Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 403 posts

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

#331

Post by LoSboccacc »

post_break wrote: post #90
Glyptodon wrote: post #64

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…

An ultrasonic cleaner is like a hair dyer though. It's not rocket science it's like banging rocks together. My $100 ultrasonic cleaner I have for cleaning brass that is for reloading ammo probably does the same work as the cheap no name brands just with different settings. My no name chinese ozone machine works great for detailing cars. If you're going to bring this up stick with a product that is actually going to b…

oh I'm sure the no brand knockoffs work, for a time at least.

but durability is not the only concern. for example I wouldn't buy something that needs to be plugged in or powered on for extended unsupervised periods of has a risk of spontaneous combustion like batteries

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

#332

Post by blunte »

chihuahua wrote: post #266
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…

What's funny about this article is that it's Bezos' own newspaper that's calling him out

I just realized that also! I'm impressed at that...

The author, Jay Greene, has written a number of articles that show Amazon not so favorably. This suggests some editorial freedom/neutrality at WaPo, which is positive.

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

#333

Post by 8bitsrule »

Glyptodon wrote: post #64

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…

> the problem is bigger than just Amazon.

Neil Young, 1994 (25 years).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovum-GjYWKQ

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

#334

Post by tristor »

dharmab wrote: post #277
agumonkey wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fitting description of audio devices. What used to fill a box is now a 5mm chipset. The perverse effect is that the chip has 20x more options than the original device, so it looks better, but the quality and longevity may very well be degraded in disguise.

I have to laugh at how large my receiver is when I can peek into the "cooling vents" and clearly see a fairly small solid state board and a ton of empty space.

Depending on your receiver, that may be because it’s trying to conform to chassis sizing requirements to be rack mountable (often via audio shelves, not rails). In the audio world many things use 19” comm racks, much like servers do.

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

#335

Post by cwp »

download13 wrote: post #210
habosa wrote: post #77

My 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…

I wonder how much of this is because Amazon started out selling books and CDs. Those things don't really have quality issues, and are pretty much fungible. Now, decades into their "everything store" strategy, they're still trying to treat everything like books.

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

#336

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

ericb wrote: post #310
amznthrowaway4 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are literally several thousand people who work on marketplace fraud and quality issues. It's a huge concern.

pssht. I emailed jeff@amazon.com to complain about the general problem of counterfeit BeyBlades and provided links to scam items. Rather than take down the scam links, or even acknowledge the problem which was causing my inability to trust amazon for these purchases, the response was that they could refund any specific items I bought that were scams. Welcome to Day Two

I'm not seeing enough here about how Jeff Bezos is actively supporting and creating a system that enables and promotes fraud.

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

#337

Post by tristor »

Glyptodon wrote: post #64

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…

You are correct. This extends into all facets of the market. Take aftermarket car parts. The only way to really get quality is to build relationships locally and buy things you can watch being made. There’s a lot of “made in US” parts that are just assembled from the same garbage all the ChinaBay “brands” use.

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

#338

Post by perl4ever »

mmanfrin wrote: post #131
habosa wrote: post #77

My 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…

ASUS did this with their routers, and pooled reviews by making all of their routers different variants of each other, even if completely different. I was annoyed because I had an unbelievably shitty experience with one of their (very expensive prosumer) routers. The silver lining, for me, is that I was so fucking annoyed with ASUS support that I angrily shipped it back to Amazon, bought Ubiquiti equipment, and experi…

My former employer (a Fortune 500 company) buried the mostly terrible reviews on Glassdoor for our division by merging them with the parent company...

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

#339

Post by perl4ever »

codyb wrote: post #309
bamboozled wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that is' really hard to find things on there now. You have to be very specific about what you want, even then it's not easy to find a legitimate seller who ships on time (unless it's something very popular and standard). I often find things at super cheap prices which makes me skeptical about the authenticity to be honest. I find there are an abundant number of online specialty stores for things I'm looking…

Yea I like shopping in person. Just gets me out of the house (especially key when you work from home), I get to examine things before I buy them, get some social interaction, and support local businesses. Looks like similar 8 inch cake pans to what I purchases from Sur La Table recently are about 14 dollars on Amazon, compared to what I paid which was 20. There’s also 10 dollar versions similar to the 15 dollar ones…

"Yea I like shopping in person."

I try to avoid Amazon lately, but the last time I wanted a small piece of furniture I tried a bunch of places, and none of them had anything in their showroom. They had a dozen options on their websites, but I was unwilling to buy something without seeing it up close.

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

#340

Post by perl4ever »

post_break wrote: post #162
Glyptodon wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually think the hair dryer comparison is fairly apt, but not in the way you describe. Everyone wants their hair dryer to be decent, last a good while, and not cost an arm and a leg. You also really don't want one that will start a fire, sound louder than a jet engine, take forever to heat up, etc. When you have a lousy one it's miserable. So you want there to be a quality baseline and then know what's reasonable…

So now the difference is it has to last long? My $80 ozone machine has been going for 2 years straight now without issue. The whole point of my comment is that just because it's no name doesn't mean it's junk, and we should be so lucky to get some choice. I can get it delivered to my door tomorrow. Hell go back 20 years and I wouldn't even know where to buy an ozone machine or ultrasonic cleaner like I have now.

I bought a pair of shoes for work for $30 (locally, not mail order) and thought they were a pretty good deal. Obviously some synthetic and not real leather, and I was fine with that. Nor did I expect to resole them forever.

But six months later, they are starting to pull apart.

This isn't a law of nature; I have inexpensive Chinese made boots that are like ten years old and might as well be made of iron.

Most people underestimate the variables that can go wrong in a product, even the simplest. I bought grocery store brand aluminum foil once, thinking "what can Reynolds possibly offer other than the brand name"? What could be more of a commodity? Well, the foil wasn't wrapped on the roll correctly...

Post reply on HN