from Hacker News

Fake Goods Sold by AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Wish

by ovis on 2/21/20, 1:56 PM with 81 comments

• by preommr on 2/21/20, 2:40 PM

  I get that people are outraged about this. And that's one side of it.

  But I also feel like people need to know how to use these platforms. If you're getting a heavy discount, from a sketchy source, then maybe there's a reason for it. Idk about Wish, but platforms like ebay, aliexpress, etc. are great even for things like electronics if you know what you're buying like leds, microchips, etc. Makeup, perfume, power related applications, audio, etc. are the types of products that I would be very wary of. I think it still might be possible to find good sources for those things, but it's more of a gamble.

  Before we crucify these platforms, and call for more regulations, etc, let's also remember that they do provide a valuable, cheap service for some.

• by MichaelApproved on 2/21/20, 2:09 PM

  > What's more, the product was found to contain 751 times the amount of lead Health Canada considers acceptable in cosmetics.

  How long are we going to let companies hide behind their "platform" bullshit?

  They know this happens but, because they're not the actual seller, they get to offload the liabilities to some fly-by-night company that'll close down and reopen under a different name.

  Lead in products is dangerous and people should be going to jail but nothing ever happens.

  Get caught, close the company, open a new one, pay some fees to open the reseller account and continue hurting people.

• by gsuppy on 2/21/20, 2:11 PM

  Why is anyone shocked AliExpress products are fake? I only go there if I want a knock off version of something (shirts, AirPod cases, etc.). Ebay and Amazon are also not surprising either, but both retailers often have the "official merchants" of products that are being sold. As long as you buy through the official storefronts, then you're good to go.

• by karl11 on 2/21/20, 2:09 PM

  I have basically stopped buying anything from Amazon that I can just buy direct from the manufacturer. Especially clothes, kids toys, etc. Most online stores now have shipping that is almost as fast, and 9 times out of 10 an extra couple of days shipping is not a big deal.

• by mdszy on 2/21/20, 2:05 PM

  If you're buying from AliExpress/Wish (aka: direct from china) I don't think there's much room for being surprised when you get fakes. eBay in many cases too.

  Amazon especially needs to get its shit together, though. I unsubscribed from Prime and have all but stopped using Amazon because of how it's turned into basically "eBay with marginally faster shipping" at this point given all the absolute offbrand crap that's filling the site.

• by werber on 2/21/20, 2:25 PM

  People actively seek out fakes, especially in the luxury space. For every person who would be glad that their faux product was intercepted, there's just as many who would be mad they didn't get their Gukki belt, or just not notice.

• by 34679 on 2/21/20, 8:51 PM

  I noticed that Wish gives refunds on counterfeits without question, provided you upload a photo of the item. It got me wondering if that's to avoid any legal liability. The law states that "trafficking" in illegal goods is a crime, and clearly these platforms don't want to be charged.

  So, assuming they're actually legally required to refund purchases of counterfeits, I think a reasonable recourse would be to have as many people as possible order as many counterfeits as possible and then demand refunds. The platforms' cost per transaction goes up, and the manufacturers/resellers are out their items plus shipping.

  I feel this would work best if the actual manufacturers that are being copied did the buying, that way they have legal recourse at their disposal and a literal pile of evidence if the refund is denied. And they can destroy the counterfeits.

• by djohnston on 2/21/20, 2:08 PM

  “Show me the incentives and I will show you the outcome.”

  There are currently few economic incentives for these market places to try harder to stop counterfeit vendors. The solution seems to be harsher consequences for the marketplaces.

  I'm also kind of surprised by Walmart's inclusion. There are no examples in the article on their products, and they say that Walmart disputed the findings, so what's the deal? I wasn't aware that they were using 3rd party vendors in the same way Amazon does.

• by christopherwxyz on 2/21/20, 2:12 PM

  And Shopify. It’s probably #2 behind Amazon, if I had to guess. Their one-stop deploy a drop ship website is far too convenient.

• by Geeek on 2/21/20, 2:43 PM

  This is all by design, I remember reading this WSJ article last year.

  https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-heavy-recruitment-of-ch... "A new product listing is uploaded to Amazon from Chaine every 1/50th of a second"

  Amazon is heavily invested in getting as much Chinese trash on their US site and it does not seem to care much about the counterfeit problem.

• by jvagner on 2/21/20, 3:58 PM

  My experience:

  1) I've been a seller on Amazon. 5 figure SKU counts, branded products. I was constantly being asked to provide invoices to prove that I had the right to procure and resell the products I was listing. I was also beholden to their metric standards and got delisted from the Buy Box regularly, until I could improve my numbers (operational bumps while we refined our processes... the standards were high enough if we fumbled a little bit, circumstances required a bit of time and attention to restore SOPs to required levels).

  Not sure what these other entities are doing, but within the bounds of what I interacted with, and the age of my account, I wouldn't have been able to stay on the platform and keep selling if my fulfillment, returns and customer service metrics didn't stay within the acceptable thresholds.

  2) I buy from Amazon regularly... household items, books, etc. So far, never had an issue with fakes. Always Prime, usually Fulfilled By Amazon.

• by sergiotapia on 2/21/20, 8:41 PM

  This is why Costco is worth what it's worth. Why risk buying garbage elsewhere?

• by julianlam on 2/21/20, 2:51 PM

  My wife and I purchase a lot of things from Amazon. We're taking a more critical look at what we buy ever since we had a baby.

  We bought our car seat and stroller from Amazon, and we were honestly not sure whether it was certified for use in Canada. I shouldn't have to doubt any purchase I make online from a reputable retailer, but it seems Amazon no longer makes the cut for me.

  For what it's worth, the car seat _did_ have the right stickers, but stickers can be faked too...

• by nytesky on 2/21/20, 2:32 PM

  So does wal-mart mix SKUs like Amazon, so that even when buying ‘direct’ from WM, you can get 3rd party supply?

  Or is direct from wal-Matt part of their actual controlled store inventory?

• by benbojangles on 2/22/20, 2:28 AM

  I guess if your marketing team has invested in invidious consumption as your strategy then you can expect low cost copies, I mean just look at LVMH and it's owner, that french guy who was for a few hours the world's richest man. They marketed to Instagram and black culture but did not seem to understand that low income low paid workers also live in the ghetto and will seek the bargain item over the unattainable Peng ting.

• by pacamara619 on 2/22/20, 12:32 AM

  In Switzerland, when you buy something for a price that is obviously too low (like a brand new iPhone for 100$) you lose all protection given to you by law in this purchasing contract. If it's a knock off, tough tiddies.

• by jbverschoor on 2/21/20, 2:36 PM

  They don’t care about fixing this. Fake goods are a promotion for their platform as long as the quality is not super terrible.

• by Lidador on 2/22/20, 1:45 AM

  How to protect dump people from themselves?