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

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

#221

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:09 AM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #175

astura wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a misconception - they claim to track inventory source, but I don't believe it for a second. There are warnings all over seller blogs and forums not to commingle inventory because you'll be held responsible if Amazon sends another seller's counterfeit product to a buyer on your behalf. People have experienced this en mass - including myself, I was dinged for selling a "generic" item instead of the name brand…

There's lots of warnings about that, and virtually no one actually experiencing it. Generic complaints typically come from customer complaints. Customers complain even when the product is authentic. There's nothing in your story to suggest commingling is the issue. Phantom inventory is an issue, usually arising when someone else's units were checked into your inventory. There's always a record of that, and you should…

[deleted]

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

#222

Post by gdy » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:25 AM UTC

nextos wrote: post #101

paulcole wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could you identify a grey market item? And what/how much were you ordering that this was a daily issue?

At some point I was using Amazon for almost all shopping. Obviously daily is an oxymoron, but it'd happen several times a month. I can identify grey market items easily. Buy an item in Amazon UK of product X and get version packed to be sold in Italy (with all labels in Italian) or Russian (with all labels in Russian), instead of the UK version. This is because some smart supplier is doing arbitrage.

You might want to look up the definition of 'oxymoron'

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

#223

Post by teddyh » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 10:53 AM UTC

cayblood wrote: post #133

Seems like they could greatly reduce fraud by using RFID stickers to authenticate manufacturer-authorized products.

Why do you assume that counterfeiters won’t also have RFID stickers? This is like RFC 3514 all over again.

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

#224

Post by 0898 » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 11:00 AM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #207

lawkwok wrote: 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…

There seems to be a scam where product pages are sold off to host a completely different item. They usually have lots of 5 star reviews and high search rank but the reviews are all talking about something different than what's now being sold. I thought it was a bug at first but I've seen this too often. I don't understand how Amazon doesn't know this is happening, or why it even lets it happen in the first place. Pro…

I was looking through some old Amazon orders last night. A pair of MPow bluetooth headphones I bought in 2013 now appear as an MPow fitness tracker.

It seems like sellers recycle old listings to keep their reviews.

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

#225

Post by mnw21cam » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 11:07 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #18

Waterluvian wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or you could just strike a match underneath the detector, which is what the manual for my detector says to do. Set it off after a few seconds.

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

#226

Post by iends » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 11:36 AM UTC

rietta wrote: post #37

Just this year, one of my team members ordered a Blue Yeti microphone off Amazon. We were in a WebRTC meeting when it arrived and I watched him excitedly open it and his facial expression turn sour because it was a glass jar in a Blue Yeti box!!! The sadder part is he left it in the kitchen at his home with the intention of dealing with it later and his dad, not knowing what it was threw it out with the garbage. Ther…

Couldn’t he just have replaced it with another glass jar?

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

#227

Post by wilde » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 11:40 AM UTC

alok-g wrote: post #214

masonic wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their counterfeit problem is rooted in policy , not technology.

I would like to hear more. What policy? :-)

Probably the co-mingled inventory policy.

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

#228

Post by carlmr » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 11:46 AM UTC

I already received a counterfeit book. The printing quality and alignment looked like it was copied.

Amazon doesn't even have the option to say it wasn't delivered but instead a fake was delivered.

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

#229

Post by eecc » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 11:47 AM UTC

I don't care what particular business strategy or operational process makes this happens. This is Piracy. This is what Copyright was originally conceived to fight against.

Amazon should be slapped with the same RIAA/MPAA-style grotesquely theatrical / existential threat fines that random individuals were treated with. Otherwise is the same old canis canem non est

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

#230

Post by matwood » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 11:49 AM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #40

mariomariomario wrote: post #24

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...

> Can people who know they got a knock-off return the item for a legit copy?

I have with a camera lens, but Amazon didn't honor the original price. I had to pay the difference for the 'real' version. In my case though, it was not a knock off or grey market, but the seller was selling the cheap version of the same lens as the more expensive version.

That was my last time buying anything camera related on Amazon since it was impossible to ever get the right thing on the first try. I only use Adorama or B&H now.