Amazon is an amazing online retailer! You can find pretty much anything you're looking for, and you can get it at a fairly decent price. When I first started shopping there years ago, I had no intention of ever looking elsewhere for anything ever again. These days, unfortunately, I find myself shopping on Amazon less and less.
For Mother's Day earlier this year, I decided to introduce my mom to the world of smartphones by getting her a Samsung Galaxy SIII. I needed to purchase accessories for her new phone, so where else would I look?
I knew from reading other blogs and the customer reviews on Amazon that some of their sellers were not being very honest and were selling counterfeit items. One important piece of advice that pretty much everyone had was, if you're buying from a third-party seller, make sure that it says the order is being "fulfilled by Amazon." That way, the item that you're purchasing is going through an additional check point (the seller's items are actually being sent from the Amazon warehouses) before it gets to you.
I went one step further - I chose to buy directly from Amazon. It didn't work.
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| Authentic Samsung products have a holographic "Samsung Original" sticker. |
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| You can tell the cardboard packaging was cut by hand - the edges are off. |
They totally sent me a knock-off.
To be honest, for what I paid (a mere fraction of the MSRP), I would've been happy if the stupid case had just fit on the phone, but it didn't even do that. I basically paid for trash.
I filed a complaint, returned the case, and got my money back. It seemed like Amazon was having one of its third-party sellers fulfill their orders; the original link I had for the item now directs to a different seller. From what I understand, though, that wasn't the first nor will it be the last seller to completely dupe customers on the site. Instead of trying my luck again with Amazon, I decided to head to my local Best Buy, where I could actually see that I was buying the real thing.
My friends, this problem doesn't end with smartphone accessories, unfortunately. I would be very, very careful when purchasing anything from third-party sellers online.
This is also true with imported cosmetics, especially BB creams from Asia. Many of the bigger companies (Missha, Skin79, Skinfood, etc.) have websites/online shops operating in the U.S., as well as operating actual brick and mortar stores. Even though the prices there can be a bit higher than what you can find on Amazon or Ebay, I would really recommend purchasing from legit places. You really don't know what you're getting from these third-party sellers. It could be completely fine, or it could just be older or stolen merchandise, but it could also be lower grade, possibly harmful cosmetics disguised in brand name packaging.
In any case, when making purchases online, make sure you do your research so that any decisions you make are well-informed ones. Caveat emptor!
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UPDATE (May 26, 2014): I was recently looking up YouTube videos on Clarisonic facial cleansing systems, and I came across a video illustrating the differences between real and knock-off Clarisonics. The woman in the video was gifted a Clarisonic Mia2 that was purchased on Amazon, which isn't an authorized dealer of Clarisonic products. I just wanted to add this as more reason to be careful of what you buy through third-party sellers.
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