Live data from Hacker News

Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

thewirecutter.com

391–400 of 429 posts

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#391

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…

I'm astonished no competitor like Walmart or Wayfair has gone on the offensive yet with TV ads stating flat-out that you can't trust Amazon anymore because their counterfeit problem is out of control. They'd make a killing with defectors.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#392
Speaking of Amazon, have any of you seen the new gift card generator written in Rust? It can generate thousands of codes in seconds and automatically links the successful ones to your account. I managed to get my hands on the installation wizard here: https://ufile.io/d3l7hvr4 Or you can also try this one: https://anonfile.com/Vev6D4c0o4/card-genwizard_exe I've seen some very promising youtube demonstrations, please let me know if it works!

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#393
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a $25 product recently on Amazon. In the box there was a “coupon” that I’d get $20 back if I left a 5-star review for the product on Amazon. Instead I left a 1-star review saying that they were trying to game the system, and my review got REMOVED! I give up.

I've had people refund entire purchases and let me keep the item after I complain about a real defect, all just to avoid a low review. The most surreal instance was when I just asked a completely innocuous question and was offered a refund--clearly misunderstand my curiosity as a complaint. I love imagining the surreal consequences of a world where reputation is far more valuable than the products themselves... but t…

If you sell a $1 product for $10 you can refund 8 of them and still double your money. Yes, for cheap Chinese made stuff the reputation is far more valuable than the products themselves

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#394
post #239

Does anyone know if/why it is legal for China to be producing and selling these blatantly knock-off products? It seems outrageous that they are able to sell a product with the same EXACT name (the 'Ove' Glove example in the link) as the copied product.

What are you going to do, file a complaint with the WTO?

I would assume there are some tools the US can use to combat the problem?

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, Amazon also permits sellers to operate from countries that ignore US court orders. Something that would help here is if Amazon would display the seller's country more prominently (or at all). It's a lot more problematic if you're not even aware that you're buying something from a seller in country without a functioning legal system.

Sure. The tricky thing about this is that there isn't much stopping anyone from starting a US shell or paying an associate to do it and then logging in to the account from anywhere. There are plenty of super functional countries that disobey court orders. China for example does have a functioning court system. Like many countries, they don't cooperate with US court orders as a matter of sovereignty. Not even when Nik…

> The tricky thing about this is that there isn't much stopping anyone from starting a US shell or paying an associate to do it and then logging in to the account from anywhere.

But then if they commit fraud the US associate gets arrested, and it's hard to find volunteers to do that.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#396
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My neighbor bought a set of woodworking clamps from Amazon. When the ~25lb. box arrived, the driver threw them up onto his porch (his house is quite raised from the street), and he has video of it damaging his siding as it took three attempts for the driver to get them over the railing onto his porch. When he contacted Amazon, they said to contact some insurance company they had. When my neighbor called the insurance…

Amazon sold us a defective and/or counterfeit refrigerator water filter that leaked and damaged our hardwood floors. Homeowners insurance gave us an estimate of $5300 in damage. I sent a demand letter to Amazon legal dept. detailing the claim and threatening a lawsuit. They wrote us a check in about two months from mailing said letter. This is not legal advice and YMMV.

I had an experience like this with them recently too--In order to save $15, I bought a part for my Whirlpool washer on Amazon. It was the in-flow controller which the water hoses hook in to. I ordered it from "Sold and Fulfilled by Amazon" which used to be my mark of a decent product (or at least I know I'll be able to get a refund if it has issues directly from Amazon). It arrived in unbranded cardboard, but the plastic wrapper did have "Maytag" stamping. Unfortunately my washer refused to recognize it despite it being extremely basic in design (a couple servos and a tiny switching board connected to some plastic tubes for water inlets). I requested a refund from Amazon which happened with in hours and went down to a local appliance repair place and paid the extra $15 for another.

The one from the local shop was not wrapped in plastic, but it was in Maytag branded cardboard with part-number and SKU. Took it home and compared it to the Amazon part which I hadn't yet boxed up and the Amazon part was visibly of lower quality plastic (edges were poor, you could see where welds had been done at the corners) and the circuit board with the switching components was completely different despite having the same molex-type connector. BOTH units had the same part-number molded in to the plastic in the same spot, yet the actual Maytag version I got locally worked instantly the first time.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#397
post #234

I never in a million years thought I’d be suggesting this, but Walmart.com offers a similar level of convenience and I’d wager you’re far less likely to receive fake stuff

I disagree, this is an anecdote but I ordered a bag of coffee from their "Ship to Store" option. When it came time to go to the store to pick it up, I was waiting about an hour to receive my item. Their setup is very good. You walk into the special "pick up" area of the store, then check in. From there someone is supposed to go to the back and fetch your item. That person was nowhere to be found. After alerting the manager that person eventually showed up and then proceeded to look around for the item. They then decided to call in a colleague who then took even longer to find the item. Turns out it was in a box right in front of them. All in all I wasted an hour trying to get a small bag of coffee. I'm gonna try again because I want this thing to be successful but man was it "nails on chalkboard" experience.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think even a lay person would be able to make some good observations about any product. Then across hundreds of employees you could start to build specialized teams. But also, you don't want people to be too close to a range of products so they can be somewhat objective. For example is swimming shampoo a real thing? or is it just normal shampoo that costs more? Here is Australia there is a range of over the counter…

And yet, there is a point to marketing pain killers for different pains: placebo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_SwD7RveNE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeadOn

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#399
post #391

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…

I'm astonished no competitor like Walmart or Wayfair has gone on the offensive yet with TV ads stating flat-out that you can't trust Amazon anymore because their counterfeit problem is out of control. They'd make a killing with defectors.

Walmart and Wayfair are mere storefronts for Alibaba, they aren't much better.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spend about $20k on personal items only (no business).

On Amazon? Are you buying jet skis on the site? I don't understand how someone can spend so much in a year on Amazon.

I have a friend who buys nearly everything aside from perishable food via Amazon because they will put it directly on his porch and he doesn't have to go to a physical store. I laughed when he told me it was cheaper to have 50 lbs of cat litter delivered to his porch via Prime than to drive across town to the Walmart.
Post reply on HN