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Comment by mjcl | Hacker News Reader

Until it's an option for buyers, I'm going to be quite reluctant to buy from Amazon.

Why? Commingled inventory means that some common, standardized items don't need a seller-specific barcode on them, and are just added to a "pool" of that identical product. It's better for consumers because you're getting the closest one of the item you ordered, faster - and at the (lower) price from the seller you selected.

Aside from a couple high profile cases of sellers getting in trouble for inventory they never sent in being associated with them, it's a great benefit to consumers.

It is not good for consumers. You buy from a particular seller because you know based on reviews that their item is not counterfeit and then amazon sends you the item from someone else and it is.

Receiving a counterfeit item must happen so very rarely, considering the (millions?) huge volume of these sales per day, and Amazon is obviously swift to fix the issue (much to the chagrin of sellers swept up by the zero tolerance rule) that I really doubt most consumers would ever receive a counterfeit item in this way. It seems more likely that consumers would buy the "cheaper" option from an FBA seller (perhaps unknowingly) and receive a knock off.

The major logistical advantages outweigh the very low possibility of abuse. If you asked the average consumer if they would like to receive their item 2 days faster, but risk a 1 in 1000 chance that they get a bogus item they will need to exchange with Amazon at no cost, I think the former would win by a mile.

Or it’s a counterfeit charger that fries their $2500 laptop.

Or burns down the house. (This may be worse with batteries than chargers, but both can be a fire hazard)

You're wildly off base here.

The chances of getting a counterfeit item in some product categories is basically 100%. Go ahead, try to buy a real pair of Apple iPhone corded headphones on Amazon. That assignment is quite literally impossible.

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MMEF2AM-AirPods-Wireless-Blueto...

Here, buy from Amazon direct and you'll get a real one.

Or buy https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/B01M0GB8CC/ref=olp_tab_new?i... from datavision self fulfilled, they're the only seller on a ton of apple stuff and I assume they're authorized

1 in 1000? isn't it like 4/10 for "genuine" Mac chargers?

It most definitely is not "a couple" of cases, it appears to be a thoroughly rampant problem that has destroyed any trust I have in buying items from Amazon. I personally received about 5 counterfeit/bootleg items before giving up on buying from Amazon entirely.

The US GAO recently did an investigation (admittedly not specific to Amazon, but it included them) and 20 of 47 items they purchased were counterfeit!

https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/689713.pdf

As someone who just got counterfeit tea from Amazon and Amazon refused to post the review pointing out that it's fake, it's rampant across all products and all SKUs. You can't even usually return the items if they're in certain categories like "food". You just have to suck up that you lost money on Amazon again.

1) It’s not a low risk, it’s happened to me at least a few times

2) It’s not a risk that exists at competitors like Walmart and Target

3) For some categories like baby food, even a low risk of counterfeit product is unacceptable

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