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The Anti-Amazon Alliance

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Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#251

Post by anyfoo »

koboll wrote: post #14

>as John Gruber put it on Daring Fireball, “Amazon isn’t hurting for revenue (especially now), but they are hurting for trust.” This is empirically false. Amazon is the second most-trusted brand in America . https://morningconsult.com/most-trusted-brands/ It's wild how easily SV types will tweet things like "No one trusts Amazon!" when the reality outside the Bay Area is so radically and demonstrably opposite.

How far lagging behind is that assessment, or how likely is it that perceived trust is just lagging behind?

Anecdotical, it's wasn't long ago that I was deeply impressed by Amazon's customer service and quality. This has changed drastically, and today I go as far as only using Amazon if I basically have to. Thanks to recent developments (I'd say over the past few years), I now prefer either the manufacturer's website, or shops specialized on the relevant subject. I even get my consumer electronics from Best Buy.

I might be a bit extreme there (or maybe just "further along", depending on how you look at it), but Amazon having gone downhill--from once being well-known for its customer facing qualities no less--is certainly not a new or hot take.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#252

Post by Loughla »

thr0w__4w4y wrote: post #225

Way way back, when Amazon got bigger than just books, my motivation for using them was a) very good selection (in one order, I can order bagel chips, wiper blades and a router?) and b) price. Implicit in this was authenticity and good customer service -- for me, if the product isn't the real thing, or the company is a nightmare to deal with, it's a non-starter. Well now here we are. Fake reviews, counterfeit products…

>their website is almost nothing more than Ebay in some sense

I would argue that it's even worse. At least, IME, the ratings at E-bay for both sellers and products mean something. With Amazon, neither mean a damned thing anymore. It's just a crap shoot, unless you know exactly what you're already looking for.

Amazon used to be nice, because you could actually do product research. The worst thing, again in my opinion, they've done is ruin the ability to actually compare products due to sketchy reviews.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#253

Post by cactus2093 »

thr0w__4w4y wrote: post #225

Way way back, when Amazon got bigger than just books, my motivation for using them was a) very good selection (in one order, I can order bagel chips, wiper blades and a router?) and b) price. Implicit in this was authenticity and good customer service -- for me, if the product isn't the real thing, or the company is a nightmare to deal with, it's a non-starter. Well now here we are. Fake reviews, counterfeit products…

I've been thinking this for years now, that the free-for-all for 3rd party sellers would eventually erode trust and make Amazon less appealing. But it hasn't collapsed yet and they still keep growing.

Now I really view Amazon as two separate products in one interface - there's the Ebay style bazaar, and then there's the first-party store. If I'm looking for a brand-name item, like an iPad or some other gadget, or some camera gear, I can often find it on Amazon and it'll be "shipped from and sold by Amazon", or there are a few other sellers whose names I recognize (like Apple or Adorama for the camera gear I was recently looking at) that I trust to buy from. More and more there's also the Amazon Basics brand covering everything from batteries and usb cables to snacks like trail mix, and I have come to trust their brand as well. These things will generally ship with prime shipping and arrive in 1 or 2 days, I get 5% cash back on my amazon card, and it's convenient to check out and I generally can trust I won't have any issues.

If I'm looking for something that's not brand-name, and I want to pay the cheapest price I can for something that gets the job done, I can venture into the bazaar land. I recently bought some patio furniture and a rug that were quite cheap, and they work pretty well and have been awesome for using my outdoor space during the lockdown. In this side of the platform I know I'm making sacrifices, I often don't get prime shipping, and I may even get counterfit items. I would never buy things like vitamins or lotion or make-up here in the seedy back alleys of the store. And often I do opt to use a different e-commerce site instead of Amazon, rather than risk it here. But I still buy from here occasionally.

I still think Amazon should do more to differentiate these two worlds, the high-trust vs low-trust platforms. But as a frequent user I now know what to look for and am mostly able to distinguish between the two, and I have to admit I do appreciate that the low-trust, 3rd party world exists. It gives me more choice as a consumer, and the alternative is that most of these items wouldn't be available on Amazon at all.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#255

Post by corporateslave5 »

mc32 wrote: post #167
softwaredoug wrote: post #4

As a consultant, I see companies struggling to compete with Amazon (or Amazon-like companies). Most companies struggle for a couple of reasons - They are ego driven, with legacy execs & others relentlessly protecting their status - whereas Amazon is relentlessly data-driven - They have poor incentive structures and are feature factories. They value velocity over outcomes. Amazon, by being more data driven, is focused…

That’s all good; when are they going to take issue with fakes, knockoffs product/review swapping and so on, which, being a data-driven company, they could execute if they wanted to?

There’s 25 billion products in their catalog, with automated additions. The scale of solving the frauds as a data science problem is massive.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#256

Post by vict00ms »

noizejoy wrote: post #222
macintux wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For generations people have bought books they hope to read but never do.

Or guitars they hope to play regularly :-)

The best guitar-purchasing advise I ever got was: Never buy your dream guitar because you'll never feel like you're good enough to play it.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#257

Post by searchableguy »

superimposition wrote: post #243
freeopinion wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using Amazon for reviews seems ironic to me. Product reviews highlight Amazon's single biggest weakness: trust. You can't trust any Amazon review. Many of Amazon's other failings also center around trust.

Agree. If folks have come across better sources for product reviews, would love to get your recommendation.

There are no universal sources. Each source should be viewed with skepticism. That said, I have found small discords to be pretty good for PC hardware/tech related recommendation. Reddit on the other hand seemed a bit terrible at times with outdated or overly fishy marketing power speaking instead of the consumer.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#258

Post by rootusrootus »

freeopinion wrote: post #51
tinyhouse wrote: post #3

Good article. There are a few unknowns still. 1. Is Google really all in on product search? Their product search is pretty bad at the moment and it's a very challenging search space, esp when you work with tens of thousands of retailers. Going directly to retailer/niche-platform sites usually works better for me. For example, for music related I go to reverb.com, for outdoor to rei.com, etc. I then to Google and Amaz…

Using Amazon for reviews seems ironic to me. Product reviews highlight Amazon's single biggest weakness: trust. You can't trust any Amazon review. Many of Amazon's other failings also center around trust.

Yes and no. They have a fake review problem, for sure. But it's usually fairly obvious which reviews are fake and which are not. And Amazon reviews have something I don't really see anywhere else -- pictures. That's a feature I really like.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#259

Post by scarface74 »

zbobet2012 wrote: post #237
scarface74 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t say I could do it cheaper. I’m not an expert, I’m sure that BAMTech could. Also, “the others” that pointed out TCO - was me.

BAMTech (now Disney Stream Services) does not build their own video encoder IIRC. That's because encoding costs are a drop in the bucket compared to their distribution costs.

What does them "building their own encoder" instead of using someone else's encoder have to do with whether they do encoding using AWS's managed services or not?

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#260

Post by buddylw »

thr0w__4w4y wrote: post #225

Way way back, when Amazon got bigger than just books, my motivation for using them was a) very good selection (in one order, I can order bagel chips, wiper blades and a router?) and b) price. Implicit in this was authenticity and good customer service -- for me, if the product isn't the real thing, or the company is a nightmare to deal with, it's a non-starter. Well now here we are. Fake reviews, counterfeit products…

I recently made this realization and that eBay is actually better. eBay doesn't want 30% of the sale. I can order one item at a time prices are generally lower and, imo quality and risk are the same.
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