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Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#2

Post by kilo_bravo_3 »

>Hermès’s $640 Clic H Bracelet is one of those luxury baubles that’s financially out of reach for most shoppers. So how is it that Amazon shoppers could recently search for the Hermès piece by name and find a bracelet for just $24.99 on the e-commerce giant’s website?

I think this is why I've never received anything fake from Amazon.

I'm not stupid enough to think I can get something priced at $640 for $25.

>Still, Philip Thomas recently bought a counterfeit Novel Duffle bag from Herschel Supply Co., which generally retails for $85. The New York-based tech executive didn’t care much about color as he browsed, so he scrolled through the various options to pick a black version available for $45.10, even though it meant waiting three weeks for delivery.

I also am not stupid enough to think that I can get something priced at $85 for $45 and I know that three weeks means a "China ePacket" full of shit.

Even the people who complain about getting fake SD cards must know that a 256GB "not eligible for prime", 2-3 week delivery time, SD card that only cost them $9.99 has got to be a scam, right?

Right?!??

I must either be using Amazon wrong or have some magical superpower that causes me to be able to comprehend what is going on around me.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#3

Post by rasz »

kilo_bravo_3 wrote: post #2

>Hermès’s $640 Clic H Bracelet is one of those luxury baubles that’s financially out of reach for most shoppers. So how is it that Amazon shoppers could recently search for the Hermès piece by name and find a bracelet for just $24.99 on the e-commerce giant’s website? I think this is why I've never received anything fake from Amazon. I'm not stupid enough to think I can get something priced at $640 for $25. >Still, P…

This is one side of the equation, the other is people ordering the real thing, repackaging it with fake from aliexpress and returning for full refund. More enterprising folks sign up as Amazon supplier, register for some expensive products, ship real thing once or twice and then start throwing more and more fakes into their shipments, all nicely co-mingled by Amazon.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#7

Post by jjoonathan »

crb002 wrote: post #6

Manufacturers need to start issuing UUIDs and some sort of centralized or decentralized API to track ownership. Surprised the high end purse manufacturers haven’t done this.

Many do, but only use it when convenient.

For instance, Fitbit used "no recipt => potential fake" to flake on the warranty for my $300 watch. They absolutely do keep and track serial numbers because actual fakes get detected and kicked out of the fitbit app, but the fact that this database isn't public still lets them use fakes as scapegoats when convenient. Best of both worlds!

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#10

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

I think this article seems like a good example of editorial independence. Even though both Amazon and the Washington Post are pretty much owned by the same person, the Washington Post has published a pretty negative article about Amazon.
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