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Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

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Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#101

Post by Havoc »

Must say my experiences with Amazon have been pretty consistently positive despite heavy purchasing. Plus I buy mostly warehouse open box stuff which is extra risky. Couple of lessons learned:

* Warehouse deal laptops don't get checked for batteries. So it might boot & be good but dies if you pull the plug

* Warehouse deal laptop have a increased chance of thermal issues (bad binning / bad thermal paste / whatever)

* Open box / used is basically untouched like half the time. They rarely show actual signs of wear despite a billion warnings about 1/4 scratch on front and 3/4 on back and what not.

* Pay careful attention to appliances that require both water and electricity. A cheap mini rice cooker was my 1 and thus far only genuinely sketchy Amazon encounter.

* Camelcamelcamel FTW

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#102

Post by nikolay »

AmVess wrote: post #94
nikolay wrote: post #35

Except that Amazon is no longer the cheapest source for many products. Their outrageous storage and fulfillment fees make most of their pricing higher than local store deals or even manufacturer's own websites.

Amazon isn't close to being cheapest. Now, many of the things I shop for are twice the price of other internet businesses. Some of those businesses charge for shipping, but they are still cheaper than Amazon. Amazon has really lost their way this year. I won't be buying a single thing for Xmas from them.

90% of the stuff I buy on Amazon is supplements, and they deliver the worse possible experience. First, stuff constantly goes off their Subscribe & Save program, second, often they can't deliver supplements, which are readily available elsewhere. They know exactly how much stock they need for the next month, but they do no effort to deliver it, which essentially forces me to leave Amazon. Other things are hit-and-miss. Recently, I get much the stuff being dirty from Amazon their own labels covering up FDA-required info for supplements. When you try to remove those, they are not made for easy removal and your supplement bottles get all sticky and even dirtier. This is the worse supplement delivery experience ever!

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#103

Post by pjc50 »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #61
ikeboy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fake junk) enough times -> gone from marketplace and hard to get back in. This is what they have now. Many sellers get suspended over used sold as new and inauthentic complaints. They also have velocity reviews; if your sales increase too quickly you may get suspended for a bit.

I think you're missing the key part: >hard to get back in It's been discussed to death, by overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon.

Well, at least that's easily fixed: require a local physical presence who can be sued or prosecuted. If I wanted untraceable disguised imports I know where AliExpress is.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#104

Post by heavyset_go »

nikolay wrote: post #102
AmVess wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon isn't close to being cheapest. Now, many of the things I shop for are twice the price of other internet businesses. Some of those businesses charge for shipping, but they are still cheaper than Amazon. Amazon has really lost their way this year. I won't be buying a single thing for Xmas from them.

90% of the stuff I buy on Amazon is supplements, and they deliver the worse possible experience. First, stuff constantly goes off their Subscribe & Save program, second, often they can't deliver supplements, which are readily available elsewhere. They know exactly how much stock they need for the next month, but they do no effort to deliver it, which essentially forces me to leave Amazon. Other things are hit-and-mis…

Don't buy supplements on Amazon. I've received supplements with poorly printed labels of popular brands slapped on them.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#105

Post by blunte »

Bezos is famous for being a micromanager to the extreme (and a very good one reportedly, if rather tyrannical). So there is no question about whether he has been personally aware of this situation for years.

This follows a similar pattern (MS/Gates) where very unscrupulous business practices are employed until the company becomes a juggernaut and can do anything it wants, and the top executives become fabulously wealthy. Then one day, once the man is rich and successful enough that the thrill is gone, he switches to professional philanthropy. As time passes, _how_ he got to the top is forgotten and he is hailed a hero and American success.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#106

Post by Havoc »

Timberwolf wrote: post #83

There are some categories of product I'm no longer willing to buy from Amazon: power cables, replacement chargers and batteries being the biggest offenders. They're such a minefield of fakery and shortcuts that are outright dangerous (e.g. UK plugs lacking fuses and with pins the wrong shape/size) that I'd rather have the extra work and expense of going to a local shop where I can inspect what I'm buying.

>power cables, replacement chargers and batteries being the biggest offenders.

I've found Anker gear to be consistently solid on all three counts & frankly I trust it more than store bought.

If I could even get it - wouldn't know where to start buying a 60W USB hub in a brick & mortar.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#107

Post by mitchdoogle »

privateSFacct wrote: post #22

All the ballyhoo about Amazon Transparency and UUID per item. This is a relatively well solved issue in other areas. Make become a seller a bit more difficult with some skin in the game ($2,500 deposit if you sell more than 15 items per year? In person identity verification?). Sellers used to meet with buyers agents (cost money and added identities). Caught selling garbage (product marked new actually used, totaly fa…

Amazon is a retailer - there are already millions of competitors - you just have to start buying from them.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#108

Post by compiler-guy »

dv_dt wrote: post #43
benologist wrote: post #16

Amazon's decision to employ lawyers and lobbyists instead of oversight resulted in a public black market they openly run but are not responsible for profiting from. I am excited to see which state will have the first Amazon fulfillment center crawling with feds. They have to raid one eventually to get to the bottom of the lead, the counterfeits etc. How is Amazon preventing the EPA or the FTC from doing their job and…

Inequality is back to the time of robber barons of industry, and so too is the lawlessness of many of the industry practices, where we are in the same state where technology and scale of organization are outrunning the philosophical theories of government operation to regulate them.

Inequality goes back far beyond that. The slaves who built the pyramids in Egypt were pretty unequal from the Pharaoh.

And even that wasn't the first society with inequality. It goes back far beyond recorded history.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#109

Post by nikolay »

heavyset_go wrote: post #104
nikolay wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of the stuff I buy on Amazon is supplements, and they deliver the worse possible experience. First, stuff constantly goes off their Subscribe & Save program, second, often they can't deliver supplements, which are readily available elsewhere. They know exactly how much stock they need for the next month, but they do no effort to deliver it, which essentially forces me to leave Amazon. Other things are hit-and-mis…

Don't buy supplements on Amazon. I've received supplements with poorly printed labels of popular brands slapped on them.

You're right. I'm not sure why regulations turn a blind eye on Amazon all the time.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#110

Post by dawnerd »

ikeboy wrote: post #70
w457uiw4gftyi wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the difficult part is that the seller just returns under a different name. Enough complaints have come in about marketplace seller GreatElectronics4U? OK, Amazon bans/suspends GreatElectronics4U and the guy behind it starts selling stuff as AllTheBestElectronics4U. Rinse and repeat. This isn't like the old days when a ban on doing business under your current name would be a death blow ... start a new seller acc…

What exactly is the proposed solution? Amazon already requires ID verification to open new accounts, and will ban accounts that they can link to old banned accounts.

They just use another employee to sign up. I know a number of people that do that - really laughable how easy it is to game Amazon.
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