Comment by Moru
1 day ago
I'm curious with what you mean with "Even sold by Amazon". The last few years I see nothing but reports of cheap fake products over Amazon.
Years ago I ordered some T-Shirts to test and they were all fake versions that barely survived the first wash. Haven't ordered anything since then.
I think this comment references something many people don't realize: Even items that say "Ships from Amazon, Sold by Amazon" could be counterfeit, because the inventory from third party sellers is co-mingled with Amazon's own inventory.
If you see "Ships from Amazon, Sold by RandomCompany" you might worry about counterfeits. But the "Sold by Amazon" item might also have been sourced from (or counterfeited by) "RandomCompany".
> co-mingled
Note it's actually commingled - it's not a typo despite looking like one.
I began noticing this about seven or eight years ago when the oil filters I bought changed from official ones to obvious counterfeits (certain pieces were missing entirely + media was much thinner than the real ones). Had to switch to a local auto parts supplier to guarantee the correct part.
How did you notice that the media was thinner? On passenger vehicles at least, the filter media is in a stainless steel cup that precludes examination.
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I’ve seen this stated many times on HN, but never knowingly experienced it with Amazon in the UK. Is it possible this varies by market?
It does happen with Amazon UK, or at least has within the last year because I've twice had it, first time with a microsd card, second time with an ssd.
They obviously replaced it no problem but it highlighted they were either still mixing stock or were using a dodgy supplier themselves.
For what it's worth, been buying from Amazon for the past 15 years or so, and not once received a counterfeit product. Granted, I still don't like they they mix up their inventory, but I think it's a smaller problem than people make it to be. Most people are buying household supplies off of Amazon; that's not really a category that gets affected by counterfeits.
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Amazon UK With replacement phone or laptop batteries, most definitely. I've seen other stuff sold that looked sketchy enough to not be worth the risk.
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Amazon is literally just aliexpress with faster shipping at this point.
Hmm, does AliExpress do inventory commingling too? I see that they do seem to have something about managed inventories… because I was originally going to say that things bought from "flagship stores" on AliExpress might be more likely to be authentic, but now I'm unsure.
Cables and chargers I will only buy from the official Ugreen store on AliExpress. They are excellent. All other cables and chargers I've seen on AliExpress on junk firestarters waiting to happen.
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In my experience, Amazon is also generally more expensive than online shops specialized in one domain for branded non generic aliexpresslike items.
With the exception of those shops who sell on Amazon, who have to offer a better price on Amazon than on their own site.
I'm noticing an increasing number of brands who don't have an official Amazon presence, probably for that reason.
Lots of stuff on Amazon is also from Aliexpress or Temu. Crap, so if I need crap I'll try it on Aliexpress.
I ordered a Springer published book on Prolog from Amazon, and it was obviously printer but professional book publisher. The only difference was that almost half the physical dimensions of Springer’s usual books, and it looked as though it was printed from a DJVU file downloaded from the Internet!!