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Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

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Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#151

Post by lreeves »

RobertRies wrote: post #32

While I agree this is a problem - one which I have been the victim of as well - Amazon accepts the return with no questions and/or charges. This, of course, is not a great consolidation, especially for a novice who doesn't understand or encounters it too late. But I strongly disagree with "Amazon runs little to no risk selling the fraudulent products, but still makes money off of them." In the next paragraph the auth…

The reason these drives bother with firmware that makes them look larger to the operating system is so that people buy them and don't notice it was a scam until after the return ratio.

Also I don't know what the internal politics are like at Amazon but it is inexplicable that these listings are present and top of the results for probably a year by my reckoning - fake drives are easily spotted by anyone who knows what current drive sizes and form factors are and in theory it there should be some friction to making a selling account so that you can't just keep re-listing the same fake products under infinite new names. Though that seems to be exactly what's happening.

Also bonus points, if it's a third party seller in my recent experience Amazon literally does not let me report a product as fake, only request refunds and replacements from said seller. When I finally used a LinkedIn contact to reach out to Amazon they told me to create a marketplace seller account to report copyright infringement - but that's only if I own the copyright lol.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#152

Post by codingdave »

logifail wrote: post #53
LeoPanthera wrote: post #7

If you still want to buy from Amazon, I often use diskprices.com (no affiliation, just a user) to sort disks on Amazon by price-per-GB. For example, here are USB flash drives sorted by price-per-GB: https://diskprices.com/?locale=us&condition=new&disk_types=u...

While it's a mildly useful site, all diskprices' links are affiliate links, and I've not found an opt-out. I don't think we should share that stuff here on HN, it's a cancer on the web.

Affiliate programs are one of the few win-win monetization strategies online. Sure, it gets abused by blogspam. I don't want to minimize that abuse because it does suck. But when you look at the good affiliates, someone who truly offers valuable advice that can help you find what you need to buy, and gets a few pennies for it... is that not exactly the type of paid content that we want from the internet?

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#153

Post by greatgib »

Lastly Amazon is very bad for shopping.

I used to buy on Amazon when I wanted branded products with insurance. Opposite to buy on AliExpress, ebay, ... For some items.

But there are 2 very big problems:. Amazon mixing the stock of all the sellers selling the same thing. So, when you want something like a USB key or SSD, sdcards, even if the listing and the seller you are looking at looks legit, you don't know where the item will come from, it can easily be fake as it will not necessarily come from the stock of this seller.

Having to send back, be reimbursed, and reorder is not a solution. You loose a lot of time, and energy with stress. Maybe you needed that for a time sensitive usage.

Also, the second issue I noticed is that it is now very hard to find good branded products with Amazon search. It looks like that they are mostly Amazon owned brands or a few sponsored products that show up. But there is not anymore the large choice of products that you would expect. I noticed that when looking for a vacuum cleaner for example!

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#154

Post by j1elo »

greatgib wrote: post #153

Lastly Amazon is very bad for shopping. I used to buy on Amazon when I wanted branded products with insurance. Opposite to buy on AliExpress, ebay, ... For some items. But there are 2 very big problems:. Amazon mixing the stock of all the sellers selling the same thing. So, when you want something like a USB key or SSD, sdcards, even if the listing and the seller you are looking at looks legit, you don't know where t…

> Amazon mixing the stock of all the sellers selling the same thing. So, when you want something like a USB key or SSD, sdcards, even if the listing and the seller you are looking at looks legit, you don't know where the item will come from, it can easily be fake as it will not necessarily come from the stock of this seller.

