[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What is going wrong at Amazon?
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Ask HN: What is going wrong at Amazon?
I feel like for the past 2-3 years you can't really rely on Amaozn
anymore. Reviews are mostly fake, many deliveries are either broken
or counterfeit... What happened?
Author : ent101
Score : 58 points
Date : 2021-09-25 20:21 UTC (2 hours ago)
| crooked-v wrote:
| For me, a huge part of it is the mingling of direct manufacturer
| sales (or authorized distributors) with random third parties.
| That makes it impossible to trust that a received item is
| actually what it's claimed to be in he listing.
|
| In addition, there's zero barrier to entry for sellers including
| basic stuff like safety certifications, so you see constantly
| about a billion entries of the same rebranded cheap AliExpress
| crap over and over.
| jstx1 wrote:
| This hasn't been my experience in the UK. I can't speak about the
| reviews but their deliveries are pretty good - very reliable next
| day delivery with Prime.
| danpalmer wrote:
| Deliveries are fine but I find the selection in the UK is going
| downhill. For commodity items - cables, some consumables,
| undifferentiated products, it's great. For brand names though
| it's not very good, either lacking selection or with
| uncompetitive prices.
| lvs wrote:
| Monopoly happened.
| atatatat wrote:
| By the metrics society judges people and companies, Amazon is
| fucking killing it, few are doing things better (Apple?).
|
| You still buy from them, what incentive do they have to return to
| former quality?
| MattGaiser wrote:
| Does Amazon actually have a problem? I have certainly encountered
| (and been paid to write as I answered one of the cards) fake
| reviews, but the products have always been ok. Not great, but for
| the $10 I spent, acceptable.
|
| This seems mostly to be a technical complaint, in the way that
| people complain about Electron wasting RAM.
| grosales wrote:
| In my experience, almost nothing is 10 bucks anymore at Amazon.
| Having prime would have meant - 5 years ago- that I would get
| it tomorrow or within 2 days, but now it means I will get it by
| the end of next week. Then the product I bought will come apart
| within 2 months. Right around the time the return deadline
| expires. The customer experience is at least one order of
| magnitude worse than 5 years ago.
| Jiro wrote:
| Search at least is nearly useless, because of the sponsored
| results that are extremely similar visually to desired results.
| I've also searched for books and gotten results that weren't
| sponsored, but didn't fit my keywords, just randomly placed in
| the list. Amazon also habitually combines reviews for different
| versions of a product.
|
| Also, their drivers drop things off at your front door even if
| your apartment has a lockbox for that purpose, and there is no
| way to complain about it because the complaint process for
| "problem with order" only allows you to report "other issue"
| problems to the seller, not to Amazon.
|
| And you can't turn off recommendations, but Amazon will happily
| make recommendations based on any porn you searched or
| purchased, so you can't use Amazon in front of other people
| without exposing your porn preferences.
| ffhhj wrote:
| > Amazon Basics has knocked off Peak Design's Everyday Sling,
| right down to the shape of the tag--and incredibly, they gave
| their copy the exact same name.
|
| https://www.core77.com/posts/106033/Amazon-Basics-Knocks-Off...
| mattlondon wrote:
| It kinda feels like how eBay went - just flooded with loads and
| loads of low quality tat. That is great if you just need
| something cheap and cheerful, but when you are looking for
| quality items it is hard unless you know specific brands which is
| not always obvious - example I had recently was a replacement
| shower hose after the Amazon-bought one I got two months earlier
| broke... I have no idea what a reputable brand is there! You end
| up just basically trying your luck since reviews cannot be
| trusted.
|
| Can't say fake stuff has been a problem for me in the UK. Stuff
| is delivered fine, you just can't rely on the item's quality.
| Amazon win hands-down for delivery - no one else comes close in
| the UK as you are typically still left with 5-7 day delivery
| windows Vs reliable same-day/next-day with Amazon.
|
| (I tried to leave a negative review of the shower hose that broke
| after 2 months - very matter-of-fact and even-headed wording...
