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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

#151

Post by cr0sh »

Havoc wrote: post #106
Timberwolf wrote: post #83

There are some categories of product I'm no longer willing to buy from Amazon: power cables, replacement chargers and batteries being the biggest offenders. They're such a minefield of fakery and shortcuts that are outright dangerous (e.g. UK plugs lacking fuses and with pins the wrong shape/size) that I'd rather have the extra work and expense of going to a local shop where I can inspect what I'm buying.

>power cables, replacement chargers and batteries being the biggest offenders. I've found Anker gear to be consistently solid on all three counts & frankly I trust it more than store bought. If I could even get it - wouldn't know where to start buying a 60W USB hub in a brick & mortar.

I second Anker. Their stuff is pretty top notch.

I tend to buy a lot of Arduino and RasPi stuff (plus all the fiddly bits) off Amazon, so there are a few sellers on there that I trust to get good "maker" electronics.

Finally - if you're looking for low-cost but good quality DC gear motors - look into TSINY motors. They're a Chinese manufacturer. They have various vendors on Ebay and Amazon; some are almost (or seem like) "direct from the manufacturer", while others are "further down the chain". I can't vouch for any of them - only for the manufacturer itself (I wouldn't have any qualms with dealing direct with them for a large purchase - but I'm just a hobbyist, so that won't happen).

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

#152

Post by iliketrains »

One of my Amazon orders was just re-ordered from Wallmart under my name and shipped by Wallmart to my address. I even got the Walmart receipt with the cheaper price in the package.

I was not happy about that, esp. that some stranger is entering my shipping info to some other retailers DB. It is also clearly against Amazon ToS. I have contacted Amazon, citing the ToS violation and concern about my personal data and the only thing they said was that they are sorry and will notify the seller bout this. Nothing happened.

Also, my honest review about this was taken down.

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

#153

Post by novaRom »

JohnFen wrote: post #129

I remember when Amazon was a relatively safe place to shop, and I didn't have to be as suspicious of what was sold there as I had to be in other places (such as eBay). But that stopped being the case a while back. I learned the hard way that I can't be so casual about buying from Amazon anymore. This has eliminated a large part of the advantage that Amazon had for me.

There are different price-comparison sites in Europe, so I usually go directly to idealo.de and there are so many choices! Amazon is not even the cheapest place.

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

#154

Post by jedieaston »

behringer wrote: post #118
Havoc wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Until you have a listing for your headphones that comes with 5,000 pre-made positive reviews! Fk. That's possible? How has Amazon not done anything about that? Like I can get keeping fake stuff out is a losing battle, but that seems like a rather significant design flaw if you can "transfer" reviews like that.

Amazon thinks it can automate itself out of these problems

It could, by saying that the category for a product in the store is immutable and that if you want to change it, you must create a new item. If that doesn't work, extend it to the item's title and removing any of the pictures of the product (you can add more, but it's append only). Should work fine to prevent this.

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

#155

Post by philip1209 »

Oh hey, that's me in the article :-)

After getting a fraudulent bag from Amazon, it was frustrating to have to fight for a refund. While my credit card would have easily processes a chargeback, I'm afraid do that. If you don't play by the rules of a marketplace, then you risk getting banned.

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

#156

Post by amznthrowaway4 »

caro_douglos wrote: post #122
Havoc wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Until you have a listing for your headphones that comes with 5,000 pre-made positive reviews! Fk. That's possible? How has Amazon not done anything about that? Like I can get keeping fake stuff out is a losing battle, but that seems like a rather significant design flaw if you can "transfer" reviews like that.

I've sat in on calls with Amazon Employees where they tell you to do exactly this to boost sales.......and then deny that they ever did it when you are contacted by the IP rights holder. https://brandservices.amazon.com/projectzero

What team did those people work for?

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

#157

Post by the-pigeon »

siruncledrew wrote: post #127
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…

Amazon's active "solution" is customer service to address these problems. "Oh jeez, you ordered a GoPro and got a "YiGorProHD" knockoff. Here, we'll credit your Amazon account with a gift card or try to resend you the item again. Thanks so much for your patience, I'm so sorry for the error." Amazon doesn't give a shit about everything being sold on the marketplace. They aren't going to track down who put the rotten e…

Which is why regulators need to step in.

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

#159

Post by oblib »

I quit Amazon Prime about 2-3 years ago and haven't purchased anything from their site after they let a seller send me a completely bogus product (it was supposed to be rose oil) and wouldn't let me rate and comment on it after I demanded a refund (which I got).

And the product is still there. And while it has a lot of buyers still exposing and complaining about it in the reviews Amazon has done nothing at all to stop the sellers.

I really don't see how Amazon cannot be held both complicit and liable in cases of blatant fraud like this, and one has to assume it's a pervasive and growing problem for buyers there.

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

#160

Post by novaRom »

blunte wrote: post #105

Bezos is famous for being a micromanager to the extreme (and a very good one reportedly, if rather tyrannical). So there is no question about whether he has been personally aware of this situation for years. This follows a similar pattern (MS/Gates) where very unscrupulous business practices are employed until the company becomes a juggernaut and can do anything it wants, and the top executives become fabulously weal…

It's called "whitening". You can buy reputation and clean up the memories. I laugh each time I see those newborn philanthropists who built its wealth using others incompetence, literally by deception and fraudulent practices.
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