Amazon Ruined Online Shopping • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#111

Post by busterarm » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

koboll wrote: post #18

80mph wrote: post #12

I recently went down the rabbit hole of trying to buy Yorkshire Gold tea on Amazon (I am in the US). I encountered so many bad reviews of users complaining about the quality, and the flavor being weakened, or not the authentic YG flavor, that I gave up. It was impossible to tell to which seller each bad review was attributable. I went on Ebay, found decent UK sellers in less than 5 minutes, and ordered my tea. Downsi…

There are certain swaths of items that you literally can't buy anymore because they are completely overrun with counterfeiters. Perfume/cologne and board games are two big ones. Amazon is, at this point, undoubtedly one of the largest enablers of open counterfeiting in the world. It needs to be met with a massive investigation and crippling fines. That probably won't happen until we have a federal government that is…

The only major online store worth buying fragrances from is Aedes de Venustas.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#112

Post by draw_down » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

I had a string of issues buying from amazon and decided to just stop. Several things just never showed up and 4-5 weeks after I ordered I’d quietly receive a refund. One item I really needed, they never shipped to me. I signed up for Amazon prime to get the expedited shipping for the item, then when I didn’t get it they gave me a free month of prime in compensation. Gee, thanks.

My confidence that I’ll actually receive something I buy from them is low enough that I don’t think it’s worth it to buy from them, plus the store is full of counterfeits.

I don’t understand why people like buying from them so much, in my experience it’s markedly worse than almost any other e-commerce store. The whole selling point of e-commerce is convenience, but transacting with them is not convenient and their customer service sucks. What’s the point? This whole idea that they’re fanatically customer-obsessed, I just don’t see it.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#113

Post by Simon_says » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:31 PM UTC

jvagner wrote: post #66

80mph wrote: post #12

I recently went down the rabbit hole of trying to buy Yorkshire Gold tea on Amazon (I am in the US). I encountered so many bad reviews of users complaining about the quality, and the flavor being weakened, or not the authentic YG flavor, that I gave up. It was impossible to tell to which seller each bad review was attributable. I went on Ebay, found decent UK sellers in less than 5 minutes, and ordered my tea. Downsi…

FWIW, I am involved with an outfit that sells licensed sports apparel on Amazon. We drop-ship directly from the manufacturer. Companies you are very familiar with. We have to work through counterfeit claims all week long... reviews, complaints, returns, etc.

Honest question: if you're dropshipping it, how do you know what the customer is receiving?

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#114

Post by throwaway98121 » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:32 PM UTC

There’s generally an anti Amazon post here often, especially so when Amazons stock starts trending upwards.

I don’t have problems when I shop on Amazon, and their instant video collection let us cut cable. We do have a boomerang subscription for another $5 a month for the kids. Last Christmas, we did purchase All Clad cookware, and one of the items was damaged, like literally a hairline crack. I called amazon and they sent the replacement with next day delivery. Pain in the ass but the only defective product I’ve had from them since 2015.

Imo there’s generally an anti Amazon article by one of these media sites each week. I’m not sure how true it is the writing are, but to say Amazon ruined internet shopping sounds pretty inaccurate and laughable. I grew up in Bellevue, WA but many years ago left for the Midwest. I’m not sure if there are some better services that blow Amazon out of the water used by these media, east/west coast elitists or if it’s just the anti corporate hate train of smearing companies that get too large and founders get too rich.

I suspect Amazon has millions of shoppers each day and these threads just turn into the angriest crowd of the 100 or folks who didn’t like their experience. Out of millions of shoppers per day, a hundred or even a few thousand angry customers are a rounding error and probably well within their customer satisfaction metrics. Hence, Amazon doesn’t change how they sell things or their delivery promises.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#115

Post by Johnny555 » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

tossaccount123 wrote: post #107

Johnny555 wrote: post #53

Amazon made online shopping feel safe and comfortable, at least mechanically, where once the risk of being scammed by bad actors felt huge Maybe this was true once, but now Amazon has brought back that fear and confusion of getting scammed. You used to be able to count on reviews for some idea of the quality of the product, but now you need to do research at someplace like www.fakespot.com to see if the reviews are f…

legally every Amazon warehouse should be seized by the Feds for knowingly helping to ship counterfeit goods across state lines. That's what happens to other retailers who do this[1]. Luckily, Bezos owns the Washington Post, has a 600 million dollar contract with the CIA, and is close to signing a 10 billion dollar contract with the Department of Defense. The new HQ in DC probably helps grease those hands as well 1. h…

You'd have to prove that they knew ahead of time that they were selling counterfeit products rather than having been duped by an unscrupulous supplier, and I'm sure they have the paperwork to "prove" that the supplier sent them legit product.