| the review was rejected for not meeting "community guidelines" or
| something which I thought says a lot about the review problem
| with Amazon)
| LinuxBender wrote:
| I avoided them for a while, but where I live Amazon is
| unfortunately the only online company that will ship to me and
| the local stores are very limited in the tiny nearby town. I
| still avoid electronics and anything not directly fulfilled by
| Amazon and anything that has a small number of reviews. I will
| for sure never buy anything computer related from them again.
| Standard household items, common supplements, clothing that is
| fulfilled by them directly, those have all been fine for me.
| dobladov wrote:
| My experience trying to buy a camera on Amazon was awful.
|
| I try to buy when I see the price a bit lower, it turns out it's
| always scammers that will cancel the order (by mistake according
| to them) and then proceed asking you to directly transfer the
| money to their bank account with a discount for the trouble of
| cancelling.
|
| I got refunded by Amazon without a problem each time and never
| did the transfer to the scammers, but still is an awful waste of
| time to deal with this when it's so easy for them to sport this
| scam.
| heartbreak wrote:
| For cameras you want B&H or Adorama.
| geocrasher wrote:
| Amazon appears to be more interested in bottom line than being a
| curator of reliable content.
| SahAssar wrote:
| I've only used amazon to actually order things twice, but I've
| looked at products and searched for things many times.
|
| The reviews, listings, search and product-pages have always been
| terrible in my experience. In a some cases even ebay has more
| structured product info. The search experience and categorization
| feels like it's trying to steer me to buy all the things I don't
| want to buy and I never find the things I do.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| They won't do anything that threatens the money fire hose. If
| they start enforcing rules around fake reviews, counterfeits,
| used or returned items being sold as "new", or co-mingling, that
| might increase costs and decrease sales.
|
| That, and complacency and coasting on customers' good will that
| was built up in the years to decades prior. My older relatives,
| for example, use Amazon out of habit.
| gruez wrote:
| >If they started enforcing rules around fake reviews,
| counterfeits, used or returned items being sold as "new", or
| co-mingling, that might increase costs and decrease sales.
|
| Didn't they literally ban 400 chinese brands for fake reviews?
| heavyset_go wrote:
| I don't care about a handful of Chinese brands when there are
| tens of thousands of shitty domestic brands reselling knock-
| off goods, selling used goods as new, and manipulating
| reviews.
|
| That sounds like a nice PR stunt, but absolutely nothing has
| changed in my experience as a user.
| version_five wrote:
| They matured, dominated the market, got lazy and comfortable, and
| basically took over the role of incumbent.
|
| This is top of mind for me as my amazon use has declined from a
| peak a few years ago (with a dead cat bounce during covid) and
| I'm now actively avoiding them. As you say, for items you are not
| already familiar with, they are completely untrustworthy, and for
| stuff I know about and want to buy, a) they are unreliable for
| availability, b) they put so much effort into trying to trick me
| into signing up for prime or subscriptions, or for paying
| shipping when I qualify for free shipping, that I feel like I'm
| trading with a criminal. I can get better treatment literally
| anywhere else.
|
| For better or worse, they changed the face of commerce, now they
| are an entitled dinosaur that I'll be happy to see pushed to the
| side.
| Tarsul wrote:
| Said it better than I could've. It's true for the German
| Amazon, too. Too many product ads also.
| [deleted]
| zandorg wrote:
| I ordered 2 books from Amazon last week. An email said
| 'delivered' but nothing in the letterbox or outside the house. A
| chat to a friendly neighbour revealed he had a parcel put in
| between his dustbins. I went to my bins and there were the books.
| Not pleased at this, I expect a sane experience.
| thrower123 wrote:
| My friend who sells $$$$$$ through Amazon says Chinese
| manufacturers are absolutely unscrupulous and engage in every
| kind of fraud, IP theft, adulteration and so forth, and Amazon
| mostly looks the other way unless they are really pressured or
| lawsuits are brought. Then the Chinese seller disappears and pops
| up under a different name with the same tactics. Rinse and
| repeat.
| mooreds wrote:
| I think this essay is worth reading to answer your question.
|
| https://zackkanter.com/2019/03/13/what-is-amazon/
|
| Tl;dr incentives.
