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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?

#122

It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…

> Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy

It's interesting that you say this, since Amazon itself is a brand--but not the kind of brand you're looking for. You are looking for reliable quality, and Amazon's brand is quick and cheap.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the average Amazon buyer sees "eligible for Prime" as an Amazon-backed indicator of quality.

It’s a delivery flag, never was a quality flag.

I've always taken it as a proxy for quality. My thinking was that Prime means it must ship from Amazon (I realize now marketplace sellers can qualify for the Prime flag if their shipment is free and fast for Prime members). And then it follows that shipped by Amazon means they stock it, and are responsible for returns. Therefore, not wanting the expense of excessive returns, they would probably have a system to ensure quality merchandise.

Of course, none of that thinking is accurate, but it appears to be logical on the surface.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#124

It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…

i think from the director of engineering at amazon charged with making sure reviews are not fake, they would say "we can only make it so difficult to create a new account and prove you are human before it literally becomes impossible for new people to make real accounts." You say amazon has to police this more. I say amazon has tried and there is so much money to be made in jumping through the hoops to prove you are a human, that there is no way to win this war.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#125

It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…

i think from the director of engineering at amazon charged with making sure reviews are not fake, they would say "we can only make it so difficult to create a new account and prove you are human before it literally becomes impossible for new people to make real accounts." You say amazon has to police this more. I say amazon has tried and there is so much money to be made in jumping through the hoops to prove you are…

I thought fake reviews were typically from humans? Bot protection / human verification seems like the wrong front to be tackling.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#126

I have friends who are no longer buying from Amazon. Especially friends with kids. You can’t trust anything safe for your kids when crap like this is allowed. Amazon is in a race to flood the market with availability at the cost of consumer confidence. Remember all the hoverboard fires you saw on the news several years ago? They weren’t knock offs, but items sold that didn’t have any real safety certifications in min…

Mildly related, here’s another instance of harmful things you can buy on Amazon: “negative ion” trinkets that are actually radioactive [1].

[1]: https://youtu.be/C7TwBUxxIC0

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#127

It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…

i think from the director of engineering at amazon charged with making sure reviews are not fake, they would say "we can only make it so difficult to create a new account and prove you are human before it literally becomes impossible for new people to make real accounts." You say amazon has to police this more. I say amazon has tried and there is so much money to be made in jumping through the hoops to prove you are…

Only allow reviews from verified purchasers

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#128
post #117

I have friends who are no longer buying from Amazon. Especially friends with kids. You can’t trust anything safe for your kids when crap like this is allowed. Amazon is in a race to flood the market with availability at the cost of consumer confidence. Remember all the hoverboard fires you saw on the news several years ago? They weren’t knock offs, but items sold that didn’t have any real safety certifications in min…

> items sold that didn’t have any real safety certifications in mind. The amount of electronics sold without an UL/ETL cert on Amazon is staggering. Many companies no longer bother getting one because there's noone to stop them from selling uncertified crap. Also, we have seen unscrupulous dealers slapping a fake ETL cert on their product and even when Intertek contacted Amazon they didn't take it down! Hell, there's…

> a single IEC C5/C6 coupler (the IEC standard is up to 2.5A but the UL certifies it up to 13A but still, the NEMA connector is 15A)

The UL missed the point of C5/C6 entirely. Yes, the contacts are totally fine for that kind of current. But the point of having it with C13/C14 next to it is that because C5/C6 is only rated for 2.5 A you can use thinner coper in the cables. Meanwhile all compliant C13 cables have to use a 1.5 mm² cross section to carry the full continuous 10 A load current. If this is correct, then a "fine according to UL" load would actually melt most C5 cables (generally 3x0.75 mm²).

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#129
post #34

Sorry if this is offtopic, I was planning to buy a Google Pixel 3A from Amazon in a week (It's cheaper than from Google Store). Are mobile phones also forgered on Amazon? or they don't aim to forger stuff like that? Thank you. (I am from a 3rd world country and travelling to USA next week)

I would be a little bit careful. I don't know if there's a risk of counterfeiting, but I once bought what I thought was supposed to be a US region Moto X2 but instead got a European region one. The most important difference, besides getting a different power adapter, was the fact that there's actually a different wireless antennae chip, where it did not have LTE bands for my carrier in the US.

Thanks! Yes, I checked that using https://willmyphonework.net/ and it says it will work :) I used in the past (it's pretty normal to buy phones when travelling to Europe or US) and it never failed. Bythe way, Amazon seller is Google, it says "By Google", so I should trust it, right?

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#130
post #97

Note that Amazon themselves (as the seller) will sometimes grey-market source items if they don't/can't cut a good deal with the manufacturer. They admit this. Which means buying from them directly is no guarantee.

I can't blame them. Some manufacturers are very stuck on manufacturer-approved retailers to keep prices high, but ostensibly for any other reason.

Should be unlawful imo.

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