[SOLVED] Can you really trust amazon?

[fabbe.boberg]

So I’m going to buy a new computer, and I’ve noticed that amazon has the cheapest price. So I’m wondering, can you really trust amazon with computer components? Thanks

 

[jay32267]

I think that in most cases....it' not Amazon that you would be trusting.
Many vendors sell computers and components on Amazon.
CyberpowerPC for instance.
So if you buy a Cyberpower PC from Amazon...I think your warranty is with Cyberpower and not Amazon.

 

[luckymatt42]

MAKE SURE you are not buying from some third-party seller. I would generally trust items "sold and shipped by Amazon". There are certainly legitimate 3rd party sellers on Amazon, but DO YOUR RESEARCH before buying from one of the third partys.

 

[Corwin65]

Amazon is the 8th biggest company on Forbe's list.

You can trust them.

That said, they also have items sold on their marketplace which actually is sold by other people but still backed up by Amazon.

 

[stdragon]

Amazon you can trust; they've got really good customer support for returns and whatnot. HOWEVER, it's the 3rd PARTY re-sellers that you gotta watch out for.

Me? I just filter by PRIME

 

[Dunlop0078]

Amazon is more like ebay than people seem to realize. If amazon is selling and shipping the item yes you can probably trust it. If some guy who just set up shop on amazon marketplace yesterday is selling the item, maybe not so much. Amazon will more than likely refund you if you were to get scammed, but best look into who you buy from just to be safe.

 

[The Original Ralph]

i've bought quite a bit of stuff from amazon, and from their third party sellers. Only had a problem with a few items, one a USB 3.1 Type C external enclosure for a mSata draive. DIdn't work no matter what prayers i said over it, it was from a 3rd party vendor, i informed amazon, and they sent me a return label to ship it back to the vendor (located in Illinois.

Personally, i don't think there's any problem with 3rd party sellers on amazon, in terms of getting scammed. But in terms of warranty service a month or more after receiving the product, i'd be careful - check their feedback. The Asrock Taichi Z390 mobo i bought, came from a 3rd party vendor and when it fried itself 2 weeks after arriving, he referred me to Asrock

 

[Solandri]

Amazon you can trust; they've got really good customer support for returns and whatnot. HOWEVER, it's the 3rd PARTY re-sellers that you gotta watch out for.

The problem is Amazon mixes their inventory with third party re-sellers' inventory. If a reseller uses their "shipped by Amazon" program, they send their inventory to Amazon who stores it in their warehouse. Unfortuantely, Amazon doesn't distinguish between their inventory and the third party reseller's inventory. It's all indexed as the same item in their computers. When you buy from Amazon making sure Amazon is the seller, it just sends the robot to go get the closest item you purchased in their warehouse. That item may have been ordered by Amazon from its distributors, or it may have come from some reseller's inventory. Their system doesn't distinguish between the two. And you can end up getting fakes even if you avoid buying from third party resellers on Amazon.

The most ridiculous situation is with the Samsung Select microSD cards on Amazon. Samsung Select is an Amazon-exclusive brand. But if you look through their listings, you'll see several third party resellers claiming to sell it. Those are guaranteed to be fakes. Yet several of them participate in Amazon's "Sold by xyz, shipped by Amazon" program, indicating Amazon has contaminated their inventory of their own Amazon-exclusive product with fakes.

You can buy from Amazon, but be sure to test what you get to make sure it's legit. And don't be afraid to use Amazon's return policy if you suspect you got a counterfeit item. They're at least good about their returns. Unfortunately, the time delay from returning and exchanging a product may prove awkward.

 

[stdragon]

Thanks for the heads up! I wasn't aware of counterfeits polluting Amazon's inventory.

See, this is where signing each package between vendor and Amazon (block chain technology) can guarantee the source isn't counterfeit. If it fails the check, Amazon could inspect physically or just outright refuse receiving the package.

 

[jankerson]

Amazon is usually good as people have said, but be careful also as they said.

I got a HyperX Alloy Elite RGB Keyboard from Amazon and they didn't pack it in a box.

All they did was slap the shipping label on the KB box and shipped it.

When I opened it up at least 10 keys were detached as the box was beat up some. It's fine as it is a durable KB, but still.....