Amazon forced to recall 400K products that could kill, electrocute people
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There's a nasty scam where they have invented something called the "China Export" mark, and made it look like the CE mark. It's almost identical but the letters are closer together, and it signifies nothing whatsoever apart from a deliverate attempt to deceive. Some people consider this a myth, in the sense that it isn't an organised governemnt thing, but it is absolutely something that shady resellers do. I have literally had a dodgy seller on amazon make this claim to me.
Plus, you'd think if they were genuinely just pretending to have CE certification outright, they'd use the actual logo, not a subtly different one.
So then they can go "oh, we didn't lie, that's a genuine CE, China Export, mark!" Not fraud at all...
Regardless of the specifics of any claim, or scheme, the bottom line is that many resellers put the letters on then claim it didn't actually mean CE mark at all if you confront them.
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For me, it's more the fast shipping and reliable inventory on the website. When I order something at Amazon, I can usually get it the next day if I need it fast (sometimes the same day), and almost always, when I place an order at Amazon, I know it's in stock and will ship when they say it will.
Other merchants are more hit and miss -- they often have 3-5 day fulfillment windows before the product will ship and then it ships by ground out of their only warehouse which is on the other side of the country so you wait another 5 days (they might let you upgrade to next day shipping for $35). Or they show items as available that are actually out of stock, and you don't find out until the order comes and you find that the thing you really wanted is on backorder.
There are exceptions of course, I've had great experiences with B&H Photo for electronics purchases, and they almost always have the same price as Amazon with free 2 day shipping.
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Even the shipping has gotten hit or miss these days. I needed something while work was ongoing at my house? Five days. Need a battery for my UPS? Order Monday, might get here Friday. And we have Prime. The experience is orders of magnitude worse if you don't.
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They are trying to regulate Amazon which is fine but the big problem is they aren't regulating products that are directly imported from Shein and Temu.
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I don't see what's the problem here. Looks like the seller is offering a bargain. A 2 amp fuse that can handle 5 times the load of other 2 amp fuses.
Yeah I better add an /s. Fuses that don't blow when they should are a real danger. The seller should be liable not just for the cost of the fuse but should also face punitive damages, but we know that will never happen.
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I probably spend about 10-20% of what I once did on Amazon, I only use them at all because the ordering and the locker delivery is so convenient, and where I am the delivery is pretty fast without Prime. But I buy nothing mains powered or otherwise safety critical, or expensive from them.
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It's not foolproof but I try to only buy established brand names from Amazon. I trust my UL listed Sharp alarm clock more so than the Nhyuxxsqp, TimeFantasy or HappyReadSue clocks that for some reason look exactly alike, have the same stock pictures but are priced 2 cents apart.
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They 100% sell returns as new. We bought a stroller for the grandkids that had no packing material, no instructions, and was missing parts.
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I used to go out of my way to order from indie bookshop Tattered Cover. That's why I'm on their mailing list, which is how I found out they've sold their operation to... Barnes and Noble. Tough climate for staying indie, I guess.
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There’s a lot of talk on bicycle subs (Reddit) about fake components through Amazon. I’ve seen some pictures of chains cracking with low mileage. One post had a detailed inspection of fake Shimano packaging vs authentic.
I used to think avoiding anything electrical was a safe strategy. The list of things I feel comfortable ordering from them keeps shrinking.
I used to think avoiding anything electrical was a safe strategy. The list of things I feel comfortable ordering from them keeps shrinking.
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Odd. This seemed exactly the sort of issue they'd release an OTA update to fix.
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I’ve had several obvious returns (LPN# instead of B00/X00 on package) delivered to me. Any negative reviews I’ve left pointing this out were rejected.
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And just two weeks ago there was a story about how Amazon crushed a small business by reselling as new a used (eww) returned diaper.
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I ordered a generator cable from Amazon during covid because I couldn't get one locally. It's 4 copper wires going end to end. Somehow, two wires got connected to one terminal and the fourth terminal had nothing. I tripped a breaker repeatedly until I pulled out a meter and checked continuity.
I left a video review in the hopes of saving someone else from a fire. Amazon refunded it.....but did they do anything for their other stock? Not as far as I know.
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You can often get that stuff cheaper on Ali, if you're willing to wait a bit for delivery.
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Saxophone Reddit is also full of 200$ "professional" instruments from noname Chinese brands and plenty of horns branded as Selmers and Yamahas that look nothing like the real thing. Literal daily "is this a good deal?" posts with pictures of purple horns and other garbage.
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I've had exactly the opposite experience. I returned an item to an authorized pickup location, got a confirmation, and then got an email from Amazon that they hadn't received the return and would be rescinding the refund. Chatted with their overseas bot-wannabe and was assured that it was resolved. Got the same email. Called and was assured it was resolved. Got the same email again.
(Ignored it until the charge hit, then uploaded the PDFs to AmEx and AmEx made it all go away instantly.)
Amazon used to be great, but their return process has been in cost optimized to death like the rest of the organization.
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My rule since the debacle in eclipse glasses 2017 has never to buy anything safety related or ingested into the body in some way on Amazon.
I absolutely do not buy electronic parts on Amazon. If it's not something I can buy locally, I get them from DigiKey (or something like Granger if it is more industrial). This is something I've pushed at work when consulted on buying cheap fuses for equipment at work.
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I just ended my Prime membership over this BS. Between shitty products being delivered questionably faster and more and more ads showing up on Amazon Video, I don't have much use for it now.
Amazon has become enshittified garbage and I have lumped them in with Walmart for priority - only when there is no other choice.
Amazon has become enshittified garbage and I have lumped them in with Walmart for priority - only when there is no other choice.
