"I Called Out a Counterfeit Item on Amazon. Then They Banned Me"

I stopped ordering stuff off amazon 2 years ago after my buddy got counterfeit thumb drives and tiny furniture..... That was funny
 
The biggest problem with Amazon is they mix like inventory. If 10 businesses use fulfilled by amazon and all send in the same product with the same UPC amazon will not keep them separate. They go into a shared pool of which each business is entitled to draw from equivalent to what they sent in. That means if one of them sends in counterfeit stuff its possible legit businesses will be selling it. This is amazon's problem to solve, they need to do better.
 
Within the past month we've had to get four different things replaced because they either sent the wrong thing or they sent something that was obviously used/open box (2700x with the box seal ripped open) when we ordered new. All through Amazon as the seller/shipper. They are absolutely getting worse.

Well if you just had your stock options / pay messed with, would you care?

Not an excuse but....

We have ordered many things from amazon without Issues
 
If it's no name prebuilt or cheaper than everything else, it's counterfeit. Not sure why that surprised anyone. Don't want counterfeit shit? Stop being cheap.
 
Was burned by what turned out to be a Chinese scammer on eBay about a dozen or so years ago. Both eBay and PayPal were worthless in helping.

As for Amazon, I make sure to only buy products sold by either:
1. Amazing themselves
2. The (reputable) manufacturer, such as Crucial or WizDice, through their Amazon storefronts.




Indeed.
https://www.stopfakes.gov/article?id=Report-Fake-Goods

For fleaBay I made the mistake of ordering a very expensive CCD from what I thought was a well known telescope supplier (AgenaAstro). Well the store shipped it just signature required by USPS. You would think that would be enough but apparently the USPS doesnt actually check who signs for it. So my postal worker signed for it herself and walked away with a 2k camera. The signature? A flat line on the screen. USPS says: "Our readers arent that good so youre out of luck". Agena Says: "We did our part...we shipped you the item". Never mind I paid for Fedex Signature required shipping. Ebays ruling: "Youre out of luck."

Also yeah I am banned from Amazon but not for a review. I got banned for turning down a job. I turned down their job offer and the next day I couldnt post reviews and my prime account had been closed. Still trying to get them to tell me why or at least refund me whats left...
 
Within the past month we've had to get four different things replaced because they either sent the wrong thing or they sent something that was obviously used/open box (2700x with the box seal ripped open) when we ordered new. All through Amazon as the seller/shipper. They are absolutely getting worse.

LOL mybest one was when I ordered a WD black 6 TB drive and they sent me 3 fucking aprons instead. I had to just laugh but explaining it to them and getting it replaced was easier than I thought.
 
I'm just irritated Amazon doesnt accept PayPal. It's not 1993 anymore. Get with the times geez...
 
For fleaBay I made the mistake of ordering a very expensive CCD from what I thought was a well known telescope supplier (AgenaAstro). Well the store shipped it just signature required by USPS. You would think that would be enough but apparently the USPS doesnt actually check who signs for it. So my postal worker signed for it herself and walked away with a 2k camera. The signature? A flat line on the screen. USPS says: "Our readers arent that good so youre out of luck". Agena Says: "We did our part...we shipped you the item". Never mind I paid for Fedex Signature required shipping. Ebays ruling: "Youre out of luck."

Also yeah I am banned from Amazon but not for a review. I got banned for turning down a job. I turned down their job offer and the next day I couldnt post reviews and my prime account had been closed. Still trying to get them to tell me why or at least refund me whats left...

That is the most egregious use yet. Wow, just wow.
 
"We may restrict the ability to submit a review when we detect unusual reviewing behavior, or to maintain the best possible shopping experience."

And their guidelines clearly state not to post any defamatory or libelous reviews, or anything "otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable..."

Sure, it's bullshit, but that's Amazon. Free speech only works when its convenient to all parties. Follow the correct procedures and report copyright infringement here.

Sorry but there is no such thing as free speech on Amazon. Which is entirely legal.
 
