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The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

blog.thenewoil.org

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Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#211

Post by jjulius »

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?

Similar to the other response, I have locally-owned options in my area that sell them. I'd imagine many areas do.

Beyond that, if it's a national carrier brick-and-mortar spot, it could be argued that it's a case of the lesser of two evils.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#213

Post by starik36 »

AvAn12 wrote: post #119
starik36 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you have the slightest idea of what a Soviet style retailer is. Standing in line for 2 hours to buy milk with my grandma is a childhood memory that's burned into my brain.

Yes agreed! Not that aspect. Rather, the single, state-run seller.

Who do you think this store belonged to.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#214

Post by phil21 »

onli wrote: post #206
lr1970 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> It's all one big pile.

I don't believe this to be true. SBA in theory has it's own "pile" that they can of course use to substitute with a FBA third party seller if they deem it cheaper as they are confident that they are substituting like for like.

Given how FBA items are labeled differently (the Amazon required ASIN sticker) than SBA I can't recall a time I've received a third party item when buying direct from Amazon. I also can't really say with any certainty it does not or did not happen, but it was not obvious at least.

I've also seen contracts the explicitly forbid the co-mingling for brands that sell direct to Amazon. By necessity these would need to be under different piles on the backend - and it's easy to see different ASINs for the same SKU by searching for common big brand items. There will be a SBA listing, and then many other listings gaming the qty/size of the item that are FBA. An item that comes in the same size and packaging often is listed twice (or more) times with one being SBA and the rest third party.

It's definitely clear as mud, but I think the "sold by amazon/fulfilled by amazon" being co-mingled is largely urban legend. It's all speculation like this thread here, and very few verifiable facts when you dig into any of the reporting/social media accounts. I'm 100% sure it happens by mistake and very well may have happened as routine business in the past, but these days I cannot come up with an example that shows this happening on any scale.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#215

Post by QuantumGood »

nextos wrote: post #101
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.

I think it's even worse. They have a completely chaotic returns policy meaning they re-sell used things pretending they are new all the time. I stopped buying from Amazon UK after I received 6 opened and used items in just 20 orders. Some were even missing components. I even received used underwear (yuck!) from a brand that sells boxers inside sealed packages and doesn't allow returns. I heard some scammers were expl…

I received only one part of a chair, repackaged in a box much to small to hold the entire chair (which I received when seeking replacement)

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#216

Post by zhivota »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #155
FreezerburnV wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That's a big part of it, yes. Retailers take advantage of information assymetry after all. While you're in Best buy, you may pay more than online to walk out with an item, but would you pay more if you could instantly confirm it's at Walmart next door for $20 less? Maybe not.

Funnily enough though Best Buy loved us and provided real time data via API and daily CSV data dumps just for us. They were like that, along with Toys R Us and AutoZone. Most others hated us, including Guitar Center after we accidentally DDOSed their web site with our scrapers.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#217

Post by wafflebot »

freeone3000 wrote: post #184
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 bought a book. A literal book. And it was wrong size, wrong paper, printed on a 5 degree skew including the cover. It should have been from Simon and Schulster, but despite Sold and Shipped, it just wasn’t. It’s all fake. Every bit of it.

[dead]

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#218

Post by khuey »

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…

> 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.

It would have to go both ways. If there are 10 FBA and 10 SBA units in the inventory, and Amazon decides to fill an FBA order with an SBA unit for operational reasons, now there are 10 FBA and 9 SBA units in inventory but the FBA seller only owns 9 units. That 10th FBA unit eventually has to go somewhere. The only options are that it fulfills an SBA order or Amazon forces the FBA seller to buy the SBA unit that Amazon shipped for the FBA order. As far as I know the latter does not happen.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#219

Post by lanfeust6 »

davkan wrote: post #199
lanfeust6 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure either. Even Bezos' Washington Post has been pretty critical of the current administration.

Bezos personally blocked the WaPo editorial board from endorsing Kamala resulting in multiple resignations and a 10% loss in subscribers. A paper that adopted the tag line “Democracy Dies in Darkness” bending the knee to an authoritarian who committed election fraud would be hilarious if it weren’t so depressing. But we shouldn’t be surprised that these liberal journalism outfits consistently fail the public. The sam…

It's his paper. Not great, but by definition still not anti-democratic.

Re: The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon

#220

Post by davkan »

lanfeust6 wrote: post #219
davkan wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos personally blocked the WaPo editorial board from endorsing Kamala resulting in multiple resignations and a 10% loss in subscribers. A paper that adopted the tag line “Democracy Dies in Darkness” bending the knee to an authoritarian who committed election fraud would be hilarious if it weren’t so depressing. But we shouldn’t be surprised that these liberal journalism outfits consistently fail the public. The sam…

It's his paper. Not great, but by definition still not anti-democratic.

I would consider the capture of journalist outfits by billionaire capitalists who kowtow to authoritarians to be an erosion of our democracy. They call it the fourth estate for a reason.
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