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The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

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Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#201

Post by subjectsigma »

alwa wrote: post #140
subjectsigma wrote: post #134

As someone who is very personally interested in the intersection between different political opinions, I really like how this article side-stepped individual issues to present the argument that Amazon is bad as a whole. “Ok, you don’t connect with BLM? Let’s talk about something else.” I find very, very often that conservatives & liberals are talking past each other and cannot even understand why the other side is ma…

It felt pretty insulting to me. It had the smug, sarcastic, holier-than-thou kind of flavor to it—"there are only 3 ways to think about things, I already know more than you do about who you are and what you believe, you must be one of THAT tribe of one-dimensional dummies, here's YOUR flavor that I've so generously dumbed down for you." Kind of like the "didactic" voice that the young men on YouTube use when they're…

Mm, I could see someone deeply invested in and knowledgeable about politics feeling this way. But I think it’s an uncharitable read. I don’t think the average layman would bristle so hard at this.

What facts is the author not presenting?

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#202

Post by lr1970 »

khuey wrote: post #197
phil21 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, that’s FBA. I’m talking about sold by Amazon. I’m specifically talking about a case where a sold by Amazon item came from co-mingled inventory from a FBA seller. I also know from direct second party experience (I also personally saw the terms) that at least at a certain level of “brand” you can decline this option with Amazon for your registered product skus/ASIN even for FBA. I don’t know if this is offered t…

> I’m specifically talking about a case where a sold by Amazon item came from co-mingled inventory from a FBA seller. The FBA terms I quoted specifically say that Amazon can co-mingle FBA inventory with their own (if the FBA seller doesn't opt out of "virtual tracking").

> The FBA terms I quoted specifically say that Amazon can co-mingle FBA inventory with their own (if the FBA seller doesn't opt out of "virtual tracking").

The wording in the quote explicitly states that an FBA unit can be substituted by owned by Amazon unit or other FBA units. But the wording is not clear whether SBA (Sold By Amazon) unit can be substituted by an FBA inventory. The terms covering Amazon's "first party inventory" (SBA, a.k.a. Amazon retail) are internal to Amazon and are not shared, AFAIK. But i can be wrong :-)

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#203

Post by mandeepj »

opo wrote: post #191
mandeepj wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Good rule of thumb is that if it goes on or in your body do not buy it from Amazon. If I do that, I always make sure I'm buying from the seller and not a reseller or distributor; I meant to say no other party besides the Seller and Amazon.

If it ships from Amazon, you can still run the risk that you get a counterfeit item since Amazon will co-mingle the inventory. Safer to only buy from the seller and is shipped by the seller.

Good point! But it's very rare to see Seller shipping the product, as Amazon likes to control the inventory itself. Also, I believe Amazon encourages sellers to ship the products to their warehouses for faster delivery to customers, and they'd cover all the costs within their 15% fees.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#204

Post by duckilicious »

The author reeks of self importance and what he thinks is moral superiorioty. Was too hard to read.

To the point of the post, Amazon engages in lawful tactics to conquer the retail market. Consumers are incentivelzed to get the best value out of their money. If you want change legislation is needed. Your approach of shaming people for using their services isn't scalable. And I also don't agree with plenty of the premises in your article but it doesn't matter.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#205

Post by 9283409232 »

tptacek wrote: post #186
jjulius wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>... a suction cup thingy that mounts my smartphone to a car dashboard. Try your local phone store. Most carriers have brick and mortar locations.

How is patronizing your "local phone store" better than just going to Amazon?

My hardware store is locally own and carries phone mounts. I realize this is an outlier though.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#206

Post by onli »

lr1970 wrote: post #202
khuey wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m specifically talking about a case where a sold by Amazon item came from co-mingled inventory from a FBA seller. The FBA terms I quoted specifically say that Amazon can co-mingle FBA inventory with their own (if the FBA seller doesn't opt out of "virtual tracking").

> The FBA terms I quoted specifically say that Amazon can co-mingle FBA inventory with their own (if the FBA seller doesn't opt out of "virtual tracking"). The wording in the quote explicitly states that an FBA unit can be substituted by owned by Amazon unit or other FBA units. But the wording is not clear whether SBA (Sold By Amazon) unit can be substituted by an FBA inventory. The terms covering Amazon's "first par…

But that has to go in both directions, necessarily. If they are not marked, as the terms say, they can't fulfill FBA from SBA but not SBA from FBA. It's all one big pile.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#207

Post by [deleted] »

yupitsme123 wrote: post #46
cogman10 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strangely enough, yes to both (at least for in store purchases). And I find neither company particularly ethical. They have a tighter control on their supply chain and don't have a truly open "market" where anyone can sell crap (or stolen crap). A lot of this comes down to limited stocking and shelf space. Amazon effectively has unlimited storage space. Hence their ability to show off 6000 drop shipping products whic…

What you said is true for their physical locations, but both Target and Walmart implemented Amazon-style marketplaces a while back, and my impression is that there's very little oversight or quality control. Even less than on Amazon.

[deleted]

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#208

Post by nickthegreek »

yupitsme123 wrote: post #76
SoftTalker wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure they don't co-mingle though. So if you make sure you're buying from Walmart or Target and not some other party you should be getting the same items that are in the stores.

Yes, it's on you to identify if the seller is Target or a third party. It's listed on the product page, but if you didnt know that there were third party items, you would probably just assume you were buying from Target/Walmart.

Happened to me a month ago when purchasing an item for my wife from walmart website. Ended up being 3rd party, slow delivery, and counterfeit item upon arrival. An issue i’ve actually never had with amazon.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#209

Post by deadbabe »

gibbitz wrote: post #90
deadbabe wrote: post #54

The only standard I hold Amazon to is if they can get me the things I want in the fastest time. Until someone does that better, I have no reasons not to use Amazon.

This behavior works in a competitive, monopoly averse economy. In the US, this means you will eventuy have no alternative to Amazon. I've been thinking about the poor quality and availability of Communist goods in the 1980s. I think about the bread lines every time I shop at Costco. What happened to make us so complacent?

This behavior has been working for me for over a decade. Not sure what you’re talking about.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#210

Post by vidro3 »

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…

i mean, you could call them up
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