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Amazon Loses Huge Footwear Company Because Of Fake Products, a Problem It Denies Is Happening (cnbc.com)

Several sellers on Amazon had noted earlier this month that the platform is riddled with counterfeit products and that things have gotten worse after Chinese manufacturers were allowed to sell goods to the consumers in the United States. Amid the report, the German footwear company Birkenstock has announced it will no longer sell its sandals on Amazon. The company added that it will also ban any sales of its products by third-party sellers on Amazon, effectively making its products unavailable on the world's largest online store, according to a report on CNBC. From the report: "The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an 'open market,' creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand," Birkenstock USA CEO David Kahan wrote from the company's U.S. headquarters in Novato, California. "Policing this activity internally and in partnership with Amazon.com has proven impossible."

8 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Amazon is awesome for knockoffs! by AntronArgaiv · · Score: 5, Informative

    Knockoff doesn't have to mean low quality. Often times the quality is almost as good as the premium name item.
      Just saying.

    True, but you should:
    1. Be clearly informed that what you're getting is a knockoff, not the real thing
    2. Be supported by Amazon when attempting to return substandard goods
    3. Expect that Amazon would insist on the above

    That's not happening. My increasing reluctance to deal with non-"Prime" vendors is due solely to Amazon's lackadaisical attitude towards what is being sold. As long as they get their cut, they appear not to care. And the product descriptions on some of this stuff are misleading and so brief as not to provide any significant information about what is being sold. I'm talking about lack of dimensions, poor product photos, that sort of thing.

    Amazon's on track to become as sketchy as Ebay.

  2. Summary leaves out a key part of the quote by jratcliffe · · Score: 5, Informative

    Summary quotes the Birkenstock CEO as saying "The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an "open market,” creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand." It leaves out a later sentence in the same paragraph, which it probably at least as much of an issue as the counterfeiting problem: "It also includes a constant stream of unidentifiable unauthorized sellers who show a blatant disregard for our pricing policies."

    Birkenstock wants all dealers to sell at full list - stores were selling on Amazon at a discount, and undercutting other dealers, who were complaining to Birkenstock.

  3. Amazon is a crapshoot. by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's just like what Ebay has been for over a decade now. You can not be sure you are buying anything that is real. I used to use the "prime" as a real item indicator, but even thouse are now turning out to be china junk sold as real with a username that even looks real.

    "SandiskMemory" is NOT Sandisk... in fact Sandisk does not have a direct amazon store so anyone using the seller name SanDisk is selling china fake junk.

    Amazon refuses to fix this because they are making mad profit off of it.

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    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  4. 30% is a lot of money by DogDude · · Score: 3, Informative

    Amazon gets 30% of everything sold there. There's HUGE incentive for them to let anybody sell whatever they want because:
    - 30% is a lot. Last I checked, it was 30% of the sale price AND shipping
    - Amazon doesn't make anywhere near 30% on just about everything else they sell, themselves. Much of their stuff is sold at a loss.

    Now why somebody would want to give up 30% of the price (PLUS shipping) is beyond me. There are very few things that have the kind of markup it would take to make any money after that huge commission. I suppose that there's always somebody dumb enough to think that if you somehow sell enough stuff for a loss, eventually, you'll make money...?

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    I don't respond to AC's.
  5. Re:It happened to me by ScentCone · · Score: 2, Informative

    Right there in front of you in writing are instructions on how to have UPS stop at your door and pick up the item you're returning. Yes, it's a shame an unscrupulous third party sold you a counterfeit item. But don't pretend Amazon doesn't have mechanisms in place to have that UPS driver pick up your return. They do it every day.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  6. Re:Amazon is awesome for knockoffs! by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2, Informative

    White Privilege right there. Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton, the finest examples there are.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  7. Re:Amazon is awesome for knockoffs! by aristotle-dude · · Score: 2, Informative

    You've gone insane from wingnut propaganda. People call the toxic Conservatives bigots and racists because of the bigoted and racist things they say and do. It's a dead-end subculture that destroyed the Republican party.

    Funny, I thought Bill Clinton was a Democrat. He was a member of a "whites only" country club and he was proud of the confederate flag even using it as part of his campaign logos and making a speech about how much he loved that flag. I thought it was the Republican party that ended slavery and ended segregation in the schools of the south and state democrats were the ones that opposed it. I thought Democrats in the US senate and House voted against early legislation to end segregation and extend rights to non-whites. I thought that Republicans could not get elected in the south because they advocated for equality for the black and the whites there voted Democrat because of that.

    The democrats were on the losing side of the civil war. Go brush up on your history. You have been fooled.

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    Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  8. Re:Amazon 'marketplace', wish I could disable it. by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can't do it account wide, but you can do it on a per-search basis. Near the bottom on the left, once you've chosen a department, you'll see a "Seller" section. Curiously Amazon has itself listed as both Amazon and Amazon.com, I have no idea why.

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    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.