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I don’t buy the cheap Chinese obvious knocked off items from Amazon but I have left plenty of 1-star reviews. I even got contacted by one saying I was over reacting lol.

I have had one contact me offering to refund if I took down or changed the review, I told them no, they then said they would refund and offer me a gift card, I asked if they were fixing the issues with the item, and they said no, so I said people deserve to know about the issues before buying, even if it costs me money.

I will say that banning folks from leaving poor reviews because of shipping/handling/amazon issues kind of makes sense. The reason being that the reviews should be there to judge the product itself - Not reviewing the fuck up on Amazon/Vendors part.

The problem is that they almost need a second review system where you can judge the quality of handling/fulfillment of each product. So if a bunch of 2700x's folks are receiving are counterfeit/open box from Amazon then they'd know. Of course, Amazon will never do this because it will open themselves up to less business. They already let you review the shipping/handling, but none of this is information is exposed to the public.

They already have this. Right under the "Leave product review" there is another button that says "Leave seller feedback". Seller ratings are public.
 
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I order everything from there. Never had a problem. They usually have everything I need.

Same here. Since moved to a rural part of the state there are no local store that carry everything we may need. Amazon fills the gap nicely. IF I do get a lemon, returning the item has never been an issue. That being said I try to avoid things that look a bit sketchy. The same you would with something that doesn't look right on Ebay.
 
I have had one contact me offering to refund if I took down or changed the review, I told them no, they then said they would refund and offer me a gift card, I asked if they were fixing the issues with the item, and they said no, so I said people deserve to know about the issues before buying, even if it costs me money.



They already have this. Right under the "Leave product review" there is another button that says "Leave seller feedback". Seller ratings are public.
Not for Amazon itself.
 
This is what you get in a system without due process.

It doesn't always work in their favor, though.

Last year, I found a listing for Windows Server 2016 Standard for $296 (over $400 less than most listings for it) and listed as "Fulfilled by Amazon". I decided to order on my Visa, to ensure I could dispute the charge if it came back fake. Well, I got an OEI version of Windows Server 2016, disk and all, and it activated properly on both the VMs I created with it. (Standard is licensed for 2 VMs or 1 physical host and one VM on that same host.) It worked perfectly. I got what I wanted for much cheaper than most listings.

That listing disappeared before the one I ordered was even delivered, and the reseller didn't have anything else listed. I later found out that there was a scam going on in China where people would sign up as a reseller and list one expensive item that was "fulfilled by Amazon", where they were supposed to receive the payment and then pay Amazon for the cost of the item, but they'd take the payment and never pay Amazon. Amazon lost a lot of money due to not having any ability to go after the "reseller" in China.

Amazon got screwed, I got what I wanted for cheap, and some poor farmer got enough money for food for half a year. I consider it a win.
 
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Amazon removed a review of mine years ago for a set of Gillette Mach3 Turbo blades which I said looked counterfeit...they didn't ban me or my account, they just silently removed my review
 
That's one of the reasons I won't sell ANYTHING on ebay anymore, besides their 30% cut. They leave sellers out to dry. Now if I have anything I don't want I'll give it away or light it on fire.

Ebay is great for small items that have a high resale value. One major trick is not offering refunds. Clearly state that. Keeps most if the scammers at bay.
 
Ebay is bad I thought I was getting a legit Malwarebytes license a lifetime one and I found out on the the publishers site they haven't been doing that since 2014.
So basically someone is selling keys with a keygen and made a few grand in a few days. Probably someone from a different country is taking the risk.
 
I'm pretty sure I was banned because I gave a bad review for Alien 4... that was 1 out 4 total reviews I've made, the other 3 were positive... so now people will not see the review and think the movie must be great... yay... I could care less at this point, my GF at the time thought it was the best movie in the series, ugh must be a problem with me then... (we parted ways, she was just not the one)
 
I was blocked from leaving a review on an item.
I emailed them and they said there were certain items THEY were reviewing and they would not allow reviews on the item until their review was completed.
They further stated that competing products were posting fake reviews on their compitors to sell (make their) products look better.
 
