And that is honestly the bigger issue with Amazon. They aren’t held responsible for what they sell through their website - or what their partners provide. They will refund your money, but they don’t do adequate due diligence on products. So things get through that are complete scams, or worse, unsafe.
But when it comes to 3rd party sellers, they’re effectively acting like eBay. They [Amazon] broker the sale and, in some cases, warehouse and ship the products. If Amazon is going to vet the sellers and the products, they might as well just buy the products directly and sell them on their own. They’d make a lot more money that way. As a buyer, I have to weigh the risks of buying a third party item, which can be a PITA if there’s a problem, with the lower price or better availability.
If Amazon were to do anything WRT 3rd party sellers, I wish they’d make them easier to report. I’d like to be able to report sellers that put bribes in their packages for 5 star reviews. I’d like to be able to report sellers that have item pages that have clearly been used for multiple items over the years (or multiple different items at the same time) to get better ratings.
This is what I’m talking about.
(Edited for better article)
That just happened. The article is dated from May, so if it sticks, maybe you’ll see some changes going forward. Whether they do a better job vetting products (and/or make it more difficult for 3rd parties in the process) or just get rid of the third party program, I don’t know.
I remember when North Carolina first passed a law like this, decades ago. It’s frankly absurd. An alligator clip - used in electronics - could be used to hold a roach so it could be deemed paraphernalia. My roommate kept her weed in a Zip-loc bag. Let’s ban sandwich storage bags!
I’ve got a pill organizer in my purse. Sure, it’s just got my BP meds in it, but what if I started carrying illegally-obtained Vicodin in it? (or even legally-obtained? I think I still have a bottle of Percocet somewhere from when I had my gallbladder out in 2010…). Hell, let’s ban purses entirely! And better not even use cash - don’t coke users sometimes roll up a dollar bill to use to snort?
A friend bought a spice grinder online - intending it for culinary use. She got it cheap, and it had an amusing design on it. It wasn’t until some time later when she (and I) realized that it was likely intended to grind up other things entirely (pot, I assume…).
Years back, a friend worked part-time in a kitchen store. Every now and then they’d get shifty looking characters asking if they sold “reeeeeeealy accurate scales” (they did not, as it happened).
Last time I was in Portland, ME, we walked by a shop that appeared to have pretty blown-glass items for sale. We walked in - and, well, pretty much all their merchandise was intended for, er, tobacco. As pretty as the stuff was, we declined to make a purchase. Clearly the Feds have better things to do than shut down glassmakers.
As the link cited above shows, it is about purpose and intent. If I run an electronics supply store and have the alligator clips next to the multimeters and next to a whole bunch of other small electrical tools, then good luck, if you even want to try, proving that this is drug paraphernalia.
If I run a convenience store and I have behind the counter single use Ziploc bags, rolling papers, and also alligator clips, with nary another electronic use device around, then they probably have a good case.
But if it had a little rose clipped to it then its just a flower holder. They did this with crack pipes, put a little rose in them and sold them as novelty items.
They have a right to a fair trial. They can tell the jury that these crack pipes are flower vases and see what happens.
A jury and then an appeals court, which could overturn the verdict based upon precidence.