Amazon selling fake cycling gear

Amazon selling fake cycling gear(cyclingsailor.tumblr.com)

15 points by labaraka 12 years ago | 18 comments

uslic001 12 years ago |

This is my biggest gripe with Amazon. You never know if you are going to get a cheap Chinese knockoff or the real thing from the 3rd party sellers on the site. At least one third of my purchases from the site from 3rd party sellers now end up being fakes. Sometimes you know it is going to be a fake just by the low price and just live with it if it is not a critical item. All the other times I have to send it back. Amazon does nothing to the third party sellers that are selling fakes. They let them keep selling on the site.

mpclark 12 years ago | |

In some categories it is almost impossible to buy genuine items; Apple Dock cables and Samsung phone chargers are two that spring to mind.

labaraka 12 years ago | |

1/3 fake? That is shocking. Didn't know this was an issue until a couple of weeks ago.

bollockitis 12 years ago |

I bought a pair of Sennheiser earbuds through a third party vendor only to find that they were knock-offs. I paid the full retail price -- no "too good to be true" deals here -- and the purchase was Prime eligible. I lost my money and never recieved so much as an apology. I do my best to avoid all third party sellers now, but Amazon makes this difficult. The introduction of third party sellers has made Amazon far more difficult than it should be. You're never really sure what you're buying and from whom.

farski 12 years ago | |

How did you ID them as fakes?

bollockitis 12 years ago | | |

They broke within a few weeks of purchase and I sent them to Sennheiser for warranty repair. I should have known they were fake from the start, because they didn't sound nearly as good as my old ones, but I figured I just needed to break them in.

Raphmedia 12 years ago |

At least, in my experience at least, Amazon is always there to help out in the end. This is good enough in my book. They can't possibly keep track of all the bad apples, but at least they can make sure you get the right product (or money back) in the end.

AJ007 12 years ago | |

Amazon sold fake iPhone chargers for years (and I'm calling them fake because they said "by Apple", now they are labeled "by Generic" etc.) I took screenshots, that's not from memory.

Amazon has a big fake product problem. Make or source a knock off of anything that is relatively interchangeable, such as a replacement filter, then list it as being the real product.

Even when Amazon lists an alternative "by Generic" you can still list under the real item (e.g. "Dirt Devil F1 HEPA Filter by Dirt Devil" http://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Devil-F1-HEPA-Filter/dp/B00022NGI... ) review less than 20 hours ago says its fake. What do you think it costs to make a knock off filter? If you under price it, then consumers know for sure its a knock off, so you take the market price, in this case $8.50 - the 50 cents it took to make and ship across the ocean, and add Amazon's overpriced per item shipping for third party sellers to make another few dollars on top of it. This is happening to a lot of other products.

What are the risks? Manufacturers don't care. I've emailed complaints myself, without response. At worst you get kicked off Amazon.

bcl 12 years ago | |

Same experience here. In one case where there were missing components from a 3rd party order the Amazon rep. sat on the phone with me as I picked out individual replacements which they shipped to me at no extra cost.

ciclista 12 years ago |

Some more details would be nice. Assos is one of the most expensive cycling brands out there, so it could very easily be a case of "obviously too good to be true".

I for one tend to buy Prime items only. No hassle and fast delivery.

potatolicious 12 years ago | |

Prime items aren't immune from inventory contamination. Via Fulfillment by Amazon third party sellers can qualify for Prime also, and there's no guarantee that that inventory is any good.

Worse yet, when I worked at Amazon a fair whiles back FBA 3rd party merchants had their inventory mixed into the general Amazon pool, creating a hell of a inventory contamination problem. This was particularly egregious in products where just about everything sold by a third party was a knockoff (see: memory cards). You could buy directly from Amazon and receive knockoff goods by virtue of a third party contaminating the supply by storing their inventory at Amazon's warehouses.

I'm not sure if this has been fixed. I sure as hell hope so.

ciclista 12 years ago | | |

Good to know. I actually ran into that with a flashlight the other day. Prime product, but a lot of the recent reviews complaining it was a chinese knockoff. Caveat emptor.

mturmon 12 years ago | |

Some Assos clothing prices at Amazon include $32 for a long jersey, and $62 for a long jersey/long tights pair.

How cheap is that? I'm not even seeing Nashbar jerseys for those prices...so yeah, that's fishy.

ciclista 12 years ago | | |

Jerseys start at around $150 (and that's buying from cheaper places in the UK), same for shorts. Pretty obvious at that point that they're fake.

outworlder 12 years ago |

Not suprising and not restricted to cycling gear.

Search for "macbook battery" and order by price, lowest to highest. You'll find a lot of counterfeits.

otterley 12 years ago |

I think the title is misleading - as the article states, the gear is not being sold by Amazon itself but rather through its marketplace. The latter is more like eBay and less like Safeway.

With that being said, I wonder what the seller's reputation rating was. Much like eBay, you can (and should) always check the seller's feedback before committing to a purchase.

antr 12 years ago |

I am sure Amazon is going to find a solution to this customer's problem. I don't think they'll find a solution to fake brands sold by third party vendors problem though. I've had other issues with Amazon purchases in the past (not fake goods per se) and they did send new products at no additional cost.

TYPE_FASTER 12 years ago |

I had a similar experience. Got an unauthorized/clone product from an independent shop that sells on Amazon. Amazon refunded the full price.