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Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

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Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#131

Post by heavyset_go »

jameson wrote: post #74

Why aren't these counterfeits and/or Amazon getting sued by the original companies? Isn't this just a market competition if other company's able to make cheaper product out of original idea and does not violate the law? I was under impression that any product without an IP (copyright, patent, etc) is subject to "counterfeits" case like this. p.s. I'm not a lawyer

> Why aren't these counterfeits and/or Amazon getting sued by the original companies?

They need to know the counterfeits exist in the first place. Amazon doesn't even give the customer the option to mark their returns as counterfeits. This is why I suggest that if you encounter a counterfeit product on Amazon, you should document it and report it to the company whose product was counterfeited.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#132

Post by bitcoinmoney »

ecommerceguy wrote: post #67

>>In a statement on its website, Amazon also said its employees “work hard every day to help ensure all products offered in our store are safe and authentic.” Bullshit. The front line employees that receive inbound product don't enforce any policy and actually Amazon encourages to deal with disputes only after a product is sold, shipped and a customer complains. That's the Bezos way. Fact. Let's discuss grocery produ…

Dabbled in FBA before. I stopped when I realized the game can be won by volume shipment and pricing wars. Brand registry is also a way to own your listing. Would buy a 30$ ebook if you write all the ins and outs.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#133

Post by bsder »

azinman2 wrote: post #64
amelius wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a few years, Alibaba will have a better reputation than Amazon.

Based on what? No name brands, just loads and loads of direct from factory crapware and knock offs in all shapes and sizes.

> No name brands, just loads and loads of direct from factory crapware and knock offs in all shapes and sizes.

But Alibaba at least doesn't pretend to be anything else.

And, to be fair, if you know what you want, a cheap Chinese piece of crap may be just fine. A lot of my electronics lab is from Alibaba--the rest is from people like Metcal/Oki, Agilent, etc. that I paid a premium for once I knew that I would use it enough to warrant spending the money.

The problem occurs in that I used to go to Amazon when I didn't quite know exactly what I want and could browse, read some reviews, etc. I no longer do that anymore.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#134

Post by privateSFacct »

ecommerceguy wrote: post #67

>>In a statement on its website, Amazon also said its employees “work hard every day to help ensure all products offered in our store are safe and authentic.” Bullshit. The front line employees that receive inbound product don't enforce any policy and actually Amazon encourages to deal with disputes only after a product is sold, shipped and a customer complains. That's the Bezos way. Fact. Let's discuss grocery produ…

This also makes me laugh out loud.

If Amazon gave two craps about some of this stuff it would be cut WAY back.

For a few years at least every Apple branded product on amazon I bought was 100% fake - lazy fakes too. I ended up having to buy from Apple directly to get something legit. You are telling me brands haven't complained about this? I find that totally hard to believe.

The crap amazon sells is going to bring them down.

I've got used stuff sold as new (complete with debries from previous owner).

If they cared they would.

Have sellers post $1,000 bond to sell, scaled up based on sales volume.

Enforce clear fraud issues with account bans and forfeit the deposit (ie, the whole changed 5 star listing selling a totally different product).

Segregate inventory by seller, and enforce consequences on seller for product quality issues.

Have a QC team sample 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 100,000 items and 1 item per seller each year. If it claims USB 3- test to spec, claims waterproof test to spec, claims safe for kids - test for lead. Whoever does this will win in long run. Who wants lead in the product they give to their kids.

This reputation issue could bleed into AWS. Why trust a company that CANNOT get control over its marketplace. The fakes are horrible.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#135

Post by bitcoinmoney »

ng12 wrote: post #117
c2h5oh wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If multiple suppliers ship same product to Amazon warehouses Amazon will ship closest one to buyer regardless who supplied it. In fact if the seller requests their goods back they won't get the same ones they sent to Amazon - they are mixed together with others sharing ASIN There must have been an Amazon marketplace seller using same listing but shipping fakes. Or Amazon got duped.

