[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Anyone else quickly losing confidence in Ama...
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Ask HN: Anyone else quickly losing confidence in Amazon?
I feel like every time I search for something I expect the products
to be either fake, filled with fake reviews, broken when I receive
them, or from a no-name fake brand that popped up last week. It has
become seemingly impossible to wade through the mess. What's
worse, there seems to be zero way to report these listings. I tried
submitting a review warning other customers about the fake reviews
for a fake product, but the review was not approved. In that
particular instance, I was actively recommended a "wasp trap" by
Amazon. Curious, I saw it was rated 4.8. Turns out the positive
reviews were all for... a pet cemetery headstone (complete with
photos, to make the issue completely unambiguous). The listing
itself was posted by a seller that had almost all negative reviews
that were -- removed by Amazon! The reason? Amazon took
responsibility, since it was fulfilled by Amazon. The problem: none
of the negative reviews had anything to do with things like
shipping time. They were all basically calling the product a scam.
This seems like a looming disaster for Amazon. It baffles me that
there is no way for customers to at least report these issues. I've
done most of my shopping for the last 15 years on Amazon, but I'm
seriously considering stopping. Is anyone else in this boat?
Author : d23
Score : 130 points
Date : 2022-06-04 19:52 UTC (3 hours ago)
| Saphyel wrote:
| I tried to avoid Amazon because they don't need my money and you
| can find better quality or better deal elsewhere.
|
| Amazon is becoming a Wish also.
| Darmody wrote:
| I only buy from Amazon because I know I can return the items if I
| don't like them.
|
| In some cases I even bought from Aliexpress because I couldn't be
| sure whether the item from Amazon was genuine or not.
| lacker wrote:
| Recently I tried buying some shoes from somewhere that wasn't
| Amazon. My order never arrived and I never heard anything from
| them. To get a response I had to call their 1-800 number. "Oh
| yeah, it looks like that shipment has been delayed. I'm not
| seeing any estimated arrival date. Would you like to try ordering
| them in a different color?" Then I had to read my credit card
| number over the phone to get a refund.
|
| Amazon has problems but in my experience their competitors are
| worse.
| barneygale wrote:
| You're spot on IMO - it's an unregulated bazaar and a scammer's
| paradise. I gave up buying there about a year ago.
| blibble wrote:
| I will do anything possible to avoid ordering from Amazon,
| including paying more to buy it from someone else
|
| previously I was a prime customer for nearly a decade, but in the
| space of a week I had two deliveries ruined by their terrible
| delivery agents (and they blamed me) and repeated harassment from
| a seller for posting a review that they solicited
| brycewray wrote:
| Might want to try adding the "Fakespot Fake Amazon Reviews and
| eBay Sellers" extension to your browser. Certainly doesn't solve
| the problems you've mentioned, but helps somewhat.
| aqsalose wrote:
| Only thing I like to buy from Amazon are ... books.
| gibspaulding wrote:
| For me there's sort of a spectrum from (1) "I want exactly this
| name brand X" to (2) "I need something cheap that does X". Amazon
| used to pretty comfortably cover both of those scenarios, but
| lately I've been leaning more and more towards ordering direct
| from the OEM for (1), or from Ebay/Alibaba for (2). Amazon still
| occupies some space in between, but it's narrowing.
| kirktrue wrote:
| I have not knowingly received any "bad" purchases from Amazon.
| Having heard scary stories like these has put me off ordering
| things from there for sure. But the convenience is just too great
| for me to give it up.
|
| Maybe I am just fortunate to have not had an issue, maybe the
| counterfeiters are very good, or maybe I am just clueless, or
| some combination of these.
|
| I try to stick to only name brand items. If there is a product
| that looks compelling but is from a brand I have not heard of, I
| generally look at both their website and other reputable
| retailers which sell that same product.
|
| I largely ignore the reviews. Not necessarily because they are
| scammy (which I'm sure they are) but because they are so largely
| subjective. Reviewers will often give a one-star rating for a
| product because shipping was slower than expected. Or a one-star
| because the product didn't package a standard USB-A cable or
| didn't include AA batteries. Or a one-star rating in protest
| something of the company or product itself. Many times it appears
| the reviewer did not read the description closely enough, and
| accidentally purchased the wrong product, for which they blame
| the retailer.
