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Disk Prices on Amazon

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Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#61

Post by OJFord »

mNovak wrote: post #48

Setting aside the issue of counterfeits on Amazon, this is really nice. Clear, simple, functional and allows you to explore the space not just comparison shop for a specific item. I've long thought Amazon has terrible search and sort options for things like computer parts. Trying to buy e.g. RAM is a nightmare.

Amazon's sort just flat out doesn't work, I don't understand it, it's obviously not incompetence (and anyone can call a std lib `sort` fn on a given field anyway) so I don't understand why it's an option, why it pretends that sorting by price is something that you can do.

It's not just that it doesn't include shipping (for those which have a fee, which tends to be the cheap tack, presumably to try to catch you out) - even including shipping the order just seems all over the place. I can only assume it's paid-for rankings etc. with no indication of that to the user, but it's a crap site. As a business/seller/provider of goods it's great, and gets too much of my money, but the site really is crap.

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#62

Post by dahfizz »

dredmorbius wrote: post #53
mNovak wrote: post #48

Setting aside the issue of counterfeits on Amazon, this is really nice. Clear, simple, functional and allows you to explore the space not just comparison shop for a specific item. I've long thought Amazon has terrible search and sort options for things like computer parts. Trying to buy e.g. RAM is a nightmare.

Trying to buy any specifically-indicated item, outside possibly books, is a clusterfudge. Amazon's particularly bad, though few retailers are much better. An advantage of going directly to a manufacturer or B&M retailer's page is actually the reduced set of possible products. You still get irrelevant results, but vastly fewer. Less is more.

I disagree. What is needed is focus, not "less".

Finding and buying computer parts is infinitely easier on Newegg than any B&M site, because that's what Newegg does. They have more computer parts than Amazon, not less, but they sort and filter and organize it much much better.

I think Amazon just doesn't care about people who are shopping for items with very exact specificationd in mind. It's an edge case for them. Most people go to Amazon when they want "a tv" or "a teapot".

Whenever I need something specific, I just look up "best X with Y feature review". Almost always I get an Amazon link to the type of thing I was looking for.

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#63

Post by toast0 »

OJFord wrote: post #61
mNovak wrote: post #48

Setting aside the issue of counterfeits on Amazon, this is really nice. Clear, simple, functional and allows you to explore the space not just comparison shop for a specific item. I've long thought Amazon has terrible search and sort options for things like computer parts. Trying to buy e.g. RAM is a nightmare.

Amazon's sort just flat out doesn't work, I don't understand it, it's obviously not incompetence (and anyone can call a std lib `sort` fn on a given field anyway) so I don't understand why it's an option, why it pretends that sorting by price is something that you can do. It's not just that it doesn't include shipping (for those which have a fee, which tends to be the cheap tack, presumably to try to catch you out) -…

The best I can figure is that Amazon sort by price is using the lowest price from any new offer, even after you've narrowed to a specific seller. It might be some grades of used as well. It's also likely that the prices are periodically refreshed for the index, not live.

I don't have any real information though, other than a confirmation that it doesn't do what I want either.

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#64

Post by Mattwmaster58 »

cortesoft wrote: post #55
sn wrote: post #32

We stopped buying drives from Amazon when we got drives for "the wrong region" and couldn't RMA them. NewEgg is a bit better, but don't buy refurbished drives. Provantage is another reputable vendor that usually has decent prices. If you're local to the SF bay area, check out Central Computers. King Star USA also works if you're a business customer making a large purchase.

Drives for the wrong region? What is that?

I assume they got a drive that wasn't meant for their region of the. When they tried to initiate an RMA with the manufacturer, it appears they wouldn't accept it.

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#65

Post by sn »

cortesoft wrote: post #55
sn wrote: post #32

We stopped buying drives from Amazon when we got drives for "the wrong region" and couldn't RMA them. NewEgg is a bit better, but don't buy refurbished drives. Provantage is another reputable vendor that usually has decent prices. If you're local to the SF bay area, check out Central Computers. King Star USA also works if you're a business customer making a large purchase.

Drives for the wrong region? What is that?

Regions like for TV and movies. IE, they sold a drive in Asia and someone sold it to us. We do a warranty check and are told that we can't get a warranty for that drive because we're in the US.

It's worth doing a warranty check with the manufacturer as soon as you receive the drive if there's any possibility at all it might not be up and up, so that you have an opportunity to return the drive if you want to.

