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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

#171

Post by srcreigh »

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…

I believe the long term bet is that retail winner(s) will use e-commerce search data to inform product development. It's a well known Amazon play and other retailers are trying to catch up.

Other retailers will also sell ads on their sites which are additional revenue. Amazon proved this out being the 3rd highest ranking company in terms of advertising revenue behind Google and Meta/FB.

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

#172

Post by schnevets »

patrickthebold wrote: post #122
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…

I'll throw out my startup idea: A heavily curated amazon, with ~1 option per product type, sold at a premium, prioritizing things that are constructed well/last a long time. Obviously you can't do everything at once, and people want choice in things like fashion. A kitchen store would be great. One toaster, one oven, one coffee grinder.

I'll do you one better: a curated retailer that only carried merchandise with a 10+ year manufacturer's warranty. And they automatically register/store all proof of purchase information in an online portal.

If that isn't profitable, make the warranty storage/customer service advocacy a yearly subscription where they take care of the full return process.

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

#173

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

hotpotamus wrote: post #60
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…

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.

Oh yes. Dropshipping has to be one of the least valuable manifestations of the Internet economy. Waiting earnestly for the invisible hand of the market to give this particular "job" the shove.

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

#174

Post by akoumjian »

The only purchase I've made on Wish was a similarly "too good to be true" set of flash drives. When I received them I tested them out on a linux live image and sure enough they were simply programmed to report having much more storage than they did. I did get a refund, but you can bet the products are still there.

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

#175

Post by hotpotamus »

_jal wrote: post #147
cogman10 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's gotten really bad, particularly on amazon. Search for anything and you are likely to find the same item with 50 different brand names but all essentially the same garbage from aliexpress/wish. For example, here's a search for "bike trainer" [1] [1] https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bike+trainer&crid=KCCRWTVZHHQ7&sp...

I dropped Amazon (again) a while back. I'd gone back to using them during the plague, and got lazy. What jolted me back was multiple delivery failures in a row followed by a shitty "give me my money back" experience. Right now, Amazon combines the honesty of flea markets with the reliability of a stoned teenager. I'm back to shopping at physical stores, and am enjoying it, at least at the moment. And when ordering th…

The worst I've got recently is from the Amazon locker team. The recently sent me a notice that they'd "learned that my package had been delayed". I don't mind that much; shit happens, but that passive language just disgusted me. No, you weren't able to deliver my package on time Amazon. I'm sorry if Jeff Bezos sticks you in a solitary wellness pod or whatever Orwellian punishment he's dreamt up for people who delay packages, but it's the job you picked.

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

#176

Post by mattbaker »

hotpotamus wrote: post #60
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…

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.

> it seems like most American retailers are just a local cache

The _other_ Amazon CDN

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

#177

Post by bonestamp2 »

wnevets wrote: post #120
hotpotamus wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Drop shipping has become a cancer for the online shopping experience.

I wouldn't blame it on drop shipping specifically -- many fortune 500 manufacturers drop ship high quality products from their amazon store. The problem is more about the low bar of entry for resellers to list those same products on amazon, walmart, etc. Some of those products will be legit and some will be counterfeit.

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

#178

Post by lazide »

rascul wrote: post #56
jghn wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There isn’t a clearly identifiable difference anymore.

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

#179

Post by bonestamp2 »

schnevets wrote: post #172
patrickthebold wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll throw out my startup idea: A heavily curated amazon, with ~1 option per product type, sold at a premium, prioritizing things that are constructed well/last a long time. Obviously you can't do everything at once, and people want choice in things like fashion. A kitchen store would be great. One toaster, one oven, one coffee grinder.

I'll do you one better: a curated retailer that only carried merchandise with a 10+ year manufacturer's warranty. And they automatically register/store all proof of purchase information in an online portal. If that isn't profitable, make the warranty storage/customer service advocacy a yearly subscription where they take care of the full return process.

This is basically Costco, although it would be even better if it was truly Costco. I mean, they do require your receipt, but they can often look it up for you and they usually take returns well past the warranty expiration due to their 100% satisfaction guarantee.

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

#180

Post by trasz »

walrus01 wrote: post #95

If you think 30TB fake hard drives are bad, the Amazon marketplace is now selling Taliban flags printed by 3rd party sellers in China. At least there's no ISIS flags yet. I assume whatever flag factory in china is cranking out $10 flags doesn't care about the content of what's printed on them.

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