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A foreign seller has hijacked my Amazon Klein bottle listing

kleinbottle.com

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

#201

Post by Qwertious »

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…

Don't buy this guy's klein bottles, they're a scam - they're only THREE dimensional! Such a rip off. How am I supposed to store a ŷ̶̺̎͌͐̿̽̊́̕ŏ̶̗̈́̓̍̎̃͠g̶̝̺̜̜͋̿̚ͅ-̷̧̛̈́̔́s̷̰̀͌́̈́ơ̷̝̭̫͛́͘ẗ̴̹̱̖̥́h̸̡̡͙̻̀o̸̹̘̾̀͗̇̕t̵̗̠̄̽̈́͑ḧ̵̳̰̩̲͈̜͉̝́́͌͐ in this thing?

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

#202

Post by CliffStoll »

enriquto wrote: post #193
CliffStoll wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 qui…

Oh man, you are a legend to me! I deeply appreciate you and I remember that the first purchase I ever made on the internet 20 years ago was one of your klein bottles! It was such a scary but amazing first experience. It seemed so magical at the time, to buy an object from the other side of the world! As a teenager I had to convince my dad to use his credit card. We were afraid to send the credit card number by email,…

Of course, Enrique! I'm tickled that you remember me - and delighted that both Kleinbots have survived across the years.

I do check every item that I send out -- I hold it up to a bright light looking for cracks - but sometimes trouble sneaks through. I'll do my best to fix things - replace, refund, or solve a differential equation (ODE, not PDE's, please).

You, in turn, have a responsibility to spread the good word -- I hope you're teaching & making this too-mundane world into a better place.

Across two decades, my warm wishes to you.

      -Cliff

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

#203

Post by mike_d »

lilyball wrote: post #112

I would really love to know why "Amvoom" could declare to Amazon that they own "Acme Klein Bottle" when "Acme Klein Bottle" has nothing to do with the "Amvoom" trademark. Can they just declare they own any page that doesn't have a registered trademark?

Any valid trademark gets you in the door, then Amazon trusts that you exert your rights only over your brands.

For example Anker could have a trademark on "Anker" (the brand) and then claim the "PowerCore III" listing for their battery pack without having to trademark the name of each product.

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

#204

Post by estaseuropano »

theonething wrote: post #130
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…

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.

Amazon co-mingles inventory so I have in several cases chosen 'sold by Amazon.de' or the brand name seller and gotten what seem to be fakes. This is common for anything mid-range, e.g. good brand-name pots and pans such as WMF, shoes, utensils, ...

In other cases I've gotten clearly opened/used items sold as new, e.g. woodworking tools.

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

#205

Post by nucleardog »

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 order lots of stuff I need on Amazon. Not want, need, and while it’s not life or death usually I need it sooner rather than later. If I can wait, usually I’d just order it elsewhere (including from somewhere like Taobao or Alibaba/Aliexpress and waiting months for it).

And that’s exactly where Amazon is super difficult to replace. The current competition is not other online retailers but coordinating with my wife such that she can look after the kid so I can go sit in traffic for an hour to get to the store and grab a couple of things we need for some quick home repairs, etc.

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

#206

Post by jcl »

ratww wrote: post #136
jmkd wrote: post #114

So, appalling scam aside, everyone knows what a Klein bottle is or what it does? First I've heard of it, and neither Stoll's site or the Amazon listing shed any light on the topic...just in-jokes.

There's a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klein_bottle

I love that the “hand-blown” bottle pictured in the article is one of Cliff Stoll’s.

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

#207

Post by GistNoesis »

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…

What about the following listing (first result for the search "acme klein bottle" ) :

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YWM31V4 by "Brand: Cradle & Dew"

"Kleinverse Exquisite Glass Klein Bottle, Handmade Math & Science Education Vase, Mobius Strip Glass Display for Gifts, Geometry Decoration & Theorem Glass - Collab with Mr Cliff Stoll" $74.90 + shipping

How linked to you is this ? Are these just reselling your products or are they independently made ?

Edit : In the description it states "These Klein bottles are proudly designed in Singapore, The Garden City".

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

#209

Post by [deleted] »

gambiting wrote: post #190
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…

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(selle…

[deleted]

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

#210

Post by [deleted] »

CliffStoll wrote: post #154
Nicksil wrote: post #11

This seems completely insane to me. How is this possible? I like Cliff Stoll and have been looking forward to my first Klein bottle purchase for some years now, so I say this without any insinuation Cliff's not telling the whole story: There's got to be more to it than this, right? Can someone really go on Amazon, effectively take over someone's storefront, and completely ransack the place this easily? Because Cliff…

Hi Nick, And thank you for your kind note. I'm in the embarrassing position of asking you to wait a few months, as I'm very low in stock; I hope to have more glass Klein bottles by late summer. (Klein bottle hats & Mobius scarves, happily, I have plenty).

[deleted]
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