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The Anti-Amazon Alliance

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Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#401

Post by mleonhard »

Firehawke wrote: post #360
sam_goody wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 r…

SD cards. A very large percentage of what's on there is counterfeit.

The fake SD card problem is so bad that Amazon got an exclusive product (Samsung EVO Select) that only they can sell. Rather than solve the counterfeiting problem, they just make money off it.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#402

Post by dcposch »

Nasrudith wrote: post #398
jimktrains2 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sears just confuses the heck out of me. They had everything they needed to basically be what Amazon is now, before Amazon even existed. Heck they were basically Amazon before the web existed.

I suspect internal political dysfunction is likely to blame for that. Many would rather have their bonus, unchallenged fiefdom, or to not have to learn things rather than success so that is what they wind up with and afterwards rather than admit fault by changing their ways they double down. An online store would "take away" business from their retail fronts and would face plentiful sabotage. It isn't like they had a…

This is one of the most important roles of a strong leader: to swashbuckle through this kind of misalignment.

Organizations age poorly by default. People become motivated to climb the org chart--or, even easier, to stay in place while sprouting new branches under themselves. People become risk averse and unimaginative.

The only way to avoid that fate is with strong leadership. Starship will replace the Falcon 9, and I'm sure there are people on the Falcon team who are not thrilled about that, but the show goes on anyway. Everyone is on a shared mission. It's clear that SpaceX culturally doesn't tolerate people more concerned with internal politics than they are with going to space. Culture comes from the top--the founders, the CEO, and flows from there.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#403

Post by nicbou »

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,…

EBay is a terrible website.

It has an abysmal user interface that seems to have been built by 100 team with an intense hatred for each other.

The feedback system is broken. You can't leave feedback if you opened a case against a seller. Many sellers I had serious problems with had stellar reviews.

The resolution system is also pretty bad. If you open a case that gets automatically closed without being solved, you better hope it all happens within 60 days. Thankfully, PayPal is better run.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#404

Post by imtringued »

cactus2093 wrote: post #304
pas wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you know exactly what you're already looking for. I know what I'm looking for, but most of the products are impossible to evaluate, because there is just not enough info/data. Low res bad stock photos, terse description, no full technical specs, etc. And many Amazon sellers don't sell anywhere else, they don't even have a real website, so ... good luck deciding based on that. And since Amazon become so big,…

I feel like you just entirely explained the situation. There is still a "high-end overpriced" segment for all kinds of industries. Sometimes luxury goods, but sometimes just mid-tier goods sold by companies that still follow the high-margin traditional retail model. With an MSRP price that leaves enough room for inefficient, high-touch stores to take a hefty margin as a middleman. But even someone who actively dislik…

I don't know why Amazon has a "lowest price" reputation on HN. Everything on Amazon is overpriced. The only reason why I still use it is that people give me Amazon gift cards instead of cash. I use geizhals.de to find products and Amazon is rarely shown as the cheapest seller. The price difference isn't insignificant. Depending on the product you can expect to pay 15% more on Amazon and that's what I tell people giving me those amazon cards.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#405

Post by imtringued »

mleonhard wrote: post #401
Firehawke wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SD cards. A very large percentage of what's on there is counterfeit.

The fake SD card problem is so bad that Amazon got an exclusive product (Samsung EVO Select) that only they can sell. Rather than solve the counterfeiting problem, they just make money off it.

This is also the strategy behind AmazonBasics. It's the only brand that is exclusively sold by Amazon. Amazon is basically destroy the reputation of other brands by letting sketchy and fraudulent sellers on their platform do as they please. There are a lot of people who exclusively buy on Amazon so over time they will only trust AmazonBasics products.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#406

Post by pas »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #381
pas wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you know exactly what you're already looking for. I know what I'm looking for, but most of the products are impossible to evaluate, because there is just not enough info/data. Low res bad stock photos, terse description, no full technical specs, etc. And many Amazon sellers don't sell anywhere else, they don't even have a real website, so ... good luck deciding based on that. And since Amazon become so big,…

So don't buy from shit listings just on price and always check if you can buy it direct from the lister on their own web site.

That's what I used to do, but the problem is that alternative sources are simply getting harder to find. So I just defer purchases nowadays until gadgets get better, polished, more reviews pile up, etc.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#407

Post by gentleman11 »

Would be nice to see more competition, but not because of prices or selection but because we want small nice-guys/girls to have a significant presence. If google and other huge companies are the competition, it doesn’t really improve that

Shopify is cool for that: enables a ton of tiny online businesses to thrive

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#408

Post by gerland »

Is modularisation really an answer or is this another case of "A Hundred Authors Against Einstein"? The reason why many people are still driven to Amazon is that dealing with separate entities is just annoying as hell. Small business is definitely less reliable than Amazon and even if client service has been declining, it's still has a predictable baseline. Product search also seems to be working much better in Amazon than in web search engines. If I have to choose between one average retailer and 100 better-and-worse retailers, then I will still use Amazon.

Also - the long tail exists almost exclusively on Amazon.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#409

Post by collyw »

imtringued wrote: post #404
cactus2093 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like you just entirely explained the situation. There is still a "high-end overpriced" segment for all kinds of industries. Sometimes luxury goods, but sometimes just mid-tier goods sold by companies that still follow the high-margin traditional retail model. With an MSRP price that leaves enough room for inefficient, high-touch stores to take a hefty margin as a middleman. But even someone who actively dislik…

I don't know why Amazon has a "lowest price" reputation on HN. Everything on Amazon is overpriced. The only reason why I still use it is that people give me Amazon gift cards instead of cash. I use geizhals.de to find products and Amazon is rarely shown as the cheapest seller. The price difference isn't insignificant. Depending on the product you can expect to pay 15% more on Amazon and that's what I tell people givi…

In Spain and I just ordered a small sofa. I wanted to not use Amazon, but going to the company directly did cost a reasonable amount more.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#410

Post by collyw »

ikt wrote: post #378
Reedx wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, according to the 2020 Tech survey via Vox Media, who is highly critical of tech: 91% have a favorable view of Amazon 73% trust Amazon with their information 70% say Amazon has a positive effect on society 81% would be disappointed if Amazon disappeared https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/2/21144680/verge-tech-survey...

More people trust Microsoft than Apple with their information? What is going on there?

Why is that so hard to believe? Apple has a habit of price gouging for extras. You buy a Mac and you need to spend an extra 30 bucks for a dongle to something basic, like plug in an HDMI cable. That sort of thing can rub people up the wrong way.(That precise example may not be up to date but it was 10 years ago).

Also didn't some celebs get their iCloud (or whatever their offering is) accounts hacked?

I am not saying that I personally find them less reliable than MS, but I can see why less techie people might have a mistrust.

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