For a brief time this year, Amazon's bestselling "bitter lemon drink" was "Release Energy," which consisted of the harvested urine of Amazon delivery drivers, rebottled for sale by #CatfishUK prankster #OobahButler in a stunt for a new #Channel4 doc, "#TheGreatAmazonHeist":
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-amazon-heist
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/20/release-energy/#the-bitterest-lemon
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@pluralistic I woke up to the real danger posed by counterfeits on Amazon during the run up to the total solar eclipse in Aug. 2017, when apparently unsafe glasses were being sold there.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/amazon-recalls-potentially-hazardous-solar-eclipse-glasses
Amazon is not only seemingly overrun with counterfeit products with fake reviews, but they allegedly commingle inventory from different sellers who are using "Fulfillment By Amazon" (FBA) if they are ostensibly selling the same product; this would mean that you could receive a counterfeit product from seller B even when you bought from the listing of legitimate seller A if they both use FBA. After I came to understand this, I started telling anyone who would listen not to buy any product from Amazon where safety might be an issue (which it really a whole lot of products when you include things like electrical/fire safety).
@internic @pluralistic that is absolutely my rule when buying from Amazon. What is the outcome when they send me the wrong product. The results are I generally buy much less from them.
@skotchygut Yeah, though one particularly vexing thing is when a vendor's official store *is* an Amazon storefront. I've had this happen a couple of times, most recently when I was buying an SSD for my laptop.
@internic that’s the only time I use them. I hate myself for it but it’s not like I’ve a choice