|
| I almost always purchase from Amazon.com as the seller vs. some
| Harry's Tech Supply Store. Exceptions are made if there are
| thousands of Store reviews and a 95%+ positive rating.
|
| In other cases, I will simply purchase the item from the official
| brand website, or some other retailer. It's frustrating that
| Amazon allows commingling of products from different suppliers
| and retailers in a common bin. It's also frustrating that other
| retailers like Walmart and target seem to have followed suit.
| influx wrote:
| I'm pretty sure I've gotten counterfeit polo and Levi clothes
| from Amazon, but they are good enough that it's hard to tell
| other than they seemed to wear out faster.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| You may have gotten legit goods from the lower end lines of
| those brands. Both are terrible about have multiple quality
| tiers with minimal differentiation in marketing. The
| difference will be price, quality, and QC even if they look
| similar.
| echelon wrote:
| Outlet mall retail.
|
| The Nike or Polo clothing sold there isn't overstock. It's
| legitimately lower quality items sold at a cheaper price.
| They're intended to attract price conscious consumers that
| like the brand.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I've gotten a graymarket webcam (Chinese version 930c, when I
| ordered a 930e), when ordering from the "Logitech" store, on
| Amazon.
|
| When I returned it, I stated that I'd better get a 930e as a
| replacement, but the vendor (not Logitech - _quelle surprise_ )
| told me that I would get a 930c, so I cancelled the order, and
| got one directly from the Logitech site (It was a bit more
| expensive, but not crazy more).
|
| When I reported it, Amazon rejected my (polite, detailed, and
| backed up with photographs) reports on the product page, and
| ignored my reports to them. I would not be surprised if the
| item is still being sold as a 930e (it's not), and as being
| sold by Logitech (it's not).
|
| I did mention it to Logitech, but they basically told me that
| Amazon is an 800-lb gorilla, and that they weren't gonna raise
| a stink (not in exactly those words).
| rfreiberger wrote:
| Wasn't most of the Amazon issue on fake items related to the UPC
| barcode issue they ran into with books? I recall they only stored
| the UPC code of items and pulled from their own stock or
| resellers (who had fake copies with the same code).
| wombat-man wrote:
| Yeah I actually prefer to buy more and more stuff from brick and
| mortar major retailers.
| Finnucane wrote:
| Haven't ordered a thing from them in almost three years, Haven't
| been to a Whole Foods in quite a while, either. They are dead to
| me.
| Animats wrote:
| I still buy occasionally from Amazon, but it's mostly reorders.
| Searching there is so weird as to be useless. Why do they need
| all those resellers?
|
| Gave up on Whole Foods. Trader Joe's has shorter lines, good
| quality, better prices, and less wierdo stuff such as
| homeopathic remedies. Once in a while, Lucky's, which has short
| lines and unionized staff.
| D13Fd wrote:
| Why is unionized staff a good thing?
| digisign wrote:
| Amazon has a rep for mistreating employees, a union is an
| imperfect way to counter that.
| bgs113 wrote:
| I still buy tons of things from there, but usually only if it's
| sold by Amazon.com specifically or the known manufacturer selling
| there. And if I can find it through Target, it'll get here almost
| as fast with free shipping, from a company with stronger values,
| so I prefer that when possible.
| hef19898 wrote:
| Second this. Back the day it was "Fulfilled by Amazon" that I
| looked for, now that changed to either known sellers or sold by
| Amazon. All others, well, fir the stuff I look for eBay isn't
| too bad. Exceptions are, e.g., books. As long as the edition is
| the right one you cannot go wrong regardkess of seller. I do
| buy less and less from Amazon, so.
| KVFinn wrote:
| The search feels actively hostile. It returns so many things that
| are very clearly NOT matches for what I am looking for, and are
| things it would rather sell me. And of course there are SO many
| 'sponsored' results to wade through.
|
| On the product page itself there are a few different page
| sections that show alternative products or similar products to
| consider. Only the single one at the very bottom of the page is
| not a sponsored listing. ALL the other ones are just sponsored
| listings.
|
| I actually have more confidence in random ebay used listings
| lately. At least I get what was described.
