Second Update - Amazon just notified me that they will not allow me to post a review stating that the strings they sold me were counterfeit. Probably shouldn't be surprised, eh?
I hope Don Dawson and George from D'Addario are all over this...
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I tagged amazon last night on Facebook and Twitter and called them out for selling counterfeit strings. Doubt it'll do any good but better than taking no action.
Really, the best thing that can be done short of forcing them into action is the proper titling of this thread.
Counterfeit D'Addario Strings from Amazon
That's not a title you want in your Google search results.
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its not any strings in the packet? or just not the brand it claims to be?
If all you got was the wrapper , then it would be ..Fraud?
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That tag on the front of the strings is used for third party FBA. Amazon doesn't add additional barcodes to the inventory. This should be from a third party seller. It does not have a unique "FNSKU". An FNSKU is used to track an individual sellers inventory. This says it was most likely commingled inventory. Amazon does have some ability to track commingled as well, but it might take more than a few reports. I don't believe Amazon mixes their inventory with third party commingled. If it did in fact come from Amazon themselves (note, third party FBA would be sold and shipped by Amazon and is Prime eligible), then they are purchasing from unauthorized suppliers. I doubt that is the case though.
Amazon will act swiftly if it gets reports of counterfeit. Anyone receiving something like this, should report the seller. It is a big problem. I have received several counterfeit things over the years. Never directly from Amazon though.
If someone were to publicly "out" the seller anytime they received counterfeit products, a few people could order and report the counterfeit and get them shutdown within a few days. Not just the one item, but their entire account.
Granted, they are not always guilty, with commingled inventory and the fact that amazon sometimes replaces a seller's lost inventory with that from another seller. So it is not always that the seller did anything wrong. Use Amazon with caution.
Don,
Have you considered getting D'Addario added to the restricted brand list at Amazon?
Robert Fear
http://www.folkmusician.com
"Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
" - Pete Seeger
Well a while back when this was an issue, I got some bad packs. The A string on one set and the E string on another two sets, broke when first brought up to tension, or soon after.
On real close inspection with a loop I noticed small flattened out sections on the strings, like they had been hammered with a small screw driver.
My retailer (bricks and morter) replaced the strings, and mentioned about the counterfeit problem.
Now that is something I have been wondering about. How are US based brick and mortar shops ending up with counterfeits? Most shops would be ordering directly from D'Addario or maybe one of the large authorized wholesalers.My retailer (bricks and morter) replaced the strings, and mentioned about the counterfeit problem.
Robert Fear
http://www.folkmusician.com
"Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
" - Pete Seeger
I don't know. I have had no problems since, so whatever it was has been corrected. It was a while back, and I still purchase most of my strings from him.
My view is that there will always be problems, so I don't use "lack of problems" as the most important criteria. More important to me is how they deal with me in resolving the problems
I've sent this thread over to our team that works with Amazon. I'm sure that there will more more internal discussion in this regard. Jeff - we've not heard of a US dealer selling Counterfeit product so far. We have heard from other countries where this has occurred but not in the States. Would you mind sharing the name of the dealer? You can email it to me if you'd prefer - don.dawson@daddario.com
Don Dawson
D'Addario Team Member
There are a number of hard working and dedicated online and brick and mortar retailers who sell mandolins, guitars and all kinds of accessories. They often take risks carrying arcane inventory and bend over backwards for their customers like you and me. Many, possibly most of them, offer competitive pricing. These retailers rely on us to support their niche businesses.
Amazon is the Walmart of the Internet. In fact, they are challenging Walmart's very existence. When they have driven their competitors out of business they will make practical business decisions based on profitability that will include volume sales to determine what remains in their inventory. You may all find your choices reduced to taking what they send you or doing without.
Jim Nikora
They were doing it in 2010 and they are still doing it? If so, its not just an accident.
Its not just bad customer service. Its called fraud. And if its mailed by US postal, it might be a felony.
No matter where I go, there I am...Unless I'm running a little late.
https://maestronet.com/forum/index.p...ngs-on-amazon/
This is what comes up on first page of Google search for "Counterfeit D'Addario strings."
