Is this legit?

In a moment of forgetfulness, I ordered an Aisin timing belt kit through Amazon and it arrived today. In every way that I know how to tell, it looks legitimate. Has the Aisin box, stickered in Torrance, CA, etc.

But I have Shifty's voice in my ear about not trusting Amazon at all.

Return it on principle?

Thinking about it.

 

Is it a Mitsuboshi belt? That's what typically comes in the Aisin 021 kit.

A lot of times I'll end up backtracing the address it came from to see if it's clearly an import warehouse. No guarantee, but ...

Not sure I'd roll with it, but that's just me. if I had Prime, and I wasn't doing the work tomorrow, I'd consider returning.

Noah shared some interesting stuff earlier today that even major airlines are having problems with counterfeit parts at this point!

 

Mitsuboshi belt.

I hear you about the skepticism.

 

I think aisin has its own store on scamazon, they fulfill the order and everything. take a look, if that's the case I wouldn't worry about it

 

Here's the thing @Tundra2 sent me, basically: https://www.11alive.com/article/tra...lines/85-d6ef1a29-41b0-4128-a4cd-f89638a40b7d

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They may have their own store, but you hafta check specifically who fulfilled the order. Even when you're shopping via their store, scAmazon will still force the cheapest Prime-eligible seller on you, regardless. You have the option to choose another seller, but they don't let you pick the initial fulfiller. And if it's being fulfilled thru scAmazon's shared warehouses, there's no guarantee you're not getting co-mingled inventory.

 

PSA>>>
Quite the opposite.... forcing non Amazon retailers to raise their prices to maybe be able to compete.
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1191099421/amazon-ftc-lawsuit-antitrust-monopoly

 

Package had no indication it was from Amazon. All labels were a different format with no mention of Amazon. Not until I looked it up in my email did I see that it was delivered by Amazon.

Maybe that means nothing. Going to call Aisin in Torrance tomorrow and discuss concerns with QC person, just to learn more about how to think about this kind of purchase.

 

I would be interested to know what they say.

I got a fake Maglula speed loader that was sold and shipped by Amazon. I didn't know it was fake for about a year until I purchased a new gun and it didn't work. I call Maglula to ask why it wouldn't work on my new Glock. Maglula had me email them a photo of the speed loader and confirmed it was fake. They were pissed at Amazon and had me ship them the fake speed loader and my receipt showing sold by Amazon. The Maglula guy sent me $50 by pay pal for my trouble and told me to buy a real Maglula speed loader Academy or a gun shop and not from Amazon.

 

Call them and give them the SKU. Will tell you if it’s actually theirs or not.

 

Wow, this is in an interesting discussion... from what I know... Aisin is the go to for the kit. How else would someone go about getting the kit aside from scAmazon? ebay store? just came to me just now as I type this. I till have 80k before my next change but it would be nice to mentally cue it for that time... Thanks gang!

 

Printing on the box looks a little rough, but I've never purchased an Aisin timing kit to compare it to. I've been suckered by Scamazon OE Toyota parts on my truck - some even had a hologram sticker that on first glance looked decent, but comparing it to a real hologram sticker and packaging it was quite apparent. So I no longer will EVER purchase car parts on Amazon.

 

Rockauto, summit racing or a local auto parts store.

 

I just bought an Aisin timing belt kit from Summit last week. The packaging looks the exact same as yours. Is the 8 page instruction pamphlet made out of a glossy paper like mine is?

 

I also just ordered a timing belt kit from Rockauto recently and it looks like the one you pictured. Even came with a mitsubitchi branded belt. For peace of mind though just return it and order the kit from Rockauto or Summit. Here are some pictures of my kit I recently ordered for reference.

 

In another story it was pointed out that the litigation for this suit could drag on, then it will be appealed, then even if it stands up to appeal it will take a while to implement changes. So assuming the suit is successful, it will likely be years before you actually see any change.

 

It's something discussed on here frequently. DO NOT purchase auto, appliance, or small engine parts from any retailer who doesn't bother to validate (or has no way to legitimately validate) their inventory chain, i.e. they allow ANY seller to anonymously sell through their storefront, and/or allow sellers to send directly to the buyer without a middle-man in the chain to confirm the part. There is a significant chance you'll get knockoff, grey market, whitebox, knockoff or otherwise inauthentic product. This includes:

• scAmazon
• fleaBay
• WallyWorld
• Sears/KMart
• NewEegg
• ....

There are probably plenty of others online, but those are the big ones I've had issues with both personal and business accounts during the last decade. People have gotten burned time and time again ordering from shops above because organized crime is ... well, organized. They know exactly how to exploit shops like this to get near-MSRP cash out of knockoffs.

You have at least one option at your disposal to narrow down where your product is coming from on scAmazon, but it's no guarantee, and that's by choosing who fulfills the order. This reply talks about that and also explains why the scAmazon model is ripe for knockoffs.

 

One of the boxes that came inside of my kit is different than in Post #15 by Woodsman—mine has NSK bearings and he has JTEKT. Also, I do not have the small AISIN black and yellow box in my kit (maybe he ordered something more).

It does have the 8-page glossy instructions and the Mitsuboshi belt.

Going to call AISIN today and ask the SKU question.

 

I’m curious to see how this turns out. I order parts from Amazon on the regular and haven’t had any real issues yet. eBay was another story entirely…

 

I think it was @FirstGenVol who got screwed on fake spark plugs for his RAV4? Others had had it happen with plugs. That seems to be the typical one.

