Hacker News Reader

Comment by hvgk | Hacker News Reader

Trick is to only buy branded stuff off Amazon. Everything else is a shit show.

Actually whenever you go shopping know what you want before you go to Amazon. That helps.

But a big problem is that because they mix items from third parties with everything else because they’re “the same”, you never know when you’re getting counterfeit goods. Amazon has made it so bad that some manufacturers will now actually have a page on their website showing how to detect counterfeit versions of their product.

This is an especially big problem for items that are differentiated on quality of materials/coatings/construction/etc. My go-to example is always lens filters: https://www.the-digital-picture.com/News/News-Post.aspx?News...

It's hard to fake a believable iPhone. It's easy to fake a threaded cylinder with a round piece of glass in the middle that can fool the uninitiated.

I found this issue when trying to buy a filter replacement for my LG refrigerator. The reviews reported several cases of wrong filters sent, some used, and some fake/counterfeit. Like one was literally just an empty plastic shell. I ended up just going to LG's website, and it was actually cheaper, albeit with slower shipping. But who cares for something like that.

A few years ago I bought some brand name shampoo from Amazon and what they sent was very clearly counterfeit. The product and packaging were so bad that if anyone was paying attention to the supply line they should have been able to figure it out.

Since then my general rule has been "If it goes on me or in me, I'm not getting it from Amazon"

Good luck finding proper brands in the search results. Four times out of five, weird names that I've never heard of dominate the results to the point where it's impossible to filter for a known brand.

Exactly. Just today, even knowing what to expect, I decided to try and search for a mattress pad or cover on Amazon. Just pages and pages of brands I've never heard of.

Even then, you've got the risk of it being counterfeit.

True, the issue is if you are getting a niche item without name brands in the market. For example I was trying to get a TV antenna, which to me doesn’t have a recognizable brand to look towards.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com