How Amazon counterfeits put this man's business on brink of collapse

[Miramonti]

Free will. You talk about employee abuse but it was their decision to take the job and their decision to keep the job. No one is putting a gun to the heads of employees, kidnapping them., Get over yourself.

Lots of people have a tremendous sense of responsibility to take care of themselves and their families. No one should be subject to abuse because they used their free will to accept a job instead of turning to social services or crime. Wtf planet do you live on.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Lots of people have a tremendous sense of responsibility to take care of themselves and their families. No one should be subject to abuse because they used their free will to accept a job instead of turning to social services or crime. Wtf planet do you live on.

Agreed, but one also needs to realize their limitations and set priorities accordingly. Living above their means. I live on a planet where I've lived the poor life and made decisions in my life to stop being poor.

 

[Imp]

I've read the pages to become an Amazon seller briefly. Now, I know they take a little off the top for sales, and they charge to store/handle merchandise when you use the Fulfilled by Amazon program...

But does Amazon refund the commission they take if the buyer returns the item? My guess is no and that's a huge incentive to just let shitty sellers exist -- as long as the transaction clears the first time, it's a money printer for Amazon.

 

[Miramonti]

Agreed, but one also needs to realize their limitations and set priorities accordingly. Living above their means. I live on a planet where I've lived the poor life and made decisions in my life to stop being poor.

I don't know what the title of this essay is or what it has to do with the discussion at hand.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I replied to yours, which created the tangent.

 

[rh71]

And yes, personal experience. Amazon goes to great lengths to sweep problems under the rug and to allow shady 3rd party sellers to continue to run scams. They fix the individual complaints only and don't do jack about the source of the complaints.

I saw evidence of their indifference when my account was somehow hacked into purchasing 8 different $100 Amazon gift cards overnight. I had recipient email addresses and provided it to them, but they didn't even care. 2 of them weren't used yet and they didn't take action to cancel them either. It was basically an accepted loss to them, and they only assured me that I won't be charged.

 

[Mike64]

I was a bit tongue in cheek but I also was serious. Of course, you cannot literally price check things scientifically because of different brands/models/styles/units/etc.

Not sure why you think AZ Prime vs. Costco comparison is not a good idea. I only was in a physically Costco store once so I was unable to express much about that place except it was similar like Sam's Club but the employees were more cheerful and helpful. A few items I checked while I was there were about the same price range as Sam's.

My comment re irony was aimed more at the "the closest one is 2 hours away" statement (vs 2-day shipping straight to one's door, of course)...

And frankly, I think people who do "most of their shopping" on Amazon are simply idiots who deserve whatever they get (which is why I think overly broad/blanket comparisons with places like Costco - assuming you can use or store giant-size everything to begin with - are "stupid and irrelevant"). But hey, more power to them, their idiocy "subsidizes" the occasional very good deals I find there, and to some extent the 2-day shipping I get with Prime, which the Prime fee alone would not otherwise cover... (And no, for the kibbitzers among you, I rarely if ever buy the stuff that's "marked up" to cover shipping costs. Unlike most Amazon shoppers, or so it would seem, I actually read product descriptions and check prices before I buy stuff there, as anywhere else...)

I don't like the Amazon/ebay comparisons. The business models are vastly different, the way sellers are vetted is vastly different and customers expectations are vastly different. With ebay it's clearly on the shoulders of the community to Darwinize things. Ebay doesn't do much to police sellers and buyers know that (or at least should know that) going in. There's much more of a wild west, buyer beware atmosphere. With Amazon they do (or at least claim to) police things to keep vendors on the up and up. Customers go in with the expectation that they're dealing with reputable companies and Amazon can clearly eliminate the problem sellers far more easily that ebay can.

I agree to some extent, but think most people's expectations of oversight of "third-party sellers" on any etailer's website are excessive. And on Ebay, what you say was more appopriate "back in the day" before the vast majority of Ebay sellers were regular "businesses" of one sort or another. The percentage of Ebay sellers who are "mere" individuals selling "their old stuff" to other individuals is very, very small...

 

[Mike64]

All of your solutions could be abused the other way as well..big producers forcing out small competing items of the same thing. Fact is Amazon isn't a fricking yard sale. They should have reputable sellers only. Not every 3rd party they can get their hands on. They are NOT ebay.

Well, that sounds to me like a lot of Amazon reviews: "It's now what I expected/thought it would be" (with the missing subtext being, of course, "but I didn't bother to read the product description so what I expected/thought it would be was something conjured up purely out my own imagination"...

 

[ImpulsE69]

Well, that sounds to me like a lot of Amazon reviews: "It's now what I expected/thought it would be" (with the missing subtext being, of course, "but I didn't bother to read the product description so what I expected/thought it would be was something conjured up purely out my own imagination"...

