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Counterfeit books “shipped and sold by Amazon”?

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

#281

Post by behringer »

godarni wrote: post #254
toxik wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this happening everywhere. Loss leader, great product, next season the product cost the same and is now crap. Anecdote: in my country they sell Toppits brand cling film, and it used to be great. Now it’s absolutely useless! Doesn’t self adhere at all.

Not familiar with that brand of cling wrap, but they probably reformulated from PVDC to LDPE like Saran did due to toxicity concerns.

I found some old Saran wrap when I moved in to a new place from like the 70s and that stuff was the bomb. Anyway, I ban brands that do this, and I never buy them again. Kingston and PNY, you've lost me forever.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184253-ssd-shadiness-kin...

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

#282

Post by lone_haxx0r »

alok-g wrote: post #169
lone_haxx0r wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The investments they've done for something that is their resposibility in the first place.

If I go to a restaurant and the food is rancid, I wouldn't be appeased when the owner tells me "we've made investments to stop the food from going bad, we even bought a refrigerator!".

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

#283

Post by secabeen »

nebulous1 wrote: post #97
jcrawfordor wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I found this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/12/13/how-to-p... Which says they do commingle their "sold by Amazon" stock with their FBA stock. I'm actually pretty surprised, I had no idea this was the case.

Yep. They commingle because they use the UPC code as the identifying barcode for the item. If any party wants to avoid commingling, they either need to manufacture with a different barcode, or cover over the barcode with a different, vendor specific one.

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

#284

Post by secabeen »

ikeboy wrote: post #270
astura wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 phanto…

Okay, so lets assume that you're correct, and they track the original source of sales. How? I have never once received a mass-produced media item (like a book or DVD) with any additional sticker, label, or other indicating device. Without that label, when a packer scans an item just before they place it in a shipping box for the customer, how do they know which seller's inventory to decrement?

Alternately, how does the picker know which item on the shelf to select to ensure they have selected the right seller's unit? Look at how amazon stores books in their warehouses:

https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+warehouse+books&sourc...

Without a label on the book, how do they know which copy to pull from the shelf and put in the box?

I know Amazon says they track inventory, but prime shipped and sold-by-amazon.com boardgames arrive as counterfeits pretty regularly in the board game industry. You can find plenty of reports, with detailed pictures and manufacturer confirmation on BGG. There has to be something going on here, even if it may be more complicated than Amazon is commingling counterfeit and genuine articles.

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

#285

Post by ikeboy »

secabeen wrote: post #284
ikeboy wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 phanto…

Okay, so lets assume that you're correct, and they track the original source of sales. How? I have never once received a mass-produced media item (like a book or DVD) with any additional sticker, label, or other indicating device. Without that label, when a packer scans an item just before they place it in a shipping box for the customer, how do they know which seller's inventory to decrement? Alternately, how does t…

>Without that label, when a packer scans an item just before they place it in a shipping box for the customer, how do they know which seller's inventory to decrement?

It's very simple: they're stored in different locations. If seller A is on shelf B, and seller C is on shelf D, then even though the individual items are identical, if you pick up a unit on shelf D you know it's from seller B.

They don't store identical products from different sellers next to each other.

I agree there's a counterfeit issue. Amazon agrees there's an issue, and actually has it as a risk factor in their financial reports. But commingling isn't a significant contributor to it.

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

#286

Post by secabeen »

ikeboy wrote: post #285
secabeen wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, so lets assume that you're correct, and they track the original source of sales. How? I have never once received a mass-produced media item (like a book or DVD) with any additional sticker, label, or other indicating device. Without that label, when a packer scans an item just before they place it in a shipping box for the customer, how do they know which seller's inventory to decrement? Alternately, how does t…

>Without that label, when a packer scans an item just before they place it in a shipping box for the customer, how do they know which seller's inventory to decrement? It's very simple: they're stored in different locations. If seller A is on shelf B, and seller C is on shelf D, then even though the individual items are identical, if you pick up a unit on shelf D you know it's from seller B. They don't store identical…

That could work, but it's fairly brittle. If an item comes out of its location, you have no idea which seller it comes from. If an item is pulled incorrectly, and then set on the return-to-stock pile, you have no idea where to put it. Perhaps that is the issue; there are two copies, the counterfeit one gets pulled incorrectly, then when put back, they put it in the amazon.com location.

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

#287

Post by ikeboy »

secabeen wrote: post #286
ikeboy wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Without that label, when a packer scans an item just before they place it in a shipping box for the customer, how do they know which seller's inventory to decrement? It's very simple: they're stored in different locations. If seller A is on shelf B, and seller C is on shelf D, then even though the individual items are identical, if you pick up a unit on shelf D you know it's from seller B. They don't store identical…

That could work, but it's fairly brittle. If an item comes out of its location, you have no idea which seller it comes from. If an item is pulled incorrectly, and then set on the return-to-stock pile, you have no idea where to put it. Perhaps that is the issue; there are two copies, the counterfeit one gets pulled incorrectly, then when put back, they put it in the amazon.com location.

>If an item comes out of its location, you have no idea which seller it comes from.

You can check if the location it was supposed to be in is empty. From my understanding, the main issues happen during receiving; if it's received to the wrong shipment it'll be incorrectly marked in the system and unlikely to be fixed. Once it's received to the correct system everything else is fairly robust.

>If an item is pulled incorrectly, and then set on the return-to-stock pile, you have no idea where to put it.

If it's pulled, then there'd be a record of where it was pulled from, and that place would be empty.

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

#288

Post by RugnirViking »

dragonwriter wrote: post #249
mcv wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be the result of a clever trick by Amazon, but it makes Amazon directly responsible for selling fakes. Even without this, Amazon should be taking more responsibility to fight counterfeit products, but with this, they're making themselves directly responsible, and I don't see how they're not criminally liable now. Instead of hoping for Amazon to make this slightly less bad, I think legal action is called for…

> I don't see how they're not criminally liable now. Amazon's protection against state action has always been that it offers a good enough return experience that people will turn to it rather than public authorities with problems. It's not a legal shield so much as a practical one, though.

What is a "good enough" return experience? When I've tried to use it, I have to pay money and my own time to organise and ship things back to them. I only get that money back if they decide I was right to return the item. I can only return the item in a very short window after it is purchased.

People seem to talk about amazon as if it has some unprecedented customer service and that is why it's so successful. But this is the bare minimum for pretty much any shop. Is it different in America?

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

#289

Post by m463 »

criddell wrote: post #252
nextos wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is sadly so true. I have stopped using Amazon after 15 years due to the unacceptably high rate of counterfeit, grey market or used items I got on a daily basis. It's totally insane. I have even emailed Jeff Bezos and got into the trouble of talking to all middle managers. They don't care.

My family gets several Amazon packages every week and I don't think we've received a single counterfeit or gray market item. We have had other problems with our orders but Amazon has always fixed the problem very quickly. Some problems they seem unable to fix. I have a Nespresso machine and a few times now I've ordered a decaff selection and every single time they send me the caffeinated version of whatever I order.…

I always remember ordering small "apple" things and always getting fakes.

I mean apple cables, apple chargers, apple headphones.

This was probably > 5 years ago, I stopped ordering them after that.

I would assume there are other product categories still suffering the same problems.

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

#290

Post by TeMPOraL »

mnw21cam wrote: post #225
TeMPOraL wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Didn't know a burning match emits enough carbon monoxide to trigger the alarm. I always thought that with ample supply of oxygen, burning carbon compounds releases primarily carbon dioxide.
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