible), is costing me too much. I don't think Amazon Prime is worth it anymore. The risk of paying for a fake, then having to spend time returning, for every single product that I buy is just too much.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#246

Post by tw04 »

binarymax wrote: post #133
tw04 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's tens of millions of dollars in salaries injected into the local economy from one employer, not to mention the other additions like local taxes and utility spending. 1000 jobs is significant.

Wait, WHAT? The average Amazon warehouse worker makes $13/hr. That's ~$27,000/yr BEFORE taxes. In other words: any employee making that salary and actually trying to raise a family is collecting more from the government than they're paying in. They aren't contributing anything to the local economy, they're draining it just like Walmart.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#247

Post by cookiecaper »

zyxzkz wrote: post #175
ninv wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 out of 10 people cannot spot counterfeit goods. I bought a major brand perfume, Sold and fulfilled by Amazon. When i used it after 2 months i was suspicious a. One day i was in Macy's, saw the same perfume (on same price). I tried the tester and i realized that perfume at home is a cheap knock off. Initially i though that Amazon did not store it properly and warehouse heat must have destroyed the smell. Then i saw…

When I followed your link it says: Sold by MSP Sales LLC and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Amazon does not allow one to create a permanent link to a specific seller. You can only link to the ASIN, which will determines the seller to display on-demand.

Unless the product category or brand is "gated" (and to be fair, many are), meaning it requires pre-approval to list on Amazon, anyone can hitch onto any ASIN by telling Amazon they have that product in stock (if FBA, by sending in "that product").

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#248

Post by cookiecaper »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #243
chimeracoder wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then how would they know when to credit a seller for a sale? I believe the seller doesn't receive the money until someone actually buys it.

Amazon credits you when someone buys your item, but the item Amazon ships the buyer might not be yours, but an equal equivalent. And, before you ask: Yes, this results in situations where 100% legitimate sellers on Amazon can sometimes ship (via Amazon/FBA) their buyers counterfeit goods. Shitty situation to be in as a seller.

Sellers can opt-out of commingling, but many don't because a) they don't understand the implications, as Amazon doesn't really make it clear; and b) because it requires them to individually add a separate sticker/identifier to each unit of their product, adding significantly to preparation and packaging costs.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#249

Post by cookiecaper »

Zigurd wrote: post #122
tw04 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

1,000 full time employees is pretty big these days. The highly touted Carrier deal amounted to maybe 700 jobs. Elizabeth Warren made an announcement about the big new Amazon distribution center in Fall River. It's supposedly Amazon's biggest, and I recall it was about 1,000 jobs. So they are doing more with the same headcount.

It's about name recognition, not job count. Amazon is seen as a cutting edge, high-tech employer. It looks goods when politicians say "Welcoming $COOL_COMPANY_X into our area!", it helps people feel important. It doesn't really matter whether they're bring 50 jobs or 5000; what matters is people can say "Yeah, Amazon is just up the street".

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#250

Post by noir_lord »

user5994461 wrote: post #244
double0jimb0 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manufacturers selling direct via ecommerce is a very new phenomenon (last 10 years). Before Amazon, there was an entrenched network of distributors and exclusive contracts in both directions of the supply chain. Amazon has busted this wide open. It is important to understand that FBA largely pushes the administration and supply chain overhead down to small time individual resellers, utilizing their willingness to do…

Not exactly accurate. There is eBay that is a big player and allows anyone to distribute products. These days 90% of sales are done by professional in fix price format (not an auction). eBay has a proper reputation system, sellers are clearly identifiable and so is the location of the product. Amazon doesn't do any of that on purpose.

It's ironic, I got burnt a few times with ebay in it's really early days in the UK and swore off them and then Amazon got popular and I was a happy customer for years but recently I've been buying bits from ebay (I prefer Buy it Now, I don't want to maybe win, I'm happy to potentially pay more to know that it's on it's way) and it's improved leaps and bounds since I used it a lot.

If Amazon keeps down this track it's going to kill the golden goose for eking out that extra tiny bit.

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