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The Anti-Amazon Alliance

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Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#321

Post by downerending »

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.

I have noticed that they haven't hopped on the "cancel" train (led by Twitter, Facebook, and Google/YouTube). I'm not exactly an Amazon fanboy, but that in itself inspires a certain level of trust.

(Bezos does own WaPo, though.)

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#322

Post by PhineasRex »

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.

In my personal experience there's a huge problem with counterfeit beauty products on Amazon.

Even when it's not counterfeit a lot of brands sell a cheaper version on Amazon than they do through other retailers.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#324

Post by nerfhammer »

MattGaiser wrote: post #309
daotoad wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And 1950 and 1980. They could be great again if they leveraged their old "good, better, best" strategy. Instead of trying to sell all the things like Amazon and Walmart do, they should be offering a broad, curated set of items that are reliable and binned by those three quality descriptors. This specifically addresses the issues many people have with buying from Amazon.

They should mail out one last catalogue to drag everyone back in and then summon them to a well designed website.

You can of course find the final Sears catalog (1993) on amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Sears-Catalog-Roebuck-Company/dp...

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#325

Post by sturgill »

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’m pretty steeped in the Amazon ecosystem. I’m a fan of the Alexa. I watch their content. I use AWS.

But I don’t trust it for anything that goes into my body any more. I’ll make a trip to a GNC to buy ON protein powder. I don’t trust Amazon to sell my something from the actual manufacturer.

That’s new for me. Just in the last couple of years. The risk profile of getting a bad knockoff is overwhelming now. And for ingestibles it’s just not worth it...

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#326

Post by ViViDboarder »

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…

> 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.

Everyone but Trader Joe’s delivers where I love (SF). I don’t think this is true.

> I'm trying to think of any industry Amazon took out when even tried to fight back. Most just whined their way into oblivion.

Remember the Fire Phone? Amazon doesn’t always hit home runs, they have a ton of money so they can afford to fail fast and reinvest elsewhere.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#327

Post by ViViDboarder »

btmiller wrote: post #10
wpietri wrote: post #5

I know Google's doing this for their own reasons, but I'll take the help. I've been an Amazon customer since 1997, but their recent anti-worker actions [1] were the straw [2] that broke the camel's back. I canceled my Prime account, and have decided to start my product search elsewhere. Google's product search has been long neglected, so it's great they're giving it some love. [1] E.g. from many: https://www.nbcnews.…

You might not want to hear it, but those that were fired recently were using their company email address to organize union discussions. You just can’t do that, no matter how justified one is to pursue unionizing.

Doesn’t really change the ethics of it.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#328

Post by stock_toaster »

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,…

> It's just a crap shoot, unless you know exactly what you're already looking for.

Even if you do, inventory co-mingling means that sometimes the seller you think is the seller isn't even the seller!

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#329

Post by aabeshou »

caseysoftware wrote: post #318
katbyte wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, anything of real value where I worry about quality I order from Best Buy. I don’t want to deal with amazon for a tv or freezer.

I did this a couple weeks ago. I shopped around, found a handful on Amazon that would be good, then went to Best Buy to buy one. The best part was that Amazon said they'd ship in May (almost 3 weeks later) while I could pick up from Best Buy the next morning.

Best Buy is actually pretty amazing. Their protection plan is a great deal too because it basically lets you pay a premium to return your item for a full refund in store credit for 2 years.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#330

Post by freeAgent »

The most obvious problems I face with Amazon are due almost entirely to how it's built and how it runs its third-party seller platform. There are duplicate product listings, fake products, fake reviews, and mixed inventory now to the extent that even buying something where "Amazon" is listed as the seller does not prevent you from getting inventory sourced by one of the third-party sellers of the same product. Because of this, I've found myself more and more going to alternatives where I can actually know and trust the retailer and supply chain. I long for the pre-platform Amazon days.

The news that Amazon has also abused sellers on their platform should shock nobody. As soon as they got into selling house brands, the writing was on the wall. Ironically, I can actually trust Amazon's house brands to at least be legitimate, non-fake products even if they do tend to be cheaply made.

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