AliExpress Warning
- Thread starter Rob Dog
- Start date
kevguy
Well-Known Member
So, have any of your fakes ever come from the SanDisk Amazon store? Did you get a deal on the fake cards?
What is the SanDisk Amazon store?
Personally, I think it's a virtual store on amazon.com meaning all the inventory sold from that store comes from an amazon warehouse. If you live in Michigan and you buy something from the SanDisk Amazon store, it might be shipped from Cleveland. If I live in Florida and I buy something from the SanDisk Amazon store, it might be shipped from Atlanta. Because the listing says Sold by Amazon.com and Shipped by Amazon.com and Amazon has warehouses in Cleveland and Atlanta.
However, if you buy something from sandisk.com, it comes from a Western Digital inventory location in California.
Of course, I'm making up all the cities and states and locations because they are just example but the point is, Sandisk takes 10,000 cards and ship them to Amazon and then pays for a "store" on Amazon.com to represent those 10,000 cards which are spread across the USA to amazon warehouses everywhere and....[let me know if you want to hear about the rest of the story].
Anyway, I always get deals on every single card I buy and 5 of 50 have been fake so it's not whether I got a deal or not. However, I agree with you there are deals that are too good to be true which end up being a fake card and we should all watch out for those. But the point is even if you get everything right (decent price, reputable seller, good reviews), you can still end up with a bad card from amazon. I never leave good/bad review on amazon, regardless.
ETA: to directly answer your question, yes I got fakes cards from amazon.com in the past.
Droning on and on...
Well-Known Member
My opinion, but strongly doubt SanDisk would tolerate a place on Amazon called "The Sandisk Store" selling Sandisk branded products, representing themselves as carrying authentic Sandisk products, if it wasn't authorized and supervised by Sandisk.
I would expect, rather, a Cease and Desist letter from their attorneys to Amazon, and if not remedied a tort would soon follow.
Companies are very protective of their brands and reputation. It's everything to staying in business successfully.
I would expect, rather, a Cease and Desist letter from their attorneys to Amazon, and if not remedied a tort would soon follow.
Companies are very protective of their brands and reputation. It's everything to staying in business successfully.
Nor do I. Nor do I condemn an entire country because of the bad actions of some companies.
kevguy
Well-Known Member
Droning on and on...
Well-Known Member
EssenYVR
Well-Known Member
Amazon is like a flea market - it hosts sellers from all over the world, as well as selling from its own inventory. But to the best of my knowledge, Amazon does not mix the inventory of different sellers. Just because some Chinese fly-by-night company sells what it claims to be Sandisk cards does not mean that Amazon mixes those cards with the cards sold by the "Sandisk store" on Amazon. So on Amazon the seller and its reputation still matters.
Of course a lot of folks don't seem to pay that much attention to who the seller is. They should, though.
I've never received a fake card from Amazon, which I attribute to the fact that I only buy from reputable sellers or from listings that state "ships from and sold by Amazon".
EssenYVR
Well-Known Member
It's hard for me not to be at least a little suspicious of Chinese companies I'm not familiar with because of the sheer volume of counterfeit products and the utter lack of government policing of the practice. There's a similar problem with IP theft in China, too. The Chinese Communist Party almost seems to take the attitude that whatever brings bucks into China is fair game, ethics be d@mned.
So I'd be more willing to take a chance on some unknown-to-me company in, say, Germany than one in China.
Of course there's no guarantee that I wouldn't be scammed by the German company or that I would be scammed by a Chinese one, but I do think that the degree of risk is measurably different between them.
kevguy
Well-Known Member
I have never heard of a counterfeit Mini 3 Pro drone...from anywhere (except maybe the grey or black market where you would know for sure it is fake). If the fake product doesn't really exist then it is unlikely you would unknowingly buy one. I haven't heard of a single individual who has bought a fake Mini 3 Pro drone (which would very difficult to fake I might add).
