Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#41

Post by Finnucane » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:44 PM UTC

sdfsafsaf wrote: post #36

After so many stories and experiences with fakes, why would anyone still buy items in Amazon that are otherwise typically found in pharmacies or grocery stores? In my experience Amazon ships: Food that is expired or fake Drugs that are expired or fake Batteries that are expired or fake I've even received fake diapers! Very well done fakes too: we only noticed because of a very small logo that are included in the real…

>After so many stories and experiences with fakes, why would anyone still buy items in Amazon

Or just this.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#42

Post by AaronNewcomer » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:46 PM UTC

chenning wrote: post #38

The more I think about it, the differences between Amazon and Walmart are much smaller than I once thought. They're both platforms upon which sellers can sell goods. One of the bigger differences seems to be quality assurance. More specifically, to what degree is each company burdened with that important responsibility? If some manufacturer put something unsafe into a food product, I would blame the manufacturer. See…

It is different. This is talking about Amazon Marketplace sellers. It would be more similar to if Walmart set up a flea market with tents and stuff in its parking lot and let anyone rent a booth and sell whatever they wanted. Walmart would also provide a centralized cash register at the end of the parking lot where people could pay for the items they got from the individual sellers. Walmart would then settle up with the sellers at the end of the day for the sales they rang up for them, while keeping a cut to cover the cost of the transaction and logistics for setting up the tents and keeping security guards on site.

This would be an equivalent analogy. Does THAT seem different than going into Walmart and buying from inside Walmart?

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#43

Post by Merrill » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:48 PM UTC

chenning wrote: post #38

The more I think about it, the differences between Amazon and Walmart are much smaller than I once thought. They're both platforms upon which sellers can sell goods. One of the bigger differences seems to be quality assurance. More specifically, to what degree is each company burdened with that important responsibility? If some manufacturer put something unsafe into a food product, I would blame the manufacturer. See…

Amazon's sold and fulfilled by third-party is basically like buying on Ebay.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#44

Post by throwaway_law » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:51 PM UTC

donatj wrote: post #15

rambojazz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That should not happen at all.

Why? Expired food is generally perfectly safe. The dates are quality indicators, not safety indicators. It’s just being wasteful. https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/how-to-tell-whet...

>Expired food is generally perfectly safe. The dates are quality indicators, not safety indicators. It’s just being wasteful.

It's my hard earned money...whether Amazon is selling me expired food that is a safety concern or just a quality concern issue (which FYI is not accurate for all foods), I don't want to be sold shit quality expired food. I certainly don't care to be told I'm being wasteful for not accepting and eating the shit quality expired food. They can separate and sell that for discount if they want, not mix it in with non-expired food at the same price...that's false advertising, fraud and deceptive trade practices.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#45

Post by gwbas1c » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:53 PM UTC

I don't get it: I've been buying Amazon prime for about 8 years now, and I don't encounter nearly the amount of problems that everyone else reports.

Yes, I've gotten a few bad items from Amazon. I've also gotten bad items from brick and mortar stores as well. (I recently had a bunch of items go bad from Trader Joe's long before their sell-by date.)

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#46

Post by Scoundreller » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:53 PM UTC

I definitely buy allergy pills off EBay that are close to expiry.

But the vendors will state this.

It’ll then take me another 4-5 years to go through the bottle of 500 :)

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#47

Post by lightedman » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:55 PM UTC

rietta wrote: post #22

This happened to us. My wife orders a lot of dog treats and human snacks on subscribe and save. They sent a package of nearly expired nut snack bars. Wife contacted customer service and they just sent another of the same. My wife is meticulous about checking sale by and it is a fight to keep her from throwing out recently expired foods. But I hadn't known a store to ship an expired product before this.

Sale By dates are not the same as Use By dates are not the same as Expired By dates. This link should help clear up a lot for you and your wife, and save you money/prevent waste in the long run.

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/fsis-content/inter...

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#48

Post by Liquix » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:56 PM UTC

Finnucane wrote: post #41

sdfsafsaf wrote: post #36

After so many stories and experiences with fakes, why would anyone still buy items in Amazon that are otherwise typically found in pharmacies or grocery stores? In my experience Amazon ships: Food that is expired or fake Drugs that are expired or fake Batteries that are expired or fake I've even received fake diapers! Very well done fakes too: we only noticed because of a very small logo that are included in the real…

>After so many stories and experiences with fakes, why would anyone still buy items in Amazon Or just this.

Because they have a crushing monopoly on US online commerce, and 80%+ of customers are happily consuming their cheap goods without knowing/caring about the quality/authenticity.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#49

Post by mtgx » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:56 PM UTC

dspillett wrote: post #34

A key problem with the complaints is that customer reviews don't† take into account the effect of commingling. The expired food might have come from a different seller initially, but you were sent it because of Amazon's supply line optimisations. Amazon will know but when you write your review or read someone else's, you won't. Same problem as counterfeit goods and commingling though iirc there are more control in pl…

Commingling also sounds like an Amazon problem created by itself. The customer shouldn't have to care or even think about that.

Re: Amazon is shipping expired food, customers say

#50

Post by danesparza » Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 1:56 PM UTC

gwbas1c wrote: post #45

I don't get it: I've been buying Amazon prime for about 8 years now, and I don't encounter nearly the amount of problems that everyone else reports. Yes, I've gotten a few bad items from Amazon. I've also gotten bad items from brick and mortar stores as well. (I recently had a bunch of items go bad from Trader Joe's long before their sell-by date.)

Do you live near a major city? I've wondered if there is a correlation between incidents like this and specific cities or if there is a difference between more/less populous areas of the U.S.