Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What exactly is the proposed solution? Start requiring taxpayer IDs?
They do. Have you ever tried to sign up for an account?
No, I haven't. I'm not a retailer.
Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
201–210 of 403 posts
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#202Amazon's fulfilment has also become shockingly bad. Most items are shipped in lightly-padded manila envelopes resulting in high percentage of damaged goods if you order books[1], CDs/DVDs/BluRays, video games, or anything else where the packaging is part of the product. eBay is a much better experience in this regard. [1] In an ironic twist, I absolutely refuse to buy books from Amazon anymore.
Ironically as well, I tend to use alternative sites to buy books. I prefer ThriftBooks and Powells for secondhand used books, and Barnes and Noble for new ones (of which I buy only on sale). What do people here use?
I've been buying used copies of the paperbacks my kids need for school from discoverbooks.com
they often have notes, highlighting, and dogears -- perfect for our use-case
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#203There 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 wish Anker sold direct on their site (and shipped to Canada) because searching for Anker products on Amazon almost invariably turns up a sponsored, cheap knock off and an "Amazon Basics" product as the #1 and #2 results. I can't imagine they're happy about that either.
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon isn't close to being cheapest. Now, many of the things I shop for are twice the price of other internet businesses. Some of those businesses charge for shipping, but they are still cheaper than Amazon. Amazon has really lost their way this year. I won't be buying a single thing for Xmas from them.
90% of the stuff I buy on Amazon is supplements, and they deliver the worse possible experience. First, stuff constantly goes off their Subscribe & Save program, second, often they can't deliver supplements, which are readily available elsewhere. They know exactly how much stock they need for the next month, but they do no effort to deliver it, which essentially forces me to leave Amazon. Other things are hit-and-mis…
Never EVER buy food products on Amazon, you are playing russian roulette with your life, so much fake/counterfeit/poison.
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
My favourite example of this are cheap digital PH meters: https://www.amazon.com/Accuracy-Measuring-Household-Drinking... If you can find any listings with real reviews, it turns out that these are pretty terrible, usually floating around 2-3 stars. Magically, there are consistently listings with 4.5+ stars and thousands of reviews for a relatively niche, barely functional product.
Based on uploaded photos that product seems to have a past life as a cutting board, a drying rack, a canopy for a kids bed, some type of dagger (letter opener?) and a lancet. That’s incredible , and the fact that someone hasn’t seen that inside Amazon and said “we have a huge problem” makes me suspect Amazon doesn’t regard it as a problem at all.
Just found an old review on the same page for a blood sugar meter! (Go to the one star reviews, it appears they were poor quality and not accurate.)
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#206Forget 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…
I bought a 2kW inverter on AliExpress and it was top notch.
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also flies in the face of Amazon's promise of convenience and "2-day delivery" guarantees when you have to have the same item shipped to you twice and make the trip to the post office to return the first one.
when I bough a TV on Amazon, the screen was broke. I asked for another, and the replacement... has a broken screen. Returned both, and bought for $50 more on Bestbuy, but it came intact
For huge things like TVs I think it makes more sense to buy in in person at BestBuy or Costco.
Costco's return policy alone is a big advantage. Plus they have so many TVs in the store where you can see them in operation.
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#208My favorite Amazon scam is the Amazon Ship of Theseus[0]. You sell a product, normally a cheap electronic, and build up a decent corpus of positive reviews. A good example is a USB-C cable or something. Then you decide you want to sell a new product in a more competitive subcategory, like Bluetooth Headphones. You then take the _existing_ listing and change it piece by piece. First the pictures, then the title, then…
Yup, I use Best Buy for all electronic purchases now. They have a great return policy and I enjoy that most things I could want are available same day.
I pretty much only rely on Amazon for Kindle purchases now or to read reviews on big ticket items that I'm curious about.
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#209Suddenly, Amazon's massive presence is also Amazon's weak point of entry to encumber the experience.
Chinese sellers flock to Amazon to assert their seller positions in Amazon's marketplace by doing whatever is necessary to ensure product ranking and profit. They have the means, labor, and production at their disposal, which is a competitive advantage that will only further cement their dominance.
Amazon contractors like warehouse workers and delivery agents couldn't give less of a shit about the packaging or delivery of items.
The only thing from stopping sellers from going full-Taobao and just openly selling/promoting every kind of brand-name fake, like replica North Face, Louis Vuitton, and Apple, to US consumers is the legal attitude of IP in the US compared to China.
Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes
#210My favorite Amazon scam is the Amazon Ship of Theseus[0]. You sell a product, normally a cheap electronic, and build up a decent corpus of positive reviews. A good example is a USB-C cable or something. Then you decide you want to sell a new product in a more competitive subcategory, like Bluetooth Headphones. You then take the _existing_ listing and change it piece by piece. First the pictures, then the title, then…
There's also a more subtle version of this, where the seller leaves the listing the same, but once enough positive reviews have accumulated they move production to a cheaper factory and use cheaper materials.
So you might see older reviews for a pair of boots that say they're made from sturdy materials with good stitching, followed by later reviews saying that they didn't match the advertised sizing and pictures, or that they just fell apart after a couple weeks of use.