A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing • Hacker News Board

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#181

Post by brobdingnagians » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:14 AM UTC

Tempest1981 wrote: post #172

theonething wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to give up the convenience and fast delivery (with Amazon Prime) though. In my experience, I haven't run into many problems with fraud or fake products (that I know of). I try to avoid third party sellers and only order from Amazon or the seller.

Fast delivery seems to have become an addiction in our fast-paced lives. Do we really need that new thing tomorrow? Probably not. Yet we can't delay the gratification.

I've also found that if I am looking at a longer delivery time then I put more thought into evaluating if I really need the product, or if I could make do with something else, or if there is a better product available elsewhere. I then tend to focus on quality and other fitness for purpose instead of which item is on Prime delivery.

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#182

Post by function_seven » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:27 AM UTC

taylorfinley wrote: post #180

zeusk wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO eBay is less scammy. I've been using it to buy car parts and it is SO MUCH better than dealing with junkyards (LKQ/Car-Parts websites suck!) and everything that I've got so far including parts from Latvia and Germany have been genuine. eBay too is full of knock-off trash from China but you can easily tell those apart from a real listing most of the time with reviews being unique per listing/seller. And eBay allow…

The one exception to car parts sites being shit is rockauto. Just start typing in the search bar and it figures out what year make model and part you're looking for. Their search experience is light-years ahead of any other auto parts website and might actually be the best product search interface I've found anywhere, hiding out on a car parts site. I highly encourage anyone interested in product search ux to go chec…

Just bought a new radiator from Rock Auto. I think it was like 3 clicks to drill down to the part. I just tried your method and was blown away. After I entered the year and make, and was halfway into typing the model, it autocompleted all the way to my trim level and I resumed typing "radia" where it suggested all the relevant things. Hitting enter, I watched it navigate the tree on the left.

Small delights like that are worth serious money.

I love sites that have such a structured categorization of their items. McMaster-Carr is the gold standard IMO, and RockAuto is pretty close.

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#183

Post by CliffStoll » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:29 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #148

gabereiser wrote: post #99

This, and other instances of this scam make me not want to buy anything off Amazon ever again. Where is Amazon in this? Why is this even a thing ? Is there no oversight at all? Amazon has now become the Alibaba of the west and it makes me sick to think the once beloved marketplace is now just scamville. I typically buy from sellers websites now and rarely buy off of Amazon but now I feel I need to completely remove A…

To note, buying from the sellers website can be a blessing or a curse. It is true in sometimes unexpected ways. For instance some sellers just don't care about notifications; it might be because they usually work with professional buyers who work on a long timescale ("I need it for this quarter") and will contact the seller on a regular basis if they care. Some sellers just don't want to deal with you. I had a "mom a…

Having sold Klein bottles from my website for 20 years and from Amazon from 4 or 5 years, here's my experience:

- it's way more fun through my Kleinbottle website. I've customized my checkout to what I sell. When there's a problem, it's easier to contact a buyer.

- I can show any amount of information on my website; Amazon has 5 bullet points and 1000 characters of description. This, of course, cuts both ways - a quick logical summary helps many people. Long, wordy websites (ahem) can be a problem.

- Amazon provides security that you'll get what they've ordered. Buying through my website, well, some people are scared off by its primitive style and mathematical humor. (well, attempted humor).

- My credit card processor takes a - My customers are my friends. Likely, I'll meet them at a seminar, colloquium, or if they visit the East Bay. I hope they'll remember me by the good service that I try to provide. This tends to be easier when I handle an order through my website.

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#184

Post by praptak » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:33 AM UTC

fxtentacle wrote: post #149

gabereiser wrote: post #99

This, and other instances of this scam make me not want to buy anything off Amazon ever again. Where is Amazon in this? Why is this even a thing ? Is there no oversight at all? Amazon has now become the Alibaba of the west and it makes me sick to think the once beloved marketplace is now just scamville. I typically buy from sellers websites now and rarely buy off of Amazon but now I feel I need to completely remove A…

Actually, Alibaba appears to have higher standards for their product listings, because pages are never merged. So the review takeover described in this post would not be possible on Alibaba ^_^

Which makes you wonder why Amazon keeps this scam-enabling "feature". Do legit sellers really need it that much that Amazon keeps it despite the scams?

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#185

Post by Tepix » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:33 AM UTC

furyg3 wrote: post #153

CliffStoll wrote: post #116

Guess I'd better say a few things. First, I deeply appreciate that so many on Hacker News have come out for this. Enough to awaken me from a sound sleep on a Tuesday evening! I don't really care that much about selling Klein bottles over Amazon - it's mainly to reach parents over the holidays. But I do wish that Amazon would do something about this kind of thing. Finally, I"m very low on stocks of glass Klein bottles…

Hey Cliff, I just have to say thanks. I read the Cuckoo's Egg in the early 90s and while I was already interested in computers, the idea that there were "networks" of them out there... well... it blew my mind. I immediately went to my school librarian and said I wanted to try to connect computers together, or try to dial-up to library information services, etc. We started learning together. You were a huge inspiratio…

Same here, my copy from 1989 is still on my bookshelf. Thanks for being inspiring!