I've gotten burned (and returned) dozens of times "OEM Genuine" parts for our appliances, small engine stuff, and electronic car parts. Our family has had several things arrive via China Post directly from warehouses in mainland China. I used to be a dick about it, and report stores when it was clear stuff was fake. But the reality is, these a-holes have accounts on-hold, the second one account gets flagged and shut down, they just throw the switch and start selling from another account. It's like trying to kill the flu in someone's body by targeting one little DNA bit at a time.

 

The counterfeiters are pretty good with the packaging now, and getting better. I bought a Deltran Battery Tender plus off eBay a couple of years ago. It looked great and was packaged the same. It didn't work like my other 3, so I called Deltran directly and they determined it was a fake. They treated me right and sent me a brand new legit one, free of charge and had me send a pic of the bogus one with the cord cut off. First class company. I sent them the link to the fake seller so they could get them shut down. Deltran does have an official site on eBay. I had no idea of the counterfeit problem, the fakers operate in the open. Contacting the kit belt makers should let you ascertain if the kit you bought is legit or not.

 

fleaBay themselves can't be trusted to do anything though. They favor the seller.

Classic example. Back in January I bought my youngest Nintendo Switch Pro controllers. 3 of them from a seller named 'joyfunnytoys' (Item#: 354456302487). They were about 10% cheaper than I'd have found elsewhere.

Got the product in. Red flag #1, came in Japanese packaging that had two specific defects common for counterfeiters. The weight of the controller didn't match the exact same storebought controller I purchased locally, like, the fleaBay one was 25% lighter, and the exact weight as described by several Reddit users who received a specific batch of fakes since 2020. So I popped the controller open, indeed. Didn't have an authentic Nintendo battery, and I found a few other issues with the internals. It was a GOOD fake, like, they got PCB easter eggs and other crap down. But some things, like the HD Rumble vibration function, were clearly not authentic. And annoyingly, the charging was weird, the controllers would never hit full-green on authentic switch dock chargers.

So I reached out to the seller and pretty much pointed out all the clear indications these were fakes. They assured me (of course) they weren't fakes, and I sent pictures. They offered a full refund but wouldn't refund on the one I'd opened up to prove their stuff was fake. So I said "screw it", and gave them negative feedback, reporting the controllers were fake, how I know they were fake, with pictures showing it. I went back into their feedback and looked, and there were several other fakes reported during the prior week or two. And I though, "Hell yeah, this seller is going DOWN!" On a whim, I checked back 3 weeks later to see how far down their seller reputation/feedback was, because it was dipping near the 90% around the time I got my stuff ... it was back to 99.7% again!

fleaBay went back through for this seller and removed ALL the negative feedback indicating 'joyfunnytoys' was selling counterfeit merch! Stupidest part is, there was no good, reasonable, EASY way for me to report that seller now my transaction was done, and no way to flag them in feedback so other buyers could be forewarned because fleaBay wiped out all three of my negative reviews, one for each controller purchased.

What does that tell me? eBay, as a company, doesn't give a shit about your, your money, or your safety as a consumer. If they did, they would never let crap like this happen. I really wish someone would file a class-action on them over allowing counterfeiters to thrive, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat.

I see 'joyfunnytoys' has since had their eBay account FINALLY purged, but I also see another seller, selling from the same city in California, with the same Japanese-language boxes ... which I would put a steak dinner bet on it that it's them.

The only way these vendors/outlets are going to learn is either:

• Stop using their platform and warn everyone you know about the risks vs. reward of saving a few cents or bucks
• Massive lawsuit at the gov't level cracking down on vendors who support organized crime via counterfeiting along with nat'l consumer policy protections that have legitimate teeth
• Some combination of the above.

 

I agree - these knockoffs are starting to look pretty legit. OE plugs are one thing I certainly got duped on from Amazon. I also got some knockoff M18 batteries from eBay. Pricing was in the ballpark and the ones that showed up look VERY convincing. Packaging was 95% there, battery case itself looked nearly identical save the red clips being a shade off color (but being a new battery, it was very convincing). It almost fooled me and certainly would have fooled most homeowners. But it came fully charged, which Milwaukee hasn’t done for nearly a decade. The charge indicator lights were also a scoche off. But the for sure tell was that I could see the cells through the drain holes in the bottom of the case. Milwaukee fully encapsulates the cells.

I contacted the seller and he tried offering me a 50% refund. But I them back anyways - unopened save one - and the seller tried claiming I destroyed the batteries and only gave me a partial refund. I politely told him he must be confusing me with another customer and sent him pictures of his stuff in the box before I closed it up and returned it. He refused and told me he wouldn’t refund the rest. I asked him for proof and the doofus sent me crappy cell phone pics of batteries that had been opened - DIFFERENT batteries than I had orders. I purchased 5.0’s and he sent pics if 6.0’s which are a completely different case and cell. I escalated it to eBay command and presented his ‘proof’ along with my pics and links to genuine milwaukee batteries. I had my money in an hour, his account was suspended, and 12 hours later he was setup under a different account slinging the same garbage.

 

Contacted Aisin Corporate HQ in Torrance and discussed the situation with a very interested product QC rep. I sent him several photos he requested. I hope to hear back Monday or Tuesday and let you know what he says.

 

I

Got mine from Summit racing and got the NSK Box

 

Did you ever hear back from Aisin Corporate?