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Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

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Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#51

Post by wombat-man »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #23
dimitrios1 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

did Walmart ever have a reputation for quality?

There was a baseline expecting of quality, because Walmart would not be expected to buy from counterfeiters. For example, if I buy 3 mule team borax from Walmart, I expect it to come via official sources. If I buy 3 mule team borax from a Walmart reseller, I have no idea where it is sourced from or how much those entities care about reputation. It could be from 3 mule team, it could be counterfeit.

Yeah, I guess I need to physically go into stores now if I want to really avoid counterfeits.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#52

Post by DwnVoteHoneyPot »

samwillis wrote: post #25
kbos87 wrote: post #8

The marketplace-ization (is there a word for that?) of every retailer feels so short sighted. I’ll throw out an example I’ve noticed lately - furniture manufacturers. Search for any item on Crate & Barrel or West Elm’s website and you’ll first see a handful of exclusive pieces that are clearly built for the brand. Keep scrolling and the search results gradually become a bunch of generic third party items that you can…

What I find particularly annoying is that these online “marketplaces” are not curated - they literally sell anything, probably drop shipped. It used to be that you would shop at a branded store, and there was a level of expectation that they had curated their collection so that it was of a quality that matched the stores brand. Some of their wares may be under their own branding, but they would sell other bands too t…

All of these retailers have purchasing departments with professional buyers who curate the products they resell - which is the sole purpose of the branded store. If the retailers don't do that, there is no purpose of that retailer. They don't add any value to the customers purchasing process.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#54

Post by DwnVoteHoneyPot »

heartbreak wrote: post #44
samwillis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find particularly annoying is that these online “marketplaces” are not curated - they literally sell anything, probably drop shipped. It used to be that you would shop at a branded store, and there was a level of expectation that they had curated their collection so that it was of a quality that matched the stores brand. Some of their wares may be under their own branding, but they would sell other bands too t…

There is one notable exception. The third-party products sold on Apple’s online store are all vetted by Apple. Apple, of course, are masters at guarding their reputation.

Costco does a pretty good job. I can purchase something there without research and still get a reasonable product at a reasonable price.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#55

Post by dghughes »

Here in Canada Best Buy sells refurbished hardware but it's not Best Buy itself. You buy it on their site and it looks like Best Buy sells it but it's from a third party and most often it's junk. Not outright fraud like Walmart but close.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-best-buy-test-1...

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#56

Post by rascul »

jghn wrote: post #43
Someone1234 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. One positive remains though: If you buy from Walmart you get it from Walmart and their supply chain. With Amazon because they "mingle" inventory from third parties, you can order shipped & sold by Amazon.com and still get a counterfeit product, because a third party slipped it in. And, yes, that has happened to me personally by the way.

It has happened to me a few times that I order from Walmart, see a shipment notification, that shipment "arrives" but definitely did not. However that day or the next I receive an Amazon package which I did not order containing my product. So no, ordering from Walmart does not guarantee anything is going through their supply chain.

Was that from Walmart the retailer or someone else selling on Walmart's marketplace? I would be very surprised if Walmart itself resold you something from Amazon, but that does happen with third party retailers on their marketplace.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#57

Post by lotsofpulp »

wombat-man wrote: post #51
lotsofpulp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a baseline expecting of quality, because Walmart would not be expected to buy from counterfeiters. For example, if I buy 3 mule team borax from Walmart, I expect it to come via official sources. If I buy 3 mule team borax from a Walmart reseller, I have no idea where it is sourced from or how much those entities care about reputation. It could be from 3 mule team, it could be counterfeit.

Yeah, I guess I need to physically go into stores now if I want to really avoid counterfeits.

Luckily, I have not seen evidence that Walmart/Target commingle inventory, so restricting searches to sold by Walmart/Target should work.

But who knows what is happening behind the scenes. Amazon removed the wording that made it clear they commingled inventory, but I am sure they still do.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#58

Post by lazide »

nerdponx wrote: post #37
mcronce wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get it, Crate & Barrel sees this as an opportunity to monetize their brand without having to do all that much. Unfortunately it leaves me with a lot less trust for a brand that used to represent a quality and reputation. It's essentially converting reputation to cash

Is this the "It's my money, and I need it now" / "It's your money, use it when you need it!" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdPM6j1Q4sg ) of execs trying to cash out and bail before things go to shit? My question is, why is this happening now and why didn't it happen before? Is it because Amazon is simultaneously wildly popular and a total trash fire, so customers are becoming gradually inured to their bullshit an…

Amazon is killing them and has been for a decade, and they’re trying to compete. Too late, and badly, as it turns out.

You didn’t notice it as much earlier, because it wasn’t the high end ‘stuff you went there for’ that people stopped buying, it was all the other random things they bought when they went there to buy something, and the marginal customers.

Now the core customer base is eroding, and they’re getting desperate.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#59

Post by zarriak »

Walmart has also fed into this a lot by making it so they are your one stop shop by making it ship stuff that isn’t in stock at your local store. They also by default will give you substitutions if you are doing an online store pickup or delivery order which only has more room for abuse or manipulation of substituting your items for things they need to get rid of etc.

I only use it for a family member but they have intentionally continuously degraded the ui/ux to make it so you fall into these traps and have even basically made it so all of the filters reset every time you search.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#60

Post by hotpotamus »

samwillis wrote: post #25
kbos87 wrote: post #8

The marketplace-ization (is there a word for that?) of every retailer feels so short sighted. I’ll throw out an example I’ve noticed lately - furniture manufacturers. Search for any item on Crate & Barrel or West Elm’s website and you’ll first see a handful of exclusive pieces that are clearly built for the brand. Keep scrolling and the search results gradually become a bunch of generic third party items that you can…

What I find particularly annoying is that these online “marketplaces” are not curated - they literally sell anything, probably drop shipped. It used to be that you would shop at a branded store, and there was a level of expectation that they had curated their collection so that it was of a quality that matched the stores brand. Some of their wares may be under their own branding, but they would sell other bands too t…

Yep, I relatively recently learned about Aliexpress and it seems like most American retailers are just a local cache for them. But if I can order sketchy Chinese knick-knacks directly and skip the markup at the cost of a bit more waiting time, I'd just as soon do that. I've also found the Chinese customer service speaks English just fine and have been great whenever I've had to deal with them.
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