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Comment by tyingq | Hacker News Reader

a) When co-mingling inventory, keep track of the original source, and penalize them (not the seller) for product issues, bad product reviews, etc. Or stop co-mingling if you can't have accountability.

b) Separate somehow bad reviews and complaints about SELLERS from bad reviews, complaints about PRODUCTS. Again, more direct accountabilithy.

Today, when you leave a bad review or complain about crap counterfeits or bad service, shipping, etc, it just doesn't affect the actual bad actor in the way it should.

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Both of these are already done. Complaints about commingled inventory will hurt the one who sent them in. You can review the seller and the product separately.

Not sure I agree. If I get a counterfeit product as a customer, I am guaranteed to leave a bad review. I don't see some process in place that automatically routes that from a PRODUCT review into a WHOEVER_ACTUALLY_PUT_THAT_IN_THE INVENTORY review.

I can't even really tell Amazon that the product is counterfeit. The closest thing is "not as described".

If you leave that review, it will go back and hurt the seller. I've seen advice in some of the groups I'm in for sellers that says if a listing gets shut down, look at recent reviews to determine if anyone was unhappy. Also, if you return and mention the word counterfeit, that will be picked up. I've had one listing temporarily shut down because of a return that said they were worried it was counterfeit, then I sent amazon invoices and they let me sell again.

You aren't addressing the two issues.

You can review a product (that has multiple sellers) without reviewing the seller. So, if I get a counterfeit, and place a PRODUCT review, it hurts ALL the sellers. Not just the single seller that did the wrong thing.

Your story didn't include the nuance of co-mingled inventory. What if the sale went to you, but was fulfilled by inventory from another seller...and the item actually was counterfeit. Does the actual culprit suffer?

I mentioned above that amazon tracks it. See https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

>Even though inventory tracked using the manufacturer barcode is commingled within the network, the source of the inventory is tracked by our fulfillment systems and is taken into consideration if inventory problems arise.

Reconcile that with "stickerless commingled inventory". How would they possibly track it? They are, at best, stretching the truth.

Note that in areas where it exposes them to liability (movies), they won't allow stickerless. That tells you something about "tracking the source".

Edit: If the bins are such a good idea why are stickers sometimes required? Also if finding the sources is so easy why do sellers selling counterfeit goods stay in the system for so long?

Commingled doesn't mean they're in the same bin, it just means that they can be used to fulfil other sellers' sales.

I have inventory with no sticker on it in NY, you have inventory with no sticker in CA. Someone orders from me, they live in CA, amazon takes yours off the shelf and sends it to them. Amazon still knows that that sale was fulfilled from your inventory.

Same thing with multiple bins in the same warehouse. I'm told by people who've toured warehouses that bins are kept separate and everything is tracked.

> If the bins are such a good idea why are stickers sometimes required?

It's not hard to see why items that expire, and some of the other excluded items might cause issues if commingled.

> Also if finding the sources is so easy why do sellers selling counterfeit goods stay in the system for so long?

Have any sources on that? Sellers are suspended quite often.

>Have any sources on that? Sellers are suspended quite often.

Sources that Amazon has gotten worse in this area over time? Sure. My own experiences, experiences of others that you can read here and elsewhere. Plenty of news stories from reputable sources (https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+counterfeit+problems&...)

All anecdotal, of course, because only Amazon really knows the numbers, and they aren't sharing. Fair enough to say I'm guessing as to why. I don't find it unreasonable to question their practices though. It's a big enough issue that people are noticing.

Not true. Commingled inventory does not get a unique barcode for each seller, it just uses the default UPC. So there's no way for Amazon to even tell who sent it. This is why many sellers avoid commingled inventory altogether, because you end up selling something that's counterfeit and getting a hit to your account when you didn't even send it to Amazon. Over time, I think this probably means that commingled is really becoming a market for lemons, with counterfeits making up a higher and higher percentage.

Source: very casual FBA seller

Your house/apartment doesn't have a UPC on it either, but nobody's confusing it with mine. Location matters.

Amazon keeps different sellers inventory in different bins, which are tracked.

I agree that some sellers are avoiding it, but I know several big sellers that are all commingled.

Most of my business was merchant fulfilled, but I still sold over six figures worth FBA last year. Never had an issue from commingled.

Commingling is an odd term to use for items kept in separate bins where there is accurate tracking as to which bin it came from. Commingled and separate? Heh.

If it's very accurate, and keeps things separated, you have to wonder why Amazon offers "Stickerless Commingling" and "Stickered Commingling". What does the sticker add if the bin system is working so well?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

That may be why they stopped calling the option commingled. They still use the word, but the option is just called "manufacturer barcode". It used to be called stickerless commingled inventory.

There's no stickered commingled option. There's stickerless commingled and stickered separate inventory.

One reason amazon keeps the stickered option is because some people might want to be able to get the exact inventory they send in back. And some items don't make sense to be commingled, like used items, items with experation dates, etc.

Hmm. They also don't allow commingled for DVD, Blueray, etc. That sort of feels like a nod to the sticker tracking being more accurate, since those are highly lucrative to counterfeit. Maybe for returns though?

I think they won't accept it for any category that requires approval.

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