
I Spent $925 on a Fake Canada Goose Coat - cr1895
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/counterfeit-canada-goose-amazon/581041/
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elcomet
Are Canada Goose coats really worth it in the first place ?

I don't own one, but it seems to me that they are very expensive due to
marketing and being trendy, but that you could get the same quality or better
for much less.

~~~
ghaff
"Much less"? Not so sure. Good winter coats aren't cheap even when there isn't
obvious branding. In any case, most clothing has both fashion and utilitarian
aspects.

A friend of mine bought a coat from what is probably Canada Goose's main
competitor in their Montreal factory store. It was expensive, even on sale,
but it was also a very nice cold weather coat that fit well--in addition to
looking good.

~~~
joshlemer
Which competitor is that?

~~~
scottlocklin
Eddie Bauer, Patagonia, LL Bean, REI all make down jackets which are arguably
just as good and are half to a quarter the price.

I always thought down was groace and sweaty myself. Even in super cold
weather. Easier to adjust things using layers.

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Traster
Here's a pro-tip for the apparently uninformed journalist: When you spent
$1000 dollar on a fake coat and realized you were being conned the correct
thing to do was NOT to go back to the same retailer to buy your next coat! I
mean, really? If that's how you behave there's only so much sympathy you
deserve.

~~~
hoaw
Yes, really. It is essentially downside protection. If you find yourself in a
uncertain situation, it is a reasonable strategy. She now already know that
Amazon can handle a refund, what to look for when buying and got a
recommendation from a friend for a jacket. Could she have walked into a
physical store instead? Probably, but at this point she probably didn't want
to buy an expensive jacket anymore which is also reasonable. You are the one
not thinking.

I'll give you a different example. Say you are in a foreign city and you use
Uber. After a while you have a bad experience. Say, the driver insists you pay
something which should have beem included. You contact Uber and you get a
refund. So what is the resonable choice now? A. Stay with Uber and be mindful
of paying extra fees. B. Take other taxis which might be better, or just scam
you without any recourse. For most people it would be A. Large brands win when
the market is dysfunctional.

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xfitm3
Very dramatic article. Author made a lot of assumptions, a common pitfall, and
got a fake product. She reports she received a refund. I can’t fault anyone
but the buyer here.

~~~
endorphone
If someone went on shadyripoffsite.cn and paid 1/10th the normal price for a
counterfeit product then sure, blame the buyer for not seeing red flags. But
buying a product on Amazon that claims it's by the official seller, selling at
the normal retail price of the product, should be a trustable, reasonable
exercise.

That Amazon lets anyone seemingly be anyone, even major brands, as sellers,
and lets blatant frauds continue for long periods of time, is a _serious_
problem. This isn't the buyer's fault whatsoever.

Good they got a refund, but it's nice that they shine a light on it.

~~~
alistairSH
_But buying a product on Amazon that claims it 's by the official seller_

This is the key, at least from my perspective. If I go to Amazon (or any other
online vendor) and an item is listed as being by "International Brand X", I
expect that the item is, in fact, being sold by "International Brand X".

Amazon doesn't list the seller separate from the brand. The way the page is
lad out, it is clearly meant to indicate the manufacturer is the seller.[0]

0 - [http://oi65.tinypic.com/30t2ykm.jpg](http://oi65.tinypic.com/30t2ykm.jpg)

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lunchladydoris
The first time I heard of Canada Goose was when I saw the Top Gear trio make
their way to the North Pole in that red Toyota. Not long after I started
noticing them more and more, and then recently they exploded. I wonder how
much the Top Gear guys had to do with getting the ball rolling.

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criddell
> He reports that his team has also identified about 12,000 merchant accounts
> linked to four banks in China, one of which just lost its Visa privileges
> permanently.

Only one and only Visa?

If you buy a counterfeit product through Amazon and then do a credit card
chargeback, does that hit Amazon or the seller?

~~~
freeone3000
It hits Amazon, because Amazon charged your card. There's no way to tell who
Amazon gave your money to.

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jccalhoun
Terribly overwritten article. The author bought a coat on Amazon. It was a
fake. Got a refund. Amazon has a problem with fakes but this is not a very
insightful article about the problem.

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_asummers
So she blames Canada Goose because Amazon doesn't have proper quality controls
around the vendors, then proceeds to buy another coat from Amazon (of course!)
as a point of bragging?

~~~
cr1895
>So she blames Canada Goose

What gave you that impression?

~~~
_asummers
The author chose to buy a coat from a different company and use their platform
to encourage others to do the same. Buying a different coat is a totally
reasonable choice, but had they bought from an authorized retailer, then this
article would have had a much different conclusion. The fake vendor is
obviously the bad actor here, but Amazon facilitated them, and Amazon is
rewarded at the end with another purchase. The only party here that did not
benefit is Canada Goose.

~~~
claudiulodro
The author was unable to purchase a coat from Canada Goose so she went to
Amazon. I assume by the time the whole ordeal was sorted it was still not
possible to purchase a coat from the Canada Goose site. It's hard to support
the company when they are sold out on their site . . .

~~~
_asummers
There's 23 authorized retailers in New York according to Canada Goose's
website. While it's possible they were all sold out, that seems unlikely to
me, especially since some of those retailers include large companies like
Bloomingdales with warehouses of their own and websites accordingly. They
could have walked into any of the 23 and purchased one physically. If they
wanted one, they could have gotten one, above board. The real thing that
happened here is the author had buyer's remorse and had the opportunity to
rectify the situation, and while that's completely fine, this article should
be much more indicting of Amazon than it is as they're really the culprit for
this author's problem.

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virtuexru
Buying a Canada Goose jacket off Amazon... what could go wrong!? They have
authorized retailers on their website for a reason. :)

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deytempo
Wouldn’t owning one violate the migratory bird act?

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manjana
Why are these articles in HN feed? Feed used to be great but there have been a
lot of irrelevant content for the last month it seems to me?

~~~
martin_a
Can I vote stuff like this (the article) down? Do I need a specific amount of
points for that?

~~~
grzm
Submissions can be upvoted or flagged. There's no separate downvoting for
submissions. I believe the karma threshold for flagging submissions is 31.

[https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-
undocumented#flaggi...](https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-
undocumented#flaggingvouching)

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nradov
Duplicate

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18989132](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18989132)

~~~
NeedMoreTea
Not very useful. No discussion and no traction over there, whereas this made
the front page and is attracting comments.

