"Ships From And Sold By Amazon" Buyer Beware

[frozenchurchwarden]

I've been told to be weary of buying electronics from third party re-sellers on Amazon, but "Ships From And Sold By Amazon" is supposed to be a guarantee you're getting genuine product... or maybe not.

Purchased directly from Amazon, these Samsung MicroSD cards are advertised as having read-write of 200MB/s and 130MB/s, but CrystalDiskMark shows the performance is less than 1/4 of advertised speed. A manual file transfer also confirms these cards are slower than a much cheaper card I bought years ago.

At this point I don't know if my trust was broken by Amazon or Samsung.

"Buyer Beware"

 

[woodsroad]

Remember that there is a card reader in-between the card and the computer. Not all cards play well with all card readers. Either way, I'd run this past Samsung and see if the cards are genuine or not.

 

[didimauw]

Very Interesting. I usually get nervous to find out that its NOT amazon thats selling the item, ...on Amazon...

 

[shanez]

Sounds like they were made by Volkswagen....

 

[fireground_piper]

Remember that there is a card reader in-between the card and the computer. Not all cards play well with all card readers. Either way, I'd run this past Samsung and see if the cards are genuine or not.

Rule #12

 

[woodsroad]

Rule #12

Huh?

 

[fireground_piper]

Huh?

I hope he's reached out to Samsung as you suggested because of Rule #12:

12. Complaints About a Service / Product / Maker / Brand

Publicly posting a complaint about any service, product, maker, or brand is only allowed AFTER you have contacted them directly with the issue, and given them 36 hours to respond, and another 24 hours to resolve the isuue.

 

[Dave760]

Remember that there is a card reader in-between the card and the computer. Not all cards play well with all card readers. Either way, I'd run this past Samsung and see if the cards are genuine or not.

Let me add that there might also be a cable involved, and not all cables are created equal.

 

[sablebrush52]

My love of Samsung took a beating several years ago when they ran a firmware update that resulted in their DVD players going into a persistent vegetative state worldwide.
Since Samsung had no interest in continuing to manufacture DVD players they didn’t send out a fix. Instead, they offered to fix the firmware if you mailed the player to them. Turnaround was going to be glacial.
I’m not buying Samsung anything after that.

 

[canucklehead]

My love of Samsung took a beating several years ago when they ran a firmware update that resulted in their DVD players going into a persistent vegetative state worldwide.
Since Samsung had no interest in continuing to manufacture DVD players they didn’t send out a fix. Instead, they offered to fix the firmware if you mailed the player to them. Turnaround was going to be glacial.
I’m not buying Samsung anything after that.

I like Samsung phones and tablets except for their camera control software, but their home appliances are trash. Fridges, stoves, washers, dryers, all have known faults that they haven't bothered to fix and they still continue to use the same parts/systems in new models.

 

[fireground_piper]

Jesus Christ, you people are insufferable.

Indeed. People just walking around spouting off BS potentially without even making an attempt to remedy the question through actual, official channels.

Very insufferable!

 

[Peter Peachfuzz]

Do you expect Amazon to QC products of this nature?
What was the setup you used in your testing?

Almost a perfect 5 from 20k+ buyers

If you weren't satisfied..
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I ordered an Apple Charger from Amazon, and when it came, it didn't work at all. Looking closer at the logo, it actually said "Appie" and not "Apple." When I broke it open, it was just straight wired, and I was lucky it didn't destroy my phone.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Jesus Christ, you people are insufferable.

We didn't make the rules... Some of us try to follow rules.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

No different than buying them at Target - Amazon didn’t manufacture them - should be a “Prime” purchase so I assume you can return? They do have a gazillion positive reviews so easy to see why one would order with confidence.

 

[woodsroad]

Let me add that there might also be a cable involved, and not all cables are created equal.

If he's doing and A:B comparison, then the cable is a constant. I've not heard that cables perform differently with different cards.

And yes, Samsung consumer appliances are crap. Don't buy them. Our Samsung fridge ices up because there isn't a recirc fan. The compressor is noisy and runs all the time. Makes a noise like a SWAT team responding to a shooting in a boiler factory. The ice maker died a month ago and needs to be replaced,

In fact, almost ALL consumer appliances are crap these days. When out basement fridge finally died (it was an early 70's model that came with the house), I replaced it with a used commercial, glass door fridge. $400, same warranty as the new unit, 1/3 the price. A great fridge with a compressor the size of a large window air conditioner. Digital temp display, adjustable differential...built like a fridge should be built. And I can see what's in there without opening the door. I will never buy a new consumer fridge or freezer again.

We have also have a Samsung washer and dryer. The ergonomics and button culture sucks, but we haven't needed service in the seven years that we've had them. Just don't wash anything thick (like an LL Bean canvas bag), or with anything sharp (like a zipper pull). That will rip the rubber drum gasket/surround, causing the machine to leak. BTDT.

On the other hand, Samsung SSD's have been OK. I have six running in my workstation. So far, so good, but I don't trust data archiving to them. They are for production only, in a RAID config.

My IT guy checks the USB connection on the workstation​

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Remember that there is a card reader in-between the card and the computer. Not all cards play well with all card readers. Either way, I'd run this past Samsung and see if the cards are genuine or not.

Yes, to that point what really disturbed me is the performance of my old card that cost half as much:




This is a Patriot brand "A1" class card: Amazon.ca - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07S98ZVLZ
Which only guarantees IOPS to 1500 Read and 500 Write, but in the benchmark it has BETTER read speed than the "A2" class Samsung card.
According to the SD card association the "A2" class Samsung card is supposed to hit a minimum 4,000 IOPS read, so by that definition Samsung is actually breaking regulation selling these cards.
I would say it's a defective card but I bought two of them at the same time and they perform identically.
I also performed basic file transfer tests comparing the Samsung cards vs. the competition and practical testing is right in line with the synthetic benchmark.

If the Samsung cards would have performed "on par" with the competition I would have just bit my lip and kept using them, but when the competition is far superior that makes the situation twice as bad.

 

[kcghost]

I have a lot of faith in Amazon but not their third parties.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

I hope he's reached out to Samsung as you suggested because of Rule #12:

12. Complaints About a Service / Product / Maker / Brand

Publicly posting a complaint about any service, product, maker, or brand is only allowed AFTER you have contacted them directly with the issue, and given them 36 hours to respond, and another 24 hours to resolve the isuue.

For what it's worth Amazon has an exceptional return policy and I've never had a problem getting products replaced or returned.
However this does not fix the issue of whether or not I can trust products to be what they say they are.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Do you expect Amazon to QC products of this nature?
What was the setup you used in your testing?

Almost a perfect 5 from 20k+ buyers

If you weren't satisfied..
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

20K reviews on Amazon.com but I only see 3 benchmarks posted, and one of those reports reduced read speed.
If we had 20K benchmarks it's anyones guess what the split of positive/negative would be.

The worst case would be if everything is legitimate and the cards I bought are both fully functional and genuine, because at that point Samsung is just uncompetitive.