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Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

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Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#141

Post by Phrodo_00 »

bmitc wrote: post #123
protastus wrote: post #105

I no longer have the patience to navigate Amazon's terrible search results and have lost trust in the quality of their inventory. Nowadays I only order from Amazon if the order is a time critical item that only they can deliver on time for a reasonable price. That's less than 5% of my purchases in dollar amount. I've been a customer since 1997. Amazon has impressed me with their ability to play the long game, and I d…

I too have stopped buying on Amazon. I did so a while back after being concerned about counterfeits, safety issues, etc. I had this talk with my wife not too long ago about a mirror she ordered from Amazon, clearly made in China by a no-brand manufacturer. We discussed about how, yes, it looks nice, but we have no idea what quality of glass they used. So if it falls and shatters, it could be very dangerous. It also c…

This doesn't sound like an Amazon issue though, but an issue with that specific product. You're the one who chose to purchase it. You would likely have the same experience with that product in other marketplaces like EBay, Walmart or Alibaba.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#142

Post by hgsgm »

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…

No post body was provided.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#143

Post by ohlookcake »

I was excited to know where the names come from, and after reading all of the tweets I still don't know. If the answer is just: it's a random collection of letters because it's not a brand they want to build, then that's a very predictable and uninteresting answer.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#144

Post by alangibson »

qqqwerty wrote: post #129
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

That is basically what WireCutter is, among many others.

They are all content marketing. I'm thinking of essentially an alternate storefront that is a garbage filter.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#145

Post by spockz »

ant6n wrote: post #49
m463 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The problem I’m having in Germany ist that only Amazon reliable delivers to my door, usually next day. Every other store ships with DHL, which after several days pretends that they ring you, when they don’t, and then u can go pick it up at the DHL store a day later. That’s their moat.

In the Netherlands they seem to ship exclusively with DHL. And all products arrive in the evening slot. Which means that next day delivery is usually around 21:00-22:00 which is typically too late to be useful.

PostNL is the most reisje local carrier here. Ups is the best but almost never used, so far only by Apple. Dpd, GLs, etc, are all rubbish.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#146

Post by libraryatnight »

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 feel this in my soul. I wanted a new french press. I tried three from Amazon, two of the same model arrived broken, the third arrived appearing intact but broke on first use. I ended up just refunding and buying one from le creuset from their website. It arrived safe and is still alive and kicking.

I wanted some weight sensors for an arduino project, Arrow had them but Amazon also listed them but in bags of 4 for about the price 2 would have cost from Arrow, plus they'd arrive faster. They ended up being varying weight sensors ripped directly out of various electronic scales and 3/4 didn't work. Had to order from Arrow anyway.

My wife wanted one of those percussive massage guns for post workout, Amazon had the best price but then I saw in some of the reviews people showing that the items they received from Amazon weren't legit and the company (hypervolt iirc) wouldn't honor any warranty from one purchased from Amazon. I was pretty much done at that point. We ended up picking a different model but when we did we went straight through the manufacturer.

Shopping on Amazon sucks.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#148

Post by squeaky-clean »

throwway1490 wrote: post #128
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…

The New York Times doesn't answer if this is beneficial for consumers, which is obviously the thing smart people want to know. Like why does Amazon put up with this? Even if zero people bought these weird brand products, their existence causes prices to go down, because prices are at the margin, and that's why it pisses off our Tweeter. Because he has to sell for less profit.

The only reason it causes prices to go down is because they don't follow regulations or are outright fraud. If they were legitimate businesses they wouldn't be playing Amazon Ban Whack-a-Mole

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#149

Post by comicjk »

metalliqaz wrote: post #58
rexf wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TFA: > what's the root cause of all of this? > Amazon courting overseas manufacturers and sellers at all costs. Why though? How does it benefit Amazon to have endless, no-name, bad quality listings? It makes the consumer experience awful & dangerous, not to mention the continued lowering trust in the marketplace. As others have mentioned, it's often better to go to Target/Walmart/Costco/etc to buy from a reputable su…

Yeah I wish he had elaborated on that point. What are they doing to court those sellers and most importantly, why? Surely they know that their reputation is going down the tubes. Are they just so dominant now that they don't care?

Probably Amazon is afraid of being replaced by AliExpress, which has lots of these sellers and their low prices.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#150

Post by planetafro »

Phrodo_00 wrote: post #141
bmitc wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too have stopped buying on Amazon. I did so a while back after being concerned about counterfeits, safety issues, etc. I had this talk with my wife not too long ago about a mirror she ordered from Amazon, clearly made in China by a no-brand manufacturer. We discussed about how, yes, it looks nice, but we have no idea what quality of glass they used. So if it falls and shatters, it could be very dangerous. It also c…

This doesn't sound like an Amazon issue though, but an issue with that specific product. You're the one who chose to purchase it. You would likely have the same experience with that product in other marketplaces like EBay, Walmart or Alibaba.

I don't buy this for a millisecond. Amazon ushered in this behavior and made it the "norm". It's throwaway, cheap, non-branded junk... and dangerous. There is value in discussion of the manipulation of the market and not just "Shop somewhere else". It's predatory.
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