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Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

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Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#121

Post by bluGill »

Joel_Mckay wrote: post #66
bluGill wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As clough say, if you can accept the counterfiet why not but the shars brand instead for less and no wondering

I assure you my valuation assessment is as follows: (fixed cost + maintenance cost)/(frequency of use) = actual cost If the frequency of use is high, the retail cost between high-end and mid-ranged brands is negligible. i.e. not worth the hassle to mess around with QA on something unknown. I always bought the kids Starrett or Mitutoyo stuff with the NIST certs. As wasting 1 hour of their time costs more than the high…

In short you could not accept the counterfiet with a 'nist cert' that doesn't trace to nist. Fine choice, but not the subject here.

Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#122

Post by jghn »

LorenPechtel wrote: post #110
jghn wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only partially true. There very much *is* a counterfeit problem on Amazon as well. I've had a number of products that are clearly labeled as Brand X and clearly were *not* Brand X. And that's just the ones where I noticed (usually after they failed spectacularly). It is also true that there's a flood of cheap knockoffs that don't claim to be Brand X. That's fine, although I usually go to Aliexpress when that'…

Yeah, I don't mind the knock-off products (but I would like to see the possibility of filtering them) but I do mind the things that pretend to be genuine. Bought a belt for the vacuum recently--thought I was buying the real thing. Really, now? Wrong markings, wrong size. Returned it, tried another listing and got what seems to be the real thing. My review was rejected because it supposedly didn't address the qualitie…

The first time I ran into this was years ago. There was a make/model of headphones that I loved. They became increasingly hard to find but Amazon always had them. Over time I noticed they were wearing out faster and faster, so I kept buying replacements.I looked into it one day only to find the manufacturer had stopped making the product 2 years prior, and go figure reviews nose dived shortly afterwards and many had descriptions of how to spot the fakes. Guess what I'd been buying?

There have been some other products where this worked in my favor. I knew for a fact that something I bought over and over again (things you have multiple of and are expected to wear out over time). Manufacturer stopped making them, Amazon claims to still be selling them 10 years later, there's not a noticeable drop-off in quality so what the heck, I'll keep buying them.

Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#123

Post by jghn »

filoleg wrote: post #114
jghn wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Granted Amazon Basics products aren't much different than buying some knockoff on Aliexpress in the first place ...

Nah, let’s not go this far. Might be true for some AmazonBasics product categories, but I have a specific example where this is just not true. Their AmazonBasics monitor arms are manufactured by Ergotron (aka one of the most reputable and best monitor arm brands out there). I have both AmazonBasics and Ergotron arms (purchased from their official website), and it is clear as day that they are nearly the exact same pr…

Mind you I buy a lot of both Amazon Basics as well as Aliexpress generic products. I'm not saying something is garbage for being in this category, sometimes there are quality products, as you note.

In other words being generic and being garbage aren't a perfect circle in a Venn diagram.

Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#124

Post by MattSteelblade »

snakeyjake wrote: post #88
MattSteelblade wrote: post #63

My wife purchased a Stanley cup through Amazon and 5 months later its thermal regulation stopped working. She contacted Stanley about their lifetime warranty and after some back and forth with Stanley's rep, they determined that the item was counterfeit and because Amazon is not one of their authorized resellers there wasn't anything they would do. This was purchased through the "Stanley" store but was fulfilled by a…

>they determined that the item was counterfeit and because Amazon is not one of their authorized resellers Amazon is an authorized retailer of Stanley 1913 products. They determined that the item was counterfeit because you did not purchase it from Amazon.com you purchased it via Amazon.com from a third-party. My Amazon account was created in 1998 and since 2008-ish I have barely entered any physical stores due to me…

To be clear, this wasn't an example of Amazon explicitly not having it in stock and she went to third parties looking for it or her shopping for better prices. In both of those workflows it is very obvious you are buying from a third party. Instead, she went to the product page, went to the color she was looking for and just hit add to cart. I will note that it does show a different seller, but you can't argue it is prominent; it's the smallest font on the entire page. Here is a link to an Amazon page with the product[1]. If you click on the different colors on that page, you'll see that most of them are shipped and sold by Amazon; this product was shipped by Amazon, but not sold by them. Here is a screenshot of the product page[2]. You'll see that "Pure luxury" is the actual seller, even though it is shipped by Amazon. As mentioned before, while it is directly below the Add to Cart and Buy Now buttons, it is the smallest font. I hope this explains how even though you are on the official store page, you can purchase from a third-party without realizing it. Amazon has been doing this more and more recently, but this was the first time it ever bit us.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Stanlely-Quencher-FlowStateTM-Tumbler... [2] https://imgur.com/a/BBHf3N6

Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#125

Post by Joel_Mckay »

bluGill wrote: post #121
Joel_Mckay wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assure you my valuation assessment is as follows: (fixed cost + maintenance cost)/(frequency of use) = actual cost If the frequency of use is high, the retail cost between high-end and mid-ranged brands is negligible. i.e. not worth the hassle to mess around with QA on something unknown. I always bought the kids Starrett or Mitutoyo stuff with the NIST certs. As wasting 1 hour of their time costs more than the high…

In short you could not accept the counterfiet with a 'nist cert' that doesn't trace to nist. Fine choice, but not the subject here.

