Too many marketplace sellers on Amazon, how has your experience been?
Amazon is the Home of the Fake
- Thread starter Arjun
- Start date
CCTVCam
Known around here
- Sep 25, 2017
- 2,839
- 3,718
sebastiantombs
Known around here
The first thing I look at is the "star" rating on Amazon. Before I buy, though, I read all, or a lot, of the questions that have been posted to get a true idea of the product. Relying solely on the "star" rating is asking to have your pocket picked. Amazon used to be pretty good and reliable, now it's evolved into a a street vendor or flea market.
Armed&Overclocked
Pulling my weight
i dont have any experience buying anything that turned out to be fake, but most of the stuff i order either dont really have fakes, or they do but i have done a lot of research to make sure i am buying from the right source (checking who is selling and shipping.)
the main issue i have is with fake reviews. basically real products with pages and pages of 5 star reviews. if the reputable brands only have say 100 reviews, but the never heard of brands all have a few thousand, its usually a safe bet the never heard of brands are using bot accounts or some other means of creating fake reviews.
to counter this i usually will spot check reviewers and see what else that have reviewed. if all of their reviews are either 5 or 1 star (never anything in-between) then its a shill account and nothing more.
with all that said i still try to be careful about the products. i have actively avoided buying any PPE from amazon due since covid due to the high likelyhood what i am buying, and what i receive will be two different qualities.
the main issue i have is with fake reviews. basically real products with pages and pages of 5 star reviews. if the reputable brands only have say 100 reviews, but the never heard of brands all have a few thousand, its usually a safe bet the never heard of brands are using bot accounts or some other means of creating fake reviews.
to counter this i usually will spot check reviewers and see what else that have reviewed. if all of their reviews are either 5 or 1 star (never anything in-between) then its a shill account and nothing more.
with all that said i still try to be careful about the products. i have actively avoided buying any PPE from amazon due since covid due to the high likelyhood what i am buying, and what i receive will be two different qualities.
Always avoid listings that have bold text in the reviews, I always flag them, lol
sebastiantombs
Known around here
I bought a "new" used phone from Amazon early this year. It was supposedly legitimate and unlocked. Got the phone and it was like new rather than used. Moved the SIMM card in and synced my data. Unfortunately, the phone was listed as "lost or stolen" and would not communicate on the network. I immediately contacted Amazon and was told I would have to wait a week for them to determine the status, this despite the fact that I supplied a capture of the data screen in IMSS, or whatever it is, showing the registered status of the phone. I then contacted my credit card company and opened a dispute with them to stop the charge and returned the phone the next day. It took Amazon almost a month to decide I was right and credit my account. Now I don't trust them to be able to resolve anything in a reasonable manner.
A few months ago I bought some Cat5e passthrough RJ45 connectors. They were supposed to be Tripp brand. Some reviews said that they had gotten fake product. Others said they had gotten the real product. Now these were not from a 3rd party seller, but were from Amazon itself. The product I received was an obvious fake. The bag the plugs were in looked like it had been handled thousand of times. The sticker on the bag that had the product info was pealing off. I tried one plug and it was just a fraction too wide to go into a socket. I contacted Amazon and got a return authorization for that purchase.
I went back to leave a review and looked more closely to the reviews. The ones that said they were fake said the same thing about the product sticker. Then there were a few replies to those reviews from Tripp that said their product does not use a sticker. Their product info is printed on the bag.
So I left a review complete with a picture of the bag. Amazon refused to list my review. I am sure they receive the return and put it right back into the stock for sale.
I went back to leave a review and looked more closely to the reviews. The ones that said they were fake said the same thing about the product sticker. Then there were a few replies to those reviews from Tripp that said their product does not use a sticker. Their product info is printed on the bag.
So I left a review complete with a picture of the bag. Amazon refused to list my review. I am sure they receive the return and put it right back into the stock for sale.
windguy
Getting comfortable
@Arjun - Many thanks for posting that video. Watched the whole thing. Very interesting and well done.
I've always had my antennas up when deciding on a product from Amazon sniffing out reviews and looking for deceit.
Also have been using FAKESPOT for years, as discussed in the video. It helps but it's not perfect.
Will check out the other review scan sites mentioned (reconbob, reviewmeta, reviewskeptic, thereviewindex).
I try to be a careful consumer but I lament how much time I end up spending to carefully vet out a product before buying. I hate being duped.
I've always had my antennas up when deciding on a product from Amazon sniffing out reviews and looking for deceit.
Also have been using FAKESPOT for years, as discussed in the video. It helps but it's not perfect.
Will check out the other review scan sites mentioned (reconbob, reviewmeta, reviewskeptic, thereviewindex).
I try to be a careful consumer but I lament how much time I end up spending to carefully vet out a product before buying. I hate being duped.