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Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

arstechnica.com

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Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#401

Post by rendall »

baq wrote: post #393
rendall wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The discussion was toy drones, not USBs.

does it make any difference to my point?

The assertion I responded to was that the only way to ensure "quality" was to support government regulation. I disagreed. Using the heavy hand of government to be sure that these toys don't break within a day is overkill. I suggested an alternative

Rather than argue against that specific point, people began arguing against another easier point: that government regulation protects us from dangerous things

While true, it's a distracting non-sequitur. Argue against what I said, not against a stupider argument that I did not say

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#402

Post by tekknik »

baja_blast wrote: post #277
mikehollinger wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best Buy is my secret weapon. For the last couple of years I’ve gotten gifts for people last minute with same day pickup - as small and simple as new earbuds and as large as a color laser printer. This Christmas I even got an echo show from them when Amazon itself was back ordered past the holidays.

I have been doing the same, Best Buy/Target/Walmart any big box retailer I know does some quality control. I have purchase way too many products from Amazon that broke immediately, just shockingly terrible quality. And the worst part is Amazon isn't cheap anymore, I have found that they have a 20-30% markup over their competitors and the cheap things just third party fake goods. IMO buying the cheapest products on Am…

> And the worst part is Amazon isn't cheap anymore, I have found that they have a 20-30% markup over their competitors and the cheap things just third party fake goods.

I’ve noticed this too, except it’s mostly with health and skin care brands that are trying to use Amazon for free advert / discovery and then push users to their site with lower prices and no Amazon take. I view this as a scumbag move by the vendor myself and find a new product from a vendor not doing this.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#403

Post by stjohnswarts »

cratermoon wrote: post #256
coldpie wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has any retail company ever gotten better after being bought out (thinking NewEgg, Toys R Us, Guitar Center...)? Some incentive is fucked up if decent businesses are being run into the ground.

Toys R Us and Guitar Center are among the retailers bought by private equity firms explicitly so the investors could wring the value out of the company and throw the remains in the dumpster. G.I. Joes was another. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-... By the way the remnants of Toys R Us are now owned by Tru Toys and they are looking to make a comeback.

Also to load them up on with debt from other sources and then let them go bankrupt. Which should be illegal.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#404

Post by [deleted] »

bradfa wrote: post #173
coldpie wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to not be on the US site, for now, but that's very discouraging to see. I don't know where to turn for electronics if Best Buy goes to crap, too. (I smell a market opportunity for a retailer that sells only quality products...)

I’ve started buying electronics from B&H Photo and Provantage recently. So far I’ve been very happy and the prices are reasonable.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#405

Post by bandhphoto »

bradfa wrote: post #173
coldpie wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to not be on the US site, for now, but that's very discouraging to see. I don't know where to turn for electronics if Best Buy goes to crap, too. (I smell a market opportunity for a retailer that sells only quality products...)

I’ve started buying electronics from B&H Photo and Provantage recently. So far I’ve been very happy and the prices are reasonable.

Thank you. -- Henry Posner / B&H Photo-Video

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#406

Post by shadowoflight »

SamBam wrote: post #248
CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know my comment will be lost in a sea of voices, but I need to share my experience _somewhere_ else other than amazon reviews. I got my fiancé two Christmas presents this year - both bought off Amazon. One was an electronic keyboard that was dead on arrival, the other was a snuggie type blanket that started falling apart yesterday. Both items had thousands of 5 star reviews. I usually go somewhere (anywhere) else b…

If you're still every looking for instruments, Sweetwater has excellent stuff, and really stellar customer service. They answered questions by phone before we purchased. I received a keyboard for my daughter, then we had a change of heart and decided we had gotten the wrong one, they handled everything for shipping it back and sending a new one, and called a week later to see if we were happy.

I personally prefer zZounds to Sweetwater, because they're honest about their financing plans instead of making it difficult to realize you're signing up for a credit card until you're halfway through typing in your social.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#407

Post by mbesto »

ethbr0 wrote: post #299
mbesto wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's one thing if the brand has an ongoing relationship with its customers, but nobody wants the burden of dealing with 1,000 slightly different processes for ordering toilet paper. That's the inherent value of Paypal et al. -- abstracting diversity on one side into a standard interface on the customer side. I guess you've never ordered something from a Shopify based store then?

