Amazon Ruined Online Shopping • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#161

Post by lizardwalk5 » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:33 PM UTC

I haven't gone through the 152 past comments so apologies if this is dupe. but recently I was on amazon to buy something and the original price was like $17 but it tried to snag me by presenting a deal like $12 so I added it to my cart.

I think I might have misread the countdown clock which appeared to be like 5hours (maybe it was 5 min??). but later when I returned to the cart (less than 5 hours later but more than 5 min later), I had a note saying I had less than 2 min to make the purchase) which I thought I completed in time but was charged full price regardless.

maybe this is a new feature(?) and buggy but I thought it was quite misleading and confusing. I still bought the product b/c it was useful to me but the pricing mechanism could have been more transparent.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#162

Post by hirundo » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

p1necone wrote: post #159

hirundo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought this non-stick pan on Amazon and it was one of my best purchases of last year. The trick with non-sticks is to buy cheap enough cookware to affordably replace regularly as they wear out. My previous non-stick pan cost four times as much, wore out, and is now just hanging from a rack, looking fabulous. With the new one, I plan to toss it in another year and buy another. https://www.amazon.com/Tramontina-80114…

I don't see the point in non stick cookware. A simple stainless steel skillet with some oil in it will perform just as well and last longer for most uses (and you still need to add oil to a non stick skillet to get proper browning anyway, but it pools because of the non stick coating and doesn't work as well). And a seasoned carbon steel or cast iron pan will be non stick for when you're cooking fragile stuff like eg…

> A simple stainless steel skillet with some oil in it will perform just as well.

I've got a stainless skillet. Every single time I fry eggs like that, without > 1T of fat per egg, it burns to the bottom. So you must have a better technique. I'm willing to switch to a more forgiving option rather than keep scraping off my mistakes. Every time.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#163

Post by toss1 » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:53 PM UTC

>>"The problem with an Everything Store is that there’s no way to organize everything effectively. The result is basically a giant digital flea market."

I'd describe it instead as their search and filtering stinks, and it is not just Amazon.

The first issue is that Amazon and almost everyone else seem to think that either we want, or it is in their best interest, to include in search results anything vaguely resembling the search terms. Perhaps sometimes this is nice, but the one thing that would help is: PROVIDE A STRICT BUTTON This would allow users to specify that the search items MUST include the specified terms. If it returns an empty set, fine, remove the STRICT criteria, or enter new terms. Simple.

The author also touched on the issue that you can't find anything by a particular attribute (his example was a frame/matte of a particular size). This cannot be emphasized enough -- they really need a system in each class of products to extract and provide search/sort/filter on these particular characteristics. Ideally an AI-ish solution would identify attributes and list them. They could also simply require vendors to put up particular attributes, and accurately.

It'd be REALLY nice if they had a usable API so we could setup our own search & select UI, but...

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#164

Post by p1necone » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:56 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #162

p1necone wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the point in non stick cookware. A simple stainless steel skillet with some oil in it will perform just as well and last longer for most uses (and you still need to add oil to a non stick skillet to get proper browning anyway, but it pools because of the non stick coating and doesn't work as well). And a seasoned carbon steel or cast iron pan will be non stick for when you're cooking fragile stuff like eg…

> A simple stainless steel skillet with some oil in it will perform just as well. I've got a stainless skillet. Every single time I fry eggs like that, without > 1T of fat per egg, it burns to the bottom. So you must have a better technique. I'm willing to switch to a more forgiving option rather than keep scraping off my mistakes. Every time.

Make sure the pan is pretty hot before you put the eggs in, if it's too cold they will probably stick even with lots of oil.

Also, don't be afraid to use however much fat you need, it's not like you're actually going to eat it all - there's probably only going to be about 1/2 teaspoon of it left on the egg after cooking regardless of how much you put in the pan and that's (probably?) pretty negligible health-wise.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#165

Post by iheartpotatoes » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 9:59 PM UTC

Amazon doesn't sell Everlane, Gustin or Allbirds. Three clothing line's I've bought from over the past 5 years (more recently Allbirds).

