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Comment by mulm | Hacker News Reader

One of the Danish consumer NGOs called tænk recently tested the security of things bought off amazon, wish and other online retailers. More than half of the smoke alarms bought on amazon didn’t work. Around half of the baby toys didn’t meet choking hazard safety.

Not sure why anyone still buys things from there. Or anywhere online really, all the other retailers failed as well.

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When I buy something from Amazon, typically what I get is exactly what I expected, at a good price, with quick delivery. I bought socks from my preferred brand and got them. I bought a pair of trail running shoes that someone recommended, and they're excellent -- I wore them just yesterday to run on trails. I bought AA batteries and got AA batteries. And so on. This, for me, is the standard Amazon experience. Why wouldn't I buy things from them?

(I admit that I haven't tried buying no-name brand smoke alarms, baby toys that weren't designed with Denmark's choking hazard standards in mind, or any other category cherry-picked by a consumer NGO trying to do an exposé. Maybe that's the secret to my success?)

I've had this attitude in the past as well. I never believed people who said they got counterfeit items on Amazon, or blamed them for buying off-brand items. Until one day I got a counterfeit SanDisk SD card. Sold by SanDisk, shipped by Amazon, straight from SanDisk's merchant page. Then I got a counterfeit Swiss Gear backpack. A Xbox controller I bought from Microsoft, shipped from Amazon, and inside the package was a no-brand Xbox controller. It worked, but I paid for name brand and got an obvious knock-off.

You can keep blaming others like I used to do, but someday it might happen to you just like it happened to me. There is a very obvious problem at Amazon and you literally cannot be careful enough to avoid it. At some point, it will happen to you. I hope it's not something where safety is critical, like a smoke alarm. You might not get a chance to leave a negative review.

> More than half of the smoke alarms bought on amazon didn’t work

I've bought multiple name-brand ones off Amazon, sold by Amazon. The one by my bathroom absolutely works. I can't count how often a steamy shower set it off. Were they buying knockoffs from third-party sellers?

A steamy shower should not set off a smoke alarm. Perhaps it has a higher false positive rate.

https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/WPI2015SmokeAlarmReport.pdf

> photoelectric smoke alarms should not be placed near bathrooms or similar locations that create steam. Even though location recommendations are already common on alarm packaging, nuisance alarms persist in homes due to inappropriate alarm placement

Which I suppose is on me, but it is a known issue with some smoke detectors.

The reason a steamy shower shouldn't set off an alarm is because fire code requires you to put the detector far enough away from the bathroom that it will not encounter steam. Smoke detectors of all types will detect steam; they just detect particles. The person you replied to is likely experiencing false positives because of improper installation.

Bought a smoke detector; received a steam detector. Not a good review.

Due to isolation I ordered from them for the first time in a very long time. I'm blown away by how much garbage is on there now. Or was it always there? I'm glad I could stay inside but I really need to find something better.

Target is much better, IMO, depending on what you’re looking for.

> Not sure why anyone still buys things from there. Or anywhere online really, all the other retailers failed as well.

A combination of convenience and a monopoly. They have made purchasing as frictionless as possible.

Did they also similarly test the security of things from brick and mortar? Otherwise it's a moot comparison.

> More than half of the smoke alarms bought on amazon didn’t work. Around half of the baby toys didn’t meet choking hazard safety.

This is a manufacturer issue. This has nothing to do with Amazon.

> Not sure why anyone still buys things from there. Or anywhere online really, all the other retailers failed as well.

This is just a blanket statement that is completely wrong. Amazon sells all sorts of reputable supplies and toys for babies. Name a reputable company. I'm sure they have an online store.

Edit: This whole situation is going to drive even more shopping online and especially to Amazon. The elderly are getting on board.

I agree with your general point but Amazon does have a pretty big problem with counterfeited products. If you buy some ultra-cheap no-name alarm and it doesn't end up working very well, you got what you paid for. If you bought a reputable brand but ended up with a non-functional knockoff I do think that it's fair to give a share of the blame to Amazon.

This is a manufacturer issue. This has nothing to do with Amazon.

Amazon is the company selling the product. Every brick and mortar store is expected to not sell defective goods, why should Amazon be exempt?

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