I have heard of thousands of microSD card fakes, there must be millions of counterfeit product on the open market, and I actually got 5 of them in the past. So there's no need to be paranoid about fake DJI drones....from anywhere basically.
I agree with you on all those points. I just don't like to make blanket condemnations of any country or group.
And I'm amused that so many people loathe and disparage China but routinely buy inexpensive Chinese goods at Wal-Mart.
Both Amazon and Sandisk are probably doing everything they can to stop the problem and neither are promoting or condoning the issue so there is no need to "sue" anyone. I doubt SanDisk can tell Amazon what to do anyway. It's too late, the Sandisk brand is rife with fake, counterfeit, and suspicion and at this point, this is all they can do.
I don't work in the Amazon warehouses so I don't confirm the details how they operate. All it takes is a simple google search on the Internet to dig into it. Maybe I'm not the best person to explain it and I certainly don't make excuses for the practice but I don't want to defend what is happening here so if I find a good source which describes the problem, I'll pass it along if you are interested. Consumer beware and just check your cards, it's an easy fix on our side. Retailers and resellers, not so much.
I think it is true by now but even up until recently, many people just don't know all that stuff they are buying is made in China. There's a whole world out there and it easy to think computers and phones, but everything else....India, Europe, etc. People just don't get it that *everything* is made in China so to speak. And most people make no distinction between Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand. Remember when product use to say made in Hong Kong? You don't know that's China until you've been there. That's China.
So let's take on sku, call it the 128gb Sandisk extreme Pro V3 with UPC ending in 8900.
If Sandisk ships 10,000 to Amazon and CalvinHobbs ship 2,000 to Amazon and Electronics Superstore ships 1,000 to Amazon....you believe Amazon maintains 3 bucket across a dozen warehouses across the country each containing whatever the merchant deposits in their bucket so when the customer makes a purchase, the product comes only from their own bucket? All 3 of these have different sold by but they are all shipped by amazon. Keep in mind, Amazon sells millions of skus. Or,
There is one bucket which contains (13,000 cards ending in 8900) because they are all the same product and Amazon has done a good job of making sure all the merchants are legit. Spread all 13,000 across all the warehouses and all you have to make sure is when your stock runs outs....but you don't have to ship the exact card that was sent to you, right? They're all the same, supposedly they all came from Sandisk and we checked them all before we dumped them into the bin. All is good, for years. This is call co-mingling and it works fine for tons of products.
Along comes the counterfeit. You cannot tell unless you test them. They can get thru the Amazon shields and get into the bin and infect the whole batch. A new vendor, China MicroSD, is accepted and agrees to ship 4,000 cards to Amazon, the sku is ending in 8900. China MicroSD is a legit seller but they have been compromised and a few fake cards have slipped into their shipment, 500 cards to be exact. They cannot tell, Amazon cannot tell, the average consumer cannot tell.
Now we have 17,000 cards in the bin and 500 of them are fake. When you order from Sandisk Official Store on Amazon and they dip into the 17,000 containing 500 fakes to fulfill your order, what is the likelihood you get one? BTW, the fake cards are not made in a lab somewhere in Pakistan. These bad cards likely originally came from....Sandisk.
I don't endorse or approve this website or any others on the topic but I thought I would post this to give another perspective and to take the conversation away from me since I'm not the best person to explain this. I have no proof either way so you be the judge:
feedvisor.com
Stickerless, Commingled Inventory
Stickerless, commingled inventory is a term that Amazon uses to refer to the products that are stored within their fulfillment centers that do not have a specific Merchant ID associated with them.
feedvisor.com
EssenYVR
Well-Known Member
Great find, thanks for posting the link.I don't endorse or approve this website or any others on the topic but I thought I would post this to give another perspective and to take the conversation away from me since I'm not the best person to explain this. I have no proof either way so you be the judge:
Stickerless, Commingled Inventory
Stickerless, commingled inventory is a term that Amazon uses to refer to the products that are stored within their fulfillment centers that do not have a specific Merchant ID associated with them.
