[rdn]

That's return fraud, someone orders a new version of a product they have, put their old product in the new box and file a return immediately. Amazon probably doesnt take the time to check it or check it thoroughly. Goes back on the shelf and you receive it.

[blagie]

It's double-return-fraud.

Amazon shouldn't sell returned products as "new," but as "open box."

The other way it happens is co-mingling. Some vendor sends an "open box" product to Amazon as new, or a fake product, and Amazon ships it out when sold by Amazon since it considers goods to be fungible.

I stopped buying anything which goes in my body from eBay, Amazon, and similar after receiving a premium food product with very clearly fake packaging.

[rkomorn]

Man, I don't think this co-mingling thing was big or existed when I moved to a country that Amazon doesn't ship to directly almost 6 years ago.

Reading about it on HN makes me feel fortunate. I can't recall ever running into something like this back then.

[blagie]

Amazon broke in 2020, when most shopping went online. It never recovered.

I doubt it ever will. Trust takes a long time to earn, and a little bit of time to break. I had four or five incidents on Amazon, cancelled Prime, and I doubt it will ever make business sense for Amazon to get me back.

I do think there's a place for a competitor to Amazon right now which looks more like the old Amazon.

Starting one would be super-capital-intensive. It's not a lean startup. There's only a handful of organizations with the capital to do that, and I doubt any of them will, in fact, do it.

[lazystar]

> Amazon broke in 2020

nah. jassy taking the reigns in 2021 is when the nosedive began.

[calenti]

He was representative, not causative. The rot had been settling for years.

[krackers]

>I do think there's a place for a competitor to Amazon right now which looks more like the old Amazon.

If walmart plays their cards right, they can do it (I mean they did acquire Jet). Unfortunately they also seem to be OK with becoming a dropship frontend for aliexpress

[ethbr1]

I think modern Walmart understands the problem better than modern Amazon.

Walmart just needs the volume to be able to compete with Amazon's logistics, so is getting volume where it can.

[chaostheory]

There is some good news. After years of customer and company complaints, Amazon finally ended commingling recently.

[jader201]

> That's return fraud, someone orders a new version of a product they have, put their old product in the new box and file a return immediately.

Not necessarily. What’s more likely is that people try something, change their mind, and return it now used.

Amazon actually allows this for some products, as long as it’s still within the return period.

The problem is, they shouldn’t be shipping them back out as new.

[wiether]

Maybe local laws, but probably a third of what I buy on Amazon is sold as "refurbished" which, 90% of the time is just damaged packaging or products that spent a few minutes outside it.

[bigbuppo]

They weigh it. That's all they do. I know someone that bought an open box camera off Amazon and received a piece of wood that weighed the same as the camera.