this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I stopped ordering tech on Amazon when I got a fraud twice in a month on back-to-back orders a few years back.

First was a laptop that wouldn't start. I looked at the bottom and the scewes were mostly stripped, and once I got them out most of the components had been removed from the boards.

Second was a Spyder color calibrator. What I got instead was a iPhone 4 screen protector with a sticker slapped on with the UPC for what I'd ordered. When I tried returning it, they gave me flack for slap-tagging a return, but I was able to escalate in that case.

[–] indyradio@kafeneio.social 15 points 1 day ago (5 children)

@chiliedogg @themachinestops
Amazon will consistently facilitate fraud. I had sworn I would not order from them, but it seemed there was an exceptional deal on a certain type of tortilla.
There were supposed to be 12 bags of tortillas, but there were only 10.
I read there guidelines, and there is absolutely no recourse for something like this. I opened the box, now it's mine.

I had decided quite firmly I wouldn't deal with them, and it was a serious mistake when I did.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

So what exactly did you do to piss off the Amazon Returns department? Because from my experience, they are the most lenient company when it comes to returns/refunds. I've had stuff arrive broken, or scuffed up, or it was the wrong item, or I just plain didn't like a product and every time I've been able to submit a return without having to interact with a single person.

I feel like you either have to be lying about your experience, didn't even try to return it, or did something that got your account flagged.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Amazon Let Its Drivers’ Urine Be Sold as an Energy Drink

Drivers urinating in bottles has been reported in the past, but what wasn’t known is that some claim they also get penalized for having those urine-filled bottles in their truck when they return to the warehouse.

...

To avoid penalties, they end up discarding the bottles by the side of the road. Butler searches the roadsides near Amazon warehouses from Coventry to New York to Los Angeles and more often than not strikes liquid gold.

From there, it’s laughably straightforward for Butler to get Release listed for sale on Amazon, with very few checks and balances in place to ensure the product he’s selling is safe and legal. “Releasing the drink was surprisingly easy,” Butler told WIRED. “I thought that the food and drinks licensing would stop me from listing it, so I started it out in this Refillable Pump Dispenser category. Then the algorithm moved it into drinks.”

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

Isn't that a plot in Moral Orel?

[–] indyradio@kafeneio.social 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Nationalized and folded into the USPS. Idk about shutting down the biggest commercial retailer in the world.

[–] indyradio@kafeneio.social 3 points 1 day ago

@UnderpantsWeevil Nationalize is a good idea.

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[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, if it's not made by Amazon and sold by them, I typically won't buy it. All the other stuff is just marked up stuff from AliExpress and temu.

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

They don't make anything. You're buying marked up stuff from AliExpress and temu that has an "Amazon basics" sticker on it.

[–] kamen@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So they don't have the resources to check returned goods or what? Or they simply don't care enough?

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 2 points 4 hours ago

Yup this isn't a fraud problem. Just an Amazon problem

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I buy and maintain about $20K of computer equipment a year for my lab. We learned around 2020 Amazon is a nest of scammers, from the suppliers to the delivery people.

There has been a significant resurgence of local computer supply retail because millions have been ripped off and only now buy in person.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, I got burned on some hard drives in like 2018 and won't use them again. They took no action when I reported the issue with the seller. Thankfully I have a microcenter close enough that I can source most of what I need there.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

My local retail supplier has seen revenues double in the last 4 years. But, they are under constant threat of scam by buyers.

It's not just sellers, buyers return swapped items all the time.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 1 hour ago

So check the items before accepting the return? Sellers are responsible for what they sell.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's sickening how little Amazon seem to give a fuck about this. They could easily tighten up their vetting of sellers, but heaven fucking forbid they only report a $50,000,000,000 profit this year instead of $50,003,000,000.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They've invested extensively in automating their supply chain to the point that humans aren't looking inside these boxes anymore. And as customer support is increasingly replaced with AI, the ability to flag and report businesses for fraud has erodes even as the businesses themselves have grown more sophisticated in duping Amazon anti-fraud systems.