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#186

Post by malwarebytess » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:35 AM UTC

Automation without live human review should be criminal. One could imagine non-internet analogous situations that are explicitly criminal.

It's common that automated decisions with no human contact cause situations like these; probably most of them go unresolved because the victims do not have the clout to arouse a mob.

Corporations have a monetary incentive NOT to resolve these problems.

It's time for regulation. The market has failed.

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#187

Post by gfaure » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:37 AM UTC

CliffStoll wrote: post #140

gfaure wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's also a connoisseur and collector of slide rules and the Curta mechanical calculator! Here's a video of him describing how the Curta performs arithmetic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OynMJB-2J1o — as well as the SciAm article he wrote on them: http://www.mycurta.com/Calculator.pdf

Connoisseur? Naw! Stop by my place and you'll see a messy collection of oddball things ranging from some old calculators to stacks of old books. I received a Curta Calculator from my astronomy mentor, Ernst Both, when he got an HP-35 around 1973. I was one of his students; today, I can't look at it without thinking happy thoughts using a spectrohelioscope to understand sunspot magnetic fields. But that's another stor…

Wow, I'm honoured to hear from someone who loves these old calculating devices as much as I do! I have a Curta II and a number of the HP Voyager calculators from the 80s (11C, 15C, 16C), but the one that takes the pride of place in my collection has to be the Curta. Looking forward to adding a Klein bottle or beanie to my collection some day, too.

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#188

Post by xvector » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:39 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #164

at-fates-hands wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Aliexpress I used to buy a lot of cheap things on there, then something interesting started happening. Every time I made a purchase on there, literally a few weeks later, I would start getting fraudulent charges on my card. Thank god, my bank would call and ask, "Are you in Paris France right now? Someone just tried to purchase 3,000 euros worth of clothing on your card." I haven't bought anything on there for abo…

Yes. I was annoyed when Bank of America discontinued the feature that allowed me to create a single-used credit card number and fund it with a limited amount of money. That was a good solution to the bogus charges problem. But it was so hidden on the BofA site that few used it. I'd like to have that service back.

Privacy.com has been awesome for this and integrates with 1Password.

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#189

Post by CliffStoll » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:44 AM UTC

KirillPanov wrote: post #165

CliffStoll wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kirill, you've put your finger on the central problem. Amazon should check that a product which is claimed by a Brand is actually covered by the "goods & services" listed under that trademark.

I just want to say: your crawlspace-forklift is beyond awesome. https://hackaday.com/2015/06/24/crawlspace-warehouse-include... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU

(blush)

It's my way to cheat the chiropractor. Anything to avoid crawling around under my house.

Re: A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

#190

Post by gambiting » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 8:46 AM UTC

zeusk wrote: post #105

jannes wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon simply is on the same level as eBay now. (No idea about Alibaba.) It’s really sad to see.

IMO eBay is less scammy. I've been using it to buy car parts and it is SO MUCH better than dealing with junkyards (LKQ/Car-Parts websites suck!) and everything that I've got so far including parts from Latvia and Germany have been genuine. eBay too is full of knock-off trash from China but you can easily tell those apart from a real listing most of the time with reviews being unique per listing/seller. And eBay allow…

Interesting that people have these experiences. I use eBay a lot, mostly buying 2nd hand computer hardware and retro gaming stuff(consoles/games/accessories) and I'd say I have problems with as many as 50% of all my purchases. Some bigger problems where I want to return the item, some smaller ones where I paid extra for postage but it was ignored, that sort of thing. The complaints procedure exist but it's weak(seller sells a "mint condition" genuine PS2 controller, got the controller it's all dirty and with frayed cable, complain to seller, they say "oh it's mint for the age, nothing wrong with it", complain to ebay, seller has a week to respond, nothing, ebay sends me a label to ship it back, have to go to the post office to send it back, wait another week, nothing, ebay finally refunds me my money. You know how it would work with Amazon? I would complain in chat, they would send a courier to pick it up from me the next working day, I would have the money back 5 minutes after the courier picked up the parcel). And then I had someone send me actual expletives-filled email calling me all kinds of worst things in the world because I left a neutral(!!!) feedback on their account, after I paid extra for 1st class postage but they shipped 2nd class. And sellers in general just have no idea about consumer laws(yes, if you sold this item as brand new then you have to accept a 14 day return by law) which leads to arguments and just in general everything being so stressful.

I've had over 200 amazon orders last year, didn't have a problem with a single one of them. Few times I wanted to return something they either sent a courier to collect it from me directly, or just refunded me anyway. And few times I ordered from somewhere else(urrghhh.....Currys) the customer service was absolutely abysmal. I'm just not brave enough to order from anyone but Amazon nowadays*.

*here in the UK, understand the American Amazon is far worse for