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Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

thewirecutter.com

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Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#61

Post by gdulli »

agrippanux wrote: post #18
miked85 wrote: post #6

I have started buying most products directly from manufacturer's websites or in physical stores now. The amount of fake products on Amazon is appalling, I wonder why they don't put effort into stopping this.

I started buying electronics at my local physical Best Buy. I thought 4 years ago I would never step inside a Best Buy again but a string of obvious fakes from Amazon changed my mind.

Best Buy even price matches Amazon so I've gotten the same item from there at the same price, same day, no shipping wait, no $120/year charge for "free" shipping.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#62

Post by amylene »

heavyset_go wrote: post #42
leetcrew wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do think Amazon needs to be held liable for fake products and whatever damage they cause its customers. what would this look like? they already have a pretty generous return policy. they pay the return shipping and return the funds as soon as the package ships. I'm not thrilled with the status quo of playing fraud roulette every time I order something, but the worst thing that's ever happened to me is having to w…

> they already have a pretty generous return policy. Yet there is no option to indicate that "This product is a counterfeit" when filing a return, despite it being a documented problem. The purchaser must choose a different, and inaccurate, reason for their return when filing for one. One way to read into this is that Amazon doesn't want to keep records of counterfeit items sold on their marketplace because of the li…

Another way to read it is that amazon doesn’t believe the consumer is a reliable counterfeit detector, versus “crappy product”, etc.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#63

Post by burlesona »

intopieces wrote: post #36

There's a follow on question that I'd like to raise, which is: "Are you rich enough to care"? In the race to the bottom on prices, it becomes a mark of wealth when you have the time and money to verify your own purchases, or to shop at more reputable retailers. I'm in that category, but could easily see myself being too cash strapped / too busy to do anything about a fake product being shipped to me from Amazon. I'd…

I mean, kinda. But you can buy most of the stuff that you’d otherwise get on Amazon from Costco, Target, or Walmart online, and not have to worry about it being a crappy knock off made with leaded paint. So, I think most people are rich enough to care that much.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#64

Post by mschuster91 »

For the products that are actually regulated like the child support seats: hold Amazon liable for selling product that is illegal.

Make it expensive for Amazon to not police the shit that third parties are throwing on the marketplace - and soon you won't see any fakes any more.

You want to know where Bezos got his billions? Partially because Amazon outright shits on all the regulation that traditional brick and mortar places have - like, not selling product that is illegal, counterfeit or offensive.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#65

Post by heavyset_go »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #54

You could tell by looking at the two gloves in the story that they were different, but the "fake" actually looked better to my eyes - the blue rubber appeared thicker and more pronounced. Which brings up a really interesting question about fakes - if they are as good or better than the products they are mocking, are they actually "fakes"? I fully recognize that there is a need to protect copyright / product dress / b…

> if they are as good or better than the products they are mocking, are they actually "fakes"

Quality of an individual product aside, the issue surrounding counterfeits is that confidence in the market as whole will wane, which isn't good for anybody.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#66

Post by burlesona »

lukebuehler wrote: post #35

Gutsy for them to write such an article when they rely so much on affiliate links. Definitely makes me respect The Wire Cutter much more. Maybe does their article imply that as long as you purchase through their recommended links you'd be safe(er)?

I agree, I thought that too. These days they almost always have two links to buy each product, I usually go for whatever isn’t Amazon.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#67

Post by checkdigit15 »

mjs wrote: post #51
chrisseaton wrote: post #15

Why is buying them with a Prime subscription relevant to the story?

The more crucial difference is that the products were sold by third party sellers. I'm assuming counterfeit goods are almost never a problem if the seller is Amazon.

That may have been true once, but no longer thanks to "commingling":

"Sellers on Amazon can pool their goods with the same exact goods offered by Amazon itself, a practice known as commingling. This has advantages for sellers — less processing is needed, so it’s cheaper — but it also explains how Amazon can unknowingly ship counterfeits despite getting stock directly from the printer."

"What Happens After Amazon’s Domination Is Complete? Its Bookstore Offers Clues" NY Times, June 2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/23/technology/amazon-dominat...

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#68

Post by Symbiote »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #54

You could tell by looking at the two gloves in the story that they were different, but the "fake" actually looked better to my eyes - the blue rubber appeared thicker and more pronounced. Which brings up a really interesting question about fakes - if they are as good or better than the products they are mocking, are they actually "fakes"? I fully recognize that there is a need to protect copyright / product dress / b…

"The fake glove’s painted-on lines gave off a melted-plastic smell when we used it to hold a heated cast-iron pan for 10 seconds."

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#69

Post by [deleted] »

checkdigit15 wrote: post #67
mjs wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more crucial difference is that the products were sold by third party sellers. I'm assuming counterfeit goods are almost never a problem if the seller is Amazon.

That may have been true once, but no longer thanks to "commingling": "Sellers on Amazon can pool their goods with the same exact goods offered by Amazon itself, a practice known as commingling. This has advantages for sellers — less processing is needed, so it’s cheaper — but it also explains how Amazon can unknowingly ship counterfeits despite getting stock directly from the printer." "What Happens After Amazon’s Do…

[deleted]

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#70

Post by checkdigit15 »

matsemann wrote: post #37
KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #27

Is it not possible to look at the seller to tell if it's the real company selling the product? I wouldn't buy branded from some no-name seller, that's no better than ebay.

If multiple sellers sell the "same" item and use amazon as warehouse, they can be binned together and you get one at random from any one of the sellers no matter which one you actually bought from.

Yup, they call it "commingling". So even if you make sure it says "sold by and ships from Amazon", and Amazon itself only buys from legitimate vendors, you could still wind up with a counterfeit item introduced by a third party seller.
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