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Comment by rubbingalcohol | Hacker News Reader

Amazon sells so many counterfeit Nike products that I've been using Nike and Adidas' online stores for quite awhile.

Amazon is so bad when it comes to counterfeits that there are only two conditions that will lead me to purchase an item there anymore:

- Either the item is listed as being sold by its original manufacturer and fulfilled by Amazon

- Or I just need something and don't care if it's cheap Chinese crap

I'm sure with Nike officially leaving Amazon this will only get worse. But practically any other big brand you're still looking at paying full price for knock-off merchandise. I can't believe Amazon gets away with having their "head in the sand" to this degree.

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> - Either the item is listed as being sold by its original manufacturer and fulfilled by Amazon

I wouldn't trust that one. Since Amazon co-mingles inventory, stuff that's sold by the original manufacturer but FBA could still get mixed up with counterfeit product.

What you'd really want to do to make sure that it's coming from the original manufacturer is look for stuff that is sold by the original manufacturer and not fulfilled by Amazon.

No, Amazon segregates its own inventory from FBA inventory for items where Amazon.com is the seller. FBA inventory only gets commingled with other FBA inventory.

Supposedly Amazon now maintains separate inventories for each FBA vendor at some but not all of their distribution warehouses (like their San Bernardino facility).

can you provide a source for this? I've read multiple articles on Amazon doing the opposite. https://www.wsj.com/articles/on-amazon-pooled-merchandise-op...

Amazon used to be a client and I've personally visited their San Bernardino facility and seen firsthand how FBA inventory is segregated from Amazon.com inventory.

Note that the WSJ article is from 2014--several years before my visit. I can't speak to what Amazon was doing with inventory in 2014, but it sure isn't what they were doing in 2017 at their SoCal distribution facilities.

I've ordered from Amazon (shipped and sold by) and received fake goods with another vendor's stickers on them (essentially a barcode swap).

If that was once accurate, I don't believe it remains accurate.

Commingling only happens when there is no seller barcode sticker ("stickerless inventory" in Amazon's terms).

So I believe in your case something else must have happened.

FBA is a red flag for co-mingled with counterfeits. At least with 3rd party shippers, (prime or not) you know exactly where it's coming from.

Unless it's sold by Amazon itself. Amazon is quite good at making sure their own inventory is never commingled with FBA inventory due to the risk of counterfeits infiltrating their inventory.

I remember reading an article recently that said Amazon will use FBA products and replace them to make shipping faster. Especially if Amazon itself is out of the product.

Does anyone have a link or remember what I’m talking about?

Just checked and the only counterfeit product I’ve received was RAM and it was sold by Amazon.com. The box was not similar to the original and contained a foil space blanket.

Fulfilled by Amazon, but was it sold by Amazon.com?

I've ordered a ton of stuff from Amazon.com, from electronics to foodstuffs, and never received a counterfeit. However, almost every FBA product I've purchased was sketchy.

Sold by Amazon. My comment has been corrected.

The best resource for this is the Amazon sellers forums. There are horror stories of sellers getting 100's of negative feedbacks due to co-mingled counterfeit products, even when they've opted out.

Amazon had been a default for me for a long time, but the knock-offs have gone so far overboard that I consider it about a 60/40 that I'll get the actual product I ordered from the actual manufacturer I thought I was buying from. And now that most shippers will get it to me in 2-days, Amazon's not as special as it once was experience-wise.

Now I choose Amazon as a last resort after checking the manufacturer or other more reputable vendors. In cases where I need something immediately (and can't get it at a brick and mortar), I'll check PrimeNow as I haven't received any knock-offs there yet. But the selection there is pretty limited.

The Worst category in my experience, by far, is batteries. I haven't even bothered with shoes in a few years, but Zappos tends to be a better experience in that regard. I realize, of course, that Amazon owns Zappos, but the experience is all their own.

Oh, man. I've ordered a couple of pairs of Adidas shoes from Amazon that wore out exceptionally quickly. I had been assuming that Adidas had been suffering from a drop in quality lately.

Now that you mention it, though, I'll bet I wasn't getting authentic stuff. I'm going to purchase a pair from Adidas directly and see if the quality is better.

If it is better quality, I'll be kicking myself. I know Amazon has these kinds of problems, but I just didn't connect it to those shoes before.

Don’t forget - there are often many different levels of quality within the same brand name. Your Target Nike athletic shoes will not be the same as the ones you buy at a Nike flagship store. Lower quality, poorer materials, etc.

I was turned on to Adidas recently and have found the shoes and clothes to be of superior quality, actually. I am sure all brands have more affordable, lower quality product lines, but maybe yours weren't authentic.

I only use Amazon to browse selections, and then buy direct from the brand's site. Buying only from Amazon made sense in the bad old days when most sites didn't have their act together with payment processing and shipping. Thankfully, those days are long gone.

It's basically the reverse of the "browse in store, buy on Amazon for cheaper" experience.

I tried this while trying to buy a Kurta Pajama (Indian dress). Amazon price for the same thing was about 15$. Direct was about 50$!!

is it safe to buy from Amazon's Zappos?

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