IMHO /gets on soapbax/L

I think Amazon has burned EVERYONE who has used it, and would argue it has taught us to become more savvy shoppers.

The three companies I list go out of their way to be transparent about their products. This builds trust and loyalty. The faults of Amazon (and Yahoo! Shopping in the early 2000's) led to the emphasis on these new digital-shopping virtues.

It sucks. Every time I buy something on Amazon, I'm always suspicious if I'm going to get what I ordered. 95% of the time I'm satisfied, but ironically only because I buy fewer things. But I'm glad that more and more companies are going out of their way to validate themselves in the same way brick-and-mortar stores are authentic.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#166

Post by gnicholas » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC

CamelCaseName wrote: post #145

gnicholas wrote: post #64

> On top of that, Amazon is more than willing to fix its errors. In my experience, this is less true than it used to be. For example, my mom ordered a DVD in early December to be given as a Christmas gift. It was a Prime item, and she is a Prime subscriber. For some reason, it wasn't showing that it would be delivered until just before Christmas. Even though this was odd — and arguably a breach of the Prime agreement…

I can't comment on the other points, but I can reply to this: >The other big problem is that they now want each return put in its own box — even if it was shipped to us with multiple other items that are also being returned. We have been Prime customers for years, but perhaps not for much longer The reason for this is because each seller can set their own return address. I receive all returns to ensure that they are…

For what it’s worth, in every case where they’ve insisted on this, the return addresses were identical. We had to come up with multiple boxes to mail everything back but everything went to the same place.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#167

Post by roganartu » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 10:07 PM UTC

seniorsassycat wrote: post #135

Johnny555 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a "lifetime one-year return policy"?

Poster expected to cross out lifetime because REI changed their lifetime return policy to a one year policy.

To expand on this: REI used to have a lifetime, no-questions-asked return policy. They changed it (sometime in the past few years, unsure I've only been in the US for a little over one now) to a 1 year no-questions-asked policy. This does not include things on clearance (they call it REI Garage sales online) as this is (as I understand it) mostly the returned items being resold to recoup costs. Clearance items (and electronics too) have a 90 day return policy instead.

I often pay full price at REI instead if cheaper elsewhere because of the generous return policy so I guess it works.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#168

Post by michaelt » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 10:10 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #79

malnourish wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any way to determine if they've paid for no commingling?

Is that even a thing? I’ve never heard that being possible before. I would be willing to pay a premium for guaranteed non-commingled products. But Amazon commingles to make their own internal logistics easier.

According to [1] if the product has an EAN/UPC/ISBN barcode, it gets commingled, but vendors can put a sticker over it with a different barcode to prevent commingling.

Or the FBA label service [2] can apply the stickers for you, at 0.15/item

[1] https://services.amazon.co.uk/services/fulfilment-by-amazon/... [2] https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/G2004837...

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#169

Post by jshowa3 » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 10:13 PM UTC

I closed my account on Amazon a while back and barely ever shop there due to how they treat their employees and their general bloated business model. I now actively shop from other online sites when I'm looking for a product and will gladly pay a little extra. The problem with Amazon is that every time I go there, I'm treated with a cluttered mess of ads and products all over the place. Whenever I search for what I want, I'm now treated with ads integrated into the product list that look exactly like a product listing, horizontal bar product listings of related/"recommended" products, and 300 (exaggeration) different spammy options for buying a product as a "subscription" or "bundled with amazon prime" at different price points when I only want to select a quantity. Its mostly horrendous garbage now and I'm so glad I closed my account and never use it. Its helped me save a lot of money (by removing temptation) and shop in other places that don't try and up-sell me on other products. Also, most products I can get immediately by just driving to a local store. I don't have to wait 2-4 days to get it.

Re: Amazon Ruined Online Shopping

#170

Post by unethical_ban » Sun, Jan 20, 2019, 10:16 PM UTC

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…

With Newegg, I definitely filter on "Seller: Newegg". I don't like that they've become a generic broker, lowering their standards and promoting poor service and counterfeiting.