Beware Amazon Marketplace sellers!!! Many counterfeit or dangerous knockoff products...

[cbdo2007]

Multiple articles on CNN this week where they bought knockoff products on Amazon and the products did not meet safety standards and were extremely dangerous to children:

Here is the one on a knockoff car seat that broke apart in minimal crash tests:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/tech/amazon-fake-kids-products/index.html

Here is one with knockoff toys that were dangerous for children:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/online-shopping-toys-sold-on-amazon-may-not-meet-us-safety-standards/

Amazon says it is the responsibility of the sellers and the buyers - not Amazon - to insure items purchased are safe and the descriptions are accurate.

[IADEMO2004]

1. DITTO Facebook ads

[mopinko]

2. i got burned just the other day. read the reviews, people.

i'm usually pretty good about that, but i bought a charger for my macbook the other day. there werent many oem ones on there, and this one caught my eye because it had extra connections for usb and firewire. it was clearly labeled as a mac replacement.
when i got it, the connector fit neither.my newer t-tip connector laptop, nor my older mag1 connector.
looked at the reviews, and the 1star ones mostly referenced failures, but a few listed overheating, shocking and even arcing.

learned my lesson. i said i wanted to return it, but i'm not gonna do that unless i have to. esp since i read recently that a lot of it just goes to landfills. it's a dangerous piece of crap.

[dalton99a]

5. "Currently, 34.65% of Amazon reviews are suspect"

https://fortune.com/2019/07/15/amazon-prime-day-fake-reviews/
Amazon Prime Day: Beware, Fake Reviews May Run Rampant
By David Z. Morris
July 15, 2019

Fakespot says charging cables, bluetooth headsets, and other commodified electronics are the biggest target for fake reviews, likely because there’s little other way for sellers of those products to distinguish themselves from the competition. A particularly egregious example is this charging cable, which as of this writing has more than 1,000 customer reviews, each giving the cable five stars. Many of the reviews seem to be fraudulent, including one from a verified purchaser—a designation given to reviewers by Amazon itself—which claims the charging cable is “Very lovely. Looks great in my yard.”

[marlakay]

8. Here is how they do it

You buy a product then inside the box is a card coupon for $10 GC amazon if you give them a five star review.

That way its real people doing the reviews.

I was offered one and only did it because I liked the product but made me think this is why you can’t trust reviews.

[mopinko]

10. lol. yeah, i only skim the 5 stars,

i go straight to the 1's.

i am forever cautioned on off brand gizmos. i knew something was up when i could not find an apple on the first 2 pages.
tho frankly, it would help if apple didnt jack up the prices on the little shit.

[durablend]

12. You can't *only* do that though

Seems like no matter what the product there's some people that will bitch and whine about it even if 80% percent are satisfied with it. Some of the gripes are legitimate but some seem like people that can't tie their shoes and vote for people like Trump.

[msongs]

3. amazon takes a hunk of the sales money. it is therefore a party to the action nt

[DeminPennswoods]

7. IIRC, there's a case working its way through the courts

on this very liability issue. Amazon claims they are just a host site and therefore have no responsibility to check what's being sold on its platform. Frankly, I can't imagine a jury would find this argument the least bit convincing.

[dalton99a]

4. You can't trust Amazon anymore. Get it from the source if possible

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Maybe I'm in a minority, but I detest online shopping in general.

So many times I've been screwed over, even by authorized Amazon products themselves.

I only shop online if its for something that I can't buy physically at a store. I like the feeling of physically getting what I bought immediately when I pay for it.

[Initech]

9. I bought a memory card on Amazon and didn't know it was a knock off.

Only when I contacted SanDisk about my purchase did they verify that the serial number was a fake. Since then I looked at the seller and realized they were hawking cheap after market memory cards. I contacted Amazon about the seller and they took back my original memory card and gave me a full refund. They should eliminate the seller from being allowed to sell on Amazon again.

[dalton99a]

11. +1. Counterfeit sellers often have multiple backups using different names selling the same items.