To warn you about amazon selling fake products?

[NinjaWhat]

Not a 3rd party, not amazon marketplace but Amazon directly.

I always assumed buying from Amazon was safe, have used them for years as long as you don't use 3rd party sellers.

I bought a kettle from 'The Ninja Shop' on amazon. The photos are stainless steel. The description says stainless steel and a plastic kettle arrived.

All the reviews have this same plastic kettle. Some complaints about it.

I contacted Ninja who confirmed that the kettle is an amazon exclusive but should be stainless steel and confirmed they do NOT sell plastic kettles.

So amazon themselves are selling this 'exclusive ' kettle that is not made by ninja.

They could be from anywhere and be a huge fire risk!

I will not be buying any Ninja or electrical items from Amazon again as you have no idea what you may be getting!

(Yes btw i do already have a thread about this kettle but that thread was about the discrepancy in the item recieved, I am starting this thread based on communication from Ninja confirming the kettle is not theirs)

Buying from Amazon (as opposed to buying from a 3rd party seller on Amazon) is sadly no longer a guarantee of getting a genuine product, because of the way their warehouses are managed.

If a product is sold both by Amazon and by a 3rd party seller who uses Amazon to fulfil their orders, then Amazon will put that product all together in their warehouse, regardless of whether it was bought by Amazon (probably legit) or bought by the 3rd party and delivered to Amazon’s warehouse (could be legit, could be fake).

So, when you buy that product, even if you buy it from Amazon, you could get Amazon’s stock delivered to you, or you could get the other seller’s stock delivered to you.

There's a lot of fake everything on Amazon, and on line generally, I buy very little from there now.

@MadderthanMorris he does all the laundry and laundry assorted tasks.

However, he was using the iron in this instance to iron on transfers he made on his Cricut and designed himself.

He does whatever he wants 🤣

I do wonder what the long term is going to be like for Amazon. Will they get so big that they will implode I wonder?

This is really concerning. A few years ago I bought a Molton Brown liquid soap from Amazon which was obviously fake as it wasn't clear but opaque. I returned it and thought it was just a one off but now I am not so sure.

I can't get out and about easily so rely on online shopping and it is terrifying to think I might buy something that could cause genuine harm.

Like other people I assumed that as long as I bought directly from Amazon rather than a third party seller I would be OK.

I wouldn't have thought they would risk their reputation by mixing genuine products and fakes on the same shelves. Seems a very risky thing to do if they want to survive long term.

This is why I've always preferred a physical store as you can see what you are getting and easier to get refunds. Unfortunately B & Q seem to be following Amazon's footsteps and a lot of their stock listed on their website is from 3rd party sellers and their stores are half empty. I couldn't even buy insulation foil from a store today - that used to be a basic item!

Just don't buy from Amazon. You should be ok with real shops (still buying online), eg Boots, Currys, John Lewis. Not sure about Debenhams these days as it seems to have been taken over by cheap looking third party sellers.

I don't buy anything from Amazon, ive never bought from them. I don't understand why people do buy from them because they've always been a bit shit, Bezos doesn't give a toss about anyone, he's a complete narc.

We are a family with 2 disabled members, getting to a physical shop isnt always easy and the idea of paying one shipping cost a month and getting most items the next, or even same day, was appealing.

We have been high spend customers with them for years but this has really made me question if the convenience is worth it.

Especially as we do often buy things like drinks and personal hygiene items.

So its arrived. Not stainless steel but i wouldnt say its plastic, feels more like a matt style metal which I am fine with to be honest. @NinjaWhatis yours white as mine is more grey/beige but wasnt sure if it was just the lighting in your pic. Doesnt seem fake at all as I have bought quite a few ninja products from them directly

This wasn’t bought direct from Amazon it’s from the Ninja store on Amazon which is a third party seller.

It’s the way the warehouse is stocked it doesn’t have to come from the official store. Anyone can ship into Amazon and say their stock is xyz and slap the correct barcode on or pay Amazon to change their barcode and boom it’s on the same shelf as the legit.

Yeah that doesn’t look fake

I just checked the Amazon listing, and I think the kettle you received is genuine and matches up to the kettle other customers received including @casper2017

I think the issue is that the ninja stock photo isn’t a good representation of the product.

Yanbu. I'm sending a lot back to Amazon now I'm finding... nothing seems to match the photos. Can't shop local as it's just coffee shops or charity shops near me..you can't buy ink cartridges now from tesco etc

Yes this is exactly it, the wrong pics have been used. I dont think its plastic though which is strange that others think it is. On further investigation the stone gold colour is an amazon exclusive, its not available via ninja themselves.

Yes, the colour you received looks like something “stone gold”, stone as in the beige/grey body.

I think what Ninja has done is use photos of the kettle in a different colour, but then edited them to look more like the Stone Gold variant (instead of actually taking photos of the stone gold one). This is probably why it has a stainless steel texture in the listing photos, but the actual kettle is matte. In fact, looking at the listing, every photo of the kettle has slightly different colours - it’s not consistent.

I too have had this with oral b toothbrush heads

I’ve bought Rapidlash from Amazon that was fake.

@NinjaWhat i think if you google that kettle model and colour and look at images to find photos from reviews that it is looks the same as yours and looks genuine, I think the issue is actually with the Ninja pictures and editing of the product making it look different to reality.

I don't think the Ninja kettle is fake, it looks the same as the white one on Curry's, you probably have been sent the wrong colour though so I would return anyway as it is not what you ordered, it doesn't look gold and is called white on Curry's. Stainless steel may refer to the inside of the kettle rather than the whole lot.

@CraftyNavySeal said similar, RockaLock

I've always been very wary with what I buy on Amazon but thought I might buy from an official store on there as find it harder to get stuff in Boots - say, a Revlon lipstick. So if it's from the 'official' Revlon Store but on Amazon - I think what you're saying is that someone could buy a Revlon lipstick from a 'non official' store (possibly selling fakes/ copies) and it will be put on the same shelf as the products directly from Revlon? Have I got that right?

Yes, that’s correct.

But also, the “Revlon store” on Amazon is not actually operated by Revlon. If you look at the products, they are all sold by Amazon. It’s just Amazon making a subsection of their website for a brand. It’s the same for “The Ninja store”.

Yes, the brands may have had input into how their “store” looks, but it’s just Amazon’s way of grouping together all products from a brand. You are not buying direct from the manufacturer when you are buying from those “stores”, you are buying from Amazon, and so you may end up with a genuine product that has been sourced from the manufacturer by Amazon, or you may end up with a fake product that has been sourced by a random 3rd party seller.

I'm ashamed to say that I've had a Prime membership for several years for last minute stuff (e.g. present for a kid's party) when I couldn't get to the shops.

I was thinking about ditching it this year though as lost faith in their ability to supply genuine items. I wasn't exactly sure when it was due to renew. When I checked, it auto-renewed without any email notification etc, in early November. I definitely used to have it set to ask me before auto-renewing so I have just checked my settings..... there is now a box to tick to request an email three days before auto-renewal - it was unticked.

I find this really shittily stealthy of them and I think I will just cancel altogether now (as long as I still get the benefits I've paid for until next November). They no longer seem to have an option to ask you if you WANT to auto-renew before they do so 😡.