| JaimeThompson wrote:
| Amazon makes a lot of money from selling ads so having a search
| that "requires" ads to be bought to make people actually see
| your product benefits Amazon.
| jeffreyrogers wrote:
| Sometimes it is easier to find books by searching "<book name>
| amazon" than it is to actually search for it on Amazon's site.
| pengo wrote:
| I did use Amazon a couple of times when it first arrived, but
| wasn't comfortable with its overreach in every area of operation,
| and have avoided it since. There are more equitable alternatives
| popotamonga wrote:
| My company gives me 1k/mo gift cards so i have to buy stuff i
| dont even need, so far hundreds of items no fakes that i could
| spot. I buy all types of stuff from all sections.
|
| I did buy some jewlry as gift for 20EUR that i later found on ali
| express for 50 cents but thats my bad i guess.
| mateo1 wrote:
| These days fake products are impressively good. I got a pair of
| earbuds on ebay to replace my damaged brand name ones, and upon
| closer inspection I realized the fake ones were made with a
| custom injection mold and if the electronics weren't rattling
| and the sound quality wasn't as bad, I'd fall for it.
| Rury wrote:
| Frankly, I try to avoid shopping on Amazon. One because of the
| problem you mention, but also because it's a poor deal for
| underlying businesses. Amazon eats most of the margin, while the
| underlying small businesses get the short end of the stick. Most
| of the time I find I can get the same items locally for the same
| price, and the small business simply gets a better margin.
| Sometimes I wonder if this disparity contributes to the scam
| problems.
| auslegung wrote:
| Fora long time now I've been using Amazon as a product search
| site with reviews (sometimes questionable). when I find the
| product I want to purchase, I try to purchase from the OEM,
| though sometimes they just direct me back to Amazon
| ceejayoz wrote:
| I reported https://www.amazon.com/sp?seller=AFN4IFVLN4CLK months
| ago; using a seller name of "Amazon.com". Still up there, despite
| support saying they'd pass along to the fraud team.
|
| AWS is great, but the Amazon.com side of things feels like a
| slow, steady decline for years now.
| fullshark wrote:
| Amazon is a convenience store at this point, you aren't
| interested in the best prices or highest quality products, but
| the convenience of having something you want delivered to your
| door within x days (2 if prime).
| gzer0 wrote:
| It has gotten so bad that I now actively seek out BestBuy or
| other places which I know will source out decent quality items.
| jonahbenton wrote:
| Past tense.
|
| Current state is buyer beware, assume adversarial with all amazon
| and amazon-facilitated offerings.
| krallja wrote:
| I bought a "TXINLEI 858D 110V Solder Station, Digital Display SMD
| Hot Air Rework Station Solder Iron Kit Heat Gun, Tweezers,
| Desoldering Pump" on Amazon, because it is a cheap hot-air
| soldering station. It should not be sold in the United States.
| The plug on it is wired backwards, so the cable on it is also
| wired backwards. But they both use the industry-standard IEC C13
| / C14 shape. So if you accidentally use the plug on your desktop,
| it'll work, but the chassis will be hot instead of neutral. And
| the same thing if you use a regular plug with this device: the
| neutral and hot pins are swapped, so you'll have a hot chassis.
| It's illegal. Yet, it's so cheap, and easy to remedy at home!
| fimbulvetr wrote:
| No. Today one of the tines broke on my tiller, weld sheared clean
| off. Have had this tiller for years and use several times a year.
| I used some sites to find diagrams and part numbers. I was ready
| to order from the small engine site, $60 plus shipping and
| several day delay. I googled the part number, first link was an
| amazon prime next day delivery for $56. Maybe tomorrow it will
| show up and it will be a counterfeit and I will start the journey
| of losing confidence, but not today as I have never received a
| known counterfeit from them and we order at least 100 things or
| more from them a year.
|
| Edit: like another reviewer, I really only purchase name brand
| items and mosty from amazon.com reseller. My last amazon purchase
| from a non-amazon reseller was fine, ramset 1 7/8" pins that I
| could not find anywhere else, for fastening 2x4s to a steel
| I-beam.
| 650 wrote:
| I recently bought ~$2000 worth of various purchases due to moving
| into a new home, furniture, home goods, food, etc.
