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Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

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

#71
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What? That would help enormously . If they stopped commingling it would be easy to quickly identify and eliminate bad sellers. Consumers would also have the option of sticking to a known-good seller like Amazon and be able to trust that they weren’t going to get some comingled bullshit copy. That’s a pretty damn far cry from the current situation.

Easy for who? Amazon knows which seller sent in the inventory for every order, so they know to punish the right seller when a complaint comes in.

You are correct that customers could themselves choose better sellers, but most customers don't care and prefer cheaper over more reliable. That effect is not enough to help "enormously".

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

#72
post #46
post #34

I have been a frequent Amazon customer since 2000 and no longer order anything expensive or safety related (including things like USB chargers or any baby related furniture) from Amazon. I just no longer trust them at all to not be shipping counterfeit or unsafe goods. I've even started going to Best Buy to purchase certain peripherals that I needed on short notice because of this. Besides, at the rate my wife has bo…

Yup, agreed 100%. I recently purchased 2 Lenovo 65w USB-C chargers. One came shrink-wrapped in a legitimate Lenovo box. The other was in a plain cardboard box with a prominent "Made in China" as its only branding. These were sold from the very same product page. When I told Amazon, I had to go to UPS to return the fake product to them to receive my refund, so not only do I have to purchase it again (obviously not fro…

So was it a fake or just not retail packaging? Lenovo always sends me parts in plain cardboard boxes.

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

#73

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…

Unfortunately this case may be a bit different. When you order this book by pressing just the Buy button, as in shipped and sold by Amazon, you get the counterfeit. I know because I ordered two copies last week. Both came and both were counterfeit.

> When you order this book by pressing just the Buy button, as in shipped and sold by Amazon, you get the counterfeit.

i think most items that are "sold and shipped by amazon" are commingled as well.

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

#74

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…

Unfortunately this case may be a bit different. When you order this book by pressing just the Buy button, as in shipped and sold by Amazon, you get the counterfeit. I know because I ordered two copies last week. Both came and both were counterfeit.

I think you're thinking Amazon separates its own SKUs from third party SKUs. That's not the case, it's all comingled.

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

#75
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, agreed 100%. I recently purchased 2 Lenovo 65w USB-C chargers. One came shrink-wrapped in a legitimate Lenovo box. The other was in a plain cardboard box with a prominent "Made in China" as its only branding. These were sold from the very same product page. When I told Amazon, I had to go to UPS to return the fake product to them to receive my refund, so not only do I have to purchase it again (obviously not fro…

For whatever reason, the counterfeiters have no problem lying about anything, except the "Made in China" label. I'm sure there's a good reason for this, but it's been the only consistent red-flag I've encountered.

I'd imagine customs can identify "that came on a boat from China but says 'made in USA'" more easily than "the internal electronics in that charger aren't up to snuff".

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

#76

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…

Unfortunately this case may be a bit different. When you order this book by pressing just the Buy button, as in shipped and sold by Amazon, you get the counterfeit. I know because I ordered two copies last week. Both came and both were counterfeit.

Do we know that Amazon doesn't comingle their "sold by amazon" stock with FBA third-party sellers? I can't see anywhere that they say they don't on some research, and it would seem to be an obvious thing to do.

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

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's not like shopping at Wal-Mart isn't without its own kinds of bait and switch practices. There was a time when I went to Wal-Mart to buy a new package of cheap cotton ankle socks every month or so, incrementally replenishing my cache, over the period of about a year. The exact same brand, make, and size of socks, what were ostensibly identical , would vary in their constituent materials at what seemed to be rando…

Yes, they certainly have their own supply chain issues, but at least they still tightly control it.

Even if product quality might vary (or even different items under the same upc), the product is never (ime) misrepresented, and I've never had any concern about getting a counterfeit.

Expecting 100% consistency.... Thats probably going to be a disappointment.

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

#78
post #72
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, agreed 100%. I recently purchased 2 Lenovo 65w USB-C chargers. One came shrink-wrapped in a legitimate Lenovo box. The other was in a plain cardboard box with a prominent "Made in China" as its only branding. These were sold from the very same product page. When I told Amazon, I had to go to UPS to return the fake product to them to receive my refund, so not only do I have to purchase it again (obviously not fro…

So was it a fake or just not retail packaging? Lenovo always sends me parts in plain cardboard boxes.

It was fake. The USB-C connector didn't even sit flush with the port and wiggled around.

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

#79
I have also noticed a decline of book quality since a few years ago. I'm not a frequent buyer but I noticed that two books that I purchased were either not clearly cut or have ALL characters badly printed. Both were purchased directly from Amazon.

I'm really reluctant to purchase any $50+ technical books from Amazon nowadays. I mean it does have some decent discount but the probability to get a low quality book is too high.

Ironically, third party second-hand book sellers (listed on Amazon), especially the ones with many sales, seem to be quite decent and I have yet to encounter one bad case.

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

#80

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…

Unfortunately this case may be a bit different. When you order this book by pressing just the Buy button, as in shipped and sold by Amazon, you get the counterfeit. I know because I ordered two copies last week. Both came and both were counterfeit.

Why is it different? That sounds like it could be exactly what mariomariomario described.
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