The Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be Deadly to your Health and Wealth

The Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be Deadly to your Health and Wealth!

Not all of the Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be deadly to your health, but there are many that can be, as I discovered recently.

A report by CNN shows, there have been hundreds of bad reviews of more than 70 Amazon Basics products exploding, catching fire, smoking, melting, causing electrical malfunctions, or otherwise posing safety risks.

The Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be Deadly to your Health and Wealth
Matt Citro says he sent back this charred surge protector so Amazon could investigate it He never heard anything back, but did receive a payment to cover damage to his home. (photo courtesy Matt Citro).

Are Amazon Products Safe?

Apparently, Amazon continued to sell the above product for 2 years after the event before pulling it from the market, even though complaints were still being received during that time.

The Hottest Selling Items on Amazon

Are very hot indeed.

According to CNN, ‘”Amazon shoppers have recounted frightening malfunctions and close calls in vivid detail:

A surge protector turned into “….A blowtorch,” one father recalled — saying that “flames shot out of the device, which was near his baby’s nursery, with the paint on outdoor heaters melting, and electronics malfunctioning when they are not even in use.” unquote.

This Chair caught fire after an Amazon basics USB cable was used to charge a phone resting on the chair short-circuited setting the chair alight.

Luckily the guy sleeping in the bed beside the chair woke up and removed the chair outside, where the fire brigade had arrived and extinguished the flames. He was taken to hospital with minor burns. Photos (Courtesy Wethersfield Fire Marshal’s Office).

The Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be Deadly to your Health and Wealth

CNN has released video showing numerous faulty products that caught fire, exploded, or otherwise malfunctioned.

It is fairly common knowledge among online shoppers involving dozens of incidents over the years with products that have received bad reviews.

Still, Amazon has kept the products available on their site, sometimes for years after.

Amazon Product Branding

The Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be Deadly to your health

The photo opposite is not a very good look for such a well-known worldwide brand.

At least you have to appreciate Amazon’s honesty in making the bad reviews available, instead of sweeping them under the carpet.

The company’s list of suppliers used for its various private label lines — including AmazonBasics — shows that only around 10% are in the United States and nearly half are located in China.

Amazon Sourcing

The Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be Deadly to your Health and Wealth
Teleconference.

To get the items it needs (wants), Amazon either goes straight to manufacturers that are able to meet its standards and works closely with them to create items for the Amazon Basics line.

Called White Labelling where you can list an item as your own.

The rest are mostly third-party suppliers who may have their own outside contractors to brand a product with the Amazon Basics name. Amazon has stated that it verifies that products meet the same high safety standards set by the government regardless of the business model used.

Amazon says it also works closely with manufacturers establishing product safety.

A Return to the Past.

Back in the day when all Amazon sold was books, eBay was king of the online e-commerce world. And refunds for crap products were an issue.

Not only crap products but products that never showed up or took months to show up.

It took some time, and quite a bit of consumer backlash for a purge on eBay to happen.

Considering eBay, PayPal, and credit card companies, specifically Mastercard, which were at one time linked with each other. they were too busy making money to worry about honest transactions.

Amazon moved its business model from books to basically everything that would be of interest to consumers.

Others have tried to copy with varying levels of success, and failure. Related Article Here.

Walmart operates online as well as in physical stores.

There are other firms in other countries as you would expect.

Mercadolibre (free market), in Latin America, looks like a cross between eBay and Amazon with a time payment schedule.

Amazon became popular because manufacturers could send stock to Amazon’s warehouse and Amazon would pay them before they sold.

This no longer happens.

As well (in 2020), Amazon has cut right back on Affiliate commissions as it pursues a different business model.

The Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be Deadly to your Health and Wealth
Helen Gurneva Drop Ship Expert

Are Best Selling Items Online any More Dangerous than Items in Brick and Mortar Stores?

If you have been considering starting your own drop ship store, research into electronic goods shows they have a greater tendency for chargebacks than other products due to component complexities, and trying to be compatible with foreign electrical grids.

Walk into any roadhouse or electronic store and you will see packets of these and similar items for sale.

They are inexpensive and are usually the same item you can buy on Amazon or eBay or some dropship store.

Price wise there is probably no great variation between any outlet.

The thing is… If they are burning out on Amazon they are likely burning out whether you bought one from Amazon, eBay, or from a Brick and Mortar store.

The Best Selling Items on Amazon Basics can be Deadly to your Health and Wealth

Is Selling Electronics Viable for a Solo Entrepreneur?

It depends on the time frame for product returns I guess.

Faults don’t always appear in the first use of a product.

However, the main problem is “Chargebacks” which remove profit and create more costs and work.

You need to build or keep a good reputation for your store.

Insurance is one way to overcome the problem.

A careful selection of manufacturers is the best place to start.

Working with suppliers and establishing good relationships with them is going to help you immensely and this often opens up additional income opportunities.

Click Here to get started dropshipping.

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