What bothers me most is the fake was incredibly lazy. It came in a plain white box with the brand I ordered stamped on one corner. The product inside looked completely different and was from a "brand" that I can't find sold on any legitimate site. I suspect it didn't even include a functioning battery, I couldn't get it to hold a charge for more than a few seconds. If Amazon got "duped" by this they could have gotten…

Please tell us the product name so we are aware.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#136

Post by Stratoscope »

jackyinger wrote: post #3

Hey, this title could be easily misconstrued given the prominent US politician. Assuming this is an innocent accident and only pointing it out because I’d misinterpreted it to be a conflict of interest expose.

The title comes directly from the article, which begins with:

WARREN, R.I. (WPRI) — Aspects has been in business for decades, manufacturing bird feeders that come with a lifetime guarantee.

So in 2016, when a customer called about a defective hummingbird feeder, the Warren-based company took the complaint seriously.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#137

Post by hinkley »

ecommerceguy wrote: post #67

>>In a statement on its website, Amazon also said its employees “work hard every day to help ensure all products offered in our store are safe and authentic.” Bullshit. The front line employees that receive inbound product don't enforce any policy and actually Amazon encourages to deal with disputes only after a product is sold, shipped and a customer complains. That's the Bezos way. Fact. Let's discuss grocery produ…

This is the thing about corporate statements.

Amazon has a hundred thousand employees? If they have 5 people working on this then it's absolutely true that "[their] employees work hard every day to help ensure all products offered in [their] store are safe and authentic".

Employees working on something has weight when you have a handful of employees total. You can measure the effort expended as a whole number percentage of the overall budget. When you've invested almost nothing as a percentage of your entire labor budget, it's just lying with facts.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#138

Post by whatshisface »

appleiigs wrote: post #120
alister wrote: post #31

Along with counterfeits, another issue that makes shopping unpleasant is that many products are superfically different but underneath are the same thing. You can see this most clearly in a retail store when the products are side by side. Walmart might have 30 kinds of wall clocks with wood vs plastic frame, with or without Roman numerals, but the actual clock mechanism on the back is the same cheap black box. Home De…

The solution is to buy local. That gives the Home Depot guy an opportunity to tell you, “you know, the internals are all the same”, and the pharmacists lady can say “the generic Tylenol/Advil is called this”.

What town do you live in where big chain store employees are knowledgeable and have worked there for longer than a few months?

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#139

Post by billti »

heavyset_go wrote: post #129
azinman2 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on what? No name brands, just loads and loads of direct from factory crapware and knock offs in all shapes and sizes.

When it comes to electronics and plastic wares, most of the stuff on Amazon is just white label products from Alibaba suppliers. Most of the time the same stock photos are used in both the Amazon and AliExpress listings.

The stock photos are a major clue for me. As soon as I see a picture of the product badly photoshopped into some stock images, with poor copy pasted over it, then I close the tab. I don’t care how many stars or reviews it has.

Re: Counterfeits on Amazon cost Warren bird feeder business $1.5M

#140

Post by Phylter »

privateSFacct wrote: post #134
ecommerceguy wrote: post #67

>>In a statement on its website, Amazon also said its employees “work hard every day to help ensure all products offered in our store are safe and authentic.” Bullshit. The front line employees that receive inbound product don't enforce any policy and actually Amazon encourages to deal with disputes only after a product is sold, shipped and a customer complains. That's the Bezos way. Fact. Let's discuss grocery produ…

This also makes me laugh out loud. If Amazon gave two craps about some of this stuff it would be cut WAY back. For a few years at least every Apple branded product on amazon I bought was 100% fake - lazy fakes too. I ended up having to buy from Apple directly to get something legit. You are telling me brands haven't complained about this? I find that totally hard to believe. The crap amazon sells is going to bring th…

The only way Amazon is going to fix it is if it costs more to leave it as a problem than it will cost to fix it.
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