[Raphmedia]

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]

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]

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.