Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#351

Post by 97s » Mon, Mar 27, 2017, 2:47 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #199

97s wrote: post #151

We canceled prime for this very problem.

I also canceled my prime due to this and them intentionally making it hard to purchase only ships and sold by Amazon.com items. That and commingling their inventory means I have more to worry about, and I'd rather just use Costco/Target/Walmart/Apple for whatever I need, or just go straight to manufacturer's website.

Yep. Yesterday my wife asked me to order something off amazon for her. I ordered it off Target. Amazon is going to eventually have to fix this issue.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#352

Post by SomeStupidPoint » Mon, Mar 27, 2017, 2:48 PM UTC

nkrisc wrote: post #346

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is likely stats blinded: their internal metrics say "all good", so they ignore the stories people are telling as anecdotes without ever doing the analysis on how often those "anecdotes" happen. Further, that their stats are ungrounded (not tied to any hard-to-attack real world tests) and fail to capture data which would demonstrate the issue. I believe the FBA and FMA teams are a fundamental blunder opposed to…

Or perhaps they do know exactly how bad the problem is and have decided that fixing it isn't worth it.

I had considered that, but that seemed the less likely scenario: that they'd intentionally let their business get damaged, rather than having issues that most large corporations face.

I mean, they clearly don't have a handle on a wide variety of bad actors in their ecosystem, but keep putting out awkward attempts at solutions. This suggests they're trying to fix perceived problems, but are avoiding the core of the problem because they either don't see it or don't have the political will to fix it.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#353

Post by Arizhel » Mon, Mar 27, 2017, 3:49 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #257

dogma1138 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Towns like to attract military bases because they bring in a large population that is employed requires no loca services (since it's handled by the armed forces), usually well behaved which spends its income locally. Bases also bring 100s of civilian jobs and support local businesses.

Yeah, but military Keynesianism also involves a lot of the taxpayer dollars lining the pockets of arms manufacturers and contributes to belligerent foreign policy. It's worth asking whether the same money could be used to employ people to do something other than building more F-35s.

You're thinking large-scale, not small-scale. Locally, building more F-35s is good for the local economy and keeps people employed, and the negative effects are minimal if any. Nationally, it's a different picture. Why would local politicians care about things on a national scale, rather than what's good in the short term for their little town where they're trying to get re-elected?

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#354

Post by Arizhel » Mon, Mar 27, 2017, 3:52 PM UTC

nommm-nommm wrote: post #326

dogma1138 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They pay certain taxes e.g sales taxes, they pay salaries to civilians that work on base and they do not really use any of the local services that are tax funded, police, fire department, medical and social services all provided by the DOD.

No, the federal government does not pay state or local sales tax. Bases also open and operate large sales tax free stores for service member and family use (base exchanges). Military housing, as long as owned directly by the federal government, doesn't pay property taxes and the residents do use local police, fire dept, and schools as well as drive on local roads. Any local or state services are fully available to to…

>Bases also open and operate large sales tax free stores for service member and family use (base exchanges).

Those aren't accessible to all the civilian workers and contractors who work on-base.

>Military housing, as long as owned directly by the federal government, doesn't pay property taxes

Civilian workers and contractors are not military, and don't use this housing. They live off-base, and pay property taxes and sales taxes. With the generous paychecks they get (relative to the locals who work at Walmart), they can afford to buy or build much larger houses and nicer cars, so they pay a LOT more in property taxes.

>I'm not saying military bases don't add to the local economy, they do, just not anything like a civilian operation of a similar size.

No, what you're really saying is that you have no clue at all what goes on on a military base, and you have some ignorant idea that everyone there is in the military when in fact it's usually a small minority of people on-base who are active-duty military.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#355

Post by norea-armozel » Mon, Mar 27, 2017, 3:55 PM UTC

More often than not I'm trying to buy things not on Amazon anymore. Like my most recent (and expense) purchase was a telescope from Orion. I just don't trust Amazon to vet their sellers. If they can't be bothered to make sure what's sold is the real thing then I'm not going to buy from them. It might cost me a bit more in the retail price but at least when I buy from decent online stores or reputable bricks and mortars I know I'm getting what I expected to buy (even if it's not top of the line).

