It depends on what types of things you're typically buying, there are systematic problems in a few classes of products. For example: board games and 3D printer accessories on Amazon are rampantly counterfeited, to the point that it's often difficult to get the real thing. You may actually have received a high quality counterfeit before and not realized it; for example, I used my Xbox360 hard drive for years before realizing that it had totally bogus identifier markings.

The sophistication of counterfeit goods on Amazon is often impressive: For popular items like controllers for the Playstation 4, there are fakes that look and feel (and work) almost exactly like the real thing. The most sophisticated fake DualShock 4s come in convincing retail packaging, they pair with your console, and the only immediate tells (short of waiting a few months for various cut-rate components to fail, such as the battery) are things like the analog sticks clicking the wrong way or the silkscreening on the accessory port being the wrong opacity.

At this point, if I'm looking for a popular brand-name product, and it doesn't have some impossible-to-fake functionality (like booting iOS), I assume by default that there are fakes commingled into Amazon's inventory.

Same. In close to ten years, I've gotten one mixed-up delivery, where they evidently mislabeled my package with somebody else's when it went out for shipping. And one item that was lost in shipping and was never delivered, which they immediately refunded.

Otherwise, I can't complain at all. Sometimes, the stuff is crap, but you kind of expect that when you are buying cheap generic stuff - if you really want to see cheap junk, go to an Ocean State Job Lot or Dollar General.

During the holidays a few years back, I ordered 3 things from amazon in early December. I received all 3 items and a fourth bonus package which was a literally a thick piece of cardboard with a label. To this day have no idea how that happened.

Ocean State Job Lot is specifically a jobber — it’s in the name. You can find junk and amazing stuff.

Do you live near a major city? I've wondered if there is a correlation between incidents like this and specific cities or if there is a difference between more/less populous areas of the U.S.

Amazon has hundreds of millions of customers, the majority of which have experiences like yours (and mine). If you approach the Amazon marketplace with a modicum of common sense you'll generally be OK. And even when things go wrong, Amazon will (in my experience) bend over backwards to make it up to you.

I'm not saying they are perfect or even a good company overall. Just that scenarios like this generally fall below the noise floor and yet still get lots of press.