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Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

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

#261

Post by moultano »

TylerE wrote: post #123
jhbadger wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even for non-counterfeit books, Amazon defines "product" too broadly -- reviews for a book tend to combine both the printed and Kindle versions and you'll see people complaining about the formatting of the Kindle version on the page for the printed copy.

The one thing that really frustrates me is how poorly they curate editions. This is especially bad with translated works. Like - you're on the hardcopy version of a nice, modern translation, then you click over to the e-book version and it's some random bowlderdized public domain version from 150 years ago.

I was trying to buy a Grimm's Stories book for my kids and it was basically impossible. They had 5 different translations and selections of stories under the same entry.

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

#262

Post by markus_zhang »

ansible wrote: post #129
markus_zhang wrote: post #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 to…

I don't know if I'll buy any more technical books anymore, even in electronic form. O'Reilly doesn't sell e-books directly, which made me mad. You can get their subscription service, or buy the paper version. I ended up buying the book I wanted from Google.

I prefer books in paper though, better for my battered eyes...

BTW really hate those everything-as-subscription business models. Good thing they still have those. I'm afraid that they will disappear in 10-15 years.

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

#263

Post by markus_zhang »

Marsymars wrote: post #155
ansible wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if I'll buy any more technical books anymore, even in electronic form. O'Reilly doesn't sell e-books directly, which made me mad. You can get their subscription service, or buy the paper version. I ended up buying the book I wanted from Google.

> O'Reilly doesn't sell e-books directly, which made me mad. You can get their subscription service, or buy the paper version. On the plus side, all my technical book purchases are work expenses, and even though I only read the e-book versions, I can stock the shelf in my office with books that make it look like I'm reading Impressive Technical Things.

Lucky~~

Actually I'm going to ask around if I put book purchase under some of my expenses. Might be a bit hard as I work as a BA but am interested in more technical stuffs.

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

#264

Post by markus_zhang »

bensonn wrote: post #241

Amazon is a TRILLION dollar company with 230 billion in Revenue and over 10 billion in Profits. Bezos himself is worth over 100 billion dollars. Amazon is a technology leader. I normally am not a "wealth-hater" or whatever you want to call it, but Amazon (and Bezos personally) are on a whole different level. This is NOT a cash-strapped mom-and-pop struggling to understand a complex marketplace. This is a company so l…

Yeah. TBH I just want them to do business properly, you know, just give us regular quality books. I don't think I'm asking for a lot.

My local Chapters (A Canadian bookstore) closed door a few years ago, and some second-hand shops also closed their doors since then.

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

#265

Post by donarb »

ikeboy wrote: post #51
wsh wrote: 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.

There's no information on a settlement, only that both parties agree to drop the lawsuit.

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

#266

Post by dragonwriter »

ikeboy wrote: post #44
mc32 wrote: 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 )

That's not caring, it's redirecting blame.

If they were pushing for greater criminal penalties for distributing counterfeit goods, as a crime of negligence or strict liability, then I'd think they cared.

Or, if they just took tangible action to stop distributing counterfeits themselves, that would be even more convincing.

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

#267

Post by markus_zhang »

irrational wrote: post #251

Shipped and sold by Amazon is meaningless. Just search for "Amazon 3rd party commingling" Basically everything with the same UPC or SKU code is put into the same bin in the warehouses, regardless of where it came from. So legit and counterfeit inventory is stored in the same bin. When you order something it is the luck of the draw (literally) what you will get. This is a problem for anything Amazon sells, not just bo…

Nowadays I'm inclined more and more to purchase from local stores. At least I can investigate the merchandises before making the purchases. Plus I found out that they also have nice discounts from time to time.

Re-packaging and mailing back the poor quality purchases is the major pain point here, and I'm pretty sure Amazon is losing some business because of that. Maybe the revenue from books sales is not much comparing to the others, but potential buyers buy other merchandises too.

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

#268

Post by cthalupa »

billpollock wrote: post #194
cthalupa wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The se are coming direct from a printer to Amazon and being sold in place of the legitimate inventory. There is no third party to go after here. There's only one seller in this case. That is Amazon. No, it's not. Even if it says "Shipped and sold by Amazon", it does not mean that the item originated from Amazon's purchase. Amazon considers co-mingled inventory as fungible. Let's say Amazon has 10 warehouses, and eve…

Thank you for your comment but with all due respect I'm afraid that this is a unique case. These are counterfeit copies. They're not coming from legitimate suppliers. Frankly we don't care who resells our books as long as they're selling legitimate copies. These are not. I've been dealing with this issue with Amazon since 2017. It's not that what you're describing doesn't happen but if this is like previous cases thi…

Can you please explain what evidence you have that this is no co-mingling? You have a ton of people selling copies of your books - how do you know that the counterfeit copies you are receiving come from the Amazon supply chain and are not co-mingled inventory?

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

#269

Post by cthalupa »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #217
cthalupa wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The se are coming direct from a printer to Amazon and being sold in place of the legitimate inventory. There is no third party to go after here. There's only one seller in this case. That is Amazon. No, it's not. Even if it says "Shipped and sold by Amazon", it does not mean that the item originated from Amazon's purchase. Amazon considers co-mingled inventory as fungible. Let's say Amazon has 10 warehouses, and eve…

Putting aside the strong allegations made by No Starch Press for a moment. This is such a bullshit rationalisation. If the product is treated as fungible, and it doesn't matter physically who sourced the item then of course Amazon is responsible for selling / fulfilling the counterfeit product because, as you say, it doesn’t matter physically who sourced the product . Amazon is aware of this issue, but fixing it brea…

I'm explaining how it works in theory, not rationalizing the current situation as okay.

I do think it's unfair to say Amazon isn't attempting to fight this - someone linked a website in here that shows them as employing thousands of people and spending hundreds of millions of dollars in fighting it. It just seems like they're not currently winning the arms race.

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

#270

Post by ikeboy »

astura wrote: post #246
ikeboy wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>virtually no one actually experiencing it By "virtually no one" you mean "virtually everyone." Because what I described is very common. I've experienced it and I sell very little on Amazon - less than 100 sales a year. Less than 50 items a year in the past several years. >you should report the discrepancy to Amazon. How about you actually pay attention to people's experiences before discounting them? The author of t…

What exactly have you experienced that makes you so confident that Amazon is lying about tracking the original source of manufacturer barcode products?

I've sold millions on Amazon and am friends with many sellers who've collectively sold at least hundreds of millions. I've heard many people with issues with inauthentic complaints. I've never heard of one that can be traced back to commingling.

I've dealt with phantom inventory many times. The correct thing to do is report it. It doesn't always get fixed. The fact that they occasionally have stranded inventory and assign it to a seller doesn't mean they don't generally track transfers of manufacturer barcode inventory, like they say they do. They never claim inventory receiving is perfect. They do claim they track the original source of sales, and there's no reason to think it's not true.

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