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Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

theatlantic.com

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Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#3

Post by justtopost »

I seem to return 1 out of 8 Amazon items, even eating the occasional cost of poor quality items, because I needed -something-. They seem more and more to make me print and mail stuff back, first making ups pickup no longer the default, and now removing the option altogether.

I get lots of seemingly purposely mislabled products in the automotive section now. I think i get maybe 50% success rate ordering car parts. Lots of fakes. NGK, DENSO, and HONDA products seem to be prolific with counterfits. Had good luck with GM and Toyota parts so far, but I expect that to change, or be a fluke. Their automotive idea may see profit, bit I think they underestimated the extra complexity and returns inherent. Brick and mortar stores do much better at soaking up cost of returned parts I suspect.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#4

Post by gaius »

justtopost wrote: post #3

I seem to return 1 out of 8 Amazon items, even eating the occasional cost of poor quality items, because I needed -something-. They seem more and more to make me print and mail stuff back, first making ups pickup no longer the default, and now removing the option altogether. I get lots of seemingly purposely mislabled products in the automotive section now. I think i get maybe 50% success rate ordering car parts. Lot…

If a product is a counterfeit then the cost they are soaking up is not that of the return, but that of failing to police their supply chain. And they absolutely should be looking to minimise the hassle to the customers in that case.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#5

Post by vxNsr »

More and more I'm finding myself trying to find other ways to shop for things. A recent example is ice skates, I need a new pair, but no matter what I search for I can't seem to find anything on amazon with good reviews or a brand that I trust. At this point I'm probably gonna end up going to dickes and buying something in store even though it's a little over my budget, I just don't wanna play the return game. Plus, it seems at least in this case, most of the options aren't available on prime, so shipping in both directions is gonna cost.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#6

Post by nanoseltzer »

They may have ruined online shopping but they haven’t solved it either. The clothing retailers (an area hard for amazon to move in on) will remain competitive.

I think the one area amazon absolutely has done right is customer service. If any other company made their customer service as good, easy, and simple, I think they would be able to catch up quickly as well.

For example: I recently bought a jacket on sale from Columbia sportswear. It didn’t get delivered to my unit properly (despite their usps tracking saying that it did), and when I emailed them about it: absolutely no response. My issue went into a black hole. Of course I have now blacklisted Columbia sports: never again. If this was an amazon purchase, I would have been able to resolve it almost immediately.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#7

Post by arkades »

nanoseltzer wrote: post #6

They may have ruined online shopping but they haven’t solved it either. The clothing retailers (an area hard for amazon to move in on) will remain competitive. I think the one area amazon absolutely has done right is customer service. If any other company made their customer service as good, easy, and simple, I think they would be able to catch up quickly as well. For example: I recently bought a jacket on sale from…

I find it interesting that we think of Amazon as having gotten "customer service" right. I've had two classes of experience with Amazon:

Products they act as a seller for, and products they act as a producer for.

When I'm buying item X and it's not up to par, Amazon's response is invariably "just send it on back and we'll refund you." At one point I complained I'm not taking a half-day off work to get this $5 item in the mail and they said never mind, just keep it, and we'll refund you anyway.

Awesome.

OTOH, they have a $10/mo (or so) a la carte book service, labelled "Prime Books," with a "free" subtitle (or it was - I haven't checked back recently.) Clicking on it was auto-enrolling. I didn't find out for a few months that they'd apparently one-click-enrolled me in a recurring monthly bill. It took me 3 hours on the phone to get them to partially refund it, and it ended with me closing my account then and there. Despite having been a member since they more or less "opened their doors," and a good chunk of my household spending going through their portal, refunding money from their own service was a line in the sand for them.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#8

Post by bpicolo »

vxNsr wrote: post #5

More and more I'm finding myself trying to find other ways to shop for things. A recent example is ice skates, I need a new pair, but no matter what I search for I can't seem to find anything on amazon with good reviews or a brand that I trust. At this point I'm probably gonna end up going to dickes and buying something in store even though it's a little over my budget, I just don't wanna play the return game. Plus,…

I’ve definitely reached the point where I’ll only make Amazon purchases for specifically branded goods. I tend to use social media networks to find product recommendations, like Reddit. There’s no question that some brands pay people to subtlety advertise there as well, but it usually feels easy to get through to the truth on hobbyist subreddits

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#10

Post by hirundo »

> But there’s a reason that we used to have shoe stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, bookstores, and all the rest: Those specialized retail spaces allow products, and the people with knowledge about them, to engage in specialized ways of finding, choosing, and purchasing them.

There's a reason why so much commerce has moved online in general and to Amazon in particular: We often value price and convenience and oodles of consumer reviews and easy access to competition and related info more than we value meat space salespeople with specialized knowledge laying on personalized sales pressure.

Not always. I drove for three hours to shop for an office chair in a brick and mortar store, because I had to actually try it before paying the big bucks. But often enough to remake the economy.

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