|
| Not a single bad experience, although I did spend a bit more time
| than I would have preferred looking through product reviews.
| carom wrote:
| I hate Amazon until I try to use anything else. I hate the ads in
| search, that is not what search means to me. If I search 5.11
| pants and buy the first thing I see, I won't get 5.11 pants. It
| feels like the cheap Chinese brand for anything I buy.
|
| That being said, every non Amazon online order I place reminds me
| that they are the best we have.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| Last weekend I was talking with a neighbor's friend about
| headsets and he let me try out his AfterShokz OpenComm. These are
| bone conduction headphones with a swivel microphone. He said he
| liked listening to music on them. I didn't like the audio quality
| for music, but it seemed like it would be plenty good for voice
| conferencing. What I wanted to know, though, was the microphone
| quality.
|
| So I found them on Amazon and there are some video reviews!
|
| https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B09CGYBZVG/
|
| One of the video reviews is titled "Love the battery life and
| microphone abilities". I thought, "great, I will get to hear what
| the microphone sounds like."
|
| No such luck. The video reviewer is some doofus who wears an
| orange flame wig - I guess it's his trademark schtick? - and at
| no point does he actually demonstrate the microphone quality. He
| did _talk_ a lot about how good the microphone is - without
| letting me actually _hear_ it - and also commented on how the
| headset gets caught in his wig.
|
| Dude! Why would I care about _that_?
|
| So I did a search for "opencomm microphone quality" and landed on
| this video:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRmTMpZVoVc
|
| Now this is what I was looking for. Not only does he let you hear
| the microphone, but he switches back and forth between the high-
| quality camera mic and the OpenComm mic, with a supertitle
| showing which you are listening to. And they throw in noise
| sources like a blender and a fan so you can check out the noise
| cancellation. Not a worry for me, I have a quiet private office,
| but gosh, I love this kind of demo.
|
| So naturally I ordered from them instead of Amazon. And I did
| something I _never_ do: I bought their extended warranty. I take
| good care of my equipment, and on a $150-$200 purchase, I 'd
| rather just take the minor risk of having to buy a new one. But I
| paid for the extended warranty just as a way to thank them for
| providing such an informative video review.
|
| If you make video reviews and want to see the difference between
| a ridiculously bad one and a great one, compare the two above.
| drumhead wrote:
| Hasnt been good value for a while now. Shop around and you can
| always pick up a better deal. What Amazon sells now are mainly no
| name chinese brands of dubious quality and reliability. They're
| making plenty of room for other retailer to come in and snap up
| their market share.
| me_me_mu_mu wrote:
| Not really. At least in my experience, their customer service is
| great and that means a lot more to me than the occasional fake
| product or reviews.
|
| I've gotten wrong/missing deliveries, account issues/mishaps
| (caused by me in some cases), and other issues that customer
| service was able to quickly and promptly resolve.
|
| The service is so convenient for the end user. While consciously
| minding all the other un-cool things Amazon does, their customer
| service is really good.
| ziml77 wrote:
| Losing confidence? No, I lost that years ago. For quite some time
| the vast majority of the listings have been drop-shipped
| AliExpress garbage. Many of them are obvious because of terrible
| photoshops, randomly named branding, and those strange bold
| brackets in the product description.
|
| But some can be harder to spot because of tricks that sellers use
| to essentially hijack listings for other products to carry all
| the positive reviews along. Or they may just go the route of
| putting completely fake reviews on the product. Some may even be
| from verified purchasers because they packed a card along with
| the product offering compensation for a 5 star review. Or they
| can get verified reviews in an even slimier way involving
| ordering from themselves and then shipping random crap to people
| who've they've sent stuff to before.
|
| And then there's the inventory that's poisoned with counterfeits.
| Thanks to inventory co-mingling counterfeit and legit products
| can end up getting mixed together. There's a chance that even
| buying from a fully legit listing will end up with you getting
| sent a counterfeit product.
|
| However, despite all of that I do still use Amazon. Their immense
| investment into logistics means that many things will make it to
| me next-day. And their return policies allow me to order with the
| confidence that if I get a fraudulent item (or just something I
| don't like) it will be fairly painless to get a replacement or my
| money back.