The quest to remove every actual thinking human from the inside of your business results in humans outside of your business exploiting the blind spots to the hilt.

[–] veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

CEOs are probably hedging on LLMs adapting faster to scammers then video versa, however unless they make a fundamental breakthrough like what transformers did, adding more parameters to the model ain't gonna do it.

We are reaching a convergence of accuracy, and once a critical mass of investors realize it, this whole thing implodes. Demand for AI tech will plummet, and all these asshole companies will have to backpedal. Maybe not Amazon, but the small cap companies fo sure

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

It is like a cat and mouse game between scammer prevention and scammers.

And just like with piracy, the scammers will always be one step ahead of the corporations. Because Amazon may have some giant nerds working in it, but the sheer amount of nerds outside of Amazon will bypass them easily.

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Scam software will never replace scam artists.

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[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't buy expensive shit off Amazon. They don't do anything to prevent fraud.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago

We caught a driver on camera take a picture of a $2000 PC on a doorstep, then move it back into his truck. Took a month to resolve with Amazon. If you have to deal with these clowns, use the local pickup option from a locker.

[–] Ydna@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Buying electronics from Amazon is really rolling the dice. I've received so many inadvertent open box returns... it's just a matter of time before you get burned.

[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Newegg is also shit and so is bestbuy. I don't have a microcenter near me. What else is there? I guess buying direct. Is there anything I'm missing?

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

Best buy resellers are worse than eBay.

[–] RamRabbit@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

B&H is a great source for electronics, computer parts, and photography.

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[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

My headlight connector got a little melty, just enough to get loose and stop working, just wore out I suppose.

I bought one on Amazon, along with new bulbs, installed it, and within an hour the new connector had catastrophically melted and shorted out enough to blow the fuse.

I should've known, the wire felt cheap, copper clad aluminum. But I thought it would be fine, it's just a headlight 🤷‍♂️

Now I've got a replacement from the local auto parts. So far so good.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

This is a problem with all auto parts, even from NAPA supplying to garages. Mechanics are going broke replacing defective "new" parts.

[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 1 points 53 minutes ago

Makes sense. I work at a different type of repair shop, we just had a brand new $400 battery go up in smoke on first power up. Ridiculous.

[–] DoctorPress@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Did you receive refunds or do amazon and scammers got away with it?

[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago

They got away with it. I bought the part months ago after bodging a fix on the stock connector. By time the bodge failed, the return window closed. It was $5 so unfortunately not worth my time fighting it.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Oh god yeah, so many LED grow lamps and LED drivers that melted or burned out well below their rated amperage. Leaves one to wonder if an entire house is worth saving $10.

[–] ryrybang@lemmy.world 213 points 2 days ago (33 children)

Buying from a reputable operation spares you from a lot of this. Amazon is all hot garbage across the board.

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[–] Rhoeri@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (4 children)

“… from Amazon”

Well there’s your problem.

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[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 57 points 1 day ago (2 children)

16 GB DDR2 + 16 GB DDR3 makes 32GB DDR5, right?

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[–] immobile7801@piefed.social 51 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Its amazon, just return it. That's really the only good thing about amazon anymore, easy returns.

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[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 1 day ago

I ordered 2x32GB DDR5 on Amazon two years ago and received 1x32 and 1x8 in the same package.

Luckily they replaced it for me completely, still wild. Can only imagine it's going to get worse.

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I have long read reports of amazon reselling used or opened & returned pc-components. We really need a more trustworthy source of pc-components that isn't a regional micro center store.

[–] 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 hours ago

In the UK we're super lucky to have Scan, in-store if you're in the North West or online otherwise, but for the US I guess it's too big for a single good store to cover nationwide, then when you get too big you inevitably lose the quality that helped you grow

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