PayPal is a competitor. Amazon has their own payments platform and they aren't about to pay PayPal a cut of their profits.
Exactly. And Amazon is not the standard in this field and are not servicing their customers as well as they could by omitting the most popular and widely used online payment platform. I specifically refuse to order from Amazon when there is another source available for a similar price that accepts paypal. Its inconvenient to sign up and setup another online payment platform for just 1 vendor.
 
I have a fairly active seller's account on eBay and I've seem more fraud in the last six months than in the last 10 years combined. Mostly due to the changes in their return policies.

I almost had my seller's account banned a few months ago when I posted up a negative review on an obvious fraudster and then posted a warning up on eBay Seller's Forum about that buyer... "you can't do that!" (I was told and got a black mark on my record).
 
Exactly. And Amazon is not the standard in this field and are not servicing their customers as well as they could by omitting the most popular and widely used online payment platform. I specifically refuse to order from Amazon when there is another source available for a similar price that accepts paypal. Its inconvenient to sign up and setup another online payment platform for just 1 vendor.

Exactly. Since NewEgg takes Paypal, I haven't bought a thing off of Amazon in at least five years.
 
The biggest problem with Amazon is they mix like inventory. If 10 businesses use fulfilled by amazon and all send in the same product with the same UPC amazon will not keep them separate. They go into a shared pool of which each business is entitled to draw from equivalent to what they sent in. That means if one of them sends in counterfeit stuff its possible legit businesses will be selling it. This is amazon's problem to solve, they need to do better.

this may explain why even if you make sure you are buying "Shipped and sold by Amazon" on the product, it could still end up being fake.

a while back.. purchased a couple of bottles of Hydroxcut... I've always had good results from this product.. these two turned out to be fake. (other reports and reviews reported the same thing)..
 
Only reason Amazon gets my business is because of the free shipping to Hawaii. Almost everywhere else charges to get to Hawaii. My service from Newegg has always been impeccable and their shipping times w/ a free Newegg premier account are super fast.
 
I tried ordering from that dumpster fire "wish" and received a counterfeit keyboard. Wish allows you to make video and image reviews of products so I made sure to indicate it was counterfeit and how you could tell. They refunded me all my money and allowed me to keep the item.
 
I ordered a remote control truck for my toddler son a couple years ago. It wore out and failed inside of a week. It was cheap so I bought a second one. Same thing.

I posted a review that both had failed.

Over a year later, the company contacted me aggressively (but politely) and asked if they could send me a new truck.

I said OK.

They proceeded to contact me constantly and ask how my son was, how he liked the truck and by the way, no pressure, but fix your review. Now please. Are you fixing it?

I told them I needed to see how it held up for a month before I do anything.

Exactly one month later they start again.

The new truck has been working a long time and I did update my review.

However, I've heard that this kind of review policing is getting more common.

I'm someone for whom push-back is my easy, natural, default position, but I was so fascinated by the process that I went along with it to see what their game was.
 
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i swear to god the only probems i have these days with anything i order is delivery. not even shipping... just the actual get it in a car and get it to my door part.
i had a $300 switch just magically vanish into thin air (never even reported as delivered. got out for delivery and that was it), i have had things fulfilled by my local amazon facility be so incomprehensibly wrong that i cant even figure it out (i ordered a 20' 1/4 braided guitar cable and got what looked like a home made fuzzy ipad case instead... and it was FUGLY too).

just... nothing good to the point ive stopped ordering anything until i get moved... to a completely different state.
 
"We may restrict the ability to submit a review when we detect unusual reviewing behavior, or to maintain the best possible shopping experience."

And their guidelines clearly state not to post any defamatory or libelous reviews, or anything "otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable..."

