Amazon is Rife with Counterfeit Goods

truthatallcost · Mar 2, 2017

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) offers more than 350 million products to its customers. Of that total, some 12.23 million are sold directly by Amazon, while the rest are sold by the company's Marketplace sellers.

According to a recent report from counterfeit awareness and consumer advocate site The Counterfeit Report, Amazon’s 2-million unvetted Marketplace account holders now generate 40% of Amazon's business, shipping counterfeit products that are never inspected by Amazon.

These counterfeit products often appear right next to authentic items, conveying Amazon's implied endorsement and creating the illusion they are from Amazon itself. Business Wire reported that Amazon Marketplace Sellers sold more than 2 billion items worldwide.

According to The Counterfeit Report, counterfeiting costs U.S. manufacturers more than $250 billion, costs U.S. workers more than 750,000 jobs and "supports terrorists, organized crime, and other criminals."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-doing-enough-combat-counterfeit-185039023.html

I used to think that eBay was untrustworthy, and Amazon was the place to shop, but now I'm not so sure. It seems that fake goods are so pervasive in the US, that they're unavoidable.

Do you have any experience with questionable goods from Amazon?

disneydude · Mar 2, 2017

Yep. I bought a Michael Aram bronze bowl off Amazon....turned out to be fake. I wouldn't have known it, but we had it engraved for an award. The engraver, who has done work on the bowls for me before pointed out to me that this one was a fake. To be fair.....it came from a private seller on the amazon site...not amazon itself.

KevinKohler · Mar 2, 2017

Yep. I bought an 890 dollar set of aluminum heads that were SUPOSED to have been Australian made, but were actually CAST from Chinese aluminum, and with cheep, aftermarket valve springs.

Took me over a year, but I eventually got my money back.

Crovax · Mar 2, 2017

truthatallcost said:
I used to think that eBay was untrustworthy, and Amazon was the place to shop, but now I'm not so sure. It seems that fake goods are so pervasive in the US, that they're unavoidable.

Do you have any experience with questionable goods from Amazon?

Don't buy from 3rd party sellers on amazon simple as that.

MaggieD · Mar 2, 2017

truthatallcost said:
I used to think that eBay was untrustworthy, and Amazon was the place to shop, but now I'm not so sure. It seems that fake goods are so pervasive in the US, that they're unavoidable.

Do you have any experience with questionable goods from Amazon?

I have had few problems with Amazon. Their customer service is beyond reproach, in my opinion. Any time I've had a problem, it has been immediately resolved in my favor -- and I mean IMMEDIATELY -- and rarely have I even had to return the product.

Skeptic Bob · Mar 2, 2017

You got to be careful about 3rd party sellers. If you use them pay attention to the reviews.

truthatallcost · Mar 2, 2017

disneydude said:
Yep. I bought a Michael Aram bronze bowl off Amazon....turned out to be fake. I wouldn't have known it, but we had it engraved for an award. The engraver, who has done work on the bowls for me before pointed out to me that this one was a fake. To be fair.....it came from a private seller on the amazon site...not amazon itself.

Very few goods purchased from Amazon actually come from Amazon, if that makes sense. Sellers have to pay for boxes that say Amazon on them, and also pay for their items to be stored at an Amazon warehouse, which is why the return address appears to be an Amazon building.

Amazon doesn't inspect items for quality control, which is why it's so easy for sellers to hustle fakes through their site.

truthatallcost · Mar 3, 2017

Crovax said:
Don't buy from 3rd party sellers on amazon simple as that.

Nearly every seller on Amazon is a 3rd party seller.

Crovax · Mar 3, 2017

truthatallcost said:
Nearly every seller on Amazon is a 3rd party seller.

I buy on amazon all the time and it's very rarely from a 3rd party seller.

truthatallcost · Mar 3, 2017

Crovax said:
I buy on amazon all the time and it's very rarely from a 3rd party seller.

That's smart. I personally just buy directly from the company that makes the product I want, like Nike or whoever.

Even Walmart is doing 3rd party sales now, and they have some people who are obviously selling fake stuff.

Crovax · Mar 3, 2017

truthatallcost said:
That's smart. I personally just buy directly from the company that makes the product I want, like Nike or whoever.

Even Walmart is doing 3rd party sales now, and they have some people who are obviously selling fake stuff.

Yeah the walmart one is a mess at least people understand about 3rd party sellers on amazon but on walmart they assume it's being sold by walmart

fmw · Mar 4, 2017

I bought a counterfeit skillet on Amazon recently. I reported it in my feedback of the transaction. If others do the same, it can mostly get cleaned up. My problem with Amazon is that it doesn't tell me where the seller is located. The skillet seller was Chinese but was shipping from a U.S. location. The product arrived quickly but, of course, was not what the seller advertised. On the plus side, Amazon is harsh on people who do this. Normally they will shut out the seller. The skillet seller, for example, appears to be gone.

truthatallcost · Mar 4, 2017

fmw said:
I bought a counterfeit skillet on Amazon recently. I reported it in my feedback of the transaction. If others do the same, it can mostly get cleaned up. My problem with Amazon is that it doesn't tell me where the seller is located. The skillet seller was Chinese but was shipping from a U.S. location. The product arrived quickly but, of course, was not what the seller advertised. On the plus side, Amazon is harsh on people who do this. Normally they will shut out the seller. The skillet seller, for example, appears to be gone.

I'm glad to hear they responded quickly, I've heard eBay actually bans member accounts that report sellers of counterfeit goods.