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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

Amazon has gotten to the point, where I no longer use it for orders over about $50 (USD). I go directly to the vendors' sites; even if they are more expensive (sometimes, the vendor uses Amazon for fulfillment, but at least, I can be sure I am getting the real thing).

To give them credit, they are quite responsive, when it comes to refunds (I have even had to use the Amazon guarantee, once, because the seller ghosted me).

To give them shame: When you do something quite often, you get good at it.

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I haven't used Amazon in years (I do what you do or buy it in person), but my understanding was that even FBA posed risks: Amazon will commingle "equivalent" stock by SKU, meaning that a vendor who uses FBA for their own site may end up shipping you a counterfeited or spoofed item.

That understanding may be old or incorrect, but that's the story I've heard from others before.

It's called stickerless, commingled inventory[1], and it's where they commingle inventory from multiple sources based on the manufacturer barcode instead of a unique seller-item-specific barcode label, and will use any product with the same barcode in their distribution network to fulfill the purchase regardless of which source/seller provided that individual piece of inventory originally.

From reading [1] it looks like they've tightened up the requirements for it, and put some mitigations in place around counterfeits.

But it's also an opt-in process, so would be nice if they made it visible when you are or aren't purchasing from a seller utilizing it so you can decide yourself on a given purchase whether to go with the cheapest option or potentially opt for a more expensive listing but knowing that a product isn't commingled and was provided by the seller you're purchasing from.

[1] https://www.sourcing-monster.com/amazon-commingled-inventory...

At least some who do this have a contract that Amazon won.t comingle.

When you send new goods to Amazon to sell, you can tell them not to comingle. This way if someone buys from you, they are guaranteed to get the item you sent them.

And in the worst case, you have the seller’s customer support available.

Why they don’t slap a label on each box is beyond me.

That's the default option. Commingling is an opt-in process to use the manufacture barcode instead of a unique label on each box, and makes it easier for Amazon to potentially fulfill orders by being able to pick inventory from a wider range of warehouses and make shipping more efficient.

Twice so far in the last 2 years, I decided to pay extra to buy from a brand’s official website (small time, not a big company), only to end up receiving the order from Amazon.

Now I just try to buy from the big non Amazon retailers, or other very reputable brands.

Anker started trying to direct you to Amazon at some points in your shopping. There’s no fucking way I’m buying electronics off of Amazon anymore.

I didn't know Amazon does this, but it's smart. If you're a small-time company, shipping orders on your own is a pain. If you can pay Amazon to do the warehousing and fulfillment, you avoid the hassle, and your customers get better delivery time.

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