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Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

thewirecutter.com

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Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#251

Post by ebg13 »

lukebuehler wrote: post #203
ebg13 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Definitely makes me respect The Wire Cutter much more. I'll probably respect them more when they stop hypocritically linking to Amazon. > Maybe does their article imply that as long as you purchase through their recommended links you'd be safe(er)? The article implies that, but it's not true.

Well, the very reason they exist is for you to click on their links. Thats their business model. So really, for them to write such an article is really to bite the hand that feeds them, which shows some gumption. But they would never cut off all their income by removing the links. I’m not sure how it works with counterfeits on Amazon, will the same product id or same link sometimes be the real thing and sometimes not…

> I’m not sure how it works with counterfeits on Amazon, will the same product id or same link sometimes be the real thing and sometimes not?

Correct. Say for the moment that Nike decides to sell their shoes on Amazon through the Amazon warehousing program for really great service and delivery options. Then say that I send a bunch of counterfeit Nike shoes to Amazon using the exact same product details that Nike does. Now Amazon says, "if we put these two batches of Nike shoes together in the same bin, we will save money because fulfilling orders for shoes will be more efficient". But if they are in the same bin, then when you order from Nike you might get my knockoffs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/12/13/how-to-p...

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#252

Post by WalterBright »

This is what private companies like Underwriters Laboratories are for. They provide independent review and certification of products.

Such a company can make a deal with Amazon that if they certify a product, then that product can get a badge on Amazon's product page that it is certified by that company. Like UL, the company would be incentivized not to abuse its badges, because otherwise the badges and the company would be come worthless.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#253

Post by amylene »

pas wrote: post #87
amylene wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, do you really believe that amazons retail business has had little or no significant innovation besides whiz bang tech goodness? I’m guessing you were exaggerating to make a more strong sounding statement, but if you meant it, then I strongly disagree.

What exactly are they adding in value compared to any regular webshop? It's just as incomprehensibly bad as the standard run of the mill default PrestaShop. At least Shopify is a real platform you can build stuff on. Amazon is just this giant bullying machine. The Dalek of retail.

Huge selection, great customer service, saved credentials, 5% back on purchases, most stuff is one day shipping for me. I also know they fix problems pretty rapidly. I get a ton of entertainment from prime video.

Those are all things difficult to get consistently from a random web store.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#254

Post by ebg13 »

nl wrote: post #242
ebg13 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Definitely makes me respect The Wire Cutter much more. I'll probably respect them more when they stop hypocritically linking to Amazon. > Maybe does their article imply that as long as you purchase through their recommended links you'd be safe(er)? The article implies that, but it's not true.

The article implies that, but it's not true. It's at least mostly true. They usually link to the official seller, so while it's possible they either get that wrong, or the seller starts shipping the wrong product it at least saves some of the work.

These official sellers are using Amazon order fulfillment. Amazon is mixing counterfeits into their inventory. Linking to the official seller doesn't matter if Amazon treats the product as a fungible commodity behind the scenes like it does.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#255

Post by deanCommie »

rubidium wrote: post #146
andrewfromx wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think from the director of engineering at amazon charged with making sure reviews are not fake, they would say "we can only make it so difficult to create a new account and prove you are human before it literally becomes impossible for new people to make real accounts." You say amazon has to police this more. I say amazon has tried and there is so much money to be made in jumping through the hoops to prove you are…

There are standard ways in industry of dealing with this problem. You verify your suppliers. Amazon doesn’t do this, and so kids eat lead and we get shitty stuff. The real makers get pissed. The scammers and amazon profit.

not. at. amazon's. scale.

Amazon's prices are too low to do this verifications per product.

> The scammers and amazon profit.

Is short term thinking and Amazon would never think like that.

The problem is harder than you give it credit for. It's a constant arms race.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#256

Post by asdff »

ryandetzel wrote: post #154

Ive tried to buy direct from the manufacture four times in the last two months, every single time it was more expensive than buying from amazon and these are things that are not easily faked so I'm sure they legit. One of them I contacted the manufacture to see if they would at least match the $20 difference on amazon and they said just to order it from amazon. Wtf.

It depends on the products. Old school department store brands will have an inflated price on their site compared to amazon, but I usually find name brand electronics to be no cheaper on amazon than other sites, or even the manufacturer directly.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#257

Post by Dylan16807 »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #88

It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…

This issue isn't reviews vs. brands. The biggest problem with Amazon is that the reviews and brands are disconnected from the actual supplier. Who knows what you'll get?

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#258

Post by ebg13 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #179
ebg13 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Definitely makes me respect The Wire Cutter much more. I'll probably respect them more when they stop hypocritically linking to Amazon. > Maybe does their article imply that as long as you purchase through their recommended links you'd be safe(er)? The article implies that, but it's not true.

How would you like them to pay for their writing?

I'm saddened that you don't see any middle ground between linking to a site with a very long history of actively facilitating counterfeits through product commingling and not getting paid at all.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#259

Post by getlawgdon »

wincy wrote: post #208
jahnu wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only allow reviews from verified purchasers

I bought a $25 product recently on Amazon. In the box there was a “coupon” that I’d get $20 back if I left a 5-star review for the product on Amazon. Instead I left a 1-star review saying that they were trying to game the system, and my review got REMOVED! I give up.

This exact same thing happened to me.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#260

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

cm2012 wrote: post #235
wincy wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a $25 product recently on Amazon. In the box there was a “coupon” that I’d get $20 back if I left a 5-star review for the product on Amazon. Instead I left a 1-star review saying that they were trying to game the system, and my review got REMOVED! I give up.

Would it have upset you if they were asking for any review at all, instead of requiring a 5 star one?

"Asking for a friend," right?
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