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The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

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Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#11

Post by bilsbie »

Animats wrote: post #2

A real reason to avoid Amazon is fake merchandise. I'd been buying a vitamin supplement from them for years. Then they sent me a notice that it was being recalled as a fake.[1] (Archive [2]) They paid a refund for the last purchase. But that's all. Amazon won't respond to questions about what was in it or who the real seller is. I no longer buy anything from Amazon that could be faked. [1] https://www.amazon.com/ask/…

I’m having trouble finding alternatives. Do I really have to go to four or five different websites to buy my supplements.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#12

Post by nurettin »

apt-apt-apt-apt wrote: post #6
Animats wrote: post #2

A real reason to avoid Amazon is fake merchandise. I'd been buying a vitamin supplement from them for years. Then they sent me a notice that it was being recalled as a fake.[1] (Archive [2]) They paid a refund for the last purchase. But that's all. Amazon won't respond to questions about what was in it or who the real seller is. I no longer buy anything from Amazon that could be faked. [1] https://www.amazon.com/ask/…

How do you know what cannot be faked? Is shipped and sold by Amazon enough?

I understood fake as physically harmful.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#13

Post by no_wizard »

ajross wrote: post #7

I guess, but Amazon gets me stuff tomorrow or the next day, reliably, week in and week out. Yeah, I could find this stuff elsewhere on the internet. But not for Tuesday delivery. And not without opening another account. Also, right now, often only by paying a tariff-adjacent fee to cover the import costs of the vendors that didn't have the foresight to pre-stock imports like Amazon did. People who want to write stuff…

This is the reality.

I have moved anything I don’t need quickly off Amazon as much as reasonably possible, and I do avoid some things from Amazon as well, but for too many things they’re the cheapest and fastest option, or the 2nd cheapest and fastest option.

Also if I think there is a reasonably high chance I’ll return an item, I also go through Amazon, because they haven’t once in 20 years I’ve been using them giving me an issue, charged a restocking fee etc.

Other online shops simply don’t match enough of these Amazon value prop to sway me over

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#14

Post by ajross »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #9
ajross wrote: post #7

I guess, but Amazon gets me stuff tomorrow or the next day, reliably, week in and week out. Yeah, I could find this stuff elsewhere on the internet. But not for Tuesday delivery. And not without opening another account. Also, right now, often only by paying a tariff-adjacent fee to cover the import costs of the vendors that didn't have the foresight to pre-stock imports like Amazon did. People who want to write stuff…

Canceling my Prime account mainly meant I bought less stuff overall. A win for my wallet and the planet in the end. I need zero friction in my life for healthy eating and exercise, not for buying crap from a Chinese brand of the week (Glorf, Qerdu, Plund or whatever).

> Canceling my Prime account mainly meant I bought less stuff overall.

Which sounds like an agreement with my point, no? Buying stuff without Amazon was in aggregate "more expensive" for you in the broader sense of value that includes effort/experience/whatever. So you didn't.

And, bravo? I'm all for efficiency and reasonable asceticism, and likely agree with you about the general consumerist bent of our society.

All I'm saying is that constitutes an argument in FAVOR of Amazon as a retailer product, and not an indictment.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#15

Post by PaulHoule »

Myself I can't stand the media blitz that tries to talk up Prime Day every year.

I like hunting for bargains as much as anybody, I love checking out the used games at Gamestop or items on clearance at Best Buy, not least the reuse center at Ithaca where I might find a cassette or Video CD deck with karaoke features or a minidisc player.

Prime Day seems to be just a waste of time. I don't see any attractive prices on anything I want to buy. So many web sites scour Amazon for good deals and can't find any. It's a snoozer.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#16

Post by tenuousemphasis »

ajross wrote: post #7

I guess, but Amazon gets me stuff tomorrow or the next day, reliably, week in and week out. Yeah, I could find this stuff elsewhere on the internet. But not for Tuesday delivery. And not without opening another account. Also, right now, often only by paying a tariff-adjacent fee to cover the import costs of the vendors that didn't have the foresight to pre-stock imports like Amazon did. People who want to write stuff…

Humans survived up until about 20 years ago without free 2-day shipping. You'll be fine.

Or you could compromise your morals for convenience, I guess.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#17

Post by SlowTao »

ajross wrote: post #7

I guess, but Amazon gets me stuff tomorrow or the next day, reliably, week in and week out. Yeah, I could find this stuff elsewhere on the internet. But not for Tuesday delivery. And not without opening another account. Also, right now, often only by paying a tariff-adjacent fee to cover the import costs of the vendors that didn't have the foresight to pre-stock imports like Amazon did. People who want to write stuff…

This statement is not an attack on your character or being just a broad generalization.

The biggest addiction of the modern era is convenience. Once people have it, it is very difficult to give up. We are all addicted to this, we aren't running this site via the letters column in a newspaper, because of convenience. But it also means we tend to ignore the negatives of said services.

Your point of them winning because they're the best, that can also be true. But because of that and the convenience addiction they provide, we let them get away with all the other stuff.

I'm not saying this is an excuse to use Amazon, I have never used it. I am just saying it is a hard hurdle for some to overcome.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#18

Post by DanAtC »

renewiltord wrote: post #8
bawana wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Trains are shaped like penis, bus is shape like penis, skyscraper is shape like penis, rocket is shape like penis, now Amazon logo is shape like penis? Why are all Americans always looking everywhere for shape like penis. Every time. "Hello, American, look at this pencil" "Pencil?! Shaped like penis!" "Hello, American, look at your hands" "Oh my god! That is five penises a hand!" Constantly searching for penis everyw…

If not penises... https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt...

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#19

Post by immibis »

bilsbie wrote: post #11
Animats wrote: post #2

A real reason to avoid Amazon is fake merchandise. I'd been buying a vitamin supplement from them for years. Then they sent me a notice that it was being recalled as a fake.[1] (Archive [2]) They paid a refund for the last purchase. But that's all. Amazon won't respond to questions about what was in it or who the real seller is. I no longer buy anything from Amazon that could be faked. [1] https://www.amazon.com/ask/…

I’m having trouble finding alternatives. Do I really have to go to four or five different websites to buy my supplements.

have you tried a physical pharmacy

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#20

Post by coredog64 »

Aloisius wrote: post #10

I understand hyperbole is a useful rhetorical device, but it's very hard for me to take anyone who uses it seriously or trust anything they say at all. And it really doesn't help develop trust when the citations used to support one's points directly contradicts them (like that bit about Amazon providing real-time surveillance from Ring doorbells to police without owners' knowledge - the one and only thing I decided t…

It’s right there in the second paragraph of the WaPo(!) story that Ring owners opt in and can decline to share data.

Does Rekognition perform poorly? Maybe it does, but it’s a best effort service, not a police officer in a box. That AWS was shamed into not selling it to law enforcement doesn’t mean law enforcement won’t have access to facial recognition, only that the vendor they choose isn’t capable of being embarrassed by bad PR.

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