Submitted 1 year ago by fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/buyer-receives-fake-core-i9-13900k-with-swapped-ihs-off-amazon
I ordered four m.2 chips for a raid and one of them was not like the others. Clearly a diff brand chip with a sticker transferred to it. Had I not bought multiple chips I might not have caught on.
Fuck amazon for anything of value. I now use it only for things like books and cat litter.
I now use it only for things like books
Regarding that … I recently bought a hefty biography on Oppenheimer - should have had more than 500 pages, great reviews. What arrived was a 50-page small format booklet. Not even books are a “safe buy” on Amazon.
Wow. I thought you were heading towards it being self-published with fake accreditation or something. Did not expect this.
Amazon damaged their brand name once they started acting like a third-party marketplace. Now it’s basically almost like ebay.
Except worse because they mix inventory so it’s easier for sellers to get away with scams
For books try https://m.alibris.com/
I don’t buy books from them any longer because their packaging is so poor that most of the time books arrive to me damaged from being tossed into a too large box for shipping.
Ha! The put my copy of It’s OK to be Angry About Capitalism in a huge box with a 40lbs box of cat litter. The book got compressed like an accordion.
not suprising, amazon is just aliexpress but with 1-2 day shipping.
I stopped buying electronics on Amazon after getting bricks instead of a GPU for my PC and they treated me like shit when I went to return it. I filed a complaint with the state about the fraud and their unwillingness to correct it. Complaint didn’t do shit but I was pissed. Now the only stuff I buy on Amazon is random household items and stuff for the kids that’s under 100 bucks.
I use B&H for new tech stuff now. Sometimes the Bay of E for used.
B&H seems to be the best bet since Newegg went down the drain. I’d always gone to then for camera gear and never had issues. I’ll be going to them for electronics from now on.
Ever heard of MicroCenter? There’s only a few but if you live nearish one, go check them out. It’s like a toy store for tech nerds.
Don’t use B & H. They have had numerous discrimination lawsuits filed against them and don’t seem to be changing their behavior. It’s just a different kind of evil than Amazon.
B&H
what’s the full name?
I have a microcenter. I only go there for PV
I only buy random cheap shit I can’t find anywhere else. Nothing of substance.
Just got a new watch. Best Buy. Why risk some bullshit knockoff or return from them? Amazon is trash
Microcenter is my go to. I live about 45 minutes from one but any PC parts that are expensive I get there, I also open in store to check for GPUs that were returned to the store to make sure someone didn’t swap out with a cheaper part. I don’t build too often so I don’t make my way over there too often.
I’ve been getting some PC peripherals from GameStop’s site lately since Amazon’s lack of reliability has me unwilling to trust them for electronics
I didn’t realize how many issues there were with Amazon, I’ve never had a problem, guess I’ve been lucky. Unfortunately, while there is finally a microcenter being built in Charlotte, it’s not going to be open for a few years. In the meantime, what I can’t get at eBay is still easy to get at Amazon, and return it if it’s a fake.
The state AGs are slow on complaints but next time reach for the CFPB, they don’t mess around and you’ll get a call from a human (from Amazon) in a short amount of time.
I spent hours on hold with a company (not Amazon) and they kept giving me the run around. After filing a complaint I got a call back in less than 2 days by someone who immediately fixed the issue.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been dealing with a gym membership that got transferred to a different gym without any notification to us and no way to cancel the contract.
Appreciate the advice I didn’t think about the CFPB.
One thing I noticed, about a third of the time they have lower prices for Legos compared to the official Lego site. I buy a bunch of Legos for my kids and been wondering about this. Are they very clever frauds or do they just have a better logistics system?
Manufacturers who sell both directly and via retail usually offer lower prices to retailers (and usually don’t disclose those prices publicly), asking the retailers to sell at a suggested price (MSRP, often same as the direct sales price). So if you buy direct the manufacturer has a notably higher profit margin.
Big retailers can often get volume pricing which allows them to keep the prices even lower (if they’re willing to reduce profit margins - and yes they do need good logistics to pull this off). Typically the retailers try to make up for the lower margin in volume of sales (and/or by convincing you to buy other higher margin stuff from them too), like when an electronics store selling you an iPhone tries to sell you insurance and accessories to increase their margin since that range of phones are low margin items.
Fraudulent parts on Amazon is a mix clever and just plain dumb I got bricks instead of a GPU. For work I’ve gotten a handful of hard to notice frauds. We got some Samsung SSDs the older sata drives not NVMe. One was a different shade of black and looked altered. It had the guts of a USB drive with a usb to sata homebrew conversion. That one Amazon took back no questions but it was a company purchase so they probably treat those differently.
For Legos if they were frauds I would imagine it would be noticeable. It’s probably a discount because of the volume they purchase.
If you buy legos often I’ve had some good luck going to goodwill stores and getting them super cheap. It’s not going to be a set. Usually it’s mixed pieces in a vacuum sealed bag or bin if there are a lot.
If you’re building systems, I would assume you’re the kind of person that knows how they work.
The system tells you what CPU it has on boot.
The BIOS tells you what CPU you have.
MemTest86 would have told you what CPU you had when you tested it after assembling your system.
Windows tells you what you have in Settings > About and Task Manager.
Apps like CPU-Z have been downloaded a billion times and tell you what CPU you have.
Geekbench would have told you what CPU you have and how it performs.
