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Walrus
·I was always amazed when you guys showed your Lego kits on display here. I just got an ad for this one I’d love to try it but I lack the patience. Oh it’s on Temu so it could be fake but who knows.
Fake Legos?!
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sheepdoll
·I would have loved that back when I was collecting Cathedrals. Never could quite figure out how to do the arches and buttresses without custom parts.
Note: when collecting Cathedrals it is better to leave them in their flat packs. St Peters stood on top of the fridge for a decade or more and was looking pretty sad and dusty at the end.
There have been articles in the paper about fake and stolen lego stuff. Especially the minifigs. Back in the day when I was servicing Apple ][ floppy drives. I had one that would not seek. When I opened it up there was a lego man doing pushups on the guide rails. How they got it in the slot is anyone's guess.
Another had about 20 or 30 bucks in quarters under the motherboard. Kid thought they had to insert a quarter in the air vent to play the games. And yes there were fake apples back then or re-purposed boxes full of bricks, and not lego bricks. Apple banned mail order sales and restricted the computers to dealers only. Nothing really changes.
Note: when collecting Cathedrals it is better to leave them in their flat packs. St Peters stood on top of the fridge for a decade or more and was looking pretty sad and dusty at the end.
There have been articles in the paper about fake and stolen lego stuff. Especially the minifigs. Back in the day when I was servicing Apple ][ floppy drives. I had one that would not seek. When I opened it up there was a lego man doing pushups on the guide rails. How they got it in the slot is anyone's guess.
Another had about 20 or 30 bucks in quarters under the motherboard. Kid thought they had to insert a quarter in the air vent to play the games. And yes there were fake apples back then or re-purposed boxes full of bricks, and not lego bricks. Apple banned mail order sales and restricted the computers to dealers only. Nothing really changes.
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josiahg52
·The Amazon thing is something I harp on, especially on another forum and regarding diesel fuel filters.
Amazon sells and distributes counterfeit products. Especially car parts.
Items sent to Amazon by warehouse partners - some dubious at best - for Amazon fulfillment purposes are intermingled and warehoused with the EXACT SAME ITEMS that Amazon procures for their own distribution. There is no control, no crosschecking, no nothing because in actuality, Amazon doesn't care about the "1%" of product that is actually COUNTERFEIT. Amazon receives the warehouse partners items and puts their own SKU stickers on it so they can throw the parts they buy in the same bins as all of their warehouse partners AND their own product. This means that Joe's Filter Shop might buy counterfeit filters and enter a warehouse agreement with Amazon. Amazon receives Joe's filters, puts a sticker on it, and throws it in a pile of "identical" filters. Who knows what you'll get.
Amazon aggregates product reviews among all sales of "identical" items and long ago removed the seller flag from product reviews. Who knows how many of those reviews belong to the ones sold by the "good ones." The reviews are basically useless for determining if a seller is trustworthy or the product for sale is fake or not. Amazon doesn't police the reviews and there was (is) a long history of review farming.
Linking to the "exact" item you purchased is useless because Amazon will change the link and redirect potential buyers in order to promote their partners. It's a subtle change. You may have got a real part from one of the "good ones" but Amazon is not a protected supply chain, there is ZERO control or protection against counterfeits. That's why everyone's experience is so different and scattered. Amazon doesn't care about counterfeits or fakes. They deal with and enter into contracts with businesses that frequently change their names to ditch bad press. Or "borrow" large brand names in order to lull buyers into purchasing from them.
Yeah, but they have a counterfeit unit, you say. After more than six months of dealing with them trying to report and have removed a known shady seller and their counterfeit products, I gave up. You have to order the product. You have to provide comparisons and photos and proof that they it's a counterfeit item. Then they do nothing. Or, they remove the seller and then that seller joins again with some new nonsensical store/buyer name.
They can give the seller "time to respond" or "correct" the "discrepancy" which really just notifies the shady seller the gig is up. That's when I learned more of the Amazon process and philosophy. They don't have a clue which items are theirs that they procured or those that a fulfilment partner procured and provided to Amazon for storage and order fulfillment.
That means Amazon is exceptionally resistant to calling out and item as counterfeit because that could mean going through thousands of items, inspecting each, and determine whether each is genuine or counterfeit, or scrapping $$$$$$ of product and potentially having to reimburse fulfillment partners.
I watched as the seller I observed and reported disappeared from Amazon only to reappear at the same address and with the same contact information selling the same junk product a month later.
