> In practice, this means that I often need to skip past amazon entirely and go straight to the product manufacturer, sometimes paying more, just to be sure I'm not being screwed.
You're not the only one. Depending on the item and it's use I would probably pay upwards of a 20% premium just so I know there's a far less chance of the received item being fraudulent.
Pandemic aside, these issues also have made me much more likely in the last 4 to 5 years to purposefully go shopping in-person at stores since they seem to have a higher chance of having a proper supply chain established.
You're not the only one. Depending on the item and it's use I would probably pay upwards of a 20% premium just so I know there's a far less chance of the received item being fraudulent.
Pandemic aside, these issues also have made me much more likely in the last 4 to 5 years to purposefully go shopping in-person at stores since they seem to have a higher chance of having a proper supply chain established.