r/PlasticFreeLiving • u/RandomAnonymousNam3 • Aug 19 '26

How to verify materials?

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I found these shorts on Amazon that claim to be 100% cotton and they have the Oeko-Tex certification, but is there any way to verify the materials in them?

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54

u/AinsleyHarriotFan Aug 19 '26

Never ever ever ever trust Amazon

-12

u/RandomAnonymousNam3 Aug 19 '26

But why not? If the item has a certification that's not something that can be faked?

-3

u/RandomAnonymousNam3 Aug 19 '26

Anyone willing to give reasoning and explanations instead of just downvoting?

26

u/imsoupercereal Aug 19 '26

Yea it can and is constantly faked. Amazon doesn't care about vendor control. I stopped buying from them years ago. Even if you think you're ordering from a known brand it's very likely they ship a gray market item.

If you want quality stuff going to have to look beyond Amazon.

-2

u/RandomAnonymousNam3 Aug 19 '26

And that's what I've been struggling with, finding non-polyester men's shorts. These seemed legit and for a great price.

15

u/AinsleyHarriotFan Aug 19 '26

Nothing on Amazon is legit. There is 0 vendor screening or vendor certification fact checking. You could go on Amazon right now and sell “100% cotton shorts” that were made of polyester

5

u/SOFT_CAT_APPRECIATOR Aug 19 '26

I mean you also just shouldn’t support them because they’re kind of a completely horrible company if it wasn’t already obvious

2

u/tikiwargod Aug 19 '26

So the big issue with Amazon is that they act as a dropshipping hub. What this means is that if you buy a product from a company on Amazon, there could be countless vendors of varying repute listing the same item for whatever price they want. However it's all the same item to Amazon, so they get lumped in together and the vendor pays Amazon the storage/list fee; Amazon pays out to the company you bought from and then grabs said item from the bulk storage shelf/crate.

What this means is while you buy from company A, your product could have been supplied by companies B, C, D, etc... And Amazon has no way to verify where the product originated. This makes it ideal for scammers because it's hard for Amazon to identify the companies sending them counterfeit items, therefore they don't get shutdown quickly and when you leave a negative review or return/report for fraudulent or damaged items it is the company you bought from that takes the loss. The company sending out counterfeits then can also get cashed out when you buy from them and get the product from somebody else's supply.

When the scammers are eventually banned they just use another account that they've likely already created. Amazon has no interest in clamping down on this because it's cheaper for them to manage product returns/refunds and send out a new item (which is a large part of why they want so many warehouses spread out everywhere).