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Comment by cgriswald | Hacker News Reader

It's not just fakes.

I bought a new, high-end, fulfilled-by-amazon kitchen aid mixer for my ex-girlfriend. It looked legitimate, but it had clearly been re-boxed at some point, was missing parts, and had grease all over it. IIRC, it wasn't sealed in a normal way either.

Amazon accepted our return, and like you I just went straight to the manufacturer to make the purchase again.

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What is Amazon thinking? They're slowly destroying their brand.

Not even all that slowly. Their reputation has been significantly tarnished by this in about a year.

I pretty much don't buy anything expensive from Amazon anymore. I've been slowly going back to B&M or ordering direct from manufacturers. Even if you do get the correct item, I've had enough things damaged during shipping that I'd rather just buy the thing from a store and drive it home myself. I still buy from Amazon, but only cheap and non-fragile things.

This happens sometimes because of Amazon's stupid practice of vetting returns by random wearhouse staff. Basically a legitimate seller would have a return. It's returned by the customer back to the wearhouse open and used. Some employee says "looks good" and puts it back in the seller's inventory. Next person buys it, sees its used, and complains and returns it again. Seller gets docked with two returns (Amazon charges sellers when their product is returned) and then they get docked a second time for "selling used product as new." Yet they are totally innocent.

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