>“If you still have this product, we recommend that you stop using it immediately and dispose of the item,”
I've received one like that before so this isn't the first time they're sending out a mail like that
Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
21–30 of 148 posts
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#22Earlier 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…
"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…
I often buy from Target or Costco.com, which have no 3rd party sellers that I'm aware of. Because of this, I assume that they are vetting their vendors and supply chain to minimize the reputation damage that counterfeits would cause. I also use Walmart.com, but I filter out anything sold by 3rd parties to make sure I'm buying something from Walmart's vetted supply chain.
If shipping charges aren't prohibitive, I'll also consider buying directly from the manufacturer website.
If you buy from a random site on the internet that doesn't have a reputation to protect, then I agree it's just as risky as buying from Amazon or a random eBay seller.
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#23Earlier 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…
"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…
It's not about the fakes, it's about trust. I don't expect perfect fake detection from a vendor. I can't perfectly detect fakes myself. I expect vendors to develop trust with their own sources like I'm trying to develop it with the vendor. I expect fakes to be non-existent or rare-enough in their inventory and for them to respond appropriately in case a fake does make it through. An appropriate response is not just to coldly refund my money and continue to allow the item to be sold in their store. An appropriate response is to refund my money, be truly mortified, and at the very least stop selling the item; if not stop doing business entirely with whichever distributor or seller sold them the item. (Also, my time is valuable; so I'd expect some recompense for the inconvenience which could act as a proxy for 'truly mortified' since I can't actually know their internal state.)
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#24Knowing how ill-equipped Amazon is for the supplement market, are there any legitimate lab-tested online vendors?
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#25Amazon 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…
The doctrine of first sale means you can't keep people from reselling your branded products and if you don't offer your products on Amazon at this point others will offer fakes and with Amazons cooperation acquire your customers while offering them cheaper competitors products.
Its a lovely situation to say the least. All strategies are sub optimal. Logically we need a law forcing them to divulge who your actual product is coming from on the page before you buy effectively ending comingling.
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#26Amazon 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.
Enjoy price matching while you can. Nobody price matches craigslist for example and as Amazon trustworthiness dives towards craiglist levels one wonders if said policies will continue.
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#27For 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…
Consciously or not, I've noticed that I too no longer trust Amazon to deliver on sensitive goods due to commingling:'
* I don't buy foodstuff or supplements from Amazon
* I don't buy things at high risk of exploding (batteries that weren't manufactured by who I expected)
* I don't buy high-volume counterfeit products (vacuums, for example)
I would rather take the 30 minutes out of my day to drive to a store where I trust the supply chain.
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#28Knowing how ill-equipped Amazon is for the supplement market, are there any legitimate lab-tested online vendors?
There's stores like The Vitamin Shoppe, where you're going to get genuine products. Some manufacturers use labs such as USP to assure you're getting what you pay for. So, if you buy products with lab seals from reputable shops, you're probably safe.
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#29Then don’t sell it. You created the platform.
Re: Amazon Warns Customers: Those Supplements Might Be Fake
#30Amazon 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…
> At the very least they need to give brand owners the tools to protect their brands- an option to put non-authorized resellers' shipments into a separate comingled bin, and have all the authorized resellers in another.
As a brand I think you can stop others listing your products. I tried to sell something a while back and was refused because I was a third party seller.