Sure, it's bullshit, but that's Amazon. Free speech only works when its convenient to all parties. Follow the correct procedures and report copyright infringement here.
Reporting copyright infringement to Amazon, in my experience, will just result in a whitewash. I once received a tip that material I had made publicly available was in an e-book on Amazon; thousands of words worth exactly duplicated. I used the preview feature to verify the violation (a few pages is enough), and then I sent a complaint to Amazon with a link to the e-book on their site and a link to the original site. I also said I was prepared to prove I was the original author. Two days later they told me the e-book on their site did not look anything like the original material I linked to. So I double checked, and sure enough there was an entirely different book at that Amazon link now. I searched high and low and could not locate the infringing e-book or that it had ever existed. Amazon played dumb. I had not thought to buy a copy since it didn't even occur to me that they would do this. I guess Amazon didn't want to have to claw back the illegal gains from the seller which they anticipated I would demand. So just remember who the copyright infringement group at Amazon works for. Hint: it isn't you.
 
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Now curious if I'll get banned.
Meant to post a review on a product, posted it against the seller instead. They contacted me for more information so I sent them a picture and they refunded me immediately. They then asked me to remove the review (they did not need me to remove the review to get the refund) but said their supplier asked for more information on how I knew it was fake. I told them that I was uncomfortable giving them/their supplier more information as if they just fix what I already stated it will make it significantly harder to determine they aren't real.

I did remove the review, but I also just applied it to the listing as I originally intended as it's a 2 pack that's effectively a 2 for 1 deal on the item and they claim they are fulfilled by the manufacturer then clearly respond to a question on the item (was not there when I purchased) that the item is not the manufacturers item. The images they use of the box and the item as also clearly from the manufacturer and the item I received looks similar to the manufacturers item but is not the same.

I notified the manufacturer about the listing as well. The store that fulfilled my order is no longer listed on the item but I just submitted the review (as one store still is) so hopefully I don't get banned for it...
 
I've been banned, wife found out she was banned. I think she had left 1 review ever, and I probably only left about 6-7 reviews, and nothing remotely questionable in my opinion. Must be some really weird algorithm that just auto bans for some reason.
 
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Reporting copyright infringement to Amazon, in my experience, will just result in a whitewash. I once received a tip that material I had made publicly available was in an e-book on Amazon; thousands of words worth exactly duplicated. I used the preview feature to verify the violation (a few pages is enough), and then I sent a complaint to Amazon with a link to the e-book on their site and a link to the original site. I also said I was prepared to prove I was the original author. Two days later they told me the e-book on their site did not look anything like the original material I linked to. So I double checked, and sure enough there was an entirely different book at that Amazon link now. I searched high and low and could not locate the infringing e-book or that it had ever existed. Amazon played dumb. I had not thought to buy a copy since it didn't even occur to me that they would do this. I guess Amazon didn't want to have to claw back the illegal gains from the seller which they anticipated I would demand. So just remember who the copyright infringement group at Amazon works for. Hint: it isn't you.
Oh I know. I've reported several vendors, but they just turn up elsewhere like whack a mole selling the same knockoff. As shitty as it is, you have to play by Amazon's rules if you want to use their system. Taking the public route only gets you banned since Amazon barely wields any control over the system they created: simple "shit rolls downhill" system to avoid dealing with the deluge of frauds and haughty reviews. (They even pester you via e-mail to answer other customer questions for products you have purchased -- it's like crowdsourcing work.)

Customers can write their reviews, and vendors can flag them and get customers banned from writing them. As with Youtube's copyright strike system, this is considered "working as intended".
 
Exactly. And Amazon is not the standard in this field and are not servicing their customers as well as they could by omitting the most popular and widely used online payment platform. I specifically refuse to order from Amazon when there is another source available for a similar price that accepts paypal. Its inconvenient to sign up and setup another online payment platform for just 1 vendor.
I don't understand why anyone would order anything from eBay or Amazon in this day and age without processing through a credit card. At least then you have 1) a huge body of law on your side protecting your money and 2) someone who cares about you as a customer protecting your money

To be fair, Amazon has always refunded me when things go sideways but my main concern with them is that eventually my account will get flagged/banned for too many returns apparently based on discussions here and elsewhere. It baffles me that people are so willing to process payments through paypal as if it's a credit card processor or bank without any of the traditional protections.
 
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