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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

#381

Post by rahimnathwani »

yuubi wrote: post #380
rahimnathwani wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They keep all products with the same ID in one area" No they don't. Google 'random stow' and you'll find articles about how Amazon stores incoming items. They are stowed somewhat randomly, but scanned as they are stowed. So the system knows where to find each unit again, and can use that to optimize picking paths.

By default, the system optimizes for speed and doesn't ensure that seller A's customers get the units sent by seller A and B's customers get those sent by B. This means that in a discussion about provenance of specific units, this is a distinction without a difference (or alternatively, all units of a product are in one area, which isn't necessarily physically contiguous in space).

Yes, my point is irrelevant to the main discussion about commingling.

I was commenting only because most people make the same false assumption (that all units of X in warehouse Y are stored together) and find the random stow model interesting when told about it.

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

#382

Post by wcfields »

Beyond counterfeits as mentioned another huge issue is getting someone else's return.

I've been shopping for a bed frame and it's shocking how many people got bed bugs from a bed frame they bought from Amazon. Mattress covers/protectors are just as bad with people complaining of fleas and stains.

I brought this up at work and I was speaking to some of my co-workers with kids, ditto goes for buying a high-chair to have one come with crud and food all over it in the box.

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

#383

Post by nonplus »

jcrites wrote: post #269
owenmarshall wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I consider it a problem. This appears to be an instance of listing abuse. I'd encourage people to report listing abuse if they come across it. I believe these are the correct instructions: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200444420 Situations where you're fighting against financially-motivated human adversaries are always difficult.

In my experience Amazon is designed to block reviews that call out questionable products, Amazon is designed to make returns difficult for fraudulent products. "You pay for the shipping", hide all customer service options related to seller issues, etc etc.

Amazon is complicit in the fraud committed by their sellers. They restrict critical reviews by people who bought fraudulent products under the guise of a tos violation. They should be retroactively contacting customers who purchased products they have removed for fraud reasons.

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

#384

Post by Marsymars »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #373
Marsymars wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It takes a non-trivial amount of extra time and work to do that though, especially on Amazon. Probably the easiest/fastest way is to just default to brands that are known for enforcing supply chain standards, which mostly won't be available on Amazon anyway.

True, though there’s a challenge even with that, which is that most brands even high quality ones now have a mix of products, where their low-end ones are cheap rebranded crap, and their high-end ones are still manufactured in high-quality facilities. But figuring out where that split in their product line is takes work. I recently had to do that for buying a torque wrench, a hand blender, and a couple of other thing…

Oh, yeah, I had Patagonia in mind with my original comment for clothes, but I've got no idea where one would look for tools or appliances.

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

#385

Post by jdkee »

trashface wrote: post #323
download13 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Also known as "decontenting" and widely practiced in many industries.

This. See https://www.autonews.com/article/19960122/ANA/601220731/deco...

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

#386

Post by lsc »

cwp wrote: post #335
download13 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Fake books are a problem too. I mostly see publishers complain about it, but that probably has more to do with my social circle than with the proportion of people complaining

https://twitter.com/billpollock/status/1183094406573748225

and of course, nobody buys CDs anymore, but I do remember people complaining of unauthorized copies/burns of various quality.

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

#387

Post by ReconBob »

cwp wrote: post #335
download13 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Amazon's media category is a mess. Unfortunately, the crooked sellers are willing to dupe Amazon's search engine to have better SEO than the publishers, studios or record labels. Finding an authorized listing is challenging.

Furthermore, it sucks to pay for a new book, CD or DVD and receive a used or counterfeit one. used one or buy a DVD or CD that is

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

#388

Post by DayDollar »

Just imagine, if you had a local person, who would wade through the muck for you, combing the flea market for valuables and offer them to you. That resident amazon shopping expert, could even open up a residency near you. Where he would defuse planned obsolescence in cheap electronics and spread happiness all aroudn for a small fee. That residence in a street near you - i should patent this- we could call it a shop. What a concept.

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

#390

Post by dredmorbius »

perl4ever wrote: post #339
codyb wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The emptying out of retail showspaces, whether mass-item stores, or specialty high-ticket retail such as furniture, is frustrating.

One trend I've observed is that consumables are often not available. The office-supply store which carries pens, but not the ink refils, stylus caps, rubber/erasers, etc. The one which boggles my mind is literally the razer/blade case: selling the razer handle, but not carrying the blades. This for a product I've searched for across multiple stores, for years. It's beyond comprehension.

Across the spectrum, from high-ticket items to low, you often simply cannot see, examine, or touch the merch in person. The whole online order/return cycle is one I especially loathe.

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