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The Anti-Amazon Alliance

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271–280 of 419 posts

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#271

Post by kup0 »

I have a lot of issues with Amazon in terms of worker treatment, etc - but admittedly, out of all the online shopping I've done, I still go back to Amazon because I get items delivered quickly, the prices in most categories (as a Prime member with free shipping) are still competitive with only the occasional exception, and every return I've done so far has been super easy.

Despite its problems, it's still for sure the best shopping experience online overall for me, as much as I hate that to be true

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#272

Post by bb2018 »

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.

Last year I made 349 orders on Amazon and cannot think of a single time I got a counterfeit item or felt tricked by the reviews.

I would really like to wonder of the people encountering frequent fake products on Amazon, what categories are you shopping in? Is it fashion items or something similar? My main Amazon purchases are household items/toiletries and then hobby electronic parts. I haven't had any issues with these - and beyond the review issue the Amazon pricing/delivery time/return policy is by far the best of any site I've dealt with.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#273

Post by rootusrootus »

localhost wrote: post #245

If you’re trying to buy anything on Amazon right now , you’ll likely be frustrated by shipping times. It’s super inconsistent. For example, I got a keyboard delivered to me next day, but if I wanted to have cloth delivered it would take a month. So I’ve started sourcing things that I want to buy directly from the manufacturers. I really like the Shopify model, as they (currently) don’t compete with their customers un…

> frustrated by shipping times

Personally, this is the issue with the largest effect on my willingness to try other e-commerce sites. When 1-2 day shipping becomes normal, it's hard to want to shop somewhere else like eBay when shipping times are usually in the 1-2+ week time frame. So when Amazon started telling me it would be 3-4 weeks before I got what I ordered (because apparently their definition of essential doesn't overlap completely with my own), I started looking other places.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#274

Post by LatteLazy »

At least at the moment, amazon is the only online shop operating here in the UK (also, Union coffee). 20 years ago, they were the only place with a website. Now they're the only place who can keep that website working and keep the infrastructure behind it working.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#275

Post by hyperdimension »

caseysoftware wrote: post #270
Loughla wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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,…

When I know vaguely what a product should do, I use Amazon to find the specific brand, product, and models. Then I try to buy it directly from the manufacturer whenever possible. What's the search engine equivalent of "showrooming"?

Funny, I heard of Best Buy (a major US electronics chain of stores) being called the "Amazon showroom" more than a few years ago. I never would've thought the situation would've flipped like that.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#276

Post by golemiprague »

alkonaut wrote: post #187

These days when Sweden is often touted as “the experiment”, you can actually go there to see what e-commerce looks like in 2020 without Amazon. It might sound crazy but there is... no Amazon. If I go to amazon.se I end up at amazon.de There is no same day delivery of household products (like toilet paper). If I want a book I need to go to an online bookstore. Why this is I’m not sure. But it’s interesting.

Amazon in Australia exists but it is not that successful, many people still prefer to buy in Ebay and other online stores. Most things you don't need at the same day and ebay is cheaper and got more variety. Maybe because Australia is far away and the population is so small and sparse it doesn't make sense to keep local stock like Amazon do. There is also no culture of returns like in the US and general service in shops is not as good and lenient as in the US so people don't expect it also from the online seller.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#277

Post by break_the_bank »

MattGaiser wrote: post #93

Most non-Amazon businesses are mediocre. Most grocery stores still don't have online ordering. Years, and years, and years, after Amazon entered the field, the other grocers have just decided to lie down and die. Still waiting for Chapters (a bookstore in Canada) to start sending me reading good reading recommendations. Still waiting on VISA to make generalized gift cards which are not miserable to use. I'm trying to…

There's also a limit on the number of marketplaces I'm comfortable sharing my credit card with. Out of all the market places online I'm more comfortable sharing my card with Amazon and I've a higher trust on things arriving in time.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#278

Post by qvrjuec »

pc86 wrote: post #146
scarface74 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video encoding is definitely more expensive with AWS if you know how to do it yourself and you spend the money up front on hardware.

Name one thing on the cloud that isn't more expensive compared to owning the hardware and having the expertise to do it yourself?

If time=money, scaling your hardware.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#279

Post by sam_goody »

bb2018 wrote: post #272
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.

Last year I made 349 orders on Amazon and cannot think of a single time I got a counterfeit item or felt tricked by the reviews. I would really like to wonder of the people encountering frequent fake products on Amazon, what categories are you shopping in? Is it fashion items or something similar? My main Amazon purchases are household items/toiletries and then hobby electronic parts. I haven't had any issues with th…

I've gotten fakes from Amazon, but it is not always obvious that you've got a fake.

There was an article recently with pictures of the real and fake items, both from Amazon. You wouldn't know which was which even if they were side by side.

But the fake will probably fall apart faster, may leak poison and is overall not what you thought to buy.

And that is all aside from the issue of fake reviews, which are so prevalent as to be the nrm. So the product might be an original, but it is not what you thought you were getting in way of reliability or noise et al.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#280

Post by MattGaiser »

break_the_bank wrote: post #277
MattGaiser wrote: post #93

Most non-Amazon businesses are mediocre. Most grocery stores still don't have online ordering. Years, and years, and years, after Amazon entered the field, the other grocers have just decided to lie down and die. Still waiting for Chapters (a bookstore in Canada) to start sending me reading good reading recommendations. Still waiting on VISA to make generalized gift cards which are not miserable to use. I'm trying to…

There's also a limit on the number of marketplaces I'm comfortable sharing my credit card with. Out of all the market places online I'm more comfortable sharing my card with Amazon and I've a higher trust on things arriving in time.

PayPal solves that problem does it not?
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