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Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

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Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#11

Post by didibus »

HillaryBriss wrote: post #2

> "When consumers have tried to sue online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay for selling dangerous goods in the past, courts have ruled they aren’t responsible for products offered by third-party vendors..." If there's one thing that makes me back away, as a consumer, from Amazon, it's this sort of thing, this lack of real accountability. Sure, Amazon, says they do things to prevent counterfeits from being sold throu…

I think the question is the alternatives. Say each of these vendors had their own top level online stores. What then?

Maybe you find the site through googling, and decide to buy the item from them. In a way, Amazon is like an extra layer of security to that model. First you can trust the payment channels, you can trust the delivery, and you can trust that you'll get some level of customer support. Beyond that, you know that they've attempted to validate the quality of their products, but in the same way your email provider does spam filtering, so it won't be 100% accurate. And finally they have the review system, which can help learn about that particular vendor or product.

It isn't perfect, but it seems better then that alternative.

Now as a consumer, you also have the alternative to not buy from vendors you don't already recognize and trust. But then you might go back to having the selection issue. What do you do when your trusted vendors don't have the item? Flr those cases, Amazon still seems better then the alternative.

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#12

Post by Loughla »

asark wrote: post #6
ADSSDA wrote: post #4

You'd have to be insane to buy anything you'd put in your body from Amazon. Just this week I received an obviously used item that was "Shipped and sold by amazon.com" and sold as "new". I realize they're trying, but Amazon is clearly failing to control the tide of fakes that is infesting their storefront. I find that for almost anything I search for, the knockoff/fake is actually the Amazon "recommended" item.

They've been "trying" for years. They may truly be trying, but the fact that they've neither succeeded in any meaningful way, nor made the choice to shut off the parts of their service that make the whole site scam-tastic and shitty until they can figure it out, show they don't actually care . Probably this is because a non-trivial part of their revenue comes from the dark patterns and scams that make their whole sit…

>IOW I'm pretty sure their site and fortune's based largely on crime and generally anti-social behavior

Honestly, isn't that what's at the base of the culture of 'disruption'? Look at Uber - let's take an established, regulated industry and just ignore the regulations long enough that we're everywhere and they can't shut us down.

Honestly, when I hear the word 'disrupt', I immediately think of shady, anti-social behavior.

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#13

Post by pmoriarty »

cgriswald wrote: post #7
duxup wrote: post #3

For some foolish reason I had notifications turned on for the Amazon app... it recently offered me a deal on some sort of supplements that seemed kinda strange / made some weird claims. I had never even searched for any kind of supplement or even food / drug items before. Other offers were for what looked like seriously questionable quality things, that were semi related to items that I had searched, but looked like…

Amazon is busy shooting itself in the foot. The problem is, the gun is small and the foot is huge, so they probably don't feel it right now. Supplements (or really anything I put in my mouth) is one of a growing set of classes of items I won't buy on Amazon anymore. That probably doesn't result in much loss for Amazon right now, but what it does do is: 1. Makes me trust Amazon MUCH less, which means I'm much more lik…

"Supplements (or really anything I put in my mouth) is one of a growing set of classes of items I won't buy on Amazon anymore."

How would you know that the vendors you are buying these items from aren't themselves buying from Amazon or other counterfeit vendors?

Honest question, because I'd really love for there to be some way for consumers to verify the authenticity of what they're buying, but as far as I know there isn't.

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#14

Post by therein »

cgriswald wrote: post #7
duxup wrote: post #3

For some foolish reason I had notifications turned on for the Amazon app... it recently offered me a deal on some sort of supplements that seemed kinda strange / made some weird claims. I had never even searched for any kind of supplement or even food / drug items before. Other offers were for what looked like seriously questionable quality things, that were semi related to items that I had searched, but looked like…

Amazon is busy shooting itself in the foot. The problem is, the gun is small and the foot is huge, so they probably don't feel it right now. Supplements (or really anything I put in my mouth) is one of a growing set of classes of items I won't buy on Amazon anymore. That probably doesn't result in much loss for Amazon right now, but what it does do is: 1. Makes me trust Amazon MUCH less, which means I'm much more lik…

Normally I'd just upvote and continue on my way but with the expectation that maybe someone from Amazon is reading and thinking "surely not everyone feels that way".

We all feel this way. Inventory co-mingling will have major long term costs. If you think about it, it is pretty crazy how big of a reputation hit Amazon has taken in the last few years.

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#15

Post by gshakir »

Amazon has a big counterfeit problem. The reviews are entirely gamed, so can’t trust those any more , even the 2-star or 3-star ones.

So I recently dropped Amazon prime and ended up buying popular name brands. Even those you can get price matched with other retailers and Target even gives you 5% percent discount and BestBuy gives you points.

Unless you are a person who is not mobile, there are several options now.