As if there weren't already enough to worry about... Here the cellist thought the string was high quality but package printing left him doubtful about authenticity.
Did OP open the packs from China to examine the strings? Probably not, since was returning for replacement or refund.
Add "at Amazon" to your search and this thread at top, and also this product review from Feb 4 by Cody comes up:
https://www.amazon.com/DAddario-EJ16...S?pageNumber=2
He got burned on several 3-pack orders and has a tip about checking the Players Club number.
I too order from JustStrings or StringsandBeyond; I find their stock does not entirely overlap, GHS A270 or A275 for instance.
A quick update - after speaking with our Amazon team, they asked if I could inform you that they are working with Amazon and are aggressively seeking a working solution. Please make sure you ask for a refund from Amazon should you encounter this. We now have EJ16 gated, which means that 3rd party sellers cannot come onto the platform and sell this item unrestricted.
Someone else had posted this PDF which helps identify counterfeit strings. Another way is to use our Play Real site. Unfortunately, you have to open the package to get to the code to do this but it is can a simple way to verify if you've received fake strings - www.daddario.com/PLAYREAL - if i can be of any additional assistance, please don't hesitate.
Don Dawson
D'Addario Team Member
Hi Mike - Maybe i wasn't too clear in my post re. 'counterfeit' strings. D'Addario strings are made in the USA. So - if a Chinese counterfeiter wished to pass off the strings as 'genuine' D'Addario strings - why put 'made in China' on them,& how did they end up in what seems to be a genuine D'Addario packet. I fully understand that items from 'abroad' have to state the country of origin on them,but as D'Addario strings are made in the USA - why put 'China' ?.
Don - I posted the the link to the ''play real'' string checker. I've had that on my PC for a few years now - invaluable !,
Ivan
Weber F-5 'Fern'.
Lebeda F-5 "Special".
Stelling Bellflower BANJO
Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.
I didn’t know fakes were out there. I got 2 packs for Xmas 2 months ago as a gift and they got them from Amazon.
I will check them this weekend, too bad I will likely have zero recourse (if fake)as it was a gift.
Re-gift them to someone you don't like.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Ivan, that's what I was answering. Those fake strings are made in China. When they ship them in if they are checked they have to have Made in China on them. That's why it's there. If they weren't fearing a customs check they wouldn't put the country of origin there. These people aren't smuggling, they appear to the customs agent as a legit importer of a product. They are asked to open a case or two and show that the boxes are marked with the country of origin. Then they are allowed to go into the market.
In other words, If a customs agent opens the box and it doesn't say Made in China on the inside packages US Customs just seizes the product. By having the Made in China there they at least get through that step.
Last edited by MikeEdgerton; Feb-23-2018 at 4:12pm.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Most products aren`t made by Amazon, they just act an agent between the buyers and the sellers so when they get an order for strings they just pass it on who ever they use as a supplier, most likely not directly from D`Addario or one of the other popular string suppliers...
Robert Fear
http://www.folkmusician.com
"Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
" - Pete Seeger
Mike - You seem to have missed my point again !. Why put China on something that you're trying to pass off as American ?. Genuine D'Addario strings are made in the USA - so why would they need to go through customs ?. Why would a Chinese import appear ''genuine'' if the actual 'genuine' product is US made - or don't the US customs know that ?. I'm supposing here that the string packs do say ''D'Addario'' on them ?.
The whole point in counterfeit 'anythings' is that they appear 100% 'genuine',& putting China on a supposedly US made product is ridiculous.
Maybe we're at cross purposes here - but 'CHINA' should have rung the bells loud & clear for anyone inspecting the items - if they had any understanding of what they're looking for !,
Ivan
Weber F-5 'Fern'.
Lebeda F-5 "Special".
Stelling Bellflower BANJO
Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.
One of my Amazon reviews a few years ago got deleted, same reason.
Good idea but hard to do when reviews sometimes (not always) disappear if they mention certain taboo subjects.
