181–190 of 321 posts
I really wish Amazon would flag products who using images very similar to other listings. I'm tired of seeing dropshippers putting a random company logo on an alibaba listing. Leads to crap products and a poor experience.
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Why on earth are people buying stuff like smoke detectors from Amazon? Across most of the US your fire department will likely hand them out for free, and even if you have to pay you can at least be assured that someone is monitoring the supply chain and product safety. Your life isn't worth the $5 Amazon discount.
Amazon isn't really cheaper for anything (unless you count getting a Duwuu 'brand' cable instead of a reputable brand as a discount). Why do people (I?) order from amazon? 1. I don't mind taking $8 electronic devices apart and resoldering connections or doing basic troubleshooting 2. Often get a product in a day or three 3. I have no idea where I would buy a sediment filter (or similar specialized thing) that isn't w…
For your example, I usually buy filters from AllFilters.com
https://www.allfilters.com/sedimentfilters
Or, I might buy direct from the manufacturer's parts website
https://www.geapplianceparts.com/store/parts/spec/FTHPM
Expanding on that idea, I often buy electrical components from a retailer like Mouser or Digikey or Adafruit or others before I buy off Amazon.
If I'm lucky there's some nice local retailers and I'll buy from them. There's a few local comic and game stores nearby, I'll practically always buy from them even if they're a few bucks more than Amazon for some particular item.
Amazon is almost always my last retailer I go to. I've had so many bad experiences with Amazon over the last few years. The majority of Amazon orders I've had in the past 5 years ended up involving Amazon support.
I don't get they don't crack down on the product switcheroo scam [0] - it seems like a trivial problem to solve. I've reported items to them before and they don't care. [0] this product for example, loads of the reviews are for something totally different - https://www.amazon.co.uk/WERPOWER-Windscreen-Invisible-Winds...
How is it trivial to solve? They either need to prevent sellers from modifying product pages (which would be a disaster because any mistakes could no longer be fixed without losing all reviews) or gate it behind human intervention(slow) /algorithm (complex). There's nothing trivial about the issue.
I’ve given up on Amazon shopping years ago. I much prefer to buy things directly from specific retailers, eg: outdoor gear from an outdoor retailer, clothes directly from the brand, etc. This has resulted in never having to return anything, not rolling the dice on product legitimacy, and pretty great customer service who is knowledgable of the products.
If I buy from xiangxiangshenzencorp then I expect the item to be crap, but it's obvious from the listing and the price. If I buy from a reputable brand I also know what to expect.
I honestly don't get how people can get a quality different from what was clear from the listing (well, I've been positively surprised in the past).
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Trivial is an overstatement, but the solution space is far broader than the two options you propose. I can think of one off the top of my head: Give each listing a change score, where changing a description is a point, changing a photo is a point, perhaps changing categories is 2 or 3 points… At a certain threshold of points (tweaked over time to calibrate against false positives) the listing is flagged for human rev…
It's absolutely trivial if you have a human review changes. But that's expensive. So I'd assert the problem is trivial but expensive, and Amazon lacks the proper incentives to do anything about it: they make money from fraudulent sales. It's a short-term incentive to not solve the problem. Sure, there's a long-term cost that this fraud slowly erodes Amazon's reputation, but it's hard to measure and its consequences a…
There is nothing trivial about that. At amazon’s scale that is an army who needs to be hired, trained, prevented from colluding with scammers, quality controlled, etc etc.
I’ve given up on Amazon shopping years ago. I much prefer to buy things directly from specific retailers, eg: outdoor gear from an outdoor retailer, clothes directly from the brand, etc. This has resulted in never having to return anything, not rolling the dice on product legitimacy, and pretty great customer service who is knowledgable of the products.
I've gone back to ebay for commodities/non-name brand. So far, prices are better, shipping is faster, returns are easier, and fakes aren't an issue.
I don't get they don't crack down on the product switcheroo scam [0] - it seems like a trivial problem to solve. I've reported items to them before and they don't care. [0] this product for example, loads of the reviews are for something totally different - https://www.amazon.co.uk/WERPOWER-Windscreen-Invisible-Winds...
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I am intrigued that such a button is superior to having someone read the tickets.
Andon is a manufacturing concept. It’s a button that, when triggered, stops the manufacturing line. You push it when things are systemically broken, and it has massive consequences because it costs companies meaningful cash. I can’t see how disabling sales of a single product is equivalent either.
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I got one of these, i bought a kids alarm clock for my daughter, it works really well, good quality. I did cash in the gift card. Why not? now if it was some crap product, i would report the bribe.
Who would you report it to? Amazon doesn't care. Is there a state-level consumer affairs department that might care? The FTC maybe?
> If you endorse a product through social media, your endorsement message should make it obvious when you have a relationship (“material connection”) with the brand. A “material connection” to the brand includes a personal, family, or employment relationship or a financial relationship – such as the brand paying you or giving you free or discounted products or services.
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Andon is a manufacturing concept. It’s a button that, when triggered, stops the manufacturing line. You push it when things are systemically broken, and it has massive consequences because it costs companies meaningful cash. I can’t see how disabling sales of a single product is equivalent either.
I heard Jeff tell this story and it was about a dining table that often arrived with a gouge in the top surface. It was costing Amazon a lot to ship, and a lot to get it returned, and the table was essentially worthless when returned. Even if only 5% of the tables are returned, this makes selling this table a loss maker. Quickest way to increase profits -- stop doing things that make you a loss!