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Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

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Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#71

Post by baybal2 »

blairanderson wrote: post #52

I've been a consultant for Amazon suppliers since 2009 and seen tons of junk come onto the market. Every retailer in the world (besides Amazon) has incredibly strict supplier verification because if someone dies from a toaster fire, extension cord shortage, etc. then everyone sues everyone. Amazon DNGAF because the risk is on the "seller". Just like TAX RISK is on the "seller". People are importing shit from their ba…

Amazon consultant? How is it these days?

I used to do gigs as a trade agent in parallel to my part time job in a trade company 10 years ago.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#72

Post by Jestar342 »

Red_Leaves_Flyy wrote: post #65
Jestar342 wrote: post #5

Amazon probably don't care about the authenticity of the items, only that _they_ are fulfilling and shipping them.

I find this hard to believe. Amazon happily sells returns missing parts as new, or ships counterfeits sold and fulfilled by Amazon for months despite reports in the reviews and subsequent returns. I should know, I've had both happen repeatedly on different items.

Perhaps I'm being dense but I am pretty sure everything after your first sentence actually concurs with my post.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#74

Post by chadash »

throwaway35784 wrote: post #47
chadash wrote: post #18

The article talks about fake Hermes bracelets being sold for $25, when a real one is closer to $600. It's obviously a counterfeit. Does Amazon not have any requirement for a human to review a listing before allowing it up for sale?

And they are both worthless pieces of jewelry. Who really cares about fake fake stuff? Some counterfeit stuff causes real harm though. Counterfeit electronics can catch on fire. Food could poison you.

I'm not particularly upset about fake luxury goods either. My point is more that if you can't stop things that an average person can tell you are obvious fakes, them how much worse are you going to be at spotting the fakes on categories where it matters more?

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#75

Post by w457uiw4gftyi »

ikeboy wrote: post #70
w457uiw4gftyi wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the difficult part is that the seller just returns under a different name. Enough complaints have come in about marketplace seller GreatElectronics4U? OK, Amazon bans/suspends GreatElectronics4U and the guy behind it starts selling stuff as AllTheBestElectronics4U. Rinse and repeat. This isn't like the old days when a ban on doing business under your current name would be a death blow ... start a new seller acc…

What exactly is the proposed solution? Amazon already requires ID verification to open new accounts, and will ban accounts that they can link to old banned accounts.

I really don't know what the solution is.

I also don't have first-hand knowledge of the situation on the ground in, for example, China. But my perception (and that of others I've talked to), is that Chinese sellers just sign up to open a new account, no problem. I'm not sure if that means using the info of a relative or friend, or fake documents, or if my perception is just completely wrong.

It'd be interesting to hear from anyone who has seen things on the ground on that side of the world!

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#76

Post by baybal2 »

ikeboy wrote: post #67
CamelCaseName wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing the key part: >hard to get back in It's been discussed to death, by overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon.

>It's been discussed to death Where? >overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon. Why would it be any easier for an overseas seller to start a new account after being banned? Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it. Sellers can get around that by having employees or relatives open accounts in their name. This is just as easy or difficult in the US as e…

> Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it.

They really cannot, and that's been the case for 10+ years.

Even in-person verification is more or less easily defeatable.

Alibaba requires on-site check and business license check by an expert, and may throw many more scrutiny and audit on you than Amazon, but even this is to little effect.

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#77

Post by habosa »

My favorite Amazon scam is the Amazon Ship of Theseus[0]. You sell a product, normally a cheap electronic, and build up a decent corpus of positive reviews. A good example is a USB-C cable or something. Then you decide you want to sell a new product in a more competitive subcategory, like Bluetooth Headphones. You then take the _existing_ listing and change it piece by piece. First the pictures, then the title, then the price, etc. Until you have a listing for your headphones that comes with 5,000 pre-made positive reviews! Sure they're for a totally different product, but that doesn't affect the rankings.

I see this all the time. If I go back in my order history and click on old products often the same "id" now maps to a totally different thing.

For this reason I have basically stopped ordering from Amazon. I find that Walmart has like 99% of the inventory but none of it is fake (some is junk, but it's the junk I asked for). Same prices, same ship speed, no fake shit.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#78

Post by Apocryphon »

AlexandrB wrote: post #11

Amazon's fulfilment has also become shockingly bad. Most items are shipped in lightly-padded manila envelopes resulting in high percentage of damaged goods if you order books[1], CDs/DVDs/BluRays, video games, or anything else where the packaging is part of the product. eBay is a much better experience in this regard. [1] In an ironic twist, I absolutely refuse to buy books from Amazon anymore.

Ironically as well, I tend to use alternative sites to buy books. I prefer ThriftBooks and Powells for secondhand used books, and Barnes and Noble for new ones (of which I buy only on sale). What do people here use?

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#79

Post by CamelCaseName »

ikeboy wrote: post #67
CamelCaseName wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing the key part: >hard to get back in It's been discussed to death, by overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon.

>It's been discussed to death Where? >overseas sellers simply have a massive advantage in starting new seller accounts on Amazon. Why would it be any easier for an overseas seller to start a new account after being banned? Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it. Sellers can get around that by having employees or relatives open accounts in their name. This is just as easy or difficult in the US as e…

>Where?

In fairness, mostly in FBA-related forums. I'm a 3P seller so I apologize for that comment as I certainly have a skewed view of what is commonly known.

>This is just as easy or difficult in the US as elsewhere.

Wrong. How much would I have to pay you to borrow your passport to set up a seller account? $100? $1000? $10,000? -- You can get this in rural India / China for $20-$100. (And maybe even less than that, I'm not interested in finding out)

>Amazon blocks related accounts whenever they can track it.

Key phrase: whenever they can track it

>When they do determine that they will quickly ban the new account.

I really don't know what to say other than that this is patently false. Here is one (or 50?) of countless examples:

https://old.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon/comments/8rnqmb...

Re: Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

#80

Post by ikeboy »

w457uiw4gftyi wrote: post #75
ikeboy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is the proposed solution? Amazon already requires ID verification to open new accounts, and will ban accounts that they can link to old banned accounts.

I really don't know what the solution is. I also don't have first-hand knowledge of the situation on the ground in, for example, China. But my perception (and that of others I've talked to), is that Chinese sellers just sign up to open a new account, no problem. I'm not sure if that means using the info of a relative or friend, or fake documents, or if my perception is just completely wrong. It'd be interesting to he…

I've certainly talked to many US sellers who openly admit to running multiple accounts. Many feel that it's just not responsible to only run a single account if you're doing significant volume, even 100% legitimately.
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