I find this odd. I read these sorts of comments every time Amazon in mentioned on HN, how its literally only clones, fakes, and scams, and impossible to find legitimate products anymore.
I have literally never received a fake/clone/scam off amazon, and I can't explain that discrepancy. I personally only buy things that are sold or fulfilled by amazon, never shipped by third party sellers, but surely everyone else as savy as HN readers does the same? Why order things with brutal shipping costs and times, only things fulfilled by amazon are quick.
I’ve made you’re exact same comment in the past. And more recently I’ve responded to comments like yours with this exact same comment that I’m leaving now.
It never happened to me so I assumed it was people blowing it out of proportion or bad shopping habits. Then I got a fake item. Sold by a legit manufacturer and fulfilled by amazon from the manufacturers official page. But the item was a fake. Then it happen again. And again. And again. All on legit-looking items.
It’s certainly not often, maybe once out of 10 items. But it’s often enough that there are certain items I’d never buy from Amazon. Any food item, or something I put in my body or something I depend on the quality more than the price. It’s just both worth the risk.
After having my “completely legitimate” Swiss Gear backpack split wide open in an airport and realizing the truth of a couple of reviews saying they had fakes with cheaper stitching and a few other wrong things, I don’t leave comments like that anymore.
When I visited Shenzhen a few years ago I marveled at how any certification label you needed (UL, CSA, ESA) were being openly sold by the roll by dozens of vendors.
They even had "PASSED" and "TESTED" labels with what appeared to be hand written (blue ink) signatures/initials - making them look like ones that a QA person on the line would stick onto the product after testing.
I've been through Shenzhen a few times and saw rolls and rolls of tamper proof hologram stickers (for Nokia and Microsoft and Sony and so on ...).
I did not see fake UL stickers ... however, I don't doubt that they are there.
Know this: a fake UL sticker is a criminally negligent act. Setting aside the appallingly negative morality of anyone that would deploy one, Amazon needs to be brought to regulatory action in the US and the EU for each and every single counterfeit UL device they ship.
This is a life and death issue. People should not pay, with their lives, for the refusal of Amazon to regulate this behavior.
>I have literally never received a fake/clone/scam off amazon, and I can't explain that discrepancy.
Shopping patterns?
I buy a lot of things, not just for myself but as gifts for a large family. I have found some areas are so filled with scams that I no longer buy items from those areas on Amazon. Other areas (which make up the majority) I have no problem at all, at worst getting a slightly delayed or damaged box.
Any sort of name brand small electronic was a scam more times than not to the point now I no longer order them off Amazon. But books, board games, or video games have been 100% what I payed for. As far as I can tell I've never received a fake Amiibo, though a few times I never had it delivered and had to call for a refund. Even my few orders of used electronics have been good (though I never did get around to converting my used PS Vita into an emulation center).
Food is good too, but I rarely buy it and only for a few specific items as most other things are far too overpriced. Mainly I order tea and I pay close attention to who is filling the order.
Gardening supplies are probably the most mixed bag of the bunch. Often enough I don't get the seeds I order but it can sometimes be fun to see what actually does spout up.
Result: A few areas: 90%+ rip offs. A few other areas: 50/50. Most areas: 100% good.
As a side note, on anything I buy I go read the 1 star reviews and skip if they mention fakes or if there aren't any at all.
The problem is that many 1-star reviews that are meaningful are being drowned in the inane. ("I bought seeds, but they don't sprout if I don't add soil and water" kind of inane).
There's either a massive influx of stupidity, or this is deliberately useless one-stars to drown out useful ones.
Fakes: Are you sure you haven't received a fake item? If you don't have a reference point, you might not be able to tell unless/until something goes wrong with it.
Clones: If you shop through referral links (e.g. click through from The Wirecutter) or seek out a specific model number from a major brand you won't experience the clone problem.
But how confident do you feel starting your search at Amazon for items like Bluetooth Headphones? There are 20 pages of results that look identical. Or how about a search for Bike Tail Light?
Never had any issues either. Like you most things I buy are fulfilled by amazon. I believe people who experience this must be buying exclusively from 3rd parties. Ideally Amazon would try to stop this, but to do so they'd need to solve the fake review problem first.
It's highly dependent on what you're looking for. If you search for "Belkin USB charger", you'll usually end up getting some good results at the top of the listings.
But if you search for "USB charger", you need to prepare yourself for pages upon pages of identical-looking chargers from "Amoner", "RAVpower", "iSmart", "Ailkin", "Anker", "Power7", "Nekmit", etc.
And most of them have hundreds or thousands of 4/5-star reviews, most of them compensated in some form or another, so good luck trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.
For about half the things I search for on Amazon, it's a similar situation.
Some of those are legitimately good brands (Anker and RAVpower being two I'm personally familiar with). Anker has even grown in North America to the point of having distribution within physical stores such as Sam's Club[1].
That said, your point still stands. These are not household names in the North American market, and it's not immediately obvious what is a legitimate and reliable option vs. a throw-away brand selling imported fire hazards.
> But if you search for "USB charger", you need to prepare yourself for pages upon pages of identical-looking chargers from "Amoner", "RAVpower"
RAVpower is actually a pretty good maker, with some pretty unique offerings (RP-PB19 is a USB UPS which takes in USB!). They even have an informative blog staffed with support personnel who reply to comments.
From my experience, Anker make good products. I specifically look for them when I'm buying charging hardware, and they've never failed me. I think it's possible you're dismissing perfectly fine products unfairly.
RAVPower has a totally awesome GaN based USB-C charger in 60 watts for like $30, and 100w for not much more, which is about 1/3 the size of the Apple one.
I have literally never received a fake/clone/scam off amazon, and I can't explain that discrepancy. I personally only buy things that are sold or fulfilled by amazon, never shipped by third party sellers, but surely everyone else as savy as HN readers does the same? Why order things with brutal shipping costs and times, only things fulfilled by amazon are quick.