I have to assume it’s mainly an issue with categories of goods other than what I’m buying, because I’ve also never encountered it. But it’s certainly a known one.
I’ve read people have had trouble purchasing counterfeit Apple products when buying items from Amazon. Just anecdotal evidence though it seems that’d be a likely thing that sellers will try to knock off, since the profit margin on that would be fairly high.
I’ve seen it too. Really depends on what you buy.
We tried to get some Microsoft Surface chargers (3rd gen, non pro) for my wife’s tutoring business last year. Of the 3 we ordered, ONE appeared to be the genuine boxed article. Another appeared to be the unbranded grey-market OEM part in a sealed plastic bag, The third was a random used Samsung phone charger stuffed into a zip-lock bag. Nice work Amazon 👍
Do you recall if that order was actually from Amazon (e.g., sold and shipped by Amazon) versus a 3rd-party seller?
I’d be surprised if the commingling problem mentioned in that article for sold by Amazon goods would occur between boxed articles and just random bagged stuff.
That one was a 3rd party seller, but all from the same listing.
I agree that it’d be worse if it was a shipped / sold by Amazon item. That happens too due to the co-mingling you mention,
I’m still trying to get a sense of how prevalent this commingling problem actually is for sold by Amazon. It sounds like no one on this board has actually personally run into counterfeits sold directly by Amazon, which is my experience. I’d be surprised if it was such a prevalent problem that people are clamoring for all brick and mortar stores to convert to online in the manner that Rod_Humble raised as an option to these stores dying.
3rd party sellers on Amazon are eBay level of reliability, from my personal experience, which is basically the wild, wild west.
I’ve been ordering from Amazon for a long time. I’ve had zero issues with returns, but I don’t buy a number of items from them due to the counterfeit and grey market problems they have. It’s not always entire categories but specific product lines like Samsung memory cards. I won’t buy those from Amazon or Newegg. They have both had problems but only NewEgg was a real pain to get a return because I had to open the package to verify it was grey market… it was. Most people who get a grey market card don’t even realize it until you try to register for a warrant, which many don’t even do, that you got one from Europe. The fake ones for the Samsung cards are also very, very good, so hard to notice they are a counterfeit. Anything cord related has a pretty high potential, like hdmi, usb… like if you hold those side by side to a retail package you got from your local store, you’d be surprised how many are not quite right… although they often work.
My sister and I have both received use items from Amazon. It’s hard to tell if that was a co-mingle issue or a lazy return because some of the co-minglers might try that, put their used stuff in a newish looking box.
I don’t want to derail this whole thread because, as someone said, we have another topic that covered this, but if someone told me I could get Amazon type deliveries and Amazon type prices without the third party, counterfeit, grey market, used crap I deal with Amazon, yeah i’d switch. I don’t even trust Amazon enough in this area to ever get designer clothes or purses or anything like that. They want to be in the clothing line, and maybe they want to sell just their brand but there is no way I would drop 1k on a purse there…not that I would ever buy a 1k purse in the first place but I just don’t know enough to tell a fake Gucci from a real one to try it.
And just like the other topic covered, I am not talking about third party. The entire problem with co-mingling is Amazon as the seller, and yes, I’ve experienced it.
I have! I ordered a wired XBoX 360 controller “Sold by Amazon” and wound up getting a cheap knockoff in nondescript packaging. I contacted Amazon and sent it back and they shipped out a new one and this time it was an actual Microsoft controller.
I’ve never had an issue with counterfeit goods from Amazon. I could be wrong but I think all the reviews of the exact same product from different sellers are combined together, so when someone complains about getting a counterfeit good, they probably got it from a 3rd party seller at a too-good-to-be-true price.
Not even the same product, oftentimes.
I’ve been ordering from Amazon since 1998, and have never once received a “shady” item during all that time. However, I read an article about co-mingling at Amazon a while back, and while I believe it can and does happen, I have to wonder how frequently this occurs, given that in the last 20 years, I’ve never personally experienced it. Hundreds of orders of all kinds. I have to believe that it’s either simply a rare occurrence, or that these are limited to products that I have never bought.
I suppose if I got one though, I be a bit pissed. Then I’d call them and have them cross-ship another. And if it became a regular occurrence, I’d have to think twice about using Amazon as my first choice. But I have to believe that Amazon knows this kind of behavior would affect their bottom line, and have or would have taken steps to correct it.
Well I walked through the corpse of our local Toys R Us today. There was actually a fair amount of stuff still there so I grabbed a few things for donations this Christmas (already have a handful so totally prepared!).
My best find though was a semi-hidden board game, CV. It was marked 44.99 and that’s what they wanted to charge me. I asked them why there was no discount because the signs say everything is 50%+ off, so they gave it to me for 20. I already have this game so this will either be given as a gift or perhaps a holiday donation as well.
I stopped in last week. Agents of Mayhem was still there. It was the last PS4 game available. I couldn’t pull the trigger at $8.
They’ve already closed all their stores, so whatever I guess.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Toys R Us’ controlling lenders “intend to revive the business behind the Toys ‘R’ Us and Babies ‘R’ Us brand names.” The goal is to “create new, domestic, retail operating businesses” while maintaining its licensing of certain products worldwide, according to court documents filed Monday, as reported by the Journal. The company’s lenders decided to reverse the order after speaking to controlling parties and deciding the brand was too valuable to give up.
The WSJ articled linked in the Polygon piece is locked behind a paywall, so you get this version.
Still around in Canada. Probably do some small local franchising in the US and that’s about it.
Canada doesn’t count. It never counts.
Apparently, the Canadian operation was profitable.
Yeah, online retail in Canada has lagged behind the US and other jurisdictions, in part because we charge sales tax online, but also because we get charged duty on online foreign purchases (in addition to other logistical issues) above $20. Thanks to the new free trade treaty, at the insistence of the Americans, that amount will be raised to $150. Caving to American demands is the best thing Trudeau has done for Canada.
Is this sarcasm? I can’t tell.
So on the Toy R US front… I wonder if this means they will keep their exclusives.
I’d have to think that the value of those exclusive contracts is a big part of the reason to keep it alive. I mean, name recognition is a thing, but I have doubts about how much it’s truly worth.