I think you are overestimating the intelligence of the average Amazon customer. I for one have never had a bad experience when using Amazon, however, I don't use them all that often and when I do, I do a ton of research before buying.

I think the point you missed though is that there is a ton of fake crap on there that you have to sift through.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

My comment re irony was aimed more at the "the closest one is 2 hours away" statement (vs 2-day shipping straight to one's door, of course)...

And frankly, I think people who do "most of their shopping" on Amazon are simply idiots who deserve whatever they get (which is why I think overly broad/blanket comparisons with places like Costco - assuming you can use or store giant-size everything to begin with - are "stupid and irrelevant"). But hey, more power to them, their idiocy "subsidizes" the occasional very good deals I find there, and to some extent the 2-day shipping I get with Prime, which the Prime fee alone would not otherwise cover... (And no, for the kibbitzers among you, I rarely if ever buy the stuff that's "marked up" to cover shipping costs. Unlike most Amazon shoppers, or so it would seem, I actually read product descriptions and check prices before I buy stuff there, as anywhere else...)

I agree to some extent, but think most people's expectations of oversight of "third-party sellers" on any etailer's website are excessive. And on Ebay, what you say was more appopriate "back in the day" before the vast majority of Ebay sellers were regular "businesses" of one sort or another. The percentage of Ebay sellers who are "mere" individuals selling "their old stuff" to other individuals is very, very small...

True, ebay has become more buttoned down. The feedback system does a good job of protecting the field when the seller isn't a big business and a little common sense does the rest. But the felling of caveat emptor is still pervasive, as the place grows safer the customer still treads lightly.

Amazon is exactly the opposite. The feedback system is falsified and only protects the dishonest sellers while helping to prey on innocent buyers. And each day the place gets less and less safe as Amazon gets into bed with shadier and shadier sellers. All as they're trying to maintain that "This is Amazon, you're protected here" facade which is patently untrue.

 

[rsutoratosu]

This happened to my friends BBQ online store on amazon. The chinese counterfeit everything and they lost nearly 60% of their annual sales. They had people trying to return counterfeit bbq equipment. They even ordered the counterfeit bbq parts to check for themselves. Very good copies but wont last. Cheap knock offs. And its been 4-5 years now, amazon dont care..

 

[FeuerFrei]

...

Amazon is exactly the opposite. The feedback system is falsified and only protects the dishonest sellers while helping to prey on innocent buyers. And each day the place gets less and less safe as Amazon gets into bed with shadier and shadier sellers. All as they're trying to maintain that "This is Amazon, you're protected here" facade which is patently untrue.

Srsly. Negative feedback on sellers is negated by Amazon if the item ordered is "fulfilled by Amazon." Totally stricken from the seller's record. So Amazon (the unrated company) assumes responsibility for the bad experience, leaving the seller's rating untarnished. Sounds like win-win for sellers. Let Amazon warehouse and ship their merchandise, plus suck up any and all negative feedback.

 

[Sonikku]

This kind of thing is happening all over America sadly. A guy came up with a unique tool and patented it and made a living selling it to Sears. A year later when his sales fell off he went into a Sears and they were selling a cheap chinese made knock off of his product. Small guys like that don't have the assets to fight a litigation war with some chinese company and vendors like Sears and Walmart are basically willing to screw over American intellectual property to save a buck so we're left with a disastrous race to the bottom.

 

[rh71]

Amazon is exactly the opposite. The feedback system is falsified and only protects the dishonest sellers while helping to prey on innocent buyers. And each day the place gets less and less safe as Amazon gets into bed with shadier and shadier sellers. All as they're trying to maintain that "This is Amazon, you're protected here" facade which is patently untrue.

I've done a handful of free no-hassle returns for various issues with them. So long as they never question me, I'm still ok with it. They've always had a reputation of making things right and I don't think that's changed. They've just gotta button up the other end. I still look toward them because it's completely hassle-free & risk-free because of free shipping/returns start to finish. Ebay on the other hand... "seller does not accept returns". I'm a bit uneasy about this Roomba I got from there... no returns.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I've done a handful of free no-hassle returns for various issues with them. So long as they never question me, I'm still ok with it. They've always had a reputation of making things right and I don't think that's changed. They've just gotta button up the other end. I still look toward them because it's completely hassle-free & risk-free because of free shipping/returns start to finish. Ebay on the other hand... "seller does not accept returns". I'm a bit uneasy about this Roomba I got from there... no returns.

Oh, they will make it right. If and only if you notice and complain. But they're intentionally sheltering scumbags that they know are ripping off customers and they don't try to stop it. That doesn't make them paragons of customer service, it makes them complicit in fraud. Customer service should be taking steps to try to prevent customers from being robbed in the first place, not giving them their money back if they ask nicely after they've been robbed.