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Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

theguardian.com

261–270 of 328 posts

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#261
post #178
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Some companies only sell through Amazon now. In those cases, I often just go without and the company loses the sale.

> Some companies only sell through Amazon now. Which is probably because they don't have a choice. > I often just go without and the company loses the sale. Which is not helping the company in any way. Not that it is your fault, but confirming the point of the article.

They can sell on their own site. It's a choice but a logical one for many.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Limit people from creating more accounts.

it was an account with almost 20 years of purchase history, how does that even apply?

A perfect account for a fraudster to buy/hijack.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#263

A few weeks ago I bought a "new" coffee maker which arrived physically broken and with used coffee grounds in the hopper. I don't understand how this is even possible. That's the last thing I'm buying on Amazon. Amazon pre-COVID was amazing. But 2-day shipping is now 5+ day shipping. It's chock full of cheap/fraudulent junk. It's been interesting to watch it go downhill so fast.

one wonders what jassy's list of accomplishments is after 3 years at the helm....

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#264
post #223
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I don't think this co-mingling thing was big or existed when I moved to a country that Amazon doesn't ship to directly almost 6 years ago. Reading about it on HN makes me feel fortunate. I can't recall ever running into something like this back then.

Amazon broke in 2020, when most shopping went online. It never recovered. I doubt it ever will. Trust takes a long time to earn, and a little bit of time to break. I had four or five incidents on Amazon, cancelled Prime, and I doubt it will ever make business sense for Amazon to get me back. I do think there's a place for a competitor to Amazon right now which looks more like the old Amazon. Starting one would be sup…

> Amazon broke in 2020

nah. jassy taking the reigns in 2021 is when the nosedive began.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#265
Just having to deal with getting the wrong item - something more expensive shipped, though it was not the item I was actually after. Did not take the wizard past the return instructions where they would charge me the amount, but no information on the return. For a $15 item, I'll keep the $20 package they shipped me -- not going to deal with their mistake if it is going to cost me to help them fix the issue.

Biggest issue is the shipping. The primary reason I had prime was the shipping - and I swear, only a small fraction of packages ship anywhere near the published date.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Local shops are scams in my area: expensive, don’t take back items, limited selections, don’t have the right items and have to settle for less, time consuming… None of these are scams, you're misusing the word. You mean a worse shopping experience, not defrauding the customer.

I live in a country with the same problems, and everything here is so much more expensive, it absolutely deserves to be called a scam. Stuff such as books and electronics can easily be 2x as expensive locally as abroad.

Not a scam a local business who can't compete on price with a global marketplace.

What they offer is the ability to put the product in your hands immediately, they hire your friends /family and pay taxes to your city and national government allowing services like police, fire and hospitals to be funded.

For many cheap prices, longer wait times and not supporting your local area makes more sense to them. But then they complain about the local services and not realize their decision to not support them had an affect.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#267
post #238
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is in a hard spot with this stuff. They have massive problems with refund fraud, where people buy things and returning fake or used items in the box. Asking for ID is one way they try to spot people who are engaged in this activity repeatedly. When you refused to show your ID and did a chargeback, you did the exact same thing actual fraudsters end up doing, and of course they need to fraudulent accounts as oth…

How is ID going to help with this in any way? They charge you (bank account/CC) and send you stuff (address), they inspect the return (or rather Should inspect it). What more would they need?

[deleted]

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it was an account with almost 20 years of purchase history, how does that even apply?

A perfect account for a fraudster to buy/hijack.

Not if its all being sent to the same address as always

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#269
post #103
post #80

in Japan I experience none of the problems that people in HN seem to have with Amazon in other countries. Never encountered fake products, return has always worked, and stuff that never arrived was also reimbursed. Maybe I'm an exception.

Most likely Japan just have better customer protections. Amazon only able to sell open-nox and co-mingled knock-off crap because US regulators are toothless. Louis Rossmann have a video about fake electrical fuses sold on Amazon US with almost half a million views. Literally the product that can burn your house to the ground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90_SNNbcoU Did Amazon US at least pulled these off store? N…

> just have better customer protections

Maybe. Or it could be simply relying on being a high-trust society. Screw up with consumers, and people will talk about it and shame you night and day.

Re: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

#270
post #34
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's return fraud, someone orders a new version of a product they have, put their old product in the new box and file a return immediately. Amazon probably doesnt take the time to check it or check it thoroughly. Goes back on the shelf and you receive it.

It's double-return-fraud. Amazon shouldn't sell returned products as "new," but as "open box." The other way it happens is co-mingling. Some vendor sends an "open box" product to Amazon as new, or a fake product, and Amazon ships it out when sold by Amazon since it considers goods to be fungible. I stopped buying anything which goes in my body from eBay, Amazon, and similar after receiving a premium food product with…

There is some good news. After years of customer and company complaints, Amazon finally ended commingling recently.
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