Not suprising and not restricted to cycling gear.
Search for "macbook battery" and order by price, lowest to highest. You'll find a lot of counterfeits.
Amazon selling fake cycling gear
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: Amazon selling fake cycling gear
#12This is my biggest gripe with Amazon. You never know if you are going to get a cheap Chinese knockoff or the real thing from the 3rd party sellers on the site. At least one third of my purchases from the site from 3rd party sellers now end up being fakes. Sometimes you know it is going to be a fake just by the low price and just live with it if it is not a critical item. All the other times I have to send it back. Am…
In some categories it is almost impossible to buy genuine items; Apple Dock cables and Samsung phone chargers are two that spring to mind.
Re: Amazon selling fake cycling gear
#13I bought a pair of Sennheiser earbuds through a third party vendor only to find that they were knock-offs. I paid the full retail price -- no "too good to be true" deals here -- and the purchase was Prime eligible. I lost my money and never recieved so much as an apology. I do my best to avoid all third party sellers now, but Amazon makes this difficult. The introduction of third party sellers has made Amazon far more difficult than it should be. You're never really sure what you're buying and from whom.
Re: Amazon selling fake cycling gear
#14Some more details would be nice. Assos is one of the most expensive cycling brands out there, so it could very easily be a case of "obviously too good to be true". I for one tend to buy Prime items only. No hassle and fast delivery.
Some Assos clothing prices at Amazon include $32 for a long jersey, and $62 for a long jersey/long tights pair. How cheap is that? I'm not even seeing Nashbar jerseys for those prices...so yeah, that's fishy.
Jerseys start at around $150 (and that's buying from cheaper places in the UK), same for shorts. Pretty obvious at that point that they're fake.
Re: Amazon selling fake cycling gear
#15At least, in my experience at least, Amazon is always there to help out in the end. This is good enough in my book. They can't possibly keep track of all the bad apples, but at least they can make sure you get the right product (or money back) in the end.
Amazon sold fake iPhone chargers for years (and I'm calling them fake because they said "by Apple", now they are labeled "by Generic" etc.) I took screenshots, that's not from memory.
Amazon has a big fake product problem. Make or source a knock off of anything that is relatively interchangeable, such as a replacement filter, then list it as being the real product.
Even when Amazon lists an alternative "by Generic" you can still list under the real item (e.g. "Dirt Devil F1 HEPA Filter by Dirt Devil" http://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Devil-F1-HEPA-Filter/dp/B00022NGI... ) review less than 20 hours ago says its fake. What do you think it costs to make a knock off filter? If you under price it, then consumers know for sure its a knock off, so you take the market price, in this case $8.50 - the 50 cents it took to make and ship across the ocean, and add Amazon's overpriced per item shipping for third party sellers to make another few dollars on top of it. This is happening to a lot of other products.
What are the risks? Manufacturers don't care. I've emailed complaints myself, without response. At worst you get kicked off Amazon.
Re: Amazon selling fake cycling gear
#16I think the title is misleading - as the article states, the gear is not being sold by Amazon itself but rather through its marketplace. The latter is more like eBay and less like Safeway.
With that being said, I wonder what the seller's reputation rating was. Much like eBay, you can (and should) always check the seller's feedback before committing to a purchase.
Re: Amazon selling fake cycling gear
#17I had a similar experience. Got an unauthorized/clone product from an independent shop that sells on Amazon. Amazon refunded the full price.
Re: Amazon selling fake cycling gear
#18I bought a pair of Sennheiser earbuds through a third party vendor only to find that they were knock-offs. I paid the full retail price -- no "too good to be true" deals here -- and the purchase was Prime eligible. I lost my money and never recieved so much as an apology. I do my best to avoid all third party sellers now, but Amazon makes this difficult. The introduction of third party sellers has made Amazon far mor…
How did you ID them as fakes?
Re: Amazon selling fake cycling gear
#19I bought a pair of Sennheiser earbuds through a third party vendor only to find that they were knock-offs. I paid the full retail price -- no "too good to be true" deals here -- and the purchase was Prime eligible. I lost my money and never recieved so much as an apology. I do my best to avoid all third party sellers now, but Amazon makes this difficult. The introduction of third party sellers has made Amazon far mor…
How did you ID them as fakes?
They broke within a few weeks of purchase and I sent them to Sennheiser for warranty repair. I should have known they were fake from the start, because they didn't sound nearly as good as my old ones, but I figured I just needed to break them in.