Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”? • Hacker News Board

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#11

Post by RandomBacon » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #3

I just ordered a carbon monoxide detector from Amazon, supposedly shipped from the manufacturer. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t immediately think of Amazon’s many counterfeit scandals before ultimately ordering it as I do most things, out of habit. Still, this is a thing for which silent failure is catastrophic, so maybe I’ll send it back tomorrow.

> maybe

Just do it. You'll sleep better at night, and you'll have a higher chance of waking up.

I no longer buy any products from Amazon anymore that's made to go in, on, or protect my body.

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#12

Post by Waterluvian » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #3

I just ordered a carbon monoxide detector from Amazon, supposedly shipped from the manufacturer. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t immediately think of Amazon’s many counterfeit scandals before ultimately ordering it as I do most things, out of habit. Still, this is a thing for which silent failure is catastrophic, so maybe I’ll send it back tomorrow.

In addition to doing so, just consider having multiples. I followed the fire code and then put an extra two in the basement near the furnaxe/water heater and fireplace. And an extra in the bedrooms hallways. One of those things where I think it's okay to overdo it.

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#13

Post by guiambros » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

I had the same problem with "The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book" [1]; the default (cheaper by a few pennies) option via Amazon Prime was sold by a 3rd party selling counterfeit copies.

I purchased another copy from Amazon directly to compare, and you could clearly see the difference in the quality of the printing, colors, cover page. Also some pages were different, so it seems the counterfeit used an earlier draft of the 1st edition.

I spoke with the author, and eventually they got the 3rd party seller suspended (at least from selling new copies), but apparently it took a couple of weeks of back-and-forth.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Page-Machine-Learning-Book/dp...

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#14

Post by mikece » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

I would think a little bit of piracy is okay with Amazon as vetting the authenticity of every seller would be too expensive and time consuming, and making it harder for a seller to get onto Amazon will only encourage the growth of competing platforms. I wonder if Amazon has a policy by which it makes payments to sellers cheated by counterfeit goods so long provided they sign an NDA about it?

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#15

Post by crooked-v » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

mikece wrote: post #14

I would think a little bit of piracy is okay with Amazon as vetting the authenticity of every seller would be too expensive and time consuming, and making it harder for a seller to get onto Amazon will only encourage the growth of competing platforms. I wonder if Amazon has a policy by which it makes payments to sellers cheated by counterfeit goods so long provided they sign an NDA about it?

This twitter thread is about books being directly sold by Amazon being counterfeit, not seller marketplace items.

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#16

Post by kadoban » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

RandomBacon wrote: post #11

danso wrote: post #3

I just ordered a carbon monoxide detector from Amazon, supposedly shipped from the manufacturer. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t immediately think of Amazon’s many counterfeit scandals before ultimately ordering it as I do most things, out of habit. Still, this is a thing for which silent failure is catastrophic, so maybe I’ll send it back tomorrow.

> maybe Just do it. You'll sleep better at night, and you'll have a higher chance of waking up. I no longer buy any products from Amazon anymore that's made to go in, on, or protect my body.

Add most electronics, IMO, especially things like memory cards and hard drives.

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#17

Post by alienallys » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC

mjfern wrote: post #2

As an aside, why does nearly every Twitter link take you to a page not found thus requiring a reload? This is a terrible user experience that should be easy to fix.

Holy moly. I thought it was a thing with my phone and not a wider problem...

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#18

Post by TeMPOraL » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #12

danso wrote: post #3

I just ordered a carbon monoxide detector from Amazon, supposedly shipped from the manufacturer. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t immediately think of Amazon’s many counterfeit scandals before ultimately ordering it as I do most things, out of habit. Still, this is a thing for which silent failure is catastrophic, so maybe I’ll send it back tomorrow.

In addition to doing so, just consider having multiples. I followed the fire code and then put an extra two in the basement near the furnaxe/water heater and fireplace. And an extra in the bedrooms hallways. One of those things where I think it's okay to overdo it.

In addition to addition, consider testing it. Last time I was buying carbon monoxide detectors for myself & family, I also bought a "tester" - basically carbon monoxide in a spray can + a bag to put your detector in. Costed me extra $10 or something, but worth the peace of mind.

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#19

Post by kadoban » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC

throwawaysea wrote: post #10

mjfern wrote: post #2

As an aside, why does nearly every Twitter link take you to a page not found thus requiring a reload? This is a terrible user experience that should be easy to fix.

I've wondered the same thing. It seems to only happen on mobile browsers, and on both iOS and Android. I wonder if people who are logged in are subject to the same?

It seems to happen at least much less often when logged in.

But yes, it is by far the jankiest thing I've ever seen in a supposedly serious tech company. No idea what failure has allowed that to happen for so long, it seems to be a permanent feature at this point.

Re: Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

#20

Post by Rebelgecko » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 10:48 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #3

I just ordered a carbon monoxide detector from Amazon, supposedly shipped from the manufacturer. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t immediately think of Amazon’s many counterfeit scandals before ultimately ordering it as I do most things, out of habit. Still, this is a thing for which silent failure is catastrophic, so maybe I’ll send it back tomorrow.

I was recently looking for some dusk masks to have handy due to fires in my area. It's such a clusterfuck when you look on Amazon. They have special labels like "Amazon's choice" or "Editor Recommended" which have nothing to do with the efficacy of the mask. A lot of masks make claims about being NIOSH approved and N95 certified, but they don't provide the approval numbers and NIOSH has no records of the manufacturer. I even saw some masks that supplied an invalid NIOSH approval number (it had been revoked in 2014).

Some of the cheaper listings from legitimate companies sound like they're either counterfeit or some weird bulk reseller. A lot of reviews complaining about how the masks just came loose in the Amazon box with no packaging.

I ordered some legit looking masks but figure it's a bit of a crapshoot