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#356

Post by Arizhel » Mon, Mar 27, 2017, 3:57 PM UTC

robotjosh wrote: post #19

Lasher wrote: post #4

I purchased Quickbooks Pro 2017 (PC) on Amazon last week, said it was "sold by Intuit" so wasn't even supposed to be an FBA (fulfilled by Amazon). Figured if it costs no more I might as well get the physical disk. What showed up was a DVD case with a very clearly photocopied cover for a Mac version with a Verbatim CDR inside and a hacked version of the software. Amazon processed the refund just fine but didn't seem p…

I bought a phone battery on amazon. Looked legit, was the top result for my phone. It was counterfeit and wouldn't work. I don't even know how to get a battery because the phone stores didn't have it anymore. Can't trust amazon.

I've bought several batteries for Samsung phones from Ebay. Look for "Samsung OEM" and find a seller in the US. Check the feedback. I can't guarantee it won't be counterfeit, but it's a better bet than Amazon.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#357

Post by Arizhel » Mon, Mar 27, 2017, 5:21 PM UTC

new299 wrote: post #313

no_wizard wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ubiuiti products seem really nice. However I've heard many bad things about their management culture I want to know more about this. I'm not interested in buying from companies that have a tradition of having abusive or exploitative relationship with their employees, whenever it is possible to do so (I rightly acknowledge that its pretty hard to do. Almost every large company has been sued or been reported to have…

Glassdoor reviews appear to be routinely faked. At least in my experience. Once company I follow on glassdoor, after having an average rating of 2 for years has been getting a new 5 star review once a week for the last 2 months. This seems to be how companies get round any filtering glassdoor has in place, they slowly post good reviews over a period of months. I wouldn't trust their review averages. Maybe look at the…

I think this is the case for anything where anyone can write a review. The same happens with restaurant reviews, for instance: people affiliated with the restaurant will write glowing, positive reviews to try to drown out the angry 1-star ratings from pissed-off customers.

The thing to do with any kind of rating system like this is to weight the positive reviews far less than the negative reviews. Also read the positive reviews with a critical eye; the ones by "plants" are usually somewhat obvious.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#358

Post by jinushaun » Tue, Mar 28, 2017, 5:16 AM UTC

I've pretty much learned to buy nothing of value from Amazon any more. Got burned too many times. Read the reviews! This problem is endemic! People are buying new items and either getting used or wrong items. The site has gone to shit since they moved to rely heavily on affiliates.

I now buy direct from manufacturer or brick and mortar.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#359

Post by jinushaun » Tue, Mar 28, 2017, 5:35 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #10

Lasher wrote: post #4

I purchased Quickbooks Pro 2017 (PC) on Amazon last week, said it was "sold by Intuit" so wasn't even supposed to be an FBA (fulfilled by Amazon). Figured if it costs no more I might as well get the physical disk. What showed up was a DVD case with a very clearly photocopied cover for a Mac version with a Verbatim CDR inside and a hacked version of the software. Amazon processed the refund just fine but didn't seem p…

Can't the review system help deal with this problem? I always check reviews of the product and vendor to make sure it's legit. Only a few could get burned before the vendor is flagged as a counterfeiter which would stop further purchases. That should reduce the amount of money you could make scamming people and make it a less viable criminal business. Amazon also seems diligent in refunding people as well. So the sol…

No, because the reviews are comingled. The review is tied to the SKU, not the specific seller.

You can check for yourself. If you find two listings for the same product, you'll find that they share the same reviews. Learned this the hard hard way when attempting to buy an e-book on Amazon. I was confused with the reviews until I figured out that half the people bought the wrong version.

Re: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers

#360

Post by tajen » Tue, Mar 28, 2017, 5:44 AM UTC

nommm-nommm wrote: post #274

bonestamp2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon isn't going to take this seriously until a major company gets burned and the FBI gets involved. Then Amazon will experience what every other company does that gets burned for selling counterfeit goods... the FBI will raid their warehouse and hold all the inventory as evidence until they complete their investigation. Like you said, Amazon doesn't seem concerned that they're selling counterfeit goods -- probably…

Amazon seems to be untouchable. They didn't even get in any trouble for selling illegal and prescription drugs but Bodybuilding.com did. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/amazon-prescription-drug-proble... http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa... https://www.fda.gov/iceci/criminalinvestigations/ucm305494.h...

I hope Amazon doesn't become another HSBC case. Given the extent of the fraud, I'm already disappointed that the FBI doesn't seize a warehouse for investigation.