Not sure but I can tell you of one small mom-n-pop local music store a few years back.
They didn't have the item I wanted in stock, but they offered to order a brand-new one for me - from Amazon. I thought, well, why not, they're pro's, they know what they're doing, and the price was really good. I don't know which reseller it was, at the time I didn't think it necessary to ask.
Never did receive the item, I waited patiently, 2 months went by, the store told me there had been a "problem" with the seller and that they'd had to reorder from someone else. Hmm. I wasn't in any hurry so the time factor didn't bother me, no problem, but I was a little mystified why an ordinary item could be so elusive. I know it wasn't anything personal because I'd been buying stuff at that store for years (off the shelf, stuff they had in stock) and they'd always treated me good. After a few more weeks we mutually agreed that it would be best to just cancel the order. It was *not* one of those things where someone's holding onto your money for interest or whatever, I hadn't paid them yet, the local store preferred to have the customer pay when the item was picked up, rather than when it was ordered.
Point being, just because it's a brick-and-mortar store, doesn't automatically guarantee they don't buy stuff from Amazon or Amazon resellers or whatever. Thus, possible potential for counterfeits, commingled inventory etc.
The whole commingled inventory thing just boggles the mind. Did some marketing 'genius' think, "What could possibly go wrong?" It certainly doesn't inspire my trust or confidence as a buyer, and while I've never sold on Amazon I can only imagine that inventory commingling creates stress and worry for honest resellers as well.
Wish Amazon would find some way to fix that, because there are many other things that are good about Amazon - such as, larger selection of products to choose from.
I think that started getting reversed last year when Walmart stepped up its game in the online-sales arena.
Walmart is now trying to challenge Amazon's very existence. Walmart online has lots more items available that what they used to have (I'm referring *only* to items shipped and sold by Walmart itself, *not* the 3rd-party resellers - I'd personally steer clear of those), free 2-day shipping on zillions of things (no 'prime' required), seems they're definitely making a play to lure away Amazon customers. Walmart still doesn't have very many mandolins though.
I've made a number of orders from Amazon over the years (things that are unavailable locally), and more recently starting seeing what Walmart has to offer as far as convenient order-online & ship-to-home items (again mostly stuff that none of the local stores carry). I do believe that if Walmart continues to play its cards right, Amazon could face some serious competition in online sales.
I have not heard/read that Walmart commingles inventory, although they might and maybe I just am not aware of it.
Thanks for the reminder especially about "JustStrings" and "Strings & Beyond", I'd actually never heard of either of those until seeing them here at the Cafe. They seem to get good reviews so I might try them next time. Of course I'd heard of Elderly but didn't realize they sold strings too. Good to have these options.
Ivan, the point is that the customs agents do not know that D'Addario strings are not made in China. There could be a factory in China making mandolins labeled as "Ellis" and the customs agents would only be checking for all the forms being filled out, no ivory or other banned materials, and that the product was properly labeled as being made in China. Absolutely true that the buyer of a fake set of strings or even a fake Ellis should be alarmed if the package says made in China, but at least the crooks can get the product into the country by getting it past customs inspectors. You made the right statement yourself about the customs inspectors- "if they had any understanding of what they're looking for" - they don't look for all they maybe should, only certain things, and they do not understand that D'Addario strings are not made in China.
John Liestman -
Eye new ewe wood lye kit!
Ivan, I think you've answered your own question there.
My guess is, that whatever customs official happened to be opening boxes that day, probably didn't know/remember that that product is supposed to be U.S. made.
In fact, I didn't even know that, until reading this thread.
U.S.-made things seem to be so rare nowadays that who would even suspect a popular brand would be made in the U.S.? 'Everything' is made elsewhere these days, to be honest I'm quite frankly very surprised on the rare occasions when I see "Made in the USA" on some label (and I live in the U.S.). You just don't see that very much anymore.
The customs employees are (maybe?? - purely unfounded speculation follows) not able to remember every little detail about every company, and maybe unless something jumps out at them as being 'odd' somehow, they wouldn't notice. I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of boxes they have to open on each day's work? It probably becomes a blur after a while.