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#16

Post by mikeash »

didibus wrote: post #11
HillaryBriss wrote: post #2

> "When consumers have tried to sue online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay for selling dangerous goods in the past, courts have ruled they aren’t responsible for products offered by third-party vendors..." If there's one thing that makes me back away, as a consumer, from Amazon, it's this sort of thing, this lack of real accountability. Sure, Amazon, says they do things to prevent counterfeits from being sold throu…

I think the question is the alternatives. Say each of these vendors had their own top level online stores. What then? Maybe you find the site through googling, and decide to buy the item from them. In a way, Amazon is like an extra layer of security to that model. First you can trust the payment channels, you can trust the delivery, and you can trust that you'll get some level of customer support. Beyond that, you kn…

Amazon is also an extra layer of insecurity. Let’s say I buy a widget sold through Amazon by a trusted manufacturer. Some third party is also selling counterfeits. Amazon considers the two products to be the same, and sends me a counterfeit from the third party.

Seems to me that the alternative is simple: mandate that you receive what you ordered, and make the storefront you order from liable for any problems.

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#17

Post by gervu »

throw20102010 wrote: post #10

Amazon needs to stop with inventory comingling. They know it and refuse to stop, so they are culpable. I'm sure it would hurt their logistics to stop, but it also hurts cigarette companies to not advertise to children and we made that a law. It is ridiculous that you can order a supplement where it says "sold by Proctor and Gamble, fulfilled by Amazon" on the product listing, and then receive a counterfeit product th…

It seems like a lot of things that sound an awful lot like fraudulent practices from a lay perspective don't actually reach a useful or provable definition when it comes to legal liability.

But saying something is sold by a specific party which I then choose to do business with, then substituting goods that are likely to be from any of numerous other parties, some of which I may be explicitly trying to avoid doing business with...I would at least be interested in hearing why that doesn't count as fraud or false advertising or some such, or maybe some trademarks issue.

At least, I'd love to hear a less rage-inducing justification for putting up with allowing this behavior than "it was buried in a ToS somewhere that lying about who my goods came from is okay, actually."

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#18

Post by duxup »

cgriswald wrote: post #7
duxup wrote: post #3

For some foolish reason I had notifications turned on for the Amazon app... it recently offered me a deal on some sort of supplements that seemed kinda strange / made some weird claims. I had never even searched for any kind of supplement or even food / drug items before. Other offers were for what looked like seriously questionable quality things, that were semi related to items that I had searched, but looked like…

Amazon is busy shooting itself in the foot. The problem is, the gun is small and the foot is huge, so they probably don't feel it right now. Supplements (or really anything I put in my mouth) is one of a growing set of classes of items I won't buy on Amazon anymore. That probably doesn't result in much loss for Amazon right now, but what it does do is: 1. Makes me trust Amazon MUCH less, which means I'm much more lik…

Yeah I got a really bad vibe when I got the supplement stuff and then pushing some questionable quality things. Really quickly my impression of Amazon changed.

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#19

Post by didibus »

mikeash wrote: post #16
didibus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the question is the alternatives. Say each of these vendors had their own top level online stores. What then? Maybe you find the site through googling, and decide to buy the item from them. In a way, Amazon is like an extra layer of security to that model. First you can trust the payment channels, you can trust the delivery, and you can trust that you'll get some level of customer support. Beyond that, you kn…

Amazon is also an extra layer of insecurity. Let’s say I buy a widget sold through Amazon by a trusted manufacturer. Some third party is also selling counterfeits. Amazon considers the two products to be the same, and sends me a counterfeit from the third party. Seems to me that the alternative is simple: mandate that you receive what you ordered, and make the storefront you order from liable for any problems.

I admit that it isn't clear if Amazon can reliably have you choose from what vendor you are buying. That said, not all manufacturer have a storefront. A lot of items can only be purchased through some middleman. And it is hard to validate that a particular vendor is the actual manufacturer and not just pretending to be.

So say you wanted that product, and googled for a vendor, and you found xmanifacturer.com. How would you know to trust that? Also, I forgot to mention price. What if you find the item at xvendor.com at a cheaper price, and wanted to buy there? To me, that all just seem even less reliable.

Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake

#20

Post by felipemnoa »

therein wrote: post #14
cgriswald wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is busy shooting itself in the foot. The problem is, the gun is small and the foot is huge, so they probably don't feel it right now. Supplements (or really anything I put in my mouth) is one of a growing set of classes of items I won't buy on Amazon anymore. That probably doesn't result in much loss for Amazon right now, but what it does do is: 1. Makes me trust Amazon MUCH less, which means I'm much more lik…

Normally I'd just upvote and continue on my way but with the expectation that maybe someone from Amazon is reading and thinking "surely not everyone feels that way". We all feel this way. Inventory co-mingling will have major long term costs. If you think about it, it is pretty crazy how big of a reputation hit Amazon has taken in the last few years.

Ditto
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