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Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

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

#161

Post by dangrossman »

beerandt wrote: post #70
toast0 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Walmart has integrated a 3rd party marketplace onto their site too; so who knows when they will start fulfilled by Walmart and comingling. There's also persistent stories of Walmart demanding lower priced items and being ok with the lower quality, not always with different UPCs.

The funny thing about Walmart 3rd party, is it always seems to be drop shipped by a competitor, and comes in a clearly branded box. I've gotten boxes from Newegg, Target, Wayfair, and even Sam's Club. Still a better option than Amazon (for now, at least).

This is the legacy Wal-Mart took over by acquiring Jet.com in 2016. They were a brand new site with millions of products in their catalog, yet didn't actually stock a huge portion of them. When I bought a wifi router from Jet, they simply ordered it for me from the Newegg website, and paid Newegg more than I paid Jet. It arrived in the Newegg box with the Newegg invoice.

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

#162

Post by PhasmaFelis »

ikeboy wrote: post #95
wongarsu wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the product is a "Philips Boilermaster 3000" kettle then this is true (if we ignore counterfeits). But not all Amazon products work that way. The "t-shirt with eagle print" could be made by a number of companies with wildly varying quality, all fitting this product description. Similarly there are lots of 10m Cat 7 S/FTP lan cables.

If you buy a generic product with no brand name and no intellectual property, then all you have is the pictures. If they all look the same, they could technically be different quality but there's no reason to expect a certain level of quality without a brand name.

You should expect to get the same product if you buy the same product, though, whatever the quality.

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

#164

Post by ikeboy »

dbcurtis wrote: post #157
ikeboy wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but that's a problem with or without commingling. My point was that commingling doesn't contribute significantly to the counterfeit problem. Regarding your points: 1. Amazon takes action when a brand complains, even with only a single complaint. Sellers have to prove the complaint is wrong to be allowed to continue to sell the product, or in some cases to be reinstated. Usually this is done by providing an invoi…

>1. Amazon takes action when a brand complains, even with only a single complaint. The owner of No Starch Press shows up at a lot of CS shows and other shows. Next time you are at one, seek him out for a chat. Tell him Anazon takes action after a single complaint. Be prepared for him to disabuse you of your misconceptions. Source: I heard his story first-hand at PyCon.

I'd be fascinated to know why he didn't sue Amazon, if they're refusing to process DMCA takedowns. My experience is that if anything, it's too easy to file a case and brands abuse this to get rid of grey market sellers that are selling authentic products.

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

#165

Post by lone_haxx0r »

alok-g wrote: post #163

Amazon's position and efforts against counterfeits: https://www.aboutamazon.com/our-company/our-positions

Wow. Are they fucking serious?

They blame federal law for not prosecuting counterfeiters instead of themselves for allowing them to run rampant on their website? (i.e. They want the federal government to do their house-cleaning for them.)

I never thought I'd read such a dumb excuse from a company this big.

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

#167

Post by wpietri »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #116
newnewpdro wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There's quite a good book I read a while ago about store-brand supply chains called Where the Underpants Come From [1]. It's a travelogue where the author travels through Asia tracing the entire logistical chain for a pair of underpants. It's a fun read and covers a lot of this stuff. > There's basically no persistence to what the SKU actually represents. I disagree. The SKU represents generic ankle socks. They're a…

What newnewpdro describes is definitely not a commoditized product. Real commodities have exacting standards. E.g., US grain standards: https://www.gipsa.usda.gov/fgis/usstandards.aspx

Or the standards on commodity exchanges, like Kansas City Hard Red Winter Wheat Futures, which come in 5,000 bushel lots and require a deliverable grade of "No. 2 at contract price with a maximum of 10 IDK per 100 grams; No. 1 at a 1 1/2-cent premium. Deliverable grades of HRW shall contain a minimum 11% protein level. However, protein levels of less than 11%, but equal to or greater than 10.5% are deliverable at a ten cent (10¢) discount to contract price. Protein levels of less than 10.5% are not deliverable." -- from https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/agricultural/files/fact-car...

Real-world commodities have exacting standards precisely to prevent this kind of nonsense.

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

#168

Post by thaumasiotes »

lkschubert8 wrote: post #53
ikeboy wrote: 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.

> I suspect that would ruin their whole 2-day/1-day shipping bit.

They are no longer offering 1-day shipping. When I signed up for prime, one of the benefits was discounted 1-day shipping on items for which the free 2-day shipping wasn't fast enough. I recently had need of that, and learned that the options are now (1) "prime shipping", with no particular service guarantee. There is no second option. I contacted customer service multiple times asking why I couldn't choose 1-day shipping and was told "because the item is out of stock. There is only one item left in stock, that means the item is out of stock".

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

#169

Post by alok-g »

lone_haxx0r wrote: post #165
alok-g wrote: post #163

Amazon's position and efforts against counterfeits: https://www.aboutamazon.com/our-company/our-positions

Wow. Are they fucking serious? They blame federal law for not prosecuting counterfeiters instead of themselves for allowing them to run rampant on their website? (i.e. They want the federal government to do their house-cleaning for them.) I never thought I'd read such a dumb excuse from a company this big.

You seem to have missed the part about the investments they have made for the same, perhaps doing themselves what you suggest.

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

#170

Post by sgustard »

newnewpdro wrote: post #8

I wanted to buy an authentic copy of the Ashley Book of Knots. When I searched Amazon it became so obvious that most the matches were deliberately of ambiguous provenance and authenticity that I simply abandoned the whole idea and haven't bought a thing on Amazon since. This was over a year ago.

So I just did that search and the first hit is this; can you explain what I should be looking for?

https://www.amazon.com/Ashley-Book-Knots-Clifford-W/dp/03850...

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