In this case, they *know* the item's coming from China, so it jolly well better have that "Made in China" sticker on it, right? Good enough. Who would suspect that an average-looking item was supposed to be made in the U.S. ....
EDIT:
Oops, I was writing this while liestman was posting.
It's simple Ivan, as has been pointed out to you by me and others, if they don't put Made in China on them they will never clear US Customs. That's the third time I've said that. Yes they are counterfeit. The Customs agent won't know that. He or she is simply looking to make sure it meets the requirement of the law and any product imported into the US has to have the country of origin on it. If they don't put it on , and I'll say it again, Customs would seize them. You can't sell your counterfeit product if you can't get it into the country where you want to sell it. I have no idea if the UK or any other country has a similar law. I assume they do. I haven't missed what you were saying you've failed to understand the answer.Mike - You seem to have missed my point again !. Why put China on something that you're trying to pass off as American ?.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
As Mike said, it is required to get through customs.. These are being shipped to the Amazon warehouse, directly from China. This makes it easy to catch. The bigger problem comes, when there is an intermediate warehouse/individual, etc. here in the USA to receive them. Once in the USA, the tiny made in China sticker is remover, or they were bulk packed and maybe just a sticker on the box of 12. It is very common for Amazon sellers to send inventory to Amazon direct from China. The fact that someone smart enough to setup the account and products, source or make the inventory and export it over, didn't even think the China sticker was an issue is crazy. Different culture, different values.Why put China on something that you're trying to pass off as American ?
Sounds like the product was being fulfilled directly from China. This was a major issue for a while. Amazon still allows it, but it is becoming less common due to upset customers. Not that the sellers care, but customers getting refunded and or the seller gets suspended from amazon, resulting in fewer sellers doing this.Never did receive the item, I waited patiently, 2 months went by, the store told me there had been a "problem" with the seller and that they'd had to reorder from someone else.
Commingled isn't real common, and this is precisely why. Any legit seller learns their lesson real quick! Honest sellers get counterfeit claims against them. Sellers doing commingled are typically new and don't realize, or not on the up and up. There wouldn't be many exceptions.
Now the Inventory replacement policy is where otherwise good sellers end up getting accused of counterfeit. This is rare and only has a particular circumstance. When a seller's inventory is lost, either at the warehouse or in shipping, the seller is reimbursed. If that inventory is later found, Amazon uses it to replace other sellers lost inventory. This appears to be the only time it happens. Unless watching all the reports daily, the sellers never know. Since it only happens in the above situation, it is a small percentage. It does happen though
Walmart is a bit different. As of now, they are not warehousing or fulfilling third party orders for sellers. When you order from a third party on Walmart, it is shipped directly from the seller. This makes it ripe for the same problems Amazon is dealing with. Actually worse.
Here is the reality check. An honest seller will not be profitable item Amazon sells. The third party fees are massive, and the warehouse fees per sq. ft. of storage increase the longer the item is in the Amazon warehouse. Amazon's repricing is instant. If you lower your price to get sales, they will instantly lower theirs. Per amazon Policy, they do not even have to beat your price. They can run a small percentage above the third party and still retain the buy box.
Any seller than sends inventory into Amazon for items Amazon also sells, will most likely lose money (a lot). Sellers may be trying to liquidate inventory or just be testing the waters, but it is not sustainable. This alone is the HUGE red flag. If a seller is using this as a business model, selling something like strings via Amazon FBA (FBA means Amazon warehouses the inventory), and listing the same products Amazon is selling, use extreme caution.
Believe me, if dealers could simply order D'Addario strings and send them to Amazon to be fulfilled at a profit, they would be doing it. It isn't feasible.
As of now, buying from third party sellers on Amazon, eBay, and any other platform that allows third party sellers, is not going to be the safest place to shop for these types of products. The fees are too high for legit sellers to succeed.
Robert Fear
http://www.folkmusician.com
"Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
" - Pete Seeger
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