Live data from Hacker News

Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

twitter.com

51–60 of 303 posts

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

#51
post #9

Daimler AG’s lawsuit, filed in 2017, over allegedly counterfeit Mercedes-Benz wheel caps that were, similarly, sold by Amazon.com and not a third party, is apparently still pending: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6173730/daimler-ag-v-am... The complaint: https://www.pacermonitor.com/view/EY4BP4Y/Daimler_AG_v_Amazo...

They just settled two weeks ago. See the last document filed.

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

#52
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.

similarly when I needed to replace my smoke alarm batteries I considered buying replacements off amazon (9V ones are pretty expensive)

I decided against as I didn't want some counterfeit ripoff with weird failure modes

if this sort of consumer behaviour becomes common it will be the death knell for their retail business

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

#53
post #43
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is probably old news to seasoned Seller Central users, but I was surprised how easy it was to "take over" product pages from already existing products. Our sales figures definitely weren't high. I think it may have been related to how much stock we had for all the sizes of the product. Soon the product images and descriptions we provided became the canonical version and overrode whatever was there before. Even p…

Product reviews are meant to be of the product, so it shouldn't matter which seller it is if you're all selling the same product.

But without Amazon doing their own QC there is no way to say it is the same product. You should at least be able to see reviews based on the supplier and pick the supplier you will be fulfilled by. But I suspect that would ruin their whole 2-day/1-day shipping bit.

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

#54
post #40

This happens because Amazon allows inventory commingling. For example Amazon has their own, legitimate inventory in a West Coast warehouse, and a third party seller has the same inventory with the original UPC manufacturer bar code on it, sitting in an East Coast warehouse. Amazon considers this 1:1 inventory. Amazon will debit their inventory on the West Coast, and credit the inventory that belongs to the third part…

Can people who know they got a knock-off return the item for a legit copy? Don’t know if the counterfeit volume is high enough to force Amazon to care...

Most of the time I've only been offered a refund for a counterfeit complaint.

I suspect they're aware enough of the problem to know who's likely to get a 2nd counterfeit shipped after receiving a 1st, and realized it's cheaper for them to abandon the sale than continue to possibly send counterfeits to a customer who's now more likely to notice.

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

#55
post #44
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can people who know they got a knock-off return the item for a legit copy? Don’t know if the counterfeit volume is high enough to force Amazon to care...

Yes. Amazon cares enough to push for higher criminal penalties for counterfeiters (see https://www.aboutamazon.com/our-company/our-positions )

But they don't care enough to actually stop co-mingling stock, which would nearly eliminate the problem.

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

#56

This happens because Amazon allows inventory commingling. For example Amazon has their own, legitimate inventory in a West Coast warehouse, and a third party seller has the same inventory with the original UPC manufacturer bar code on it, sitting in an East Coast warehouse. Amazon considers this 1:1 inventory. Amazon will debit their inventory on the West Coast, and credit the inventory that belongs to the third part…

This is why, IMHO, Walmart will eventually win this aspect of the online shopping war. Supply chain control. Amazon may continue to dominate AWS and even the 3rd party marketplace, but they've already ruined their brand reputation as a supplier. Edit: Sold and shipped 3rd party marketplace may survive.

Walmart has ... issues ... with their supply chain for their physical stores. Part of the problem is that they're big enough to enable Walmart-specific versions of products.

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

#57
I used to write software for a shop that sold DVDs and CDs on Amazon. They stopped selling FBA (sold by Amazon with your inventory or the inverse) because of counterfeit claims. It was really frustrating to get a photo of what the customer got and know there was no way it passed out QC. Not to mention the one or two legal issues that came up.

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

#58
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Product reviews are meant to be of the product, so it shouldn't matter which seller it is if you're all selling the same product.

But without Amazon doing their own QC there is no way to say it is the same product. You should at least be able to see reviews based on the supplier and pick the supplier you will be fulfilled by. But I suspect that would ruin their whole 2-day/1-day shipping bit.

They do QC: sellers that have too many complaints get kicked off.

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

#59
post #40

This happens because Amazon allows inventory commingling. For example Amazon has their own, legitimate inventory in a West Coast warehouse, and a third party seller has the same inventory with the original UPC manufacturer bar code on it, sitting in an East Coast warehouse. Amazon considers this 1:1 inventory. Amazon will debit their inventory on the West Coast, and credit the inventory that belongs to the third part…

Can people who know they got a knock-off return the item for a legit copy? Don’t know if the counterfeit volume is high enough to force Amazon to care...

You can return the book, but (having been through this myself) tellingly when you select a reason for the return they do not give you an option for “Counterfeit Good”.

You have to pick a vaguely related reason like “Item Not As Described” and then you can optionally leave a comment noting that it is counterfeit. There is no indication that anyone ever looks at that comment, or takes any action about it.

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

#60
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Amazon cares enough to push for higher criminal penalties for counterfeiters (see https://www.aboutamazon.com/our-company/our-positions )

But they don't care enough to actually stop co-mingling stock, which would nearly eliminate the problem.

It wouldn't help significantly. People would still get counterfeits when buying from bad sellers.
Post reply on HN