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The Anti-Amazon Alliance

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Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#281

Post by bb2018 »

sam_goody wrote: post #279
bb2018 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 prevale…

I'd still like to know what category of product you and others are talking about. I'm not in denial - just legitimately curious.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#282

Post by miscPerson »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #27
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…

>To compete with Amazon, you have to learn from them, and be prepared to adopt their practices as the new industry norm. Amazon has taught me to go out of my way to buy directly from manufacturer or a reputable retailer that doesn't offer third party sellers on their website. I don't want to save 10%, 20%, even 50% to risk any chance of getting some counterfeit crap. Hopefully, there will be sufficient customers like…

This is what keeps me going to physical stores for certain goods: they’re liable for counterfeits.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#283

Post by localhost »

rootusrootus wrote: post #273
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 do…

This is why I'm looking forward to Shopify Fulfillment Network [1] helping to level the distribution playing field.

[1] https://www.shopify.com/fulfillment

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#284

Post by sam_goody »

bb2018 wrote: post #281
sam_goody wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 prevale…

I'd still like to know what category of product you and others are talking about. I'm not in denial - just legitimately curious.

A fake watch (Armstrong IIRC. Wasn't waterproof as it should have been, and - too late - realized the word "water resistant" was misspelled.)

A fake wire sodder, which was pretty expensive and cost me in damage to the item I wanted to build. I turned to the manufacturer and complained, and they asked me to send images... it was a fake.

We got Desitin with a very weird consistency and smell. I am convinced it is not real, and have been afraid to use it.

An external disk drive, wich wasn't fake, but was also clearly not the brand it said on the box. I complained about that, and am still waiting for a resolution.

Those are what I recall offhand, but mostly have been avoiding Amazon.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#285

Post by TylerE »

Loughla wrote: post #252
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,…

"A++++++++++++++++++ AMAZING SELLR" means something?

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#286

Post by [deleted] »

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"?

[deleted]

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#287

Post by bsanr2 »

partyboat1586 wrote: post #191
bsanr2 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree that there aren't multiple premium brands within the phone, computer, and media player spaces, but humoring you, I would say that platform lock-in is a factor. If I sell my Ferrari to buy a Lambo, I don't have to find new gas stations and roads to use.

First of all the media player space is dead. Secondly just because Samsung Andriod phones or Dell XPS laptops are nominally premium doesn't mean they are on par with Apple in terms of how they are perceived by consumers. They are also certainly not status symbols. A Lambo or a Ferrari are pretty much on par in the eyes of the consumer for how premium they are and how much of a status symbol they are. Not so with X pr…

>First of all the media player space is dead.

Not quite. In fact, the premium media player space is essentially the only one that still exists. They're mostly Android-based devices with high-quality DACs for the playback of lossless, high-bitrate music files.

>Secondly just because Samsung Andriod phones or Dell XPS laptops are nominally premium doesn't mean they are on par with Apple in terms of how they are perceived by consumers.

I disagree. Microsoft's Surface line is also seen as premium, and Lenovo's Thinkpad line is still considered to offer top performance for business and enterprise customers. In phones, Apple is not unassailable in the US, and outside it, deals with heavy competition from Samsung and Chinese brands.

>I think the other factor is that Apple uses their own proprietary operating system.

You sound like a fanboy.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#288

Post by bsanr2 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #175
bsanr2 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea that Jobs had "great taste" is a myth. What he was good at was implementing an all-encompassing product strategy that established Apple products as status symbols. I don't think it's an accident that Apple "arrived" in the late 90s. Why? Because that's when their experience with education enterprise could be combined with the broad marketing lessons to be learned from products like Air Jordans. Apple…

>Every generation of Apple product has a competitor that's more elegant, better-performing, more durable and reliable, better integrated within its own ecosystem, etc. Just the fact that Apple actually provides software updates for devices for years longer than their competitors seems to disprove at least part of this statement. Their investment in retail stores and customer service is laudable, but to say the iPad h…

I suppose that depends on what device category you place the iPad. To many, it's a particularly hobbled laptop, especially with the advent of 2-in-1s.

>Apple actually provides software updates for devices for years longer than their competitors

This is also debatable. The nature of Apple's sandbox means that it's much harder to find third-party support. A nominal official upgrade that effectively bricks your older device doesn't compare favorably to a PC or phone that can have FOSS replacements installed that actually increase performance.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#289

Post by sanderjd »

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…

My distrust of Amazon started when I had a baby. It felt like about 80% of the stuff I ordered at first was junk. Maybe not fake, I don't know, maybe I was just being too trusting with what I was ordering, but either way it was total junk. So I started reading reviews a lot more carefully. This didn't help, I still just got junk. So then I started only ordering things from brand names I recognized. A couple times I messed up and didn't order from the actual manufacturer, and got fake or refurbished items. Then I realized if I'm just buying brands I recognize, I can just as easily pick them up at Target for the same price. My Amazon purchasing has dropped way down since this experience.

Edit to add: just last week I ordered a potty training seat from Amazon. Great reviews. Supposedly installs into every kind of toilet. It shows up and, predictably, does not work properly with any of our toilets. I wish I would have gotten it from Target or the local consignment store where I could look at it and ask about how it works, and I probably would have if not for the lock-down. So Amazon is getting my business right now, but it's very begrudgingly.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#290

Post by bsder »

prismatk wrote: post #244
ansible wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * For electronics there is microcenter.com, frys.com, tigerdirect.com, circuitcity.com, and many many more.* Definitely drop frys.com from the list, they are going out of business. Actually, except for microcenter.com, I wouldn't buy from the others either. newegg.com seems to have the best attribute filtering by far.

If frys hasn't gone out of business yet, they're not going to - last one I was in only sold gift bags and batteries in a massive retail space and yet somehow they were still there. The retail gods must love Mr. Fry.

> If frys hasn't gone out of business yet, they're not going to - last one I was in only sold gift bags and batteries in a massive retail space and yet somehow they were still there.

I really don't understand why Fry's isn't out of business.

Do they own the real estate they're sitting on or something? Are their online operations that profitable?

Sure, a private company can carry losses for as long as they have money. But, why would you?

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