[codespin]

I received counterfeit goods multiple times due to this. I set up a subscribe and save order and they would let random retailers fill the order with fake products. Amazon collected the money and just did not care, they need to be held accountable for these things.

[bilsbie]

How do you tell?

Closest I got was a bottle that was slightly off color and the label had a different texture.

[commandar]

> they would let random retailers fill the order with fake products

What made this all particularly insidious is that Amazon not only commingled inventory, but actively refused to track where inventory came from.

This meant you only needed one fraudulent seller to poison the entire inventory pool and there was no way know where the bad product came from because Amazon actively avoided being able to track it.

That's the aspect of it that always felt particularly malicious to me.

[fuzzehchat]

Amazon don't check returns either. It's a nightmare if you use their FOB service. We've had product returned, not checked and then shipped to another customer who then pputs in a claim because they didn't get what they ordered - because Amazon didn't check the return. Amazon then claim you're selling counterfeit goods.

Entirely why we no longer use their service and ship direct for amazon orders. Some people still try the trick but we always put a claim in and amazon after they automatically give a refund to the buyer, and Amazon pay it. So Amazon pay twice. Maybe the cost of just accepting that loss is less than having someone check the return.

[FredPret]

The bad part here is letting “poisoned” inventory in.

Adding vendor tracking adds a layer of ERP difficulty that isn’t practical for bulk, cheap items.

You either have to have serial numbers (unique per item, not just a product identifier barcode) or you have to physically segregate inventory by vendor, which is not practical.

If the vendor doesn’t serialize the item, then Amazon has to add it on receipt. Certainly not worth it for $10-20 item.

[bapak]

> Amazon actively avoided being able to track it.

Is that real? I find it hard to believe that Amazon effectively accepted stock from third parties "as is" and lost track of where it came from. It's more likely that they don't tell you than they don't track.

[privatelypublic]

They know where every item is- if not, how do FBA folks get their stuff back?

[lyrrad]

I don't think ending commingling will stop that from happening, since Subscribe & Save is set to switch to a different seller with a lower price by default.

In the US, when Subscribe & Save is set up, it is set by default to receive orders from "Amazon.com and other top rated sellers". If you want to change it, you need to go into the Subscribe & Save page and change it to "Amazon.com only".

I've had an order where I initially placed a new subscription sold by Amazon.com, but a 3rd party seller would lower their price by a few cents, and Amazon would change the seller and I would receive grey market goods.

I haven't found a way to change the default for new subscriptions to always use the same seller that I set up the subscription with, so I need to manually change it for every single new subscription.

[floating-io]

Thanks for this. I had no idea this was even a thing, and it explains some discrepancies I've seen with my one subscription.

They really don't make it obvious where to change it, either...

[sieve]

> a subscribe and save order

Yeah. This is a joke. They give us a 5-10% discount to do this. But when the time for the next delivery came, they had doubled the prices instead of locking in the price I had subscribed at. I had to cancel the order.

If I had been informed during subscription that fulfillment will be done at the price prevailing at that time, I would never have subscribed in the first place.

[sowbug]

Instead of Subscribe and Save, which is almost useless for the reason you give, I wish I could place a standing limit order to buy up to X of something every Y months, but only if it's price Z or better.

[gonzobonzo]

Not just counterfeit good, but numerous stolen goods as well[1].

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/17/the-fight-against-stolen-pro...

[junon]

Yep. The number of times I've received garbage while paying full price is wild. I finally asked the rep what I need to be looking for before purchasing to avoid this. They didn't really have an answer.

I did get a refund most of the time. Amazon's service is still quite good even today. Already don't feel great about ordering from Amazon but this really made me cut back over the last year or two.

[anxman]

I received counterfeit toothpaste from Amazon during COVID. I got asthma from using it and never had asthma before or symptoms like that. I purchased tubes from Costco to compare and the Amazon ones were clearly fake.

I left a review to warn others on the page. Amazon removed my review and lifetime banned me from leaving reviews again citing “abnormalities.

[Yokolos]

I've been ordering on Amazon in Germany for a good 20 years now and I've never received a counterfeit item. Is it not a thing here? Does it primarily affect certain countries? Am I insanely lucky?

[Hackbraten]

Been ordering since January 2000 (> 1,000 orders) from Amazon Germany and never received anything counterfeit as far as I can tell.

I think I'm pretty good at spotting fakes, because I'm sensitive to tiny typographical or material-wise quirks. In the same period, I've received multiple fakes on eBay, including a genuine phone that came with a counterfeit charger.

I can imagine that commingling introduces a very low-percentage risk of receiving a counterfeit product but due to the immense scale, it still affects a huge absolute number of orders.

[kace91]

I haven’t it happen to me either (Spain) but if you sort comments by negative you see it happen relatively frequently, and it’s credible reviews with pictures.

[alphager]

I have had it happen in Germany on Gillette blades.

[iLoveOncall]

I also haven't received any counterfeit ever. I have 400+ orders a year...

I think what a lot of people qualify of counterfeit (not saying OP does here) is people buying cheap no-brand Chinese garbage and receiving cheap no-brand Chinese garbage and not being happy with it.

[sillysaurusx]

It’s weird, every time I’ve talked to Amazon support they’ve always done well. Did they refuse to refund you or let you return it?

[Someone1234]

That's neither here nor there.

Amazon regularly commingling legitimate and counterfeit goods, means that customers are left with the job of trying to verify that the goods they ordered are legitimate. For every customer that complaints & refunds, there might be three or more who don't.

Some of these counterfeit products have legitimate safety concerns, for example lead paint usage, battery fire risks, PPE that misstates its effectiveness, or USB chargers with poor AC DC electrical isolation.

This is a huge trust problem, and "the customer needs to detect counterfeits and refund," isn't actually a solution to THAT problem.

[a2128]

I bought an electronic item brand new, sold by Amazon, and they sent me a used one that already had its digital bundle redeemed by someone else and 5 out of 12 manufacturer warranty months used. I contacted Amazon support about this within a week and they told me replacement is not possible in my situation, I can return it but a full refund is not guaranteed

[kwanbix]

Yeah, same for me. I don't like commingling either, but I could always solve it with Amazon's support.

[nenenejej]

What if the product causes harm? Fire for example or poisoning.

[ratg13]

I ordered a quantity of o’reilly books from Amazon because that was the only outlet offered by them.

I received some real books, and several counterfeit copies. The same books weren’t even the same size, some also had thin pages, some yellow pages, and several with printing errors the others didn’t have.

Sadly I tried to contact the publisher and let them know about the counterfeit books in their listings and tried to warn them about what was going on, but their support people only wanted me to take it up with Amazon, and couldn’t understand how to escalate my concerns internally and just kept asking me if they could close the ticket.

Also Amazon refunds aren’t as smooth when you don’t live in the US and already paid customs duties on the counterfeit products, and the return shipping costs make returns prohibitively expensive.

I wouldn’t have even ordered from them in the first place if I could have avoided it.

I’m glad they are solving this problem, but I also kind of don’t want them to succeed because of their terrible legacy.

[stefap2]

Can you give some examples? I order massive amounts from Amazon and I don't think I have received any counterfeit items. Most of it is made in China.

[wdr1]

> Amazon collected the money and just did not care, they need to be held accountable for these things.

Whenever this happened with me, Amazon was pretty quick to offer a refund/replacement.

[baubino]

They are very quick to refund/replace and I wonder if it’s because they have no way to track an item’s origin to a specific seller so they just treat the refund as a small cost in an otherwise very profitable system for them.

[siliconpotato]

When you noticed it, you mean