| revolvingocelot wrote:
| I tried to read the linked article. Its author considers
| Walmart to be a wonder of the world, which uplifts the poor and
| "is the most successful social welfare system ever implemented,
| saving billions and billions of dollars for everyday Americans
| without costing taxpayers a dime".
|
| Prior to this mind-boggling statement, Zack presents his bona
| fides regarding his knowledge of Amazon; I'm sure he's pretty
| clever, and doubly so regarding Amazon. But his lack of insight
| when it comes to Walmart, let alone the factual inaccuracy of
| his statements regarding the way Walmart takes advantage of its
| employees' crushing poverty [0] is fucking insanity. Walmart
| absolutely does cost taxpayers. It disturbs me that someone so
| incapable of grokking the consequences of these so-called
| Wonders of the World should be so well-positioned to benefit
| from them.
|
| On the other hand, I suppose that it is difficult to get a man
| to understand something, when his salary depends on his not
| understanding it. [1]
|
| [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/walmart-and-mcdonalds-
| among-...
|
| [1] --Upton Sinclair
| ghshephard wrote:
| Last two years have been flawless for me. I purchase about 50-70
| times/year from them, and here in Michigan (Ann Arbor) things
| have gotten better. Lots more same-day delivery, and deliveries
| have gotten very reliable - I've only had a single delayed
| delivery (arrived 3 days after it was supposed to) - and Amazon
| Refunded me for that (and then the package arrived).
|
| I love the free shipping, and I have a pretty large list of stuff
| on camelcamelcamel that both lets me get a decent price and
| prevents me from overpaying for anything.
|
| I'm really happy with the selection - but I don't know if I would
| go to them to purchase anything like a computer, laptop, or
| camera - mostly household goods, low-end appliances, and that
| sort of thing. I always go direct to the retailer/manufacturer
| for anything significant.
|
| So - just an anecdote, but my experience with Amazon has been
| really good. Also - I love The Expanse, and that was worth
| $20-$30 of the prime membership right there.
|
| Oh, one _sort of_ Amazon related thing that go worse - we used to
| have Free delivery from Whole Foods, which I made use of once a
| month or so - they 're adding a $10 fee to that. On the pro side,
| might mean more delivery slots, but on the con side - that's
| another $120/year or so.
| aborsy wrote:
| No problem with Amazon here. It's an impressive company!
| ulrashida wrote:
| Cancelled Prime membership this year due to a range of factors:
|
| 1. Product selection declining (one good product now has 20 knock
| off brands with 4.5-5.0 star review scores making it impossible
| to determine what quality level you're buying)
|
| 2. Increase in counterfeit goods enabled by the business model
|
| 3. Increase in awareness that the firm is not acting ethically or
| responsibly
|
| 4. Maturation of competitors that now offer similar online retail
| experiences, albeit within market subsets
| danpalmer wrote:
| I cancelled Prime membership a few years ago for these reasons,
| but ended up re-subscribing mostly for the video content. It's
| amazing how diversified the Prime offering is now.
| yojo wrote:
| They got me with Whole Foods discount, which was already
| where my family bought most of its groceries. 5% cashback on
| $15k/year is $750. Next best alternative is 2% ($300).
|
| I 100% agree with the downhill trajectory of the web store,
| but don't cancel because it's cheaper than free.
| Trisell wrote:
| My addon question to this, is what alternatives do we have?
|
| What service that gives us 2 day or less shipping. Has
| significant enough stock that I don't have drive all over town to
| 10 different stores to get 3 of the same thing. If there was a
| resource that had these features I would drop Amazon in a second.
| rchaud wrote:
| The website experience is terrible. Search results initially
| surface organic results, but a millisecond later, the sponsored
| results are loaded, which shift the page layout.
|
| Once you're on the page, it's hard to make out key details
| because of the god-awful CMS their vendors have to use. Some just
| end up posting giant JPG posters instead of text. Oh, and the
| page is swarming with 10 different alternatives to the product
| you are looking at.
|
| These days I think Amazon cares more about landing fat AWS
| contracts than minding the store.
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(page generated 2021-09-25 23:01 UTC)