Amazon emailed me the day before the eclipse even though I bought them months before.

I couldn't get a new pair of glasses in time.

Fwiw, Amazon emailed many people in error. I spoke to someone who lost around 400k when Amazon emailed all their customers that they were fake even though he had the testing documentation and had provided it to Amazon.

My guess is that they realized they didnt know who they sent what to so they decided to cover their liability first and foremost.

Had I spent money to travel to see the eclipse and was denied then opportunity, I would have been very upset.

"a company volunteered the information that they've detected my highly niche item was a fake. they should be ashamed that there were apparently no other suppliers who could get it to me!"

willing to bet they gave you a full refund as well

does that really recompense for the possibility of sustaining permanent damage to a product you purchased on a marketplace you believed to be safe? Is it really ok to sell fraudulent products that could harm the user as long as you give a full refund? fine, but the trust is destroyed. This seems like an effort to avert bad publicity, I don't think they would email a customer about a fraudulent product in any other case.