|
| That said, I have also been making more efforts over the years to
| not use Amazon. I tend to buy all my major electronics from Best
| Buy or direct from the manufacturer. And I would _never_ buy any
| food or medicine from Amazon. I don 't want to risk things that
| go into me being counterfeit.
| analog31 wrote:
| >>> However, despite all of that I do still use Amazon. ... And
| their return policies allow me to order with the confidence
| that if I get a fraudulent item (or just something I don't
| like) it will be fairly painless to get a replacement or my
| money back.
|
| Oddly enough Amazon didn't invent this. All of the "big box"
| and online retailers had no-questions-asked returns before
| Amazon came along. My hunch is that one of two things have
| happened: 1) You figure out that the most cost effective way to
| manage quality control is through returns and refunds, and you
| streamline this process; 2) You go out of business.
|
| The retailers who delivered quality goods and charged
| appropriately for getting it right on the first try are gone.
| My71staccount wrote:
| Reselling from AliExpress and drop shipping are orthogonal
| issues. You don't buy drop shipped stuff on Amazon because it
| would take too long too arrive. The value of Amazon is having
| items in local warehouses already.
| 88913527 wrote:
| > And I would never buy any food or medicine from Amazon.
|
| The price premium to know I'm getting a legitimate version of
| something in this category is painful. Protein powder might be
| twice as expensive directly through GNC, but I share your
| sentiment. I'm comfortable with the risk of a fake widget, but
| absolutely not with food.
| panarky wrote:
| It's not just the scams and counterfeits.
|
| It used to be easy to tell which items are from third-party
| sellers, now often that's hidden.
|
| It used to be that I could trust Amazon to have a reasonable
| price, so I didn't have to price-shop every item every time.
| Now, many common items are only available from third-party
| sellers with wildly inflated prices. Now I feel like I have to
| comparison-shop everything to ensure it's not a rip-off.
|
| It used to be that third-party sellers would be listed in
| descending order by total cost (price plus shipping). Now
| they're in seemingly random order, and you can't see the
| shipping cost until it's in your cart. Many sellers game this
| by listing a low price with ridiculously high shipping.
|
| Really feels like Amazon is going backward at a remarkably fast
| pace.
| tmaly wrote:
| It is a huge marketplace, so I would expect there to be a few bad
| apples. Overall, I would say 70-80% of the stuff I buy does the
| job.
| samwillis wrote:
| The issue there is that there is 20-30% chance of being
| disappointed. That's far to high to justify for most people, I
| would estimate my threshold for confidence when purchasing
| something needs to be >95%.
|
| I now only ever buy from Amazon if I'm stuck for time and need
| it quickly / don't have 10 min to shop around.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| That is a terrible batting average!
| OvidStavrica wrote:
| Google: what is a good batting average
|
| Answer: .300
|
| In modern times, a season batting average of .300 or higher
| is considered to be excellent, and an average higher than
| .400 a nearly unachievable goal.
| cddotdotslash wrote:
| Every review I've left that's under 5 stars has been rejected for
| trivial technical reasons. I received a trash can that was
| heavily scratched and with poor quality hinges. Review rejected
| because it contained references to "issues that might have
| occurred during shipping."
|
| Every product on the site seems to be rated 4.5+, which makes
| sense if they're rejecting reviews in this way.
| in_cahoots wrote:
| Agreed. I bought the same item twice from the same seller, and
| both times a packing label was created but the item was never
| shipped. I couldn't leave feedback because it was a shipping
| issue.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| I've left plenty of < 5* reviews. Also seen plenty of < 5*
| reviews left by other people.
|
| This might be a difference between the U.K. Amazon and their US
| counterpart but I've definitely not had any issues leaving
| negative feedback.
| [deleted]
| Havoc wrote:
| Sorta mixed. I buy a huge amount though, so some misses are to be
| expected.
|
| Amazon warehouse open box stuff - I've had some fraud issues with
| that. Shitty people buying another copy of an old broken item and
| returning the bad one and keeping the new working one. Then the
| next customer (me) trying to keep stuff off the landfill gets a
| broken item as "Like new".
|
| SD cards...haven't had any proper fake ones but some have had
| suspiciously short lifespans.
|
| Bought a incredibly unsafe cheap rice cooker that I used exactly
| once.
