Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#11

Post by barkingcat » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:41 PM UTC

lmorris84 wrote: post #9

His complaint about returns is curious, not sure if it's country specific. I returned something to Amazon a couple of weeks ago in the UK due to some missing parts. I printed out the label, put it in the box and the next day a delivery guy showed up, slapped his own label on the outside and took it away. I had the refund applied 2 days later. I've never returned anything to Amazon before so was surprised at how well…

The bulk of his complaint about returning is the process that you went through as well (print label, put in box).

Amazon has legitimate deficiencies ie. killing off local stores with pricing pressure, horrible ui, etc, but the article goes into the deep end, like the person wants everything to be done his way without having to do any work.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#12

Post by gjreda » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:44 PM UTC

Conspiracy theory: Amazon's sorting is intentionally bad so that you have to look through other items you might purchase, much like grocery stores organize so that you have to work your way through them.

I don't actually believe that, but I do find myself thinking of other things I've needed/wanted when browsing Amazon.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#13

Post by yalogin » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:44 PM UTC

Domenic_S wrote: post #10

Wow, author's return experience is nothing like mine: 1. Process return request on Amazon.com. 2. UPS guy knocks on my door with his own label. My guy carries tape and tapes up the box for me, too. 3. Done. The trick is not throwing out the box until you know you're keeping the item! Same as retail.

You forgot to mention that they charge you shipping fees if the reason to return is a simple "you changed your mind". Of course that is comparable to the time you spend driving to the local store. But still, if you are a prime member returns are not free shipping.

UPS stores near my house (and fedex too) all charge to tape up boxes and print out labels.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#14

Post by peckrob » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:45 PM UTC

lincolnq wrote: post #3

Yes. I actually do accept this, and it's OK with me. Prime has saved me so much time -- and, arguably more valuable, attention -- obtaining objects I need. I literally do not care about the price difference between a $1 and a $5 roll of tape: as long as I don't need it sooner than 2 days from now, it's comin' on amazon, because the alternative is either searching online and actually thinking about it, or leaving my h…

Exactly. My time has a value and it is most definitely worth more than $4. If I need something but I don't need it right now, Amazon is the answer.

Need a pack of sharpies? Yeah, they might be a few bucks cheaper at Walmart, but then I'd have to go to Walmart. That's an hour of my time wasted driving to the store, walking all over the place to get the sharpies, waiting in line for 15 minutes or struggling with the annoying self checkouts that never work right, then driving home. And I would probably end up getting a few other things that I didn't really need because I don't want to waste the trip.

With Amazon Prime? 30 seconds max and they arrive 2 or days later. And I'm on to my next task. I have too much going on to quibble over the difference of a few dollars when the time savings is so dramatic.

Now, for a major purchase of a few hundred or more, I'm going to spend some time deal hunting. But for everyday items Amazon is plenty sufficient and the prices are usually good enough.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#15

Post by joosters » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:45 PM UTC

I totally agree with the search problems. Even a very specific search with a 'sort by price' will include thousands of completely unrelated, miscategorised items. Their product database is junk.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#16

Post by exelius » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:45 PM UTC

Yeah, except Amazon is no longer the "everything" store. Since their spat with Google and Apple over video streaming, many official Apple and Google products have been pulled from Amazon (I don't know if this was Apple/Google's doing or Amazon's).

Amazon is trying to be a merchant and a product developer at the same time. That's not usually a marriage that ends well for either side: the product developers will overestimate what the merchant side can do (leading to inventory problems that just get pushed off to the merchant side), and the merchants are pressured into stepping on supplier relationships. I can understand with commodity items like AmazonBasics where they basically just find the best item in a category on Alibaba, order a lot and slap an Amazon logo on it, but their actual products like the Fire and Fire TV tread dangerously close to a lot of the other merchandise they sell.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#17

Post by lujim » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:45 PM UTC

Amazon is ok. Kindle books on the other hand are becoming a ripoff. Just dusted off the library card last week for the first time in years.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#18

Post by encoderer » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:45 PM UTC

My wife and I moved all of our non-grocery shopping to Amazon 2 years ago. With the Barclay's "Sallie Mae Rewards" card you earn 5% cashback on Amazon purchases. This, stacked with their subscribe and save, has saved us money (that we can see in Mint) but also immeasurable time. We have our virtual quartermaster keeping us stocked and I couldn't be happier that my wife never asks me to stop at Target anymore.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#19

Post by robotresearcher » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:46 PM UTC

barkingcat wrote: post #11

lmorris84 wrote: post #9

His complaint about returns is curious, not sure if it's country specific. I returned something to Amazon a couple of weeks ago in the UK due to some missing parts. I printed out the label, put it in the box and the next day a delivery guy showed up, slapped his own label on the outside and took it away. I had the refund applied 2 days later. I've never returned anything to Amazon before so was surprised at how well…

The bulk of his complaint about returning is the process that you went through as well (print label, put in box). Amazon has legitimate deficiencies ie. killing off local stores with pricing pressure, horrible ui, etc, but the article goes into the deep end, like the person wants everything to be done his way without having to do any work.

> the person wants everything to be done his way without having to do any work.

But that's what they are aiming to sell.

Re: Amazon Kind of Sucks and We’ve All Just Come to Accept It

#20

Post by dark12222000 » Tue, Nov 10, 2015, 5:46 PM UTC

This really just seems like the author is searching for things to gripe about. Has he tried buying most things in a major store?

His points about Amazon's UI are also missing me. The UI seems perfectly adequate and friendly - which is not to say it's the best UI/UX experience ever, but that is never the only business requirement.