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The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

blog.thenewoil.org

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Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#151

Post by AtariATMHacker »

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.

[dead]

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#152

Post by phil21 »

onli wrote: post #28
qgin wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, people are being ridiculous. The third party stuff is where the fraud is.

No, that is not correct or at least it has not been. Amazon was said to intermingle the inventory in the warehouses, mixing third party products with those shipped and sold by Amazon. So that gave you zero protection. I read that they made internal changes to tag shippings properly to reduce the risk of that behaviour, but am not sure it is true or has been effective.

Has this co-mingling of sold by Amazon ever actually been documented at any scale beyond “extremely rare stock/pick” mistake? I am of course aware of the option for manufacturers to enable this for their registered products on FBA - and it may not have been optional at one point in time.

When I researched this a while ago I was unable to come up with much compelling evidence that it was an actual thing. It certainly has not happened to me over thousands of purchases - or anyone I know for that matter. Of course a fake could have been so good none of us could tell, but I do actually attempt to inspect carefully.

I have found counterfeit items from other web stores not on Amazon so it’s not like my detection skills are zero. Third party marketplace of course is different.

Heck, even Costco sent me an unsolicited refund for a counterfeit item they unknowingly sold me - so supply chain issues are bound to happen.

I don’t want to defend Amazon too much here, but this one is almost at urban legend status to me. Likely happened at limited scale some time ago, but it’s strange everyone says it’s endemic but no one IRL I know across probably tens of thousands of purchases has noticed it.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#153

Post by FreezerburnV »

zhivota wrote: post #103
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been hoping someone would build the same thing. Even without delivery, I'd love to be able to search for products across multiple stores through a web interface and see their availability in a map view, with price and in-stock status. I would be happy to go to the store and buy it, as long as I only need to make one trip and I know it will be in stock and at a certain price.

I worked on this, it was called Milo.com. we had crazy scraping and xml/csv feed ingestion. It was a terribly difficult business because most retailers hated us. ebay bought it and eventually killed it.

Why did retailers hate you? Wouldn’t they want a solution that brings people to their store because you listed their product as being there and available?

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#154

Post by BobaFloutist »

parhamn wrote: post #61
SoftTalker wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good rule of thumb is that if it goes on or in your body do not buy it from Amazon.

Where's the best value & quality for that sort of stuff? It's insane what some sites charge for seemingly simple supplements.

If Costco has what you want, it's decent value and a pretty good source.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#155

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

FreezerburnV wrote: post #153
zhivota wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked on this, it was called Milo.com. we had crazy scraping and xml/csv feed ingestion. It was a terribly difficult business because most retailers hated us. ebay bought it and eventually killed it.

Why did retailers hate you? Wouldn’t they want a solution that brings people to their store because you listed their product as being there and available?

That's what I'd hope as well. But maybe they didn't like it because it makes price competition too transparent?

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#156

Post by yupitsme123 »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #117
Dylan16807 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If those principles don't make a difference on the world around you then it's not bad but it is quite limited . It's fine to do things that don't make a difference, but it's important to keep perspective. In particular, if you have an urge to make a difference on a regular basis, that's a great urge, but you need to make sure you don't fall into the trap of doing something that feels good but has negligible effect an…

Do you give this same lecture to everyone who's in line to vote on election day?

He pretty much hits the nail on the head as far as describing modern-day political and social movements. It's about doing the bare minimum to make oneself feel better and to be able to brand oneself as an activist.

It seems like all the real-deal movements and protests died out or were neutralized by the late '70s.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#157

Post by HappMacDonald »

PhoneTag wrote: post #75
lisper wrote: post #62

I would love to avoid Amazon, and indeed I would love to support local retailers, but more often than not it is simply impossible. The only way I can find out if a local vendor carries an item I'm interested in, and if they have it in stock, is to physically go there. The amount of time that requires is orders of magnitude more than what it takes to order the item on Amazon, where I am all but guaranteed that it will…

You seem to forget that you can call nearly any local retailer and they will check their inventory for you and often even set it aside for you. A phone call does not require orders of magnitude more time than an online order and you can build a friendly connection in your community that way, too.

> A phone call does not require orders of magnitude more time than an online order and you can build a friendly connection in your community that way, too.

Your username suggests otherwise

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#158

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

PhoneTag wrote: post #75
lisper wrote: post #62

I would love to avoid Amazon, and indeed I would love to support local retailers, but more often than not it is simply impossible. The only way I can find out if a local vendor carries an item I'm interested in, and if they have it in stock, is to physically go there. The amount of time that requires is orders of magnitude more than what it takes to order the item on Amazon, where I am all but guaranteed that it will…

You seem to forget that you can call nearly any local retailer and they will check their inventory for you and often even set it aside for you. A phone call does not require orders of magnitude more time than an online order and you can build a friendly connection in your community that way, too.

For a lot of random things, like... say, a suction cup thingy that mounts my smartphone to a car dashboard, I have no idea which stores are likely to sell such things, and they could have a wide discrepancy in prices. I can type into Amazon and see a list of products and prices, but if I want to buy one at a local retailer I might have to call three or four stores before finding someone who carries the thing I'm looking for. It would be really nice to have a search engine that can search products across brick-and-mortar retailers.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#159

Post by recursive »

jvanderbot wrote: post #142
add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you give this same lecture to everyone who's in line to vote on election day?

On the contrary, voting is one of those things that has an actual measure-able outcome. It's extremely reliable in its quantitative effects.

I don't really get this. The things I've chosen not to get from Amazon are similarly measurable in dollars or other units. Not that I think I'm going to win you over, but I don't understand this argument.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#160

Post by ttoinou »

sokoloff wrote: post #116
PenguinCoder wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My rule is anything that goes on or in my body, I don't buy form Amazon for that reason.

Is clothing really that big of a risk?

Dangerous material being in contact of your skin all day and night long does seem risky
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