Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 426 posts

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#131

Post by shantara »

Nexxxeh wrote: post #103
bee_rider wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is fine for, like, getting an HDMI cable. I would never buy something from Amazon that touched my food. Electronics more complicated than a cable require some review, figuring out if there's a reputable brand underneath, etc.

>It is fine for, like, getting an HDMI cable. Only true for what are, now, low-end HDMI cables. Really difficult to get a good one that's actually within spec for high-bandwidth applications.

I highly recommend Blue Jeans Cable - https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/hdmi-cables/hdmi-cable....

Their cables were the only ones that consistently delivered full promised bandwidth and stable connection even at long cable lengths. Plus, their email support has been very helpful, and had the same “quality cables, no bullshit” attitude as the rest of the website.

No affiliation, just a happy customer of 5+ years.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#132

Post by throwaway0a5e »

m463 wrote: post #14
tryptophan wrote: post #8

Shopping on amazon is really an awful experience nowdays. I really do not want to search through 40 pages of water kettles of really dubious brands. It is so anxiety inducing and unpleasant.

I think amazon has jumped the shark[1] There is no practical way to buy a reputable/brand name on amazon. Some brand names are "available", but it seems not officially and people are buying them at a store and shipping them to customers. Other brand names are available, but the search results are paid (and manipulated) so they get crowded off the page by sponsored and "5 star (2)" results. and so amazon as a brand is…

If you just want to buy chinese consumer junk of middling quality or you are buying industrial widgets based on part number or specification those things mostly aren't an issue.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#133

Post by kbd »

pathartl wrote: post #121
kbd wrote: post #101

Happy to see this discussed on HN because I've constantly been stressing about this whenever I shop on Amazon. "All these brands are Chinese with random combinations of characters for a name" I've looked at laptop cases. Here is a sampling of brand names: Lacdo, Voova, KINGSLONG, NIDOO, tomtoc, MOSISO, INVZI, XMBFZ, Arvok, Kinmac, Londo... I've bought cases for my ipad and work laptop from Lacdo and one for my upcomi…

We absolutely need some consumer protections for things like this, but at the end of the day it takes some smart choices by the consumer. Sometimes those smart choices are to not make a purchase for that type of product, or compromise on design for reputability, etc. Keep in mind that while Amazon is the white whale here, this absolutely happens at pretty much any retailer that has moved to an online store where they…

> at least there I can return in store

The return process through my nearby Kohl's is super easy.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#134

Post by hgsgm »

callahad wrote: post #20

The New York Times did some decent reporting into the pseudo-brands which comes closer to answering the question in the title: having a registered trademark unlocks a lot of on-platform seller tools (predictive analytics, early review program, etc.), and the easiest path to a trademark is to have an utterly unique, nonsense name. Some Chinese municipalities were also offering cash incentives for citizens who obtained…

No post body was provided.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#136

Post by blowski »

derefr wrote: post #126
callahad wrote: post #20

The New York Times did some decent reporting into the pseudo-brands which comes closer to answering the question in the title: having a registered trademark unlocks a lot of on-platform seller tools (predictive analytics, early review program, etc.), and the easiest path to a trademark is to have an utterly unique, nonsense name. Some Chinese municipalities were also offering cash incentives for citizens who obtained…

But why are so many of these pseudo-brands exactly 1. six characters long, 2. all caps, and have 3. point-form descriptions that 4. use some particular emoji as bullet-point symbols, and 5. give each point a separate, usually-capitalized "title" part, 6. enclosed in either square brackets or the even-more-niche punctuation【 】? To me, that reads either like these all being marques of one company; or there being some C…

A lot of fraud is remarkably uncreative. Look at Companies House in the UK - you can spot many of the scams a mile off.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#138

Post by vineyardmike »

alangibson wrote: post #112

I wonder if theres a business idea in here. Set up a site that looks better than Amazon (not hard) and only list reputable listings on Amazon. Collect affiliate revenue. Basically just filter out the crap and profit

The issue is that the listing URLs are shifty and reference different things over time, and the listings can be hijacked.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#139

Post by tomohawk »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #79
imissfirefox wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same situation. Got them from the Levi’s store. In my mind Amazon=counterfeits/stolen I’d only order very specific things from Amazon and as a result haven’t actually ordered in a couple years.

With all the hand-wringing about how Amazon has completely monopolized online ordering, I'd think that having a true "honest broker" storefront would be a fairly natural way to compete. Amazon has become a truly awful storefront, and this has accelerated markedly, in just the last couple of years.

You would think, but since Amazon is a monopoly and not an honest broker, there's no way to compete with them.

If the people who were supposed to be keeping them in line actually went after them aggressively, then it might be possible to start a competitor.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#140

Post by aimor »

coding123 wrote: post #7

my wife and I have been increasingly buy on Target, HomeDepot and other sites to buy things because the brands are much more likely to have a legit business backing them up. Generally too one of the causes of this craziness is that we keep outsourcing our manufacturing to China. China is only making these items because a much larger American company like OXO has them making really awesome kitchen items (for example)…

I’ve been making a conscious effort to buy things manufactured in the USA. Made in USA still exists for a lot of things and the quality and design is superb compared to all the Chinese junk. What really surprises me is the prices are also very reasonable.

Right now buying home goods online is a nightmare: Search engines don’t help, the big retailer websites are full of junk, prices are unbelievable. But I’ve had great success identifying the handful of companies that make X in the USA and ordering directly from them.

Post reply on HN