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Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

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Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#361

Post by epanchin »

cdubzzz wrote: post #195
epanchin wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I now use amazon to buy Anker products and that's it. I recently was shopping for a heart rate monitor - the Wahoo TICKR X was out of stock everywhere except Amazon. I couldn't get over the feeling that it was in stock only because it was fake, so ordered a Garmin from a bike store instead. There is no store I trust less.

Why not just buy directly from Anker? https://www.anker.com/store Generally that is what I try to do for anything I want to buy — get it from the producer directly. Sometimes it is prohibitive in some way (e.g. shipping time or cost) or more expensive but most of the time the experience is perfectly fine and I can be totally confident in what I will be getting.

Interesting. They used to only sell through Amazon in the UK but this is no longer the case.

Something I’ve learnt - a reason I’m tempted to shop at Amazon is because I have an account there. But many suppliers now allow shopify or Paypal without needing to set up an account. By avoiding the temptation to set up an account (ie ignore FOMO of offers), using other sites becomes as seamless as Amazon.

I now believe shops that push customers to set up accounts and don’t use shopify etc, drive people to Amazon for convenience.

Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#362

Post by flavor8 »

kirillzubovsky wrote: post #296
flavor8 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's an example for anybody who doubts this; go search for: a) an Oximeter b) a medical thermometer c) a blood pressure cuff These are all fairly relevant devices. Spend 10 minutes really researching the categories, and actually read the reviews (in particular the 5* and the 1* reviews). Can you find a combination fo devices that you're actually confident buying? It shouldn't be this hard.

Oh the other hand, you can also find a "knock off" device that costs 1/4 of the original price and works just as well. It's manufactured in the same factory as the original, but cuts corners and doesn't have fancy packaging, or anything fancy really. The argument is that in a free market a consumer should have a choice. You want a great branded product, go with a known brand. You want to save money, try the little gu…

The point is that Amazon's listings are overwhelmed by cheap / no-brand items. As a consumer it's basically impossible to know what items in a category are of reasonable quality or not. My guess is that the eventual competitor who disrupts Amazon will figure out a way to curate listings to make it possible for customers to buy something in a category with confidence that it'll work to stated spec.

Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#363

Post by kayfox »

bcrosby95 wrote: post #243
x0x0 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"duracell" cr2032s -- those little pancake batteries for your car keyfob -- that die within 4 months. Which is weird, because the duracells at my hardware store last like 5 years.

Yeah, I looked into buying batteries on Amazon. Prices seemed too good to be true. After reading some reviews, I confirmed that. But I would imagine if you got in early enough, there weren't any negative reviews. There's definitely something wonky with how they aggregate reviews. I see now Amazon has their own brand of battery. Presumably they don't have this problem. It's actually a pretty disgusting tactic: competi…

I buy _all_ of my coin cell batteries from Digikey.

Yeah, it takes some foresight and planning sometimes, since they can only be shipped UPS ground, but they are cheap, come in bulk, and Digikey certifies that they are genuine.

Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#364

Post by kayfox »

blaines wrote: post #300
kirillzubovsky wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, on the contrary, imagine you went to Safeway, and they sold you a carton of juice. You came home, and found out the juice was poisoned. According to this ruling, Safeway, the delivery company, the guy who moved the boxes, and everyone in between you and the manufacturer, are all at fault. Isn't that plain crazy? Safeway has no control over the juice in the box, except for being able to follow their own guid…

That's pretty much the point of chain-of-custody systems, because everyone in that supply chain is involved in ensuring that food is safe. Chain of custody systems help identify the error which lead to an incident, and all parties are held accountable for their part in that process. For example: - The store refrigerators may have lost power. Those products are now waste or potentially hazardous and must be tossed. (O…

Refrigerator trucks for food and many refrigerators in stores typically have chart recorders (or the digital equivalent) to keep track of historical temperature.

Some transportation companies even upload that to their freight dispatchers in real time.

Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#365

Post by kayfox »

Mary-Jane wrote: post #208
djsumdog wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't know. I stopped shopping on Amazon in 2016. It really irks me when I see a product I'm interested in and only see it on Amazon! I'll often pay the $10~$15 more to buy it straight from the manufacturers website to avoid Amazon (and a lot of times, it's cheaper outside of Amazon). I miss the days of PriceScan/PriceWatch and other comparison sites. Recently I bought some new camera parts. I noted the price of…

Your experience differs from mine substantially. Where do you shop that you can regularly find things cheaper than Amazon?

For groceries I have found that even the most expensive grocery chain around here (QFC, part of Kroger) is cheaper 99% of the time.

Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#367

Post by salawat »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #313
kirillzubovsky wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh the other hand, you can also find a "knock off" device that costs 1/4 of the original price and works just as well. It's manufactured in the same factory as the original, but cuts corners and doesn't have fancy packaging, or anything fancy really. The argument is that in a free market a consumer should have a choice. You want a great branded product, go with a known brand. You want to save money, try the little gu…

The problem with Amazon is counterfeits. Counterfeits go against the idea of a free market. You almost certainly can’t know that the “Apple 5W wall plug charger” is legitimate until you receive it. It says “Apple” on it, but it’s not genuine. Why is that the consumer’s fault?

See, there's a level of hypocrisy here in that the average consumer wants the assurance of getting what they want without any of the burden of specification, or compliance verification.

There's a level of savvy everyone should have but doesn't; and I'm just not sure the best way to facilitate it.

Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#368

Post by stickfigure »

AnssiH wrote: post #111
stickfigure wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm. I recently ordered an item (pack of quicklinks) and the package itself arrived with a hole in it and no product (looks like the bubble-envelope seam failed). After clicking around on Amazon's website, the closest way to solve this was "return because of missing items" and they seem to still want me to ship back the original item (which is obviously impossible). The replacement was shipped quickly, but I have no…

AFAIK the correct way to solve empty-package-received is contacting customer service: Help => Need more help? => Contact Us => Contact Us.

Thanks... the menu structure is somewhat different on the website, but I finally found it. I spent 20 mins looking for a way to contact someone before giving up, assuming it didn't exist.

Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#369

Post by rossjudson »

manigandham wrote: post #339
rossjudson wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.amazon.com/TOPPING-es9018k2m-opa2134-Decoder-Amp... "HIFI Audio Decoder Amplifier - Aimpire AD10 MINI USB DAC CSS XMOS XU208 ES9018K2M OPA2134 Audio Amplifier Decoder" This is a fake. Strange how the URL says TOPPING but the product is from "Aimpire". Aimpire has been photoshopped into some, but not all of the product pictures (where TOPPING is still visible in a few). Turns out that Aimpire has had a con…

Interesting, thanks for the link. This is a strange case. The reviews seem to say people are buying the Topping product but getting the Aimpire product. But if you buy from this page, you're knowingly purchasing the Aimpire version. Are people buying Topping from another listing and getting this? EDIT: never mind, looks like this product used to say Topping and was changed, and that's why the URL is still the origina…

Search audiosciencereview and you'll find all the juicy details ;)

Re: Amazon Liable for Defective Third-Party Products Rules CA Appellate Court

#370

Post by nkrisc »

yomly wrote: post #261
nkrisc wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon does not make it easy to know, not as a consumer do I even know what the difference is between those three options. I'm a pretty savvy shopper and world wide web surfer but from looking at a product page I have no idea which one of those it is not what the implications even are. What on earth is "3P" and how does a consumer know? What is the difference between "sold by Amazon" and "fulfilled by Amazon"? Isn't…

Fair enough. So there is Amazon the retailer. That is what Amazon originally did - buy inventory from vendors then sell them. As Amazon gained scale they launched 3P aka 3rd party selling. This is essentially Ebay at scale. Returns for these products are more or less managed by the seller. FBA then came where 3rd party sellers can take advantage of Amazon's delivery and warehouse logistics. The stock is held by Amazo…

Thanks, that's enlightening and also a perfect example of what's wrong with Amazon.

No average consumer is going to know any of this. It's all Amazon as far as most people are concerned; Amazon goes to great lengths to make you think it's all them - right up until you have an issue.

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