Note that the article you linked to doesn't mention Amazon at all -- if Amazon was part of that counterfeit scheme, you'd think the NYTimes would be happy to get in a dig at the owner of the Washington Post if they could.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#116

Post by Johnny555 » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

johntiger1 wrote: post #105

Nelkins wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The startup I work for, Masse[0], is attempting to solve this issue. More or less a platform for product reviews with a social network component to see exactly who is recommending a product. I've written a little about it here [1][2]. [0] https://masse.app/ [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18441347 [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/fsharp/comments/9wpw84/introducing_...

Why the downvotes?

I didn't downvote, but probably because it sounds like an ad.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#117

Post by hirundo » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:41 PM UTC

tjr225 wrote: post #55

hirundo wrote: post #10

> But there’s a reason that we used to have shoe stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, bookstores, and all the rest: Those specialized retail spaces allow products, and the people with knowledge about them, to engage in specialized ways of finding, choosing, and purchasing them. There's a reason why so much commerce has moved online in general and to Amazon in particular: We often value price and convenience and o…

> There's a reason why so much commerce has moved online in general and to Amazon in particular: We often value price and convenience and oodles of consumer reviews and easy access to competition and related info more than we value meat space salespeople with specialized knowledge laying on personalized sales pressure. I've stopped shopping on amazon for years now and perhaps the best thing they've done is make the o…

> Also, their review system had become so huge and untrustworthy even the stars next to an item are basically meaningless.

I agree, but still find big value in reviews, partly because I focus heavily on the more trustworthy part: the bad reviews. If they convince me I move on. But sometimes they're complaints about things I don't care about, or they don't rise above the baseline background bad-review radiation.

Mostly though it's a way to learn about aspects of a product that are crucial to its use but absent from the marketing materials. E.g. I found out in a review that I couldn't use a piece of plumbing hardware because I donn't have enough water pressure for it. It can be quite hard to discover this kind of thing from the maker or seller.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#118

Post by rblatz » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:41 PM UTC

e40 wrote: post #106

finaliteration wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people like to disparage Best Buy but I’ve found the stores in my area to be excellent and the staff to always be friendly and helpful. They’ll also price match Amazon in most cases. Their PC components selection isn’t huge, but for things like consoles, games, peripherals, etc., I feel like they’re great. They also offer one-hour pickup and in some cases will even give you a discount if you choose that over…

For a lot of stuff, I agree. For certain things, though, Best Buy is a complete ripoff. I once went to get an HDMI cable and all that had was a $100 gold plated one. I walked up to the guy in that department and told him I knew this was a scam and he agreed. I told him I'd not buy anything from them and wait the 2 days to get a $5 one from Amazon. Best Buy isn't doing themselves any favors by this behavior. There's a…

I’m not sure when you had this experience but Best Buy has wised up and started offering reasonably priced cables. They now sell HDMI cables starting at $9.99

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dynex-4-hdmi-cable-black/616587...

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#119

Post by TheLuddite » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

Well, I never shop from Amazon, I'd rather use a specialized online shops or online storefronts of the company directly(ie TM Lewin for shirts)...

Main reason is that I'm not used to Amazons' shopping experience and it's huge selection of items, once I tried buying a travel trolley and felt overwhelmed by the huge choice, so I went to the shop and bought one in person after inspecting it visually.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#120

Post by tracer4201 » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 7:45 PM UTC

throwaway98121 wrote: post #114

There’s generally an anti Amazon post here often, especially so when Amazons stock starts trending upwards. I don’t have problems when I shop on Amazon, and their instant video collection let us cut cable. We do have a boomerang subscription for another $5 a month for the kids. Last Christmas, we did purchase All Clad cookware, and one of the items was damaged, like literally a hairline crack. I called amazon and the…

There’s an anti apple or Facebook post just about every week too. Not all of these companies are equal, but there’s just a general pattern of crap over all big tech.

There are clear examples of carelessness or downright nefariousness (see FB), but there’s also a complete lack of government regulation.

They’ve had crazy growth or valuations in the past several years. There’s a lot of hateful sentiment driven by that, imo. People get jealous.

Amazon may have 1000s of misses among millions of customers, but those people are the loudest when it comes to writing their opinions.

I do think outlets like the Atlantic are inherently against Amazon and see Bezos being too powerful. These articles are less objective and more politically driven.

Just my 2 cents