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

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

#61

Post by CamelCaseName »

ikeboy wrote: post #34
privateSFacct wrote: post #22

All the ballyhoo about Amazon Transparency and UUID per item. This is a relatively well solved issue in other areas. Make become a seller a bit more difficult with some skin in the game ($2,500 deposit if you sell more than 15 items per year? In person identity verification?). Sellers used to meet with buyers agents (cost money and added identities). Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fa…

>Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fake junk) enough times -> gone from marketplace and hard to get back in. This is what they have now. Many sellers get suspended over used sold as new and inauthentic complaints. They also have velocity reviews; if your sales increase too quickly you may get suspended for a bit.

I think you're missing the key part:

>hard to get back in

It's been discussed to death, by overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon.

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

#63

Post by toasterlovin »

jklinger410 wrote: post #45
nikolay wrote: post #35

Except that Amazon is no longer the cheapest source for many products. Their outrageous storage and fulfillment fees make most of their pricing higher than local store deals or even manufacturer's own websites.

Came here for this. Amazon actually buries the cheapest price products in many searches I have done. eBay is not any better at this point. They are all squeezing to show higher priced products so they can make more money, obviously. Hate to say this but Walmart still seems committed to providing the lowest prices.

FWIW, speaking as a seller, the conventional wisdom is that number of separate orders for a given item as a result of a given search term is the primary driver of search result ranking. Not revenue maximization, in other words.

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

#64

Post by Glyptodon »

Forget counterfeits for a second.

Even trying to find something like an ultrasonic cleaner on Amazon is like straight going through AliExpress.

But wait! Unless you're buying a very very expensive lab model all the "name brands" look to be sourcing the same way and adding a label too. So the name brands are AliExpress with maybe better QC and 200% markup.

But wait! Even looking everywhere else it's the same situation as Amazon!

It's almost like the entire marketplace is overrun with untrustworthy cheap crap no matter where you shop and getting something you can trust is decent is only for large institutional or business actors and the wealthy.

Which is to say I think the problem is bigger than just Amazon.

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

#65

Post by Red_Leaves_Flyy »

Jestar342 wrote: post #5

Amazon probably don't care about the authenticity of the items, only that _they_ are fulfilling and shipping them.

I find this hard to believe. Amazon happily sells returns missing parts as new, or ships counterfeits sold and fulfilled by Amazon for months despite reports in the reviews and subsequent returns. I should know, I've had both happen repeatedly on different items.

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

#66

Post by w457uiw4gftyi »

ikeboy wrote: post #34
privateSFacct wrote: post #22

All the ballyhoo about Amazon Transparency and UUID per item. This is a relatively well solved issue in other areas. Make become a seller a bit more difficult with some skin in the game ($2,500 deposit if you sell more than 15 items per year? In person identity verification?). Sellers used to meet with buyers agents (cost money and added identities). Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fa…

>Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fake junk) enough times -> gone from marketplace and hard to get back in. This is what they have now. Many sellers get suspended over used sold as new and inauthentic complaints. They also have velocity reviews; if your sales increase too quickly you may get suspended for a bit.

Yeah, the difficult part is that the seller just returns under a different name. Enough complaints have come in about marketplace seller GreatElectronics4U? OK, Amazon bans/suspends GreatElectronics4U and the guy behind it starts selling stuff as AllTheBestElectronics4U. Rinse and repeat.

This isn't like the old days when a ban on doing business under your current name would be a death blow ... start a new seller account and your junk still shows up in Amazon search results, just like it did yesterday.

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

#67

Post by ikeboy »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #61
ikeboy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fake junk) enough times -> gone from marketplace and hard to get back in. This is what they have now. Many sellers get suspended over used sold as new and inauthentic complaints. They also have velocity reviews; if your sales increase too quickly you may get suspended for a bit.

I think you're missing the key part: >hard to get back in It's been discussed to death, by overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon.

>It's been discussed to death

Where?

>overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon.

Why would it be any easier for an overseas seller to start a new account after being banned? Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it. Sellers can get around that by having employees or relatives open accounts in their name. This is just as easy or difficult in the US as elsewhere. Regardless, it's something Amazon can't completely fix: they need a way to determine an account is related to a previously banned account. When they do determine that they will quickly ban the new account.

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

#68

Post by Red_Leaves_Flyy »

throwaway35784 wrote: post #47
chadash wrote: post #18

The article talks about fake Hermes bracelets being sold for $25, when a real one is closer to $600. It's obviously a counterfeit. Does Amazon not have any requirement for a human to review a listing before allowing it up for sale?

And they are both worthless pieces of jewelry. Who really cares about fake fake stuff? Some counterfeit stuff causes real harm though. Counterfeit electronics can catch on fire. Food could poison you.

And lead contaminated toys could give children lead poisoning, developmental delays, etc. I'm just waiting for Amazon to get sued for their reckless endangerment.

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

#69

Post by nkrisc »

ss64 wrote: post #28
DownGoat wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it not also a thing that if you let Amazon keep your stock as a supplier, customer might get another suppliers item as they were kept together? So if I ordered a book from Amazon from AmazingVendor, Amazon might actually send me an item from ScummyVendor's stock which sold the same book.

That only happens when one or more of the 3rd party sellers are part of the "Fullfillment by Amazon" program (FBA). If I was a lawmaker I would make FBA illegal, it is an open door for untraceable counterfeits. I think its the primary reason we are seeing major brands like Nike and Birkenstock walking away from Amazon.

Or just hold Amazon accountable for the products they ship and sell through their website. As a consumer I don't care about the logistics of fulfillment; I went to Amazon.com and paid money to Amazon.com, ergo I bought it from Amazon.com and they should be accountable.

Then let Amazon sort it out with their suppliers if they're receiving counterfeit goods from them. If Walmart was receiving counterfeit goods from supplier for their stores, they would probably cut ties with those suppliers.

This problem exists because Amazon is not being held accountable for what they sell to consumers.

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

#70

Post by ikeboy »

w457uiw4gftyi wrote: post #66
ikeboy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fake junk) enough times -> gone from marketplace and hard to get back in. This is what they have now. Many sellers get suspended over used sold as new and inauthentic complaints. They also have velocity reviews; if your sales increase too quickly you may get suspended for a bit.

Yeah, the difficult part is that the seller just returns under a different name. Enough complaints have come in about marketplace seller GreatElectronics4U? OK, Amazon bans/suspends GreatElectronics4U and the guy behind it starts selling stuff as AllTheBestElectronics4U. Rinse and repeat. This isn't like the old days when a ban on doing business under your current name would be a death blow ... start a new seller acc…

What exactly is the proposed solution? Amazon already requires ID verification to open new accounts, and will ban accounts that they can link to old banned accounts.
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