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

Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

kurtisknodel.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 250 posts

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#191

Post by rendaw »

PeterStuer wrote: post #181
rendaw wrote: 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…

That's another of numerous scams on Amazon, not the one discussed in the article. The SKUs themselves are fraudulent here.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#192

Post by Riseed »

the_real_sparky wrote: post #167
jaclaz wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I understood your point, and it is good to know that this presumed social score system is not particularly strict, but I asked out of curiosity on the reasons why you have such a high (IMHO) return rate. As well another question is what is actually doing (or not doing) Amazon about the USB sticks/drives issues, the return rate of that should be something like 90% assuming that 5% of buyers fail to realize that t…

And here I am thinking that 287 Amazon returns translates into $1435 in Kohls Cash… if you make the returns on the weekend anyway.

Did Amazon buy Kohls too? What do Amazon returns have to do with Kohls Cash?

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#193

Post by hoppyhoppy2 »

PeterStuer wrote: post #181
rendaw wrote: 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…

It wasn't always that way; it was a conscious change they made to save money, which they decided was more important than being able to do better quality control when counterfeit products are discovered from a certain seller.

I just think it's important to point out it's how they chose to do it, presumably knowing the potential downsides, rather than some impossibility of warehouse operations.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#194

Post by scarface74 »

> Not only was it top result, it was sponsored by Amazon. (I don't actually know what this means, but it adds some legitimacy to the item and implies that Amazon endorses it).

Maybe the author is not a native English speaker? I saw “sponsored” and immediately knew it was an ad.

This was “Amazon’s Choice”

SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO USB 3.2 Solid State Flash Drive - SDCZ880-1T00-GAM46 https://a.co/d/2hSvRQx

A product I assume is legitimate

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#195

Post by CommieBobDole »

programmer_dude wrote: post #184
PeterStuer wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't think it's a tired excuse, I think it's a withering indictment of Amazon's complicity in selling counterfeit merchandise.

It's not a difficult problem to solve at all, Amazon simply chooses not to solve it because the upside is profit and the downside is mostly reputational which is hard to convert to a number on a spreadsheet, so for business purposes it might as well not exist.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#197

Post by scarface74 »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #77

I have refused to give Amazon any business of my own for several years because their directly-operated logistics business is morally disgusting to me. Realistically they run many businesses, that’s one of them. Their retail business is little more than branding. Their real business is private infrastructure. The retail business overall is a scam. Example: I’ve been trying to find a comforter for a while, and I haven’…

> I have refused to give Amazon any business of my own for several years because their directly-operated logistics business is morally disgusting to me. Realistically they run many businesses

So where do you buy your electronics from? Guess how the people who are making those are treated? Or is that okay since they are in another country?

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#198

Post by mikequinlan »

Riseed wrote: post #192
the_real_sparky wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here I am thinking that 287 Amazon returns translates into $1435 in Kohls Cash… if you make the returns on the weekend anyway.

Did Amazon buy Kohls too? What do Amazon returns have to do with Kohls Cash?

You can return items (after going through the online return process to get a label) at any Kohls. When you do, Kohls will give you a $5 coupon for their store.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#199

Post by prepend »

datalopers wrote: post #25
prepend wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had good success with Walmart. The prices are usually the same and they have free shipping over $35.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32628381 Walmart is garbage for the same reason as Amazon. Unmoderated third-party sellers.

Like lotsofpulp said, Walmart makes it quite easy to filter out 3rd party sellers. But with Amazon this is sometimes impossible because of fulfilled by Amazon and commingling of skus.

I’ve also found it useful to limit to only what’s available in my local Walmart.

Walmart isn’t perfect but their quality control is much higher. Oddly, their customer support is much better too. The last few times with Amazon the rep was like pulling teeth. They once asked me to mail back a $10 item so they could review its quality. It’s just a hassle that Id like to avoid by working with higher quality retailers.

I don’t think it’s a consumer cost issue either as Amazon isn’t cheapest. I think it’s just where they are choosing to make their money and they’ve shifted from innovation and market capture to rent seeking.

Re: Top USB Drives on Amazon are a Scam

#200

Post by goodpoint »

prvit wrote: post #143
goodpoint wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon accepts the return with no questions and/or charges No, this is true only in some countries. If there's no amazon store in your country you are in trouble.

I’ve had no issues with Amazon returns/refunds in multiple countries without their own Amazon store.

Did they pay the full cost of your shipment? If yes, you are very lucky.
Post reply on HN