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Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

kurtisknodel.com

181–190 of 250 posts

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#181
post #127

While I agree this is a problem - one which I have been the victim of as well - Amazon accepts the return with no questions and/or charges. This, of course, is not a great consolidation, especially for a novice who doesn't understand or encounters it too late. But I strongly disagree with "Amazon runs little to no risk selling the fraudulent products, but still makes money off of them." In the next paragraph the auth…

It's hard to say they don't like it when they're not doing _anything_ visible to combat it. Filter by country of seller? No. Filter by history/longevity of brand? No. Sort by recency of good reviews, or reviews since the last product change? No. Brand reputation, or per-brand reviews? No. Actual brand/seller contact information in the country you reside? No. Do they even require brands have company registration in th…

Amazon does SKU aggregation in their warehouses for all the sellers that use Amazon fulfillment. Every delivery of that SKU, by whomever, gets thrown into the same pile from witch they pick whenever someone orders said SKU through whoever is selling that stuff on Amazon.

This means that the product you receive from seller X was probably not delivered to the warehouse by seller X, but would be part of a batch delivered by any other seller that uses Amazon fulfillment for that SKU.

This makes it impossible for them to punish the seller whenever a fake or defective product turns up for you if they had no detected it before it got into the pool.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#182
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of Amazon.de is AliExpress with a 200-300% margin. I don't know about the other Amazons but it's definitely not only thumb drives.

This is the main reason i stopped using Amazon around 2 years ago and cancelled my prime. Why not just go to the source (aliexpress) and save the large margin in exchange for a longer wait time?

I often find the Amazon ones to be within a buck or two, now that Aliexpress’ free shipping is gone on small items.

For a buck or two, I’m willing to take Amazon’s speed and easy returns.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#183
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead, she spent 2+ years returning every since book she purchased for her Kindle, well over 100, when she realized she could buy a book and immediately return it, but turn off the Kindle internet connection while she finished reading it, before it was removed. They banned her from ever doing another Kindle return but she otherwise uses her Kindle normally. Out of curiosity what goes through someones mind to thin…

> Out of curiosity what goes through someones mind to think this is remotely acceptable? Copying data is not theft.

They did not "copy data". they purchased something, returned it for a refund and then kept it by turning off the kindle's wifi.

This clearly is retail fraud.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#184
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to say they don't like it when they're not doing _anything_ visible to combat it. Filter by country of seller? No. Filter by history/longevity of brand? No. Sort by recency of good reviews, or reviews since the last product change? No. Brand reputation, or per-brand reviews? No. Actual brand/seller contact information in the country you reside? No. Do they even require brands have company registration in th…

Amazon does SKU aggregation in their warehouses for all the sellers that use Amazon fulfillment. Every delivery of that SKU, by whomever, gets thrown into the same pile from witch they pick whenever someone orders said SKU through whoever is selling that stuff on Amazon. This means that the product you receive from seller X was probably not delivered to the warehouse by seller X, but would be part of a batch delivere…

How does Amazon do this SKU aggregation? It must use some kind of product identifier (barcode / QR code / RFID tag etc.)? Why not include vendor information with it? Please stop using this tired excuse. It is not a difficult problem to solve if you have the intent.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#185
post #31

I think there's one thing that should be clarified from the article. "Sponsored" does not mean that the product is "sponsored by Amazon" as italicized in the article. It means the seller paid money to be at the top of the search query. Perhaps it is a healthy dose of old aged jadedness, but I have a habit of trying to avoid Sponsored items.

I once followed a sponsored ad for some Samsung headphones. After having problems with that Samsung product support informed me I have no warranty because the product I had was a European model and I’d have to ship them from the US to a European support center to get them fixed.

Amazon took the return/refund almost a year after the sale. Ideal? No, but they took care of it.

Samsung paid for that ad.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think someone providing a free service should receive compensation? I would gladly give them their cut for a useful service. This isn't some shady website writing bogus blogposts or best of listicles.

> You don't think someone providing a free service should receive compensation? It's an LLC not a charity. How about they follow the (GDPR and affiliate marketing and opt-in) rules like everyone else has to?

GPDR is about private data, how does a static affiliate link breaches private data?

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#188

While I agree this is a problem - one which I have been the victim of as well - Amazon accepts the return with no questions and/or charges. This, of course, is not a great consolidation, especially for a novice who doesn't understand or encounters it too late. But I strongly disagree with "Amazon runs little to no risk selling the fraudulent products, but still makes money off of them." In the next paragraph the auth…

I don't find returns to be helpful at all. - If I buy medicine, and it's fake, that's a serious problem. - If I buy a bottle of vanilla, and it's tainted, that's a serious problem. - If I buy a piece of electronics, and it's a piece which was returned for working intermittently, that's a problem too. - If I buy clothing from brands I trust, and I get a knock-off which falls apart in 6 months, that's a problem. Unless…

And the great thing about an Amazon ransomware attack is that if your implant waits long enough to trigger, you can probably get the customer to return the device to Amazon where they'll dutifully stock it back in their warehouse ready for another victim. So efficient.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#189
post #175

Lastly Amazon is very bad for shopping. I used to buy on Amazon when I wanted branded products with insurance. Opposite to buy on AliExpress, ebay, ... For some items. But there are 2 very big problems:. Amazon mixing the stock of all the sellers selling the same thing. So, when you want something like a USB key or SSD, sdcards, even if the listing and the seller you are looking at looks legit, you don't know where t…

> Also, the second issue I noticed is that it is now very hard to find good branded products with Amazon search. This. It seems well known brands have almost abandoned Amazon and low end consumer electronics altogether in some categories. A couple weeks ago I wanted to get a mains extension cable (power strip) with USB-C power connector for my phone. There wasn't a single brand I recognised apart from Belkin, who see…

But at least you know that when your house burns down due to a chinesium power strip, you can return the burnt remains to Amazon for a $20 refund.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#190

Not questioning the post or it's conclusions, but how does Kurtis 'know' that the drives are fake? Is it just the price point? Are there reliable lists to check? Curious as to how to spot fakes.

If you sort the reviews on these items by lowest to highest, you'll usually find somebody who actually purchased and tested the item confirming it's a scam.
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