PSA Amazon selling fake Ernie Balls

euan

Never mind already explain

Philly_Q

TTony said:

Lestratcaster said:

I never ever buy strings (or any music gear for that matter) from Amazon. Full of fakes and dodgy sellers.

I get my strings from StringsDirect too. Yes its retail price (or maybe a little cheaper) and not as cheap cheap as Ebay/Amazon but I know I'm getting the genuine goods and I want to support the smaller UK businesses.

I've said the same, many times.

Amazon is pot luck for the reason that @darthed1981 stated.  Sometimes you'll be fine, othertimes you won't be, but then that's the chance you take with many things when price is the main purchase-driver.

Personally, I'm fed up with Amazon being flooded with cheap "branded" Chinese stuff for many items nowadays.  I don't want cheap, I want good and reliable/proven, and so I place some value on buying some things from a recognised brand.  Lots of that Chinese stuff is now "branded", but they're nonsensical here-today, gone-later-today "brands" that have absolutely zero value.

It's become a re-formatted AliExpress.

I think Amazon's become very much like eBay, except on eBay, if you're lucky, you can search around and find a seller with pictures of the actual item and you can get a feel for whether both item and seller are "genuine".  eBay's got a better search function, as well.  Amazon's one big advantage, though, is speed of delivery.

kossofffan

Heard this so many times now. I always buy strings from my local guitar shop. They appreciate it & I know my purchase is genuine!

GoFish

I've been calling em "AliExpress-on-Thames" for a while now.

Offset

Strings Direct all the way for me these days.

donbot

I figured I used to manage perfectly well without Amazon, didn’t like the idea of supporting them by using Prime or any other of their services. I can manage without same or next day delivery thanks. 

Deleted my account a year so so back. Haven’t missed it at all to be honest. 

guitarjack66

Rusty Strings is Billy's red headed younger brother.

allen

I have recently found out that D'Addarios have a code in them that you can put into the website. I am assuming that this means you can check authenticity.

Have also just tried these chaps for strings and they had the best price by miles - although did take a week to arrive from Holland.

https://lordofthestrings.com/en

Barnezy

I always worry about this on Amazon now. A lot of stuff on there is fake. Well spotted and thanks! 

Dave_Mc

I used to assume you were safe if it were sold by Amazon, but as @darthed1981 said, that doesn't seem to apply any more.  Thanks for the heads-up @grungebob ;

strtdv

Did you buy them through the Ernie Ball store on Amazon? I always use them and so far seem to have been lucky. 

idiotwindow

Dave_Mc said:

I used to assume you were safe if it were sold by Amazon, but as @darthed1981 said, that doesn't seem to apply any more.  Thanks for the heads-up @grungebob ;

It hasn't been the case for many years and I have mentioned it here many times. Amazon's policy of commingling (to use the jargon) means that buying any branded items that are often faked (like batteries, SD cards, Apple accessories and guitar strings) is a crapshoot.

ToneControl

I'm glad I use Elixir, it's easy to look with a magnifying glass on the thickest strings, you can easily see the coating

Voxman

grungebob said:

So I don’t normally buy my strings from Amazon but I was short on basket total to get free shipping and did need a pack so looked about and found some Hybrids Slinky’s sold and distributed by Amazon themselves so thought they’d be legit. 

Nope. 

 Sticker on the back from some dodgy place 

No product code printed inside

Badly cut/trimmed packaging

 Hard to tell from a photo but the paper packets and printed ink isn’t typical EB quality plus the strings are heavily tarnished inside

Amazon refunded but didn’t care. They wanted me to send them back but it’s an offence to knowingly post counterfeit items in the U.K. so they told me to dispose of them once I’d informed them of such. 

I asked Ernie Balls U.K. distributor to confirm as fake, and they are. The APEKS company is a known seller of fake products.  

Just be careful out there people. 

Had a similar issue on EB strings with Ebay last year, who wouldn't refund unless I returned strings (which I refused to do as these would go straight back into circulation) but referred me to PayPal. Went through PayPal and similar problems. In the end after a lot of faffing I got a good will refund from PayPal but it was hard work.

There needs to be a better process for gaining refunds on counterfeit items and Amazon, Ebay. PayPal all need to collaborate to sort this.

EB counterfeits are rife and a plague, but although I wrote to EB suggesting they add security check codes like Daddario, they simply weren't intrrested. Its another reason I tend to stick with Daddario plus I get points to exchange for things such as more strings, a tuner, a slide etc. and I've benefitted from receiving all of these free. Plus Daddario customer service is really good. 

Daddario fakes are probably still out there of course, but these are much less common because of the codes and because Daddario will take action. 
 

Offset

ToneControl said:

I'm glad I use Elixir, it's easy to look with a magnifying glass on the thickest strings, you can easily see the coating

I purchased a set of Nanoweb and a set of Optiweb to try out.  I'm about to fit a set to a guitar - what's the difference between the two??? 

Switch625

Have bought some Rotosounds from Amazon when they were on offer in the past. Wonder if they get counterfeited too?

euan

I randomly got a refund from Amazon for the last three pack of Rotosounds I ordered from there.

crunchman

allen said:

I have recently found out that D'Addarios have a code in them that you can put into the website. I am assuming that this means you can check authenticity.

Have also just tried these chaps for strings and they had the best price by miles - although did take a week to arrive from Holland.

https://lordofthestrings.com/en

Yes, it will tell you if they are fake, unless the counterfeiters have found a way to break the numbering system.

You can also get goodies from the loyalty points.

I got one of these through the door on Saturday:

Creed_Clicks

I've seen clones of the Walrus Audio stuff on Ali Express for half the price. Bad knockoffs, or all coming from the same factory?

Blueingreen

To put things in perspective, I've bought nearly all my strings from Amazon for many years without any issues.