If I read that correctly, commingled inventory is a option that the seller can invoke. Although the article doesn't say this, I'm guessing that the main benefit to the seller would be to reduce the commission cost they pay to Amazon.
So again, it comes down your trust in the seller. I'm sure, for example, that given the counterfeiting issues that exist with Sandisk products, the Sandisk Store would not allow Amazon to commingle its inventory.
^Unfortunately they do comingle (I've heard it from several sources) because starting from years ago, there's no reason not to. Before there were counterfeit card (because it's was a thing), it made sense. Again, these are not fake plastic chips coming from Burma, these are Sandisk cards in the packaging with the seal, etc. Why would Sandisk want to lock out a dozen other retailers who got their product "from Sandisk" in the first place?
None of this became an issue until the fakes started showing up. By then it was too late. The answer is not to turn a blind eye to the problem and segregate your own inventory and screw the rest of your retailers who legitimately sell your cards with your name on them. Customers don't care who's name is on the Store as long as it is shipped/sold by Amazon or Sold by Amazon. Sandisk is *still* going to have a problem when you buy genuine Sandisk microsd from a genuine seller and you get a fake. The answer is what Amazon probably suggested and is doing: refunds and do better. Again, part of this is the fault of Sandisk.
Here's a couple of articles, not mine; it's 2023 and I don't know if this is still a big problem today but it was certainly huge back in the day when it mattered. The [low] prices and the detection tools make it much less problematic today but the pain of getting a fake can be brutal so check your cards once.
fstoppers.com
petapixel.com
None of this became an issue until the fakes started showing up. By then it was too late. The answer is not to turn a blind eye to the problem and segregate your own inventory and screw the rest of your retailers who legitimately sell your cards with your name on them. Customers don't care who's name is on the Store as long as it is shipped/sold by Amazon or Sold by Amazon. Sandisk is *still* going to have a problem when you buy genuine Sandisk microsd from a genuine seller and you get a fake. The answer is what Amazon probably suggested and is doing: refunds and do better. Again, part of this is the fault of Sandisk.
Here's a couple of articles, not mine; it's 2023 and I don't know if this is still a big problem today but it was certainly huge back in the day when it mattered. The [low] prices and the detection tools make it much less problematic today but the pain of getting a fake can be brutal so check your cards once.
Counterfeit Goods on Amazon: Still a Huge Problem, Even When Buying With Prime
If you want to guarantee that your SD cards are genuine, do not buy them from Amazon. According to numerous reports, the online retailer still has massive problems when it comes to weeding out counterfeit goods, even when selling via its Prime service. This thread on Reddit suggests that...
fstoppers.com
Beware: Amazon Still Sells Counterfeit Memory Cards
Photographer and Nikon Ambassador Charmi Patel Peña ordered four $60 128GB SanDisk SDXC memory cards from Amazon last month. Things seemed fine... until
petapixel.com
EssenYVR
Well-Known Member
Well, the first article ponders upon the possibility of commingling but doesn't explicitly say that Amazon does it by default. The second article warns that Prime membership is no guarantee, and I certainly agree with that. Prime or "Fulfilled by Amazon" means nothing, IMHO it's the seller you need to be cognizant of.
I hear what you're saying, and it's possible that you're right that there's commingling going on that sellers and buyers are unaware of. But I'll grant Amazon the benefit of the doubt for now unless I start hearing about problems with, for example, people getting fakes even from actual reputable sellers.
No problem. But I don't know what to tell you. Scammers, counterfeiter, and thieves are counting on customers to deny the facts and not acknowledge this is going on and that neither Amazon nor Sandisk cares that much to try to stop it.
Check Reddit for years and years of discussion on the topic. And I'll leave you with one last video (not mine) for your entertainment:
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