So, I was browsing around the Internet today and realized that the price for the Hitachi Hada Crie Cool N2000 that I've been eyeing has dropped substantially. It used to cost $400 USD but now the cost is around $200 USD. I thought that this would be a good time to get my hands on one.
I did some research and was about to purchase one from Amazon. But seeing how everything has a fake selling for much cheaper, I decided to browse around the net just to be safe.
It worried me that even though the items were on Amazon, the orders were fulfilled by 3rd party suppliers.
My first stop was Taobao. I found a version retailing for around $75SGD. This is really at a fraction of the price you pay if you buy in actual legitimate brick-and-mortar shops.
The link can be found here:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.35.fUBeZq&id=44063964057&ns=1&abbucket=8#detail
If you look at the page, the seller actually has really high ratings and is a blue crown seller. The customer reviews numbers at 600+ while the number of sales numbers at 900+. The customer review photos shows the device working as well, achieving the same effects that the Hitachi Hada Crie is supposed to do.
But the price really makes me doubt its authenticity.
Why so skeptical, you may say.
Because I found imitates that looks EXACTLY like the real thing on aliexpress.com and dhgate.com, but the cheapest is actually going for around USD50 only.
I know they are fakes because while the pictures show exactly the same thing, they are manufactured in China while the real thing is manufactured in Japan. But on the product itself, the sticker actually says that it is from Japan. So even the "Made in Japan" sticker is faked.
I decided to check with Amazon just in case.
I can hear people going like "but things on Amazon can't be fake right?"
That's where you are wrong, even Wall Street Journal has reported incidents where the goods that came out from the Amazon warehouse were fakes.
Here is a tl,dr excerpt for the article.
" the Seattle-based giant has allowed many to pool their inventory with supposedly identical items supplied by other sellers—in essence commingling products from third-party merchants with those supplied directly to Amazon by the brands themselves.
In other words, a product ordered from a third-party seller may not have originated from that particular seller. If the bar code matches, any one that is on the shelf will do."
I thought that as long as they can confirm/guarantee the authenticity of the product, I'll go ahead with the purchase. But it led me to my biggest headache.
Because the customer service has been outsourced, half the time they couldn't understand what I was talking about.
They kept saying things like if you have problem you can send it back, but that wasn't what I was asking! I was merely asking if there is a guarantee on the authenticity of the thing. The fakes are now so advanced that everything looks the same, and if I'm going to use that ON MY FACE, I don't want to wait till there is a problem to know that it is not the real thing.
So I talked to like, 10 different CSOs because they kept transferring me left, right and centre. Their English was so horrible that I had to guess what they were saying and one of them outright told me they couldn't understand me.
Below is a part of whole lot longer conversation that I had.
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Me:
Jagadeesh:
Me:
Jagadeesh:
Shaneil:
Me:
Shaneil:
Me:
Shaneil:
Me:
Shaneil:
Me:
Shaneil:
Me:
Shaneil:
Me:
Jayvee:
Me:
Loudis:
Me:
Loudis:
Me:
Loudis:
Me:
Loudis:
Me:
Loudis:
Yeah, I know I don't sound too friendly either, but I was really fed up by this point because no one seemed to be able to confirm anything with me.
Honestly, it really scares me to think that Amazon has no idea if they are selling authentic stuff or not, and they base the authenticity of products on "good customer feedback" and the ability to "return the product if there is any problems".
So my final verdict after this long, lengthy post?
I think I will wait till I go to Japan, or have a trustworthy friend in Japan who can help me, before I purchase this.
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