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Comment by ChiefNotAClue | Hacker News Reader

For what it's worth, been buying from Amazon for the past 15 years or so, and not once received a counterfeit product. Granted, I still don't like they they mix up their inventory, but I think it's a smaller problem than people make it to be. Most people are buying household supplies off of Amazon; that's not really a category that gets affected by counterfeits.

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I can say I've received counterfeit camera and laptop batteries, counterfeit chargers and USB chargers (like Anker), and SD/microSD cards from Amazon.

All of that stuff I buy now from BH or Adorama.

B&H is a hidden gem. I came across them because I needed a camera, but they sell lots of other stuff and their sales team consists of actual humans who have physically used the products they sell, and a supply chain they actually control. In the past, I’ve talked to a real human there who:

* verified the un-advertised compatibility between an accessory and the device I was buying it for (hours of googling had not been able to confirm this for me)

* explained their personal experience with both the Sony and Canon cameras I was considering

* nearly price-matched another vendor’s sale on a large purchase of Dell monitors

They have their own warehouses with real physical stock ordered directly from suppliers, (no drop shipping and no third party sellers.) One order I received even came with a hand written note signed by the salesman who’d help me select it. A nice touch, but impossible for an operation at Amazon scale.

These days B&H is my preferred vendor for PCs+components, AV gear, SMB network equipment.

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