This is my biggest gripe with Amazon. You never know if you are going to get a cheap Chinese knockoff or the real thing from the 3rd party sellers on the site. At least one third of my purchases from the site from 3rd party sellers now end up being fakes. Sometimes you know it is going to be a fake just by the low price and just live with it if it is not a critical item. All the other times I have to send it back. Amazon does nothing to the third party sellers that are selling fakes. They let them keep selling on the site.
I bought a pair of Sennheiser earbuds through a third party vendor only to find that they were knock-offs. I paid the full retail price -- no "too good to be true" deals here -- and the purchase was Prime eligible. I lost my money and never recieved so much as an apology. I do my best to avoid all third party sellers now, but Amazon makes this difficult. The introduction of third party sellers has made Amazon far more difficult than it should be. You're never really sure what you're buying and from whom.
At least, in my experience at least, Amazon is always there to help out in the end. This is good enough in my book. They can't possibly keep track of all the bad apples, but at least they can make sure you get the right product (or money back) in the end.
Some more details would be nice. Assos is one of the most expensive cycling brands out there, so it could very easily be a case of "obviously too good to be true".<p>I for one tend to buy Prime items only. No hassle and fast delivery.
Not suprising and not restricted to cycling gear.<p>Search for "macbook battery" and order by price, lowest to highest. You'll find <i>a lot</i> of counterfeits.
I think the title is misleading - as the article states, the gear is not being sold by Amazon itself but rather through its marketplace. The latter is more like eBay and less like Safeway.<p>With that being said, I wonder what the seller's reputation rating was. Much like eBay, you can (and should) always check the seller's feedback before committing to a purchase.
I am sure Amazon is going to find a solution to this customer's problem. I don't think they'll find a solution to fake brands sold by third party vendors problem though. I've had other issues with Amazon purchases in the past (not fake goods per se) and they did send new products at no additional cost.