Do you have any source for this? This explanation is perfect to explain some friends about why they should be wary of buying electronics from Amazon

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#155

Post by dismalpedigree »

j1elo wrote: post #154
greatgib wrote: post #153

Lastly Amazon is very bad for shopping. I used to buy on Amazon when I wanted branded products with insurance. Opposite to buy on AliExpress, ebay, ... For some items. But there are 2 very big problems:. Amazon mixing the stock of all the sellers selling the same thing. So, when you want something like a USB key or SSD, sdcards, even if the listing and the seller you are looking at looks legit, you don't know where t…

> Amazon mixing the stock of all the sellers selling the same thing. So, when you want something like a USB key or SSD, sdcards, even if the listing and the seller you are looking at looks legit, you don't know where the item will come from, it can easily be fake as it will not necessarily come from the stock of this seller. Do you have any source for this? This explanation is perfect to explain some friends about wh…

All inventory filled by Amazon (almost all prime goods are filled this way) is commingled by sku. This allows amazon to distribute the items across warehouses and give faster delivery times. Problem comes when another seller claims to sell the same item. They send their fake items in marked as the real thing. They get mixed with all the real ones. Now when an order is placed from legitimate seller it can be filled using fake inventory.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#157

Post by herbst »

microtherion wrote: post #140
herbst wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AliExpress. All the producers are there anyway, if you buy from the official stores you don't get fakes. Much easier to not get scammed than Amazon with all those resellers with their fake reviews and endless ad budgets. And if you got lied to you get your money back usually without even sending the item back. Customer service is top notch.

Exactly. Shipping is considerably slower than with Amazon, but customer service is no-nonsense, and there are never problems with commingled inventory. Even if you don't buy from official stores, you can take your chances with another store. If they scam you, get a refund. If the product is good, keep ordering from them.

Even the faster shipment argument is kinda invalid depending on where you life. I live in Switzerland so not only do most Amazon article not even ship to me, but those who do often take weeks as well.

Not get me started on how many small packages got lost because of the German postal system. I rarely have issues from China and shipping can be as fast as 10 days sometimes.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#158

Post by frognumber »

RobertRies wrote: post #32

While I agree this is a problem - one which I have been the victim of as well - Amazon accepts the return with no questions and/or charges. This, of course, is not a great consolidation, especially for a novice who doesn't understand or encounters it too late. But I strongly disagree with "Amazon runs little to no risk selling the fraudulent products, but still makes money off of them." In the next paragraph the auth…

I don't find returns to be helpful at all.

- If I buy medicine, and it's fake, that's a serious problem.

- If I buy a bottle of vanilla, and it's tainted, that's a serious problem.

- If I buy a piece of electronics, and it's a piece which was returned for working intermittently, that's a problem too.

- If I buy clothing from brands I trust, and I get a knock-off which falls apart in 6 months, that's a problem.

Unless Amazon can get supply chain issues under control, it's too risky to buy most of the stuff I used to buy there. I find eBay and Aliexpress to be more reliable, probably due to reviews sticking to sellers.

I think it's a matter of time before someone starts selling ransomware on Amazon. You plug in a device, and your computer is compromised. The device is a buck cheaper.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#159

Post by wdb »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #64
josephcsible wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon accepts the return with no questions and/or charges But remember that Amazon keeps what's basically a social credit score on you that drops every time you return something, and then they permanently ban you (including from non-retail things like AWS and Prime Video) if it ever gets too low.

Amazon tracks your returns, but if you're within their model, which is not particularly tight, you don't have anything to worry about. It's mostly targeted toward people who are egregious, and more importantly, lose Amazon money. If you return a few too many DSLRs, Apple laptops or other high end gear you'll quickly find yourself on the rocks, or decide you're going to start a drop-shipping business from your Prime a…

Nice, Amazon was capable to loose my iPhone 14 Pro twice and the courtesy credits I got was £5. At least the third time was charm

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#160

Post by thathndude »

RobertRies wrote: post #32

While I agree this is a problem - one which I have been the victim of as well - Amazon accepts the return with no questions and/or charges. This, of course, is not a great consolidation, especially for a novice who doesn't understand or encounters it too late. But I strongly disagree with "Amazon runs little to no risk selling the fraudulent products, but still makes money off of them." In the next paragraph the auth…

They need to stop commingling FBA goods. Full stop. It’s a smart, efficient idea in a world of good-faith actors. Not in a world of scammers and knock offs
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