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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

#461

Post by fma »

EricE wrote: post #449

A perfect example of why I buy less and less from sites that support 3rd party sellers. The problem is even once reliable sites like newegg.com are now playing these games. If I wanted the Ebay/alibaba experience I can get that! Why large retailer sites dilute their brand and frustrate customers in the fruitless chase of "being like Amazon" in catering to 3rd party sellers amazes and annoys me. At least most other si…

I buy a lot from Walmart now, to drive business away from Amazon (I would never have typed these words a few years ago...). First thing I do is click Retailer = Walmart.com.

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

#462

Post by eatonphil »

beermonster wrote: post #456
eatonphil wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From personal experience, any cheap vps that can serve static pages will stand the front of HN. The blogs that go down here typically back every request by MySQL (ahem, WordPress) which is totally unnecessary and often actively harmful since MySQL has very low default total connections allowed. The point being: don't serve requests backed by a database unless the results are likely to change very dynamically!

No need to even get a cheap VPS. You can just serve up static content in an S3 bucket or similar.

For sure. I've used Github Pages (free site hosting) for a few years now. I'm leaning back toward VPS though so that I can do access log analysis rather than depend on Google Analytics.

But the point was to make a comparison to a Raspberry Pi and emphasize that you do not special compute to withstand thousands of page views. Even S3 and GH Pages are overkill in terms of the compute behind both of them vs. what you need minimally.

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

#463

Post by EricE »

fmajid wrote: post #92
binarysolo wrote: post #40

Given how this is on page-1 of HN, jeff@amazon (the elite US-based seller support team who uses the email, not Bezos) is gonna tear this AMVOOM / TaroRee hijacker a new one. While this is kinda designed-as-intended (Amazon wants you to brand register with them for protection), this is a pretty shitty dark pattern they put up and sadly it happens as an annoying edge case that existing sellers and customers have to dea…

It takes some chutzpah to turn defense from your own willful negligence into a revenue center. Like telcos’ telemarketer blocking services or Equifux offering credit monitoring services (only free for the first year) to the millions whose sensitive financial info they allowed to be breached.

"It takes some chutzpah to turn defense from your own willful negligence into a revenue center." It's not chutzpah - it's the norm for most tech companies - or any other companies who's primary product is intellectual property. Think patent trolls, copyright trolls, etc. Amazon is a product troll that somehow has managed to maintain a veneer of legitimacy.

I see what they are doing no differently than what Steele started with Prenda law. Heck that's probably where Amazon got the idea :p

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

#464

Post by ev1 »

seanwilson wrote: post #55

> To make their blackhead remover listing look legit, Amvoom then submitted several hundred orders over Amazon, and immediately cancelled each order. These depleted my Klein bottle inventory on Amazon - even though nothing was paid for, and nothing was shipped. In turn, this removed the "second color option" for their blackhead-remover, since Amazon felt that the Klein bottles were out of stock. Result: their black-h…

Getting banned has a minimal cost if you are a throwaway goods reseller running off a newly registered business in a region where you can effectively ignore all foreign laws, falsify documentation, or whatever else.

Getting banned has a high cost if you are a single small business with a long-term decades of time in business as the same company registration.

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

#465

Post by fma »

prepend wrote: post #297
ljm wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went cold turkey on Amazon a few months back; the only thing I've kept is the TV subscription. What I realised is that it was just a dependency because it was so easy to search for and buy stuff. Nowadays I'll buy from a smaller shop if I need something, but it's more likely that I think "do I actually need this?" and say "no."

Also, Walmart.com has similar prices and selection. Free shipping is $35 though. I’ve had much better results with Walmart packaging and shipping lately.

I have their Walmart Plus. If I'm buying a major brand item I go to Walmart. 0 chance of knockoffs. I get 2 day free shipping. And - if it's in stock locally, many times they deliver directly from the store and I get it next day (no option to tip...so no pressure there).

I use their store delivery option if I'm buying certain groceries or items I need ASAP. Yeah I need to tip - but I consider it me saving gas money/time.

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

#466

Post by jbluepolarbear »

blairanderson wrote: post #379
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…

Hi Cliff, I'm an independent amazon consultant. Your Amazon problems would be solved with a regular USPTO trademark. They don't recognize common-law trademarks because they are heavily arguable in litigation. USPTO is a database of trademarks already scrutinized by trademark attorneys and government. It's not perfect, but it is a collection that Amazon recognizes. You can do this for $2000-ish and never think about i…

That shouldn’t be required. Amazon should verify the seller. Scam sellers sell knockoff trademarked items everyday on Amazon. Trademark won’t fix anything.

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

#467

Post by IncRnd »

CliffStoll wrote: post #134
IncRnd wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a seller you can go to the contact us page at sellercentral, select the option on the left, then click phone in the middle and get a call back from Amazon. For live chat as a seller, follow these instructions from Amazon's Moderator: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/wheres-live-chat-s...

Yes, I posted (repeatedly) to Amazon Seller forum. Several people replied, but, alas, the suggestions were not of help. See: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/product-page-hijac...

Were you able to contact a person through their live chat or call back links?

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

#468

Post by swalsh »

danparsonson wrote: post #258
helixfelix wrote: post #221

What is ironic is that there is an annual Award given to an AWS employee called the Cliff Stoll Award: For those individuals who see something suspicious, not working as expected, show ownership and drive it to resolution. As Cliff did to find a KGB spy, and documented in "The Cuckoo's Egg". I wonder what would happen if someone at Amazon pulled on this thread and not only solved Cliff's problem but also the root cau…

Plot twist: the root cause is greed

Allowing trusted sellers to be hijacked is not greedy behavior. Keeping 3rd sellers happy will result in less returns, happier resellers, and greater platform usage.

The root cause here is organizational failure from disempowered employees. At one point Amazon had great customer service with empowered represenatives. That's not Amazon today.

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

#469

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

EricE wrote: post #451
duxup wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC: Amazon won't tell him who it is and he suspects it's just someone out of legal reach / as the book is just self published his legal resources are pretty limited.

Which is what the infringers hope - and the major engine driving much of Amazon's profits. Fraud. I remember when people used to (heck still do) get worked up about Walmart but those same people not only order from Amazon all the time, they even join B mans private club (Prime).

You sue Amazon for contributory infringement. Subpoena for the number of fraudulent copies they sold and then press for triple damages plus all of your fees. Even if that number is tiny you'll cost them much more in legal bills.

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

#470

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

fma wrote: post #465
prepend wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Walmart.com has similar prices and selection. Free shipping is $35 though. I’ve had much better results with Walmart packaging and shipping lately.

I have their Walmart Plus. If I'm buying a major brand item I go to Walmart. 0 chance of knockoffs. I get 2 day free shipping. And - if it's in stock locally, many times they deliver directly from the store and I get it next day (no option to tip...so no pressure there). I use their store delivery option if I'm buying certain groceries or items I need ASAP. Yeah I need to tip - but I consider it me saving gas money/t…

> Yeah I need to tip

Wal-mart employees don't get tip workers minimum wage. The cost of their service is already priced in.

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