Even if the drive is legitimate, a vendor might sell you an OEM drive which means having to go through that vendor for warranty service instead of direct with the manufacturer. That might be too much of a hassle.

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#66

Post by cnst »

OJFord wrote: post #61
mNovak wrote: post #48

Setting aside the issue of counterfeits on Amazon, this is really nice. Clear, simple, functional and allows you to explore the space not just comparison shop for a specific item. I've long thought Amazon has terrible search and sort options for things like computer parts. Trying to buy e.g. RAM is a nightmare.

Amazon's sort just flat out doesn't work, I don't understand it, it's obviously not incompetence (and anyone can call a std lib `sort` fn on a given field anyway) so I don't understand why it's an option, why it pretends that sorting by price is something that you can do. It's not just that it doesn't include shipping (for those which have a fee, which tends to be the cheap tack, presumably to try to catch you out) -…

I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom sort by price has never worked!

They also have tried to specifically promote their clothes and shoe-selling business within Amazon.com, but those have especially bad interface for figuring out price and all. For example, if there are 20 colours of jeans on the same page (e.g., it's considered the same item, just in different colour), do I really have to click to each one of them to find those that are the cheapest and/or are on sale?

And the sort never working by price is just ridiculous. I think it's been like that for years, really amazing that they've never fixed it. Never works even if you select Amazon.com as the only seller.

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#67

Post by kabdib »

At least [edit:] three of the 4TB drives I checked was categorized as "new" but was in fact reburbished ("with a new warranty"). One of them was pretty shady about hiding this fact.

[Life is too short and data is too dear to ever buy one of these refurb units]

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#68

Post by cnst »

toast0 wrote: post #63
OJFord wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon's sort just flat out doesn't work, I don't understand it, it's obviously not incompetence (and anyone can call a std lib `sort` fn on a given field anyway) so I don't understand why it's an option, why it pretends that sorting by price is something that you can do. It's not just that it doesn't include shipping (for those which have a fee, which tends to be the cheap tack, presumably to try to catch you out) -…

The best I can figure is that Amazon sort by price is using the lowest price from any new offer, even after you've narrowed to a specific seller. It might be some grades of used as well. It's also likely that the prices are periodically refreshed for the index, not live. I don't have any real information though, other than a confirmation that it doesn't do what I want either.

How can a site this large get away with such a basic functionality not working as any of their users would want for such a long time? Did it ever work?

I think I've noticed it not working like 5 or 6 years ago when I was shopping for shoes, if not earlier than that. Keep in mind that even without Zappos, they're in the business of selling shoes, too, and have ran some crazy promotions around shoes, too.

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#69

Post by esyir »

joshstrange wrote: post #3

If you are trying to build a NAS or similar then my suggestion is go with shucked WD EasyStore externals, you need to either use molex to sata power to bypass the 2.2v issue or tape the pin but they are WD Whites inside and work very well from my experience. I just keep waiting for the 14TB's to fall a little further so I can replace one of my 5TB parity drives with that so I can grow my array.

Isn't that a bit totally though? I've heard that old one: molex to sata lose all your data

Re: Disk Prices on Amazon

#70

Post by dredmorbius »

dahfizz wrote: post #62
dredmorbius wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to buy any specifically-indicated item, outside possibly books, is a clusterfudge. Amazon's particularly bad, though few retailers are much better. An advantage of going directly to a manufacturer or B&M retailer's page is actually the reduced set of possible products. You still get irrelevant results, but vastly fewer. Less is more.

I disagree. What is needed is focus, not "less". Finding and buying computer parts is infinitely easier on Newegg than any B&M site, because that's what Newegg does. They have more computer parts than Amazon, not less, but they sort and filter and organize it much much better. I think Amazon just doesn't care about people who are shopping for items with very exact specificationd in mind. It's an edge case for them. M…

Amazon's goal to be the world's retailer, selling everything, creates an incentive for vendors to appear in as many search results as possible. Even if the payoff is small, it's a net positive.

For both Amazon and the shopper, most results subtract from the utility of the experience.

The incentives problem is that:

- For vendor, more hits == benefit.

- For Amazon, irrelevant search == small cost, fix == high effort.

- For shopper, irrelevant search == high cost, switching retailers == low cost

The equilibrium point is shitty Amazon search.

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