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The Amazon tax

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Re: The Amazon tax

#51

Post by ButlerianJihad »

forsalebypwner wrote: post #45
johnnyApplePRNG wrote: post #42

Amazon has no mercy, so neither do I. In my defense, they started it. (I had purchased a stainless steel muffler with a lifetime warranty off of Amazon Auto, the thing was counterfeit, completely rusted through in less than a year, and Amazon would not honor their written warranty and I didn't care to fight it legally...) So the next time they dropped my package off in my lobby when I have specific instructions to br…

They don't "always believe this", this will lead to your account being banned eventually, or at least barred from returning products.

I certainly hope so. GP implies that they are committing fraud to "stick it to the man". Nine times out of ten, this simply results in the man sticking it to us again.

Re: The Amazon tax

#52

Post by toomuchtodo »

abixb wrote: post #29

I've slowly shifted all my consumer purchases from Amazon to local shops and other online platforms, including Etsy. I'm now seriously contemplating deleting my Amazon account of 15 years in one whole swoop. The quality degradation is painfully apparent, and the value add of Amazon in my life has been steadily declining for a while. I've also had terrible experiences with AWS, but that's a different story. Amazon's o…

If you have a Costco nearby, highly recommend for the products they carry. I pay for the executive membership, and also ship products to where ever I need using their online shopping.

(no affiliation, I just love the company and how they treat their employees and customers, strong value for price paid imho)

Re: The Amazon tax

#53

Post by dooglius »

paytonjjones wrote: post #10

> They know the best-reviewed, least-returned, best-priced model. The only purpose of the ads is to get you to pick an air fryer that isn’t that one Thoughtless take. Say you've just invented a better looking, better functioning, cheaper air fryer. How do you expect to reach your first customers if not through ads? Sell it to your friends? That's even more invasive and annoying. People's urge to rid the world of ads…

Unless your _ads_ are going to compete with your competitors' then that's not going to be effective. Ironically middlemen are probably solution here, you'd be better off going to trade shows and working with department stores that sell air fryers, they'll want to turn your lower cost into their higher margin.

Re: The Amazon tax

#54

Post by forinti »

the_real_cher wrote: post #6

Whats going to be hilarious is if brick and mortar companies become popular again because of the painful U.I., scammy companies, and broken search of Amazon.

That's just not going to happen. You have to go out in the rain or heat, pay for parking, maybe not find what you want, pay 30% more than online, so online still has advantages.

What baffles me is that e-commerce sites all tend to get worse with time. The moment a site I like turns into a marketplace, I know it will only go downhill.

Re: The Amazon tax

#55

Post by paxys »

t1234s wrote: post #39

Prime is a waste of money. I find most stuff arrives in 2-3 days and its easy to spend the minimum to get free shipping.

I feel at least in major urban areas Amazon’s delivery network is efficient enough that they have to artificially delay non-Prime orders. I order from Amazon only occasionally, and while sometimes there’s actual step-by-step tracking I’ll usually see no movement at all for 3+ days, and suddenly the item has dispatched from the warehouse and it is reaching my house in an hour.

Re: The Amazon tax

#56

Post by yuck39 »

automatic6131 wrote: post #5

Amazon is almost completely unusable for search at this stage. I think perhaps 3/4 of the results are sponsored ads. Three in four. Trying to find a good deal on a product, even if you know precisely what you're looking for, is a real headache of trying to dodge the advertisement minefield.

I imagine most readers haven't tried tiktok shop (or similar Chinese consumer shopping platforms).

ByteDance has reimplemented their now infamous video suggestion algorithm for shopping and it is _very_ effective.

Once the infrastructure and logistics of the Chinese eCommerce platforms improve in the US, it will be so much better that I imagine that Bezos only recourse will be to have congress ban them (a la the Chinese EV ban).

He will likely be successful in doing this and allow the US to slide further into modern technological irrelevancy at his own benefit.

Re: The Amazon tax

#57

Post by MetaMalone »

solatic wrote: post #46

> It leads to two perverse side effects. First, producers realize that if brand reputation matters less than a budget for clicks, they will shift to shoddy and cheap versions of their products so they have a bigger budget for clicks. This assertion lacks evidence. An alternate hypothesis: if you tried to sell literal garbage on Amazon, poor reviews and a high return rate will be visible in the product itself. The ad…

> An alternate hypothesis: if you tried to sell literal garbage on Amazon, poor reviews and a high return rate will be visible in the product itself.

Yeah but at the time when I buy it it's gonna have thousands of 5 star reviews, and the images themselves will be the shiniest most beautiful garbage ever seen by mankind.

Re: The Amazon tax

#58

Post by bariumbitmap »

snarf21 wrote: post #40
abixb wrote: post #29

I've slowly shifted all my consumer purchases from Amazon to local shops and other online platforms, including Etsy. I'm now seriously contemplating deleting my Amazon account of 15 years in one whole swoop. The quality degradation is painfully apparent, and the value add of Amazon in my life has been steadily declining for a while. I've also had terrible experiences with AWS, but that's a different story. Amazon's o…

Generally curious but a lot of the stuff I find on Etsy is the same crap from Alibaba/Amazon .. What are you buying from Etsy that isn't this?

I'm not the GP but I bought a wooden lapdesk on Etsy that I use every day.

Re: The Amazon tax

#59

Post by paytonjjones »

pydry wrote: post #21
paytonjjones wrote: post #10

> They know the best-reviewed, least-returned, best-priced model. The only purpose of the ads is to get you to pick an air fryer that isn’t that one Thoughtless take. Say you've just invented a better looking, better functioning, cheaper air fryer. How do you expect to reach your first customers if not through ads? Sell it to your friends? That's even more invasive and annoying. People's urge to rid the world of ads…

you sound like the kind of person who believes the best air fryer is the one that is advertised the most.

No, but I'd say it's slightly more likely than by chance (after all, success begets capital).

I actually prefer Dr. Pepper, but a lot of people think Coke makes the best cola, Apple makes the best laptops, etc.

Re: The Amazon tax

#60

Post by johnnyApplePRNG »

forsalebypwner wrote: post #45
johnnyApplePRNG wrote: post #42

Amazon has no mercy, so neither do I. In my defense, they started it. (I had purchased a stainless steel muffler with a lifetime warranty off of Amazon Auto, the thing was counterfeit, completely rusted through in less than a year, and Amazon would not honor their written warranty and I didn't care to fight it legally...) So the next time they dropped my package off in my lobby when I have specific instructions to br…

They don't "always believe this", this will lead to your account being banned eventually, or at least barred from returning products.

Not true.

I've been a prime account member in good standing for over 5 years now.

I order thousands of dollars worth of stuff every year.

They're not cancelling my account. Ever.

They seriously don't give a shit. They're not paying these costs. It's all covered. They are not the same company who delivers or insures.

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