> Torres said she encourages customers to verify the seller is legitimate before placing any orders.
How? Is there some way to verify that a seller on amazon is legitimate among the slew of fake reviews and stock mingling in warehouses?
That is the problem if you are getting Prime Shipping Fulfilled by amazon on a bird feeder, it does not matter which seller you buy from, Amazon will ship you the one that have that is the cheapest to get to you in 2 days or less
It's possible the product did change every 2 years or so.
This is pointless, and Amazon knows it. Inventory co-mingling means that the product I receive might have come from anyone selling that product.
If there's one counterfeiter or unethical seller shipping that SKU to Amazon's FBA service, then I'll end up blaming the seller -- not Amazon, and definitely not the original supplier of that faulty product.
As you note, due to stock mingling that doesn't ensure that you won't get a counterfeit, but it probably does at least give you better options to deal with it if you do.
If you buy from Aspects, and Amazon's mingling means you get a cheap counterfeit, I'd expect you'd be able to get an exchange from Aspects.
If you buy what purports to be an Aspects feeder from "Sneed's Feed and Seed" [1] and you get sent a cheap counterfeit, you might be out of luck.
[1] formerly Chuck's