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So you're saying that a product that potentially could burn down your home is "over blown"? Or depending on the appliance providing a shock hazard where someone could be electrocuted? Because that is what a loose crimp can cause. It is a serious defect.
I'm all for forcing companies to fix products instead of scrapping them. We still do this with cars. However, that doesn't change the fact the products need to be recalled, and customers properly alerted of the risk.
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I've also found thte quality of their delivery service is significantly worse than UPS and USPS. Which isn't surprising because both of those services have standards and well paid workers.
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This. The Amazon search feature is absolutely fucking useless and has been for about 5 years. Over time, they intentionally removed your ability to use operators like - to exclude terms. They are scummy scumbags of the worst sort.
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Electrical engineer here.
Your wife is wise.
The wires and or the clips may be too thin they can be made of cheaper metals which are worse conductors (aluminum and sometimes even steel instead of copper).
And the termination (the attachment of the wires to the clips) may be poorly made.
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Yes that's it let's bet on having consumers know how to inspect a plug and know if the crimp is good enough to be safe.
It's like saying, oh defective lug nuts are obviously bad, but oh if only consumers knew how to change tires they could recognize the problem and stop a disaster!
But...why the fuck would anyone ever think there is something wrong to begin with? It is never, ever, EVER a good idea to leave product safety up to user competency. We have these laws because, a long time ago in the crazy distant far away land known as "the 1950s," consumers enjoyed both more spending power and also more electrical power surging through their bodies because someone thought it should be up to them to know not use a toaster, a kitchen appliance, near a kitchen sink.
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I wouldn't be surprised if it's gotten worse recently, but the general rule with Amazon human chatbots is to just escalate to a manager. It's been 100% successful for me over the years.
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Hey man, it’s hard to amass a fortune you couldn’t spend in a thousand lifetimes by being honest.
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Yeah, I forgot to mention that too. Aside from the customer service when I get a defective product, it's really hard to beat amazon's mostly reliable and fast shipping. I swear I'm not just a stealth amazon chatbot, but I really have a hard time getting anything delivered from anywhere else reliably in under a week or two. Best Buy sometimes if it gets fulfilled out of a local store, but many can't even get the package to the carrier for a few days, much less deliver it.
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Best Buy US definitely used to have that as a filter option, but it's gone now. But the good news is that it appears they removed it because they removed third-party sellers from their US store, so there aren't any "marketplace" sellers to filter out:
https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/best-buy-is-closing-its-us-marketplace
As @Aidolon mentioned in a previous comment, Best Buy Canada still has that filter option, as the third-party Marketplace still exists for the Canada site.
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I'm physically horrified by this. How the f**** does something like this even get made?
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It's not, but there's a difference between having a law, and being able to enforce. Amazon doesn't really screen the foreign sellers before they can start selling on the site, so while Amazon can ban bad actors after being notified, if they can even pin down the defective prodcut to the right seller due to Amazon's process of binning, the seller can just re-apply under a different company name. It's why there's so many companies with random letters as names; no need to build up a brand and reputation if you're selling crap that's going to get you banned, eventually, and no reason to bother thinking up a good name, as Amazon will list your crap to customers anyway, especially if you pay them to promote it.Howis
It's why the CPSC is holding Amazon itself accountable, because Amazon has a brand and a financial stake in the US that can be leveraged. If it can get Amazon to care about the products it lists and sells, Amazon will then be far more proactive about what sellers it lets on and what crap it lets them sell.
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It isn't, but just like these recall notices, holding companies like Amazon liable has been hard.How
You can find things for sale on places like eBay and Amazon from Chinese sellers, which are extremely dangerous. Stores should be liable for recall and refunds when they've been caught selling items with counterfeit certification labels on them.
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So glad we ditched Prime. Since I still end up with gift cards from my in-laws and work bonuses, any purchase made from there is relegated to two categories: Kindle books and my silly anime figures. They still seem to be safe for those, though I wonder when my Kindle purchases will be yanked.
Even then, I've learned to check the One Piece figure boxes for markers to be sure it's not a knockoff before unpacking, and I have real concern that my Kindle books will be rescinded.
My point is that Amazon has become a company that I simply can't trust and wouldn't use them if it wasn't funny money I was spending.
Even then, I've learned to check the One Piece figure boxes for markers to be sure it's not a knockoff before unpacking, and I have real concern that my Kindle books will be rescinded.
My point is that Amazon has become a company that I simply can't trust and wouldn't use them if it wasn't funny money I was spending.
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Plug adapters are a world of shit.
As the video points out most of them lack ground and will accept plugs which are keyed to require an earthed socket.
The only part where it's worse than most are the recessed but exposed live pins.
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This is what happens when you let capitalism run rampant without government interference.
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This. A lot of companies use the same approach. They know their platform is full of illegal shit but they ignore it because they profit from it. They pretend they're trying to stop it - if you can point to a specific example then they might ban the seller, but it takes longer to take down an offender than it does for the offender to start up again.
Sites like Redbubble do this (merchandise print-on-demand shop). The site is rampant with copyright infringement and theft. Bots will even take an image from your Redbubble shop and upload it again to sell on another Redbubble shop and they don't even try to stop it.
If you do manage to get someone who has copied your design banned, not only do they immediately open another account but Redbubble won't even give you the profits you should have earned from them selling your shit.
The whole system relies on knowing full well criminals sell on your site, and then doing as little as is needed to legally pretend you're trying to stop it.
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You can use Cailbre software to strip the DRM easily if you'd like to actually own your purchases.
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The big problem is people don't want one for each plug they might encounter, especially as you may need a grounded and ungrounded version depending on where you're going. Its really an area where safety regulations need to step in.
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