My point was, the legitimate source Amazon is a registered reseller with the equipment manufacturer, and may include the valid traceable laboratory certificate with the item for a slightly higher fee.

Another problem with clones for example, is they often copy old tech... defects and all... so in this example one probably won't get the current inductive style absolute position verniers that work more reliably around dirt/liquids.

Just a thought, but note often 3rd party sellers are literally sourcing items from dumpsters. There was a news story about the disgusting food people resell on the platform, and it is not technically counterfeit. =3

Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#127

Post by dingaling »

hellcow wrote: post #86
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #44

Pro tip: avoid buying expensive electronics or power tools on Amazon. For instance, Amazon is not a distributor for Milwaukee power tools. Milwaukee will honor the date of manufacture stamp for the warranty, but not the date of purchase from Amazon. I bought a ‘new’ Milwaukee power tool off Amazon which had a manufacturer date of three years ago. Another “new” tool was obviously used. Milwaukee will however honor the…

It should be illegal for companies to sell products like this without a giant warning. "Your warranty will not be valid, since we're not even supposed to sell this product." It feels like fraud. Wild that it's A-OK for Amazon to profit on this at the expense of the consumer.

"Unauthorized retailer" doesn't mean they shouldn't be selling the product, just that they don't adhere to the manufacturer's pricing and advertising policies.

So to flip it on its head, why should the manufacturer be allowed to constrain the warranty just because a retailer doesn't toe the line on pricing?

Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#128

Post by mrsilencedogood »

zrobotics wrote: post #25
mrsilencedogood wrote: post #2

Is amazon's model even profitable for these low-price high-volume parts without its binning system? I literally do not buy things off amazon that fall into these "binning problem" categories, or anything easily counterfeitable. I'll buy from amazon for things that essentially cannot be counterfeit (GPUs, hard drives, things where counterfeits would be more likely to be a brick of the same weight rather than something…

Hard drives are definitely a suspect item, they are counterfeited. I needed some 6TB Seagate drives ~6 months ago to replace the drives in a security NVR, our local supplier was out of stock and they were available on Amazon. The drives appeared genuine, they showed up in OEM style packaging which was expected, I connected 1 of 6 to a Debian machine to check it an it reported the correct capacity. Flash forward to 2…

"Further benchmarking showed they were actually 2TB drives that reported incorrect size."

what.

ugh.

one less thing i can buy on amazon, I guess. gosh dangit.

Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#129

Post by mrsilencedogood »

tanjtanjtanj wrote: post #14
mrsilencedogood wrote: post #2

Is amazon's model even profitable for these low-price high-volume parts without its binning system? I literally do not buy things off amazon that fall into these "binning problem" categories, or anything easily counterfeitable. I'll buy from amazon for things that essentially cannot be counterfeit (GPUs, hard drives, things where counterfeits would be more likely to be a brick of the same weight rather than something…

> GPUs I wouldn’t be so sure, a good friend of mine ordered a GPU and it was an older and much cheaper model with the shroud replaced and flashed to call itself the newer model in windows. He would not have found out except he immediately ran a benchmark that returned an extremely low score and then investigated from there.

"it was an older and much cheaper model with the shroud replaced and flashed to call itself the newer model in windows"

I really though that anyone going to these lengths wouldn't be bothering to do this to scam on amazon and would instead be gainfully employed??? What the hell.

I guess I can't buy anything on amazon anymore. Oh well.

Re: Amazon Still Has a Counterfeit Problem

#130

Post by xsmasher »

mrsilencedogood wrote: post #128
zrobotics wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard drives are definitely a suspect item, they are counterfeited. I needed some 6TB Seagate drives ~6 months ago to replace the drives in a security NVR, our local supplier was out of stock and they were available on Amazon. The drives appeared genuine, they showed up in OEM style packaging which was expected, I connected 1 of 6 to a Debian machine to check it an it reported the correct capacity. Flash forward to 2…

"Further benchmarking showed they were actually 2TB drives that reported incorrect size." what. ugh. one less thing i can buy on amazon, I guess. gosh dangit.

You're going to love this. https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/1atu0tk/...
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