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Amazon without the knockoffs

knockoff.shopping

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Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#61

Post by glzone1 »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #11

Even better, buy direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon. I've found most of the time you get the same price and free shipping without giving Jeff Bezos a dime.

I've had bad experiances trying this:

- Return experience is TERRIBLE. I'm not kidding, with Amazon you've got one click to a QR code and a UPS store dropoff. Some of these mfgs you are jumping hoops for a week plus! And then have to box, buy a label, often pay for shipping and more. IF you can even get in touch with someone.

- Shipping experience is TERRIBLE. How does FedEx stay in business? I'm serious - the express port of their name is a joke. Stuff will randomly get stuck in a warehouse for a week. I've had their call center tell me that for SURE it will be delivered x date (because the online tool shows that date) but the package is still out of state at 9PM. So they'd need to get it in state, then to distribution center and then to a truck to my house by midnight - surprise surprise that didn't happen.

- I've gotten used products from the mfg? Do they get amazon returns back and then try to ship direct with those? How does this work that the new product is under the amazon.com seller and the mfg has the USED?

- You get on more mailing lists going direct. ULINE and friends now ship me these huge catalogs following tiny tiny purchases. Catalogs are still a thing!

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#62

Post by idopmstuff »

I own a dozen Amazon brands that are probably largely of the kind that OP would want this to get rid of (sourced from China, not name brands by any stretch, only sell on Amazon). For the most part I would say this extension is not a great idea (obviously very biased!), since I purchase brands that have high quality products that typically have pretty poor branding/online presence that I can improve. My stuff is very frequently of the same quality (and sometimes from the same factories) as much pricier stuff but at a lower cost. To some of those suggesting you can get this stuff on Aliexpress, in some cases that is true, though of course the big benefit of buying from Amazon is that there's no risk to buying no-name stuff because if it's junk you can return it.

In any case, I gave this a try to see which of my brands it would filter out. It's weirdly inconsistent.

One of my brands was filtered out because there's no brand name at the beginning of the listing. That's just an outright bad rule, because Amazon generally decides whether or not the brand name appears first. This brand is trademarked and has Brand Registry, so it qualifies for that treatment, just not getting it right now. Also, a number of other brands without brand names did not get the same treatment (and these are very much the type of products this is designed to filter out).

On another one, it misunderstood the product model, which is at the beginning of the product name, as the brand and hid it based on that. That one was a bad one because the model is only three characters, which is extremely unlikely for a brand name.

One product I sell is a hunting accessory, so I did some searches there. It hid everything by the brand KUIU, which is a well-known and very high end hunting brand. Definitely wrong there.

So yeah, sort of an interesting idea, but the execution is pretty sloppy and the creator clearly doesn't have a full understanding of how Amazon listings work.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#63

Post by reeddavid »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #11

Even better, buy direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon. I've found most of the time you get the same price and free shipping without giving Jeff Bezos a dime.

My biggest issue here is delivery date certainty. So often the manufacturer will list "2-5 day delivery" or similar. But no way to tell which side of the country they ship from.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#64

Post by 1970-01-01 »

0x457 wrote: post #25
mjamesaustin wrote: post #11

Even better, buy direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon. I've found most of the time you get the same price and free shipping without giving Jeff Bezos a dime.

Every time I do that I get frustrated: - shipping sometimes goes to from day(s) to weeks - suddenly their ads start going to email - please review us emails I'd rather bezos get his cut.

This. Amazon has the best checkout and delivery system in the world, and that alone is worth a few extra dollars. The excess crap gets caught in the appropriate filters and I just end up with my item in a box.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#65

Post by whilenot-dev »

ssl-3 wrote: post #53
whilenot-dev wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? Where is the percentage of "75-80%" coming from? Local service is great, and I'm happy to pay a little extra to see my neighbors employed.

They were talking about buying directly from the manufacturer (presumably to be delivered) instead of Amazon (definitely to be delivered). You're talking about buying from a local shop. Unless that local shop is also the manufacturer, then that's a whole different discussion. :)

Well yeah, but GP also writes about local shops and complains about quality and service...

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#66

Post by Night_Thastus »

advisedwang wrote: post #46

This says it's using AmazonBrandFilter's list of brands. Why would we use/support this chrome extension instead of the upstream one [1] which is actually doing the important maintanance task? "Knockoff" seems to be literally describing itself. [1] https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/amazonbrandfilter/m...

It seems like AmazonBrandFilterList is one of the lists they use. It also seems like there a couple extra features that doesn't have. Either way, it's not like they're hiding the use of it. It would be another thing if it was being secret about it.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#68

Post by mindslight »

Cyberdog wrote: post #43
mindslight wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you enjoy eating just rice wrapped in a tortilla or something? Burritos are a harsh illustration of the economy of scale. Doing a quick tally with sale prices, and I'd think buying all the ingredients to make one single burrito would be upwards of $20-25, at least. Never mind the time to cook each ingredient that needs to be cooked. And most of these supplies and prep are going to last what, ~4 days before they sp…

But you wouldn't be making a single burrito. You'd be making several over several days, and/or using the leftover ingredients for other meals. Economic literacy is truly dead, isn't it? Good lord.

This is what you said: "Make your burrito or bowl at home, and it'll cost $4 or less"

That statement implies you can straightforwardly save by substituting that one meal with a made at home meal. The reality is much more complicated, as shown by your backpedaling to making several burritos and other meals.

I could just as easily lob that economic literacy jab right back at you. For example, perhaps OP has a burrito once a week, to break up the monotony of eating a home made sandwich every other day. That would be savvy, right?

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#70

Post by [deleted] »

glzone1 wrote: post #61
mjamesaustin wrote: post #11

Even better, buy direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon. I've found most of the time you get the same price and free shipping without giving Jeff Bezos a dime.

I've had bad experiances trying this: - Return experience is TERRIBLE. I'm not kidding, with Amazon you've got one click to a QR code and a UPS store dropoff. Some of these mfgs you are jumping hoops for a week plus! And then have to box, buy a label, often pay for shipping and more. IF you can even get in touch with someone. - Shipping experience is TERRIBLE. How does FedEx stay in business? I'm serious - the expres…

[deleted]
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