The article mentions someone paying a bunch for a specific CPU back in April, but then never bothered actually checking it until recently… What the CPU had written on it is meaningless. I couldn’t even tell you what my current CPU looked like before I installed it. It could have said Pentium 2 or 486SX or Core i-13. What mattered was that it physically fit, the system booted, and my software said “yup, this is what you paid for.”
The issue is if it never occurred to you that you might have been scammed you might not ever think to look.
I built my first computer last year, with all NiB internals, my main concerns when assembling it was does it work. If it underperformed (due to a bootleg part) I might not have been able to appreciate due to a lack of reference point.
This kind of practice is perfect for targeting the person using PC part picker to build a computer without an indepth knowledge or a relative buying it as a gift for someone else.
Considering how expensive individual components can be, it’s always a good idea to ensure you got the exact model you paid for while there’s still a chance to return it or report fraud to your credit card company. Even with NiB items mistakes can be made and the wrong item could be shipped out.
“Trust, but verify”
Would it not be possible to fake most of those by spoofing the model the CPU reports?
Theoretically possible? Yes, of course. Well beyond the ability of most people including those that print a different model number on the heat shroud? Also yes
With GPUs you can do things like dump its BIOS, alter the identification string, and then re-flash the card.
I’ve modified a lot of GPU BIOSes to tweak GPU and memory clock timings or enable Mac support.
CPUs aren’t that easy to modify. I am not aware of any consumer tools that can simply re-write CPU’s internal code.
Regardless, the first time you run a benchmark and it shows that your CPU is really X and not Y, you will know something is wrong.
Yeah, I think this is the real danger. “I don’t know why this i9 isn’t performing like expected” is a problem where the cause may be much harder to trace if people can reliably change what the processor reports itself as. And even then, the question only even gets asked by those who actually benchmark it.
And on windows just open task manager…
But it seems the person buying doesn’t really understand all that, or doesn’t seem to have the use of it?
Throw in the buyer never mentions if the product came from amazon or a third party as written in the article. Amazon should be verifying the quality of the 3rd party sellers, it is shit not to, but come on. To not know? It says Sold By: in the main section if the sale. If it says sold by Elite 100 and not amazon.com… it is sold by Elite 100. Example: www.amazon.com/…/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?crid=3H73JQQ7TJB…
The article mentions someone paying a bunch for a specific CPU back in April, but then never bothered actually checking it until recently…
They may not have bought everything at the same time and were unable to check until their build was complete.
This reminds me of the black market IC thing that caused so much chaos about 15 years ago.
Amazon always shit the bed, been waiting for my books for school for a week now.
No one considered that the guy maybe delidded and swapped it himself? Or a tampered return going onnoticed?
wick@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Amazon turned out really weird. I feel like the idea of Amazon should be consolidating reputable retailers together, but they decided to open the floodgates to random people and now it’s little better than wish.com. Maybe they should split the site up and push all the random sellers onto a different platform.
Damage@feddit.it 1 year ago
It used to be the safe alternative to eBay… Nowadays maybe it’s the opposite
TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Yep, just bought a new pixel directly from the Google store on Amazon. They shipped me a refurbished one that was carrier locked to Verizon. It’s been 3 weeks since I shipped it back and they still haven’t checked it in n for a refund. Prob never buying anything worth more 200 bucks from them again.
PlantJam@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’ve seen so many Amazon drop ship listings on ebay. They don’t even use different pictures.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
I just got straight to the source on Ali for all my chinesium stuff, although if you don’t want to wade through the express it can be a chore. And express vendors can be as expensive as Amazon.
Ebays not bad, especially for used gizmos. And anything important I just get it from a legitimate retailer.
Landmammals@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It really is. On eBay the seller has a rating. On Amazon the item has a rating. You’re just sort of randomly buying the thing you want and hope to get a good seller.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I trust nothing on there anymore, it is very difficult to wade through the crap. All I want is a 3m HDMI 2.1 cable and I don’t believe what I’m getting.
It’s like chinavasion but with better marketing.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 year ago
Hey man, I’ve got your cable right here: 10m 5m 3m 2m 1m HDMI 1.4 2.0 2.1 cable male female for Xbox 360 One Series S X PS3 PS4 PS5 Wii U Switch Apple PC iPhone iPad 4K 4:4:4 16:9 1080p 60Hz 120Hz.
billiam0202@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’ve always bought cables from Monoprice first and Amazon second.
sndrtj@feddit.nl 1 year ago
It’d worse than things like Temu. With that you just know you’re buying cheap knockoffs with let’s say questionable quality. On Amazon, you don’t know what quality you’re getting, for a worse price, and even worse delivery times (my last purchase from Amazon took 2 months to deliver. For a book!).
slumberlust@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Bought some plant stuff for the wifes bday and the company name on Amazon was XXXtenacion…wtf does that even mean? Why xxx? I don’t know, but there are thousands of these ai generated/poorly translated brandings going on.
AngryAnusHornets@lemmy.world 1 year ago
ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I love how you people go full on crazy when these stories come out.
Yeah, it is definitely just a step away from wish 🙄
BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
For a lot of it its a couple of steps away from ali express atleast. So much so that most of it is just ali express but 10 times more expensive with next day delivery.
Khanzarate@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Hey man I’ve had quality knockoffs from Wish. Wish is great if it’s not much and you wanna gamble a little.
But, so is Amazon, now. Better return policy, but you pay full price so the gamble is way worse.