Shopify is Stripe + Ruby. Same strategic idea as PayPal Point being: D2C doesn't solve the trust problem in a scaleable way, except for repeat purchases

> Shopify is Stripe + Ruby.

What on earth does their payment processor and tech choice have to do with a direct to consumer model? I'm talking about the features for the consumer when they shop on a shopify based store.

Trust doesn't scale naturally. That's the point that the GP comment was making. What we saw with Amazon is that bundling[0] works and can scale, but once it reaches that point and trust erodes, then unbundling becomes more appealing to the consumer.

Shopify has struck an interesting middle ground. Lots of the features that make the bundle attractive (one login, saved CC/details, etc.) are baked into Shopify stores. It'll be interesting to see if Shopify rolls out some sort of "Fulfilled by Shopify" and then a "Prime" because then the consumer can ensure quick/free delivery without dealing with the bazaar that is Amazon.

[0] - https://a16z.com/2014/08/15/a16z-podcast-the-topic-thats-las...

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#408

Post by chihuahua »

jimmaswell wrote: post #182
bombcar wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amusingly enough if you trace the history of brand names ... this is why they started! And this is the strength that the major retailers have against Amazon - if Amazon won't police (and they have problems with commingling counterfeit brands, too) then Walmart and Target will jump ahead.

I get the sense this problem is massively overstated around here. My experience on Amazon is great, same for everybody I know who uses it.

I agree. I've had about 400 Amazon orders over the past 20 years, and as far as I can remember, with every single one the item was as described and with good quality. I think I've had 3 problems over the years (item didn't arrive; missing part; container of spices opened during shipping) that were accidental in nature, and they were easy to resolve (refund or replacement)

It does help to be a bit sceptical about some listings. For example, a webcam by "GREETBUAY" for $25 is probably not going to be of high quality. So I don't buy those kinds of things. But in cases where the nature of the item is that it's a single piece of plastic that just needs to be the right shape, I've bought them from sellers with bizarre machine-generated names and received exactly what I wanted.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#409

Post by ethbr0 »

mbesto wrote: post #407
ethbr0 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shopify is Stripe + Ruby. Same strategic idea as PayPal Point being: D2C doesn't solve the trust problem in a scaleable way, except for repeat purchases

> Shopify is Stripe + Ruby. What on earth does their payment processor and tech choice have to do with a direct to consumer model? I'm talking about the features for the consumer when they shop on a shopify based store. Trust doesn't scale naturally. That's the point that the GP comment was making. What we saw with Amazon is that bundling[0] works and can scale, but once it reaches that point and trust erodes, then u…

The Shopify features you outlined are the "how", but not the "why". As in, why would I buy from a Shopify store, if an equivalent product were offered by a bundler?

1,000,000 stores using Shopify are effectively the same as 1,000,000 products on Amazon, only less convenient.

I think the overall takeaway is that trust doesn't scale to Amazon-now-size: i.e. one of the biggest retail companies on the planet.

What it did scale to (and very well) was Amazon-1995-2010-size (eg Etsy or eBay), and there's a lot of size between D2C and those variants of Amazon.

I'm open for convincing, but I don't see a path to "D2C eats the world," when for relatively modest amounts of capital one could create a smaller, right-size Amazon that could bundle and dominate.

Re: Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

#410

Post by chihuahua »

wyclif wrote: post #383
butterfi wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets not forget the brands get bought and the new owners lower the quality until the brand name loses its influence, e.g. Pyrex glass.

I haven't done a comparison of old vs. new Pyrex. In what way did they lower the quality?

It used to be borosilicate glass, and now it's soda-lime glass. Apparently the latter has higher thermal expansion and therefore more likely to shatter when subjected to very rapid temperature changes. There are some conspiracy theories that the material was changed to make it less suitable for meth labs. It seems more likely that it was changed because it's slightly cheaper.
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