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Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

news.ycombinator.com

21–30 of 61 posts

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#21

Clothing. Granted, I hate buying clothes in person too, but not being able to try things on makes it seem like quite a gamble.

Zappos has free shipping both ways in case you want to return it.

I've never bought clothes online. Free 2-way shipping does sound quite good, but if it means I still have to make a trip to the post office to return something then I feel I may as well go to a clothes shop.

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#22
In Israel - pretty much everything. All the sites are broken in a lot of browsers, using questionable security practices and most importantly not accepting Paypal (we also have a problem with Paypal double converting NIS->USD->NIS).

There is an opportunity here (R2L E-Commerce system), but I'm too lazy to grab it.

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#23
post #22

In Israel - pretty much everything. All the sites are broken in a lot of browsers, using questionable security practices and most importantly not accepting Paypal (we also have a problem with Paypal double converting NIS->USD->NIS). There is an opportunity here (R2L E-Commerce system), but I'm too lazy to grab it.

That surprises me, considering that Israel is often said to be a thriving startup hub.

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#24
I voted for "computers", more specifically: Netbooks.

Ordering one isn't the problem, but deciding for one has been surprisingly difficult. Asus alone has like 12 different models in the market (I kid you not!) and that's not even counting variants of the same product.

Review and price comparison sites have been less than helpful because none seems to carry an exhaustive list. Also their filtering and sorting capabilities tend to be a (bad) joke.

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#25
Personal care products. There are too many products out there, and it's really hard to pay attention to all of the brand names and what is good/bad.

Now, if this could be coupled with some sort of user history, and some predictiveness regarding other care products (e.g. if I show preference towards unscented soap, it's likely that I will prefer unscented shampoo), that would be awesome.

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#26
post #24

I voted for "computers", more specifically: Netbooks. Ordering one isn't the problem, but deciding for one has been surprisingly difficult. Asus alone has like 12 different models in the market (I kid you not!) and that's not even counting variants of the same product. Review and price comparison sites have been less than helpful because none seems to carry an exhaustive list. Also their filtering and sorting capabil…

Yes, and I find it's the same with laptops. I'm not sure about netbooks lasting very long as a category. I think we'll just end up with small laptops and tablets on the not-so-serious-machine end.

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#27

Housing. Period. Craigslist is pretty much the most painful thing to use when looking for an apartment. But they have a lock on the supply side.

try http://sfbay.cribq.com/

or the mobile version http://itunes.apple.com/app/craigslist-housing-maps-cribq/id...

* not affiliated with this, just happen to know it was created to solve your gripe

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#29

Housing. Period. Craigslist is pretty much the most painful thing to use when looking for an apartment. But they have a lock on the supply side.

I used http://www.padmapper.com/ when finding an apartment a few months ago. It's basically a Craigslist/Apartments.com/etc aggregator that puts each listing at its approximate location. Super useful, especially if you are moving to an unfamiliar city.

Re: Poll: What do you find buying online really hard or annoying?

#30
post #25

Personal care products. There are too many products out there, and it's really hard to pay attention to all of the brand names and what is good/bad. Now, if this could be coupled with some sort of user history, and some predictiveness regarding other care products (e.g. if I show preference towards unscented soap, it's likely that I will prefer unscented shampoo), that would be awesome.

Thanks veyron. That's one I wasn't thinking of, probably because I don't buy much of those.

Where do you buy these online now? What are the most important things for you while choosing a personal care product?

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