Again, Amazon DOES NOT CARE. Purchase at your own risk.
If you purchase through Amazon from an actual, verifiable store that you trust AND they also ship the item, you probably are okay as Amazon is acting only as a money-handler - a facilitator in the speak of States looking for sales tax from out of states sales - and it is likely you'll receive a genuine product.
If it's sold by AND/OR ships from Amazon. Who really knows. Amazon doesn't. Amazon themselves very likely protects their supply chain and obtains genuine product but it's not so with the thousands of random stores that come and go on a frequent basis. It's Amazon's policy of co-mingling their own product with that of their sometimes questionable shipping/warehouse partners that is the problem. Also, their policy of sometimes fulfilling an order with their sometimes questionable partners product when it means they can save on shipping costs or get your items to you faster, even if you have purchased a sold by/ships from Amazon item.
I order sparingly from Amazon. Sometimes the thing I want is only sold through Amazon checkout so I don't have a choice.
Amazon sells and distributes counterfeit products. Especially car parts.
Items sent to Amazon by warehouse partners - some dubious at best - for Amazon fulfillment purposes are intermingled and warehoused with the EXACT SAME ITEMS that Amazon procures for their own distribution. There is no control, no crosschecking, no nothing because in actuality, Amazon doesn't care about the "1%" of product that is actually COUNTERFEIT. Amazon receives the warehouse partners items and puts their own SKU stickers on it so they can throw the parts they buy in the same bins as all of their warehouse partners AND their own product. This means that Joe's Filter Shop might buy counterfeit filters and enter a warehouse agreement with Amazon. Amazon receives Joe's filters, puts a sticker on it, and throws it in a pile of "identical" filters. Who knows what you'll get.
Amazon aggregates product reviews among all sales of "identical" items and long ago removed the seller flag from product reviews. Who knows how many of those reviews belong to the ones sold by the "good ones." The reviews are basically useless for determining if a seller is trustworthy or the product for sale is fake or not. Amazon doesn't police the reviews and there was (is) a long history of review farming.
Linking to the "exact" item you purchased is useless because Amazon will change the link and redirect potential buyers in order to promote their partners. It's a subtle change. You may have got a real part from one of the "good ones" but Amazon is not a protected supply chain, there is ZERO control or protection against counterfeits. That's why everyone's experience is so different and scattered. Amazon doesn't care about counterfeits or fakes. They deal with and enter into contracts with businesses that frequently change their names to ditch bad press. Or "borrow" large brand names in order to lull buyers into purchasing from them.
Yeah, but they have a counterfeit unit, you say. After more than six months of dealing with them trying to report and have removed a known shady seller and their counterfeit products, I gave up. You have to order the product. You have to provide comparisons and photos and proof that they it's a counterfeit item. Then they do nothing. Or, they remove the seller and then that seller joins again with some new nonsensical store/buyer name.
They can give the seller "time to respond" or "correct" the "discrepancy" which really just notifies the shady seller the gig is up. That's when I learned more of the Amazon process and philosophy. They don't have a clue which items are theirs that they procured or those that a fulfilment partner procured and provided to Amazon for storage and order fulfillment.
That means Amazon is exceptionally resistant to calling out and item as counterfeit because that could mean going through thousands of items, inspecting each, and determine whether each is genuine or counterfeit, or scrapping $$$$$$ of product and potentially having to reimburse fulfillment partners.
I watched as the seller I observed and reported disappeared from Amazon only to reappear at the same address and with the same contact information selling the same junk product a month later.
Again, Amazon DOES NOT CARE. Purchase at your own risk.
If you purchase through Amazon from an actual, verifiable store that you trust AND they also ship the item, you probably are okay as Amazon is acting only as a money-handler - a facilitator in the speak of States looking for sales tax from out of states sales - and it is likely you'll receive a genuine product.
If it's sold by AND/OR ships from Amazon. Who really knows. Amazon doesn't. Amazon themselves very likely protects their supply chain and obtains genuine product but it's not so with the thousands of random stores that come and go on a frequent basis. It's Amazon's policy of co-mingling their own product with that of their sometimes questionable shipping/warehouse partners that is the problem. Also, their policy of sometimes fulfilling an order with their sometimes questionable partners product when it means they can save on shipping costs or get your items to you faster, even if you have purchased a sold by/ships from Amazon item.
I order sparingly from Amazon. Sometimes the thing I want is only sold through Amazon checkout so I don't have a choice.
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