|
| No immediate plans to switch to something else. It is still the
| most convenient/cheap frankly even with the misses
| leroman wrote:
| I believe the FBA program exists so that Amazon does not seem
| like a monopoly, as anybody can sell there.. And so, it would
| seem they have very little interest in policing it..
|
| I personally got my money back many times when issues came up, so
| to them it's probably along the lines of "let sellers do their
| things and be quick to refund if customers complain.."
|
| is this tradeoff worth it? Hard to say..
| silisili wrote:
| I'll only buy cheap crap on there anymore, when alternatives are
| slightly more expensive cheap crap in stores. So I basically
| treat them as an online Harbor Freight of sorts. I don't trust
| the brand as a whole anymore.
|
| For me, Walmart kills them. Generally better quality, trusted
| brands that probably won't burn my house down, and they'll bring
| it to my house from the store today. Or 2 day ship it if it's not
| there. And I can get groceries.
| fortran77 wrote:
| Between Target.com, and HomeDepot.com I can get a reasonable
| selection of items that are most likely as described. For
| clothes I go to manufacturer's website directly, or big
| department store websites.
| silisili wrote:
| Yes! Everyone should know that about clothes, forgot to
| mention it. I found a shirt I liked in a department store,
| probably Izod but I don't remember now, and they didn't have
| my size. Went online, to the mfg site, and that shirt was
| like 20% cheaper, and had my size. Now I just order direct!
|
| My kid loves her Gap clothes I buy super cheap from gap
| factory outlet online. 5 bucks for shirts, maybe 10 or 15 for
| jeans.
|
| I'm struggling to see the point of department store clothing
| if they do nothing but mark up clothes.
|
| Obvious disclosure: We are not a high fashion or trendy
| family, ymmv.
| beebmam wrote:
| >I've done most of my shopping for the last 15 years on Amazon
|
| What? How? This is genuinely baffling to me.
| aimor wrote:
| Here's my Amazon purchase count by year. Each * is 5 items,
| nearest neighbor rounding. I'm not a big consumer, I peaked at
| buying a few items every month in 2016, then scaled back and
| haven't bought anything in 2022. 2009 2010
| 2011 * 2012 *** 2013 *** 2014 **** 2015
| **** 2016 ****** 2017 *** 2018 *** 2019
| *** 2020 * 2021 ** 2022
|
| The reason, I think, is that there's just too much crap to sort
| through. I've gone through the dance a few times where I want to
| buy something so I check Amazon, and the results are all
| overpriced junk, then after about an hour of comparing items and
| scanning reviews to understand the problems with the junk I give
| up. It's no surprise, but I've replaced Amazon with box stores
| and ordering directly from businesses online.
| dcchambers wrote:
| I feel like you're several years late to the party here. I think
| it's pretty common knowledge at this point that certain types of
| goods sold on Amazon have a huge chance of being counterfeit and
| everyone knows reviews are faked/not to be trusted blindly.
|
| At this point people seem to not care since Amazon will give a
| refund/exchange pretty much no questions asked. It's still
| extremely annoying and it's definitely not a good look for their
| business, but I assume the number crunchers have determined
| actually dealing with the fraud isn't yet worth it financially.
| Riverheart wrote:
| Yep, pretty well covered at this point.
|
| Ryan George - What Shopping on Amazon Feels Like
| https://youtu.be/nQpxAvjD_30
| rmbyrro wrote:
| I can weed out products with massive fake reviews by the stars
| distribution.
|
| It's a subjective heuristic I developed informally. Never
| formalized anything statistical.
|
| Just looking at the ration between 5 through 1 stars, I have a
| high confidence judging whether they bought fake reviews or
| not.
| rmbyrro wrote:
| I can weed out products with massive fake reviews by the stars
| distribution.
|
| It's a subjective heuristic I developed informally. Never
| formalized anything statistical.
|
| Just looking at the ratio between 5 through 1 stars, I have a
| high confidence judging whether they bought fake reviews or
| not.
| devrand wrote:
| > It's still extremely annoying and it's definitely not a good
| look for their business, but I assume the number crunchers have
| determined actually dealing with the fraud isn't yet worth it
| financially.
