[astura]

It's not a misconception - they claim to track inventory source, but I don't believe it for a second. There are warnings all over seller blogs and forums not to commingle inventory because you'll be held responsible if Amazon sends another seller's counterfeit product to a buyer on your behalf. People have experienced this en mass - including myself, I was dinged for selling a "generic" item instead of the name brand item while I actually sent in the correct name brand item. It was a Ninja blender. It seems to happen to every seller who commingles eventually.

On top of that I once sent in a box of items that was checked in twice several weeks apart. Amazon sold double the inventory I sent them on my behalf and paid me for the sales of products I never sent them. Stories of phantom inventory are common. It can get crazy - someone [1] sent in a shipment of four items and 72 were added to their inventory, which Amazon happily sold for them after checking with the fulfillment center and insisting that the inventory was correct. This sort of thing shouldn't happen if you're actually tracking inventory. Also, their system shouldn't allow a shipment to be checked in twice.

[1] http://www.orensmoneysaver.com/2016/06/turnover-tuesdays-ama...

[ikeboy]

There's lots of warnings about that, and virtually no one actually experiencing it.

Generic complaints typically come from customer complaints. Customers complain even when the product is authentic. There's nothing in your story to suggest commingling is the issue.

Phantom inventory is an issue, usually arising when someone else's units were checked into your inventory. There's always a record of that, and you should report the discrepancy to Amazon.

[astura]

>virtually no one actually experiencing it

By "virtually no one" you mean "virtually everyone." Because what I described is very common. I've experienced it and I sell very little on Amazon - less than 100 sales a year. Less than 50 items a year in the past several years.

>you should report the discrepancy to Amazon.

How about you actually pay attention to people's experiences before discounting them? The author of the blog post I linked to literally reported the issue to Amazon and Amazon insisted the massive amount of inventory was theirs. It would be easy to see that it wasn't merely by looking at the weight of what was shipped (among other very obvious things...). Since they can't get their heads out of their ass enough to do that (or simply not check in the same shipment twice and double count that inventory), I'm not believing they have much inventory source tracking going on.

Amazon may think they are doing a great job tracking inventory but the facts say otherwise.

[ikeboy]

What exactly have you experienced that makes you so confident that Amazon is lying about tracking the original source of manufacturer barcode products?

I've sold millions on Amazon and am friends with many sellers who've collectively sold at least hundreds of millions. I've heard many people with issues with inauthentic complaints. I've never heard of one that can be traced back to commingling.

I've dealt with phantom inventory many times. The correct thing to do is report it. It doesn't always get fixed. The fact that they occasionally have stranded inventory and assign it to a seller doesn't mean they don't generally track transfers of manufacturer barcode inventory, like they say they do. They never claim inventory receiving is perfect. They do claim they track the original source of sales, and there's no reason to think it's not true.

[secabeen]

Okay, so lets assume that you're correct, and they track the original source of sales. How? I have never once received a mass-produced media item (like a book or DVD) with any additional sticker, label, or other indicating device. Without that label, when a packer scans an item just before they place it in a shipping box for the customer, how do they know which seller's inventory to decrement?

Alternately, how does the picker know which item on the shelf to select to ensure they have selected the right seller's unit? Look at how amazon stores books in their warehouses:

https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+warehouse+books&sourc...

Without a label on the book, how do they know which copy to pull from the shelf and put in the box?

I know Amazon says they track inventory, but prime shipped and sold-by-amazon.com boardgames arrive as counterfeits pretty regularly in the board game industry. You can find plenty of reports, with detailed pictures and manufacturer confirmation on BGG. There has to be something going on here, even if it may be more complicated than Amazon is commingling counterfeit and genuine articles.

[ikeboy]

>Without that label, when a packer scans an item just before they place it in a shipping box for the customer, how do they know which seller's inventory to decrement?

It's very simple: they're stored in different locations. If seller A is on shelf B, and seller C is on shelf D, then even though the individual items are identical, if you pick up a unit on shelf D you know it's from seller B.

They don't store identical products from different sellers next to each other.

I agree there's a counterfeit issue. Amazon agrees there's an issue, and actually has it as a risk factor in their financial reports. But commingling isn't a significant contributor to it.

[secabeen]

That could work, but it's fairly brittle. If an item comes out of its location, you have no idea which seller it comes from. If an item is pulled incorrectly, and then set on the return-to-stock pile, you have no idea where to put it. Perhaps that is the issue; there are two copies, the counterfeit one gets pulled incorrectly, then when put back, they put it in the amazon.com location.