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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

#411

Post by cratermoon »

dingaling wrote: post #331
sampo wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so the investors could wring the value out of the company and throw the remains in the dumpster What does that mean in practice?

> What does that mean in practice? Buy the company with loans, strip the tangible assets for cash, burden the company with the loan repayments and bail out. Basically use the company as leverage to buy it, and then make it pay for having been bought out. It will seldom be able to do so, and eventually will stagger into bankruptcy. Both the company and the creditors lose, but not the 'investors'.

This is the best 3x5 card/elevator pitch version of the private equity playbook that I've seen. The part about making the company pay the 'investors' for buying the company is especially poignant.

If anyone never quite "got" the rancor directed at Mitt Romney for his association with Bain Capital, this should clear it up.

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

#412

Post by cratermoon »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #403
cratermoon wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can you give an example? I don't disbelieve you, but it's not something I've come across. What do they do, take an accounting liability completely unrelated to the company, "sell" it to the company, thus putting it on the books there and off the books of the investors?

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

#413

Post by [deleted] »

samatman wrote: post #358
yrimaxi wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nostalgia for the days when the NYT and co. could lie the whole nation into some war (or rather the people who read the NYT).

The manufactured consensus of the mass media had some terrible failure modes. Perhaps it wasn't worth it. But it had a nice positive externality in creating a shared reality for people who otherwise didn't have much in common. We can all watch the landscape shatter into pocket, subcultural realities, and the fear of the other and general distrust is palpable. People are falling back on the old stalwarts: common ances…

[deleted]

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

#414

Post by wyclif »

chihuahua wrote: post #410
wyclif wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks, I'd never heard this before. Do you know of any sources for vintage Pyrex?

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

#415

Post by wyclif »

wyclif wrote: post #414
chihuahua wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks, I'd never heard this before. Do you know of any sources for vintage Pyrex?

EDIT: I just found out that one of the ways to distinguish the earlier, borosilicate Pyrex is that the earlier versions are labeled in all-caps: PYREX.

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

#416

Post by mbesto »

ethbr0 wrote: post #409
mbesto wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 d…

> As in, why would I buy from a Shopify store, if an equivalent product were offered by a bundler?

Simple. I know I'm going to get a genuine product. That's the problem with Amazon, people regularly get cheap imitations.

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

#417

Post by epmaybe »

the_pwner224 wrote: post #373
epmaybe wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many times where I get going on a project and need to get some part (nobody in a 50mi radius supplies electronics unfortunately). I like to keep my momentum going, so I order from amazon because some of those resellers stock locally, and thus I get the product in 1-2 days. Contrast to China/AliExpress, where it may take them 3-4 weeks for the product to reach me. At that point, my interest may have fizzled…

I've found that DigiKey works well. Yes it's $5 shipping, but you can actually buy low quantities at good prices instead of being forced to buy 50 packs of small components for a high $/unit to cover for the free shipping. Because shipping cost is per order instead of built into every item. And they ship within 24 hours, plus everything is good quality, no fakes. I still order stuff like microcontrollers and wire fro…

Hm, might do this for my next project, thanks! I always think about it but then forget as my brain immediately goes to amazon

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

#418

Post by freeAgent »

Bedon292 wrote: post #97
freeAgent wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t care even if you DID buy it. I once reordered some toothbrush heads that I liked only to find a completely different, inferior product. It turned out that the product page had been completely redone since my initial order, but it kept all the old reviews. I reported it to Amazon and they did nothing for months. I think the page changed yet again and was no longer even selling toothbrush heads while still k…

How did you actually report this? I can't even figure out how to report some I found.

I don’t remember exactly since it was a while ago, sorry.

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

#419

Post by ethbr0 »

mbesto wrote: post #416
ethbr0 wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 d…

> As in, why would I buy from a Shopify store, if an equivalent product were offered by a bundler? Simple. I know I'm going to get a genuine product. That's the problem with Amazon, people regularly get cheap imitations.

I was under the impression Shopify didn't promise anything about genuine goods to their customers, and were having to deal (haphazardly) with the same fake problems as their larger competitors. [0]

From reading back through their statements over the years it seemed to have shifted from (initial) 'we're a store platform, and take no responsibility for the content of the store' to (now) 'we have [unspecified] teams dedicated to IP infringement and fraudulent stores.'

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/12/24/i-feel-ch...

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

#420

Post by fest »

judge2020 wrote: post #336
Animats wrote: post #282

Skip the Amazon resellers and order direct from China on Alibaba. Their reputation system is less spammy than Amazon's. One of my areas to watch: solid state relays. Here we have yet another fake Fotek solid state relay on Amazon.[1] Note the "Made in China". Here's the real thing.[2] Note the "Taiwan made" from the real Fotek. Costs a lot more. That's because it will actually handle the rated current. The fakes are…

Surely you mean Aliexpress, unless your product is super cheap or you’d already be ordering 100x or more of that product (since most alibaba shipments are for bulk ordering and have a minimum quantity).

Many products listed on Alibaba has MOQ of 10/100pcs. However if you contact them and ask for a sample, most will happily deliver a few pieces at 2-10x the volume cost + delivery fees.
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