Anecdote time. Last year I bought an Anker power brick via Amazon, using the link on Anker's own website. When it arrived, instead of Anker's normal well-designed retail packaging, the brick was simply wrapped in bubble wrap, with a printed label stating that it was "new" and thrown into its shipping box. I inquired with Anker support about this, but they could only say that all their products they send to Amazon for distribution are in retail packaging. I did confirm that the item was purchased through the AnkerDirect seller, so I can only guess that it was either a returned item or that the retail packaging had been damaged, and someone at the Amazon warehouse repackaged it and put it back in the "new" bin. I ended up returning it for a refund. My trust of Amazon as a retail platform has been steadily eroding over the past few years, and this was just another reason to shop elsewhere.
Amazon commingles inventory, so if there were any other sellers of the item, you get an item from a random seller, not necessarily an item that was provided by the seller you purchased from.
Since a counterfeit power supply can kill you (a British study showed out of 400 tested chargers, 398 could not safely handle power surges), this is literally a life-and-death issue.
The thing is, the commingled stickerless inventory program is only supposed to apply to items sold by Amazon, not to third parties like AnkerDirect, so the hypothesis it's fulfilled-by-Amazon that screwed the pooch is more likely.
Amazon should require certification from a safety lab like UL or CE before allowing any seller to sell inventory. And they should also require sellers of these products to post a bond or provide proof of liability insurance before allowing them to list these items.
That would cut down on the number of shitty dangerous power suppliers they're selling.
Unfortunately CE is self-certified. In theory the vendor is liable if their product doesn't comply with the requirements, but good luck sueing some Alibaba reseller from Shezhen.
Certifications from UL or similar labs are much better, but many producers don't hesitate to also fake the UL logo on their fake products.
Right. I looked this morning, and AnkerDirect claims to be "...the sole authorized seller of authentic Anker products (other than Amazon) on the Amazon platform." I don't recall if this was true back at the time I bought the power brick, but I suspect it was.
Anecdote time. Last year I bought an Anker power brick via Amazon, using the link on Anker's own website. When it arrived, instead of Anker's normal well-designed retail packaging, the brick was simply wrapped in bubble wrap, with a printed label stating that it was "new" and thrown into its shipping box. I inquired with Anker support about this, but they could only say that all their products they send to Amazon for distribution are in retail packaging. I did confirm that the item was purchased through the AnkerDirect seller, so I can only guess that it was either a returned item or that the retail packaging had been damaged, and someone at the Amazon warehouse repackaged it and put it back in the "new" bin. I ended up returning it for a refund. My trust of Amazon as a retail platform has been steadily eroding over the past few years, and this was just another reason to shop elsewhere.