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Comment by zitterbewegung | Hacker News Reader

The cognitive load of trying to figure out which items are possibly counterfeit is one of the reasons why I closed my Amazon Prime account.

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Most other American retailers don't seem to have any trouble with this, so I shop with them instead of Amazon. At this point, the issue I have with Amazon if simply one of trust: I don't trust them any more.

I might occasionally but something from Amazon, but only stuff that is basically "uncounterfeitable" such as a bunch of simple, metal bookends or plastic cord management sheathing. I also usually wait for them to offer me yet another free month of Prime so they eat the shipping cost too.

I shared your unhappiness re: not knowing if I was unwittingly buying a counterfeit. However, rather than close my account, I do my research on Amazon as far as I can take it, then go to the website of the manufacturer (Garmin, Das Keyboard, Bluelounge, etc.) and buy direct from them. No counterfeits EVER.

I do the opposite. Amazon browsing is next to impossible unless you already know what you're looking for. For all the complaints about counterfeits I've never once received one.

Even stuff I thought would definitely be fake (electrical components) was legit.

do not buy brand products off amazon! unless it's the official brand store. at this point, there's so little to gain doing so. the only thing that comes to mind is not having to sign up for another online account and entering details. nowadays, most brands match up the fast 2-days shipping and they have better discounts and deals, and you know the stuff you are getting is from them.

> ...unless it's the official brand store.

Anecdote time. Last year I bought an Anker power brick via Amazon, using the link on Anker's own website. When it arrived, instead of Anker's normal well-designed retail packaging, the brick was simply wrapped in bubble wrap, with a printed label stating that it was "new" and thrown into its shipping box. I inquired with Anker support about this, but they could only say that all their products they send to Amazon for distribution are in retail packaging. I did confirm that the item was purchased through the AnkerDirect seller, so I can only guess that it was either a returned item or that the retail packaging had been damaged, and someone at the Amazon warehouse repackaged it and put it back in the "new" bin. I ended up returning it for a refund. My trust of Amazon as a retail platform has been steadily eroding over the past few years, and this was just another reason to shop elsewhere.

Amazon commingles inventory, so if there were any other sellers of the item, you get an item from a random seller, not necessarily an item that was provided by the seller you purchased from.

Right. I looked this morning, and AnkerDirect claims to be "...the sole authorized seller of authentic Anker products (other than Amazon) on the Amazon platform." I don't recall if this was true back at the time I bought the power brick, but I suspect it was.

Since a counterfeit power supply can kill you (a British study showed out of 400 tested chargers, 398 could not safely handle power surges), this is literally a life-and-death issue.

The thing is, the commingled stickerless inventory program is only supposed to apply to items sold by Amazon, not to third parties like AnkerDirect, so the hypothesis it's fulfilled-by-Amazon that screwed the pooch is more likely.

Amazon should require certification from a safety lab like UL or CE before allowing any seller to sell inventory. And they should also require sellers of these products to post a bond or provide proof of liability insurance before allowing them to list these items.

That would cut down on the number of shitty dangerous power suppliers they're selling.

Unfortunately CE is self-certified. In theory the vendor is liable if their product doesn't comply with the requirements, but good luck sueing some Alibaba reseller from Shezhen.

Certifications from UL or similar labs are much better, but many producers don't hesitate to also fake the UL logo on their fake products.

The Fakespot browser extension has been a lifesaver in this regard: https://www.fakespot.com/

The only problem is that Fakespot will only update it's product review analyses on demand, and some of them are years old.

The worst is when you call support and they make it seem like its your fault their market place is flawed. Took me three representatives to return a fake keyboard. Cancelled my subscription to Prime and began the transition from AWS to Azure.

I wonder how often a bad experince on one amzn platform loses them much more profitable customers on another? Surely this effect is only accelerating.

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