|
| They've dealt with it in limited ways. For example, they've
| inked exclusivity agreements with certain brands (ex. Apple) so
| that only Amazon can sell them. So at least that inventory
| should be legit as they don't allow third party sellers.
|
| Of course this is somewhat to Amazon's favor. If a brand is
| concerned about their reputation due to customers unknowingly
| getting counterfeits, they need to strike a deal with Amazon,
| and likely one that is favorable to Amazon.
| CosmicShadow wrote:
| Yep, for years now. Amazon used to feel amazing, now it's
| Scamazon and it's sadly better to buy the literal cheap garbage
| at Walmart than it is to waste the time researching the fake crap
| on Scamazon and still losing out.
|
| It's really pushed me to waste 25 minutes driving across town for
| something that may be in stock and may do the job in most cases.
| akrymski wrote:
| Amazon is now a collection of businesses, including:
|
| - AWS - Amazon Ads - FBA - Marketplace
|
| This is in order of profitability. It seems that Amazon doesn't
| care much about the Marketplace itself.
| fullshark wrote:
| AWS is the only one not heavily dependent on the quality of the
| marketplace, which is what brings people to the website though.
| Seems short sighted to let it drop in quality.
| 300bps wrote:
| I buy stuff from Amazon several times per week. There are whole
| swaths of items I won't buy on there though - anything food
| related or personal care for two examples.
|
| I've had too many incidents of improperly handled or expired food
| being sent to me or outright fake / gray market things.
|
| It's hard to lose confidence in a company overall though with
| such an amazingly easy and liberal return policy.
| prewett wrote:
| You aren't going to lose confidence in a company that has
| "whole swaths of items I won't buy" because of personal
| experience with being shipped expired food and obvious fakes?
| What _would_ it take for you to lose confidence?
|
| Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that are difficult to
| source outside of Amazon, so while I avoid any company whose
| co-mingling policy pretty much guarantees fakes, sometimes you
| just have to take your chances. Day Two can't come quickly
| enough, as far as I'm concerned.
| soneil wrote:
| Until that return policy fights back too. That's a learning
| experience.
|
| I got in a fight with them because I ordered an SSD, I received
| a box containing brown packing paper. When I wanted a refund or
| replacement, they wanted me to return the SSD ..
|
| Their returns policy works fine when you fit in an automated
| workflow. The moment they have to exhibit independent thought,
| you're screwed. And if you try to exercise your consumer
| rights, they'll come down hard. Chargebacks will be met with
| your account being closed, including losing any access digital
| media you've "bought" through them (which is why I still won't
| convert my legacy Audible account to an Amazon account, no
| matter how many times they ask)
| daviddever23box wrote:
| Maybe you're searching for, or selecting and purchasing, the
| wrong items?
| dredmorbius wrote:
| "You're holding it wrong."
|
| https://uxdesign.cc/youre-holding-it-wrong-how-to-blame-the-...
| undoware wrote:
| I once attempted to buy a laser for an EDM music art project on
| Amazon and wound up with something that is more or less
| intentionally down-marked as a less dangerous class of laser.
|
| I only found out about it (and thus saved my retinas) because
| some ML or another decided to queue up a bunch of laser-related
| videos, and it just so happened that the video which surfaced in
| my feed went into how weapons enthusiasts were using Amazon, and
| _this specific brand_ , to sell eyeball eaters to folks who like
| to melt pop cans in ravines at 100 yards or whatever.
|
| Like, when I went back, there were literally laser marks on my
| apartment door from where I tried the laser out, after receiving
| it.
|
| Amazon seems to be pursuing a sort of 'common-carrier' status for
| material goods, and it's a libertarian no-rules Snow Crash
| dystopia.
| whateveracct wrote:
| I shop around more, but I pretty much get good stuff from Amazon
| multiple days a week.
| f6v wrote:
| It's as good as it always was for me. I buy from the German one.
| harel wrote:
| When I buy anything from Amazon I haven't bought before, I always
| check 3 star reviews first. Then I go through a few 1-2 stars. I
| might check one 4-5 stars but usually I treat them all as fake at
| this stage.
| browningstreet wrote:
| I order from Amazon every week and have never had an issue. Not
| sure what's different between my experience, or order item
| selection. (shrug)
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(page generated 2022-06-04 23:00 UTC)