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Comment by alphabettsy | Hacker News Reader

I noticed that Amazon seems to have some serious issues with counterfeit product. For them to compete long-term with companies like Walmart and Best Buy they need to do better and this is another example of where sometimes a curated product selection can be better.

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Yes! For example I wanted to purchase Stranger Things Season 2 box set for a family member who has poor access to the internet. If you search for it on Amazon it looks legit but then you notice something odd. Zero retailers actually carry this. Only Amazon and eBay.

Turns out it's completely counterfeit. Worst yet I reported it and nothing happened to it and last I checked it's listed as "Amazon's Choice". They are still selling these.

Amazon seems perfectly fine with selling counterfeit products and it's quite frustrating.

> Amazon seems perfectly fine with selling counterfeit products and it's quite frustrating.

Does paying amazon counterfeit money makes it any less illegal? Asking for a friend.

As far as I know, Amazon doesn't touch cash so...

They do in India (Cash on delivery). And there's a small but growing counterfeit listings problem here too.

Interesting, didn't know that!

Amazon also used to be pretty notorious for fake SD cards, especially those sold in their 'frustration free packaging'.

They've gotten better at it these days, but I think that's more due to the fact that faking SD cards isn't as profitable as it once was.

Amazon seem to take a very hands-off approach to caring about the quality of the items they sell; I'd like to see what their internal slippage budget is.

Every time the "same" item is sold by many vendors or has many look-a-like, I approach with caution. And that goes for maybe fake brand or obviously cheap product. It is a every growing pain to shop on Amazon because so many things fall in one of these two category.

Maybe Jet (Walmart) can do that. Only carry certified goods and not carry any off-brand knock off stuff. AMZ is getting really off-putting with all their inventory comingling and their third party vendors making their own brands on a daily basis as if A/B testing live with product.

By making their own brands do you mean for instance how the exact same USB lithium ion battery pack can be listed under 10 different brand names?

Yes, there are small outfits who all they do all day long is try to strategize and evolve quickly to beat others out. Basically much of the contract manufacturing stuff. One of the better examples: https://www.inc.com/magazine/201603/burt-helm/pharmapacks-am...

Unfortunately, it is not in Amazon's short-term interest to do anything about it.

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