281–290 of 351 posts
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You could surely hide it easily enough in the cardboard? Just wrap it over in parcel tape. The people at the other end will just assume you went a bit overboard in packing.
GPS emits an EMF, should be easy catch if you are trying. Also, I wonder if you can catch it with batteries. Does amazon make the seller list the type of battery in their product?
While this may seem shocking, logistically it makes sense. It’s potentially easier to destroy or dump a returned product than re-preparing it for sale. I went out on a date with a program manager for one of Amazon’s return programs and she told me her job was basically finding out ways to repurpose returns as cheaply as possible. Apparently destroying and dumping it’s the easiest and least resource consuming way to d…
Logistics pipelines are designed to efficiently flow in one direction only. At large scale if returns are handled at all, it has to be a separate system. In the extreme case of logistic pipelines into war zones it leads to what looks like extreme waste. There was an infamous case during the Vietnam war when enterprising journalists exposed how expensive stuff, the really big item being F4 Phantom jet engines, that co…
Of course, in the Vietnam War, the corporations back in the US who were making huge profits in supplying the war weren't at all worried about equipment being wasted overseas and not returned. And so we're back at the US military industrial complex and all of its unethical madness, famously satirised by Heller in Catch-22.
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I almost never buy from Amazon anymore. Not really because of any bad experiences, though reports about the high number of counterfeit goods that Amazon sells certainly contributes to my reluctance. Also: Amazon is just too big. I like a bit of competition in the market. Also, in Netherland, Amazon isn't all that big. In the distant past, I sometimes ordered at amazon.com, later at amazon.de. Recently I got an invita…
A lot of people in The Netherlands [1] use Bol.com (part of Ahold; Albert Heijn's parent company). However, Amazon.de (Germany) is also popular, and you can avoid S&H with Amazon Prime. The reason there is no huge Amazon.nl is the same reason there's no huge eBay.nl; there's already a large local competitor: Bol.com (and Marktplaats.nl). Because of Amazon Prime Germany being popular in NL, Amazon introduced an Amazon…
That's an archaic Anglicism in my opinion. Nobody in Netherland calls the country "de Nederlanden", and probably hasn't in two centuries. I think it's about time that English finally followed suit.
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A lot of people in The Netherlands [1] use Bol.com (part of Ahold; Albert Heijn's parent company). However, Amazon.de (Germany) is also popular, and you can avoid S&H with Amazon Prime. The reason there is no huge Amazon.nl is the same reason there's no huge eBay.nl; there's already a large local competitor: Bol.com (and Marktplaats.nl). Because of Amazon Prime Germany being popular in NL, Amazon introduced an Amazon…
> It is called "The Netherlands"; not "Netherland". That's an archaic Anglicism in my opinion. Nobody in Netherland calls the country "de Nederlanden", and probably hasn't in two centuries. I think it's about time that English finally followed suit.
Let's take a moment to look at how disingenuous this article is: * Out of twelve returned trackers, one of them went to landfill. The article focuses on that item and does not itemise the fate of the others. * Adding a tracking device to a returned new product is tantamount to damage. If such a device is detected during returns processing, anyone with half a brain should immediately presume a malicious actor and have…
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I've also stopped buying at Amazon after 15 years. Even consumables and small items are problematic. Just in the last year, I encountered many issues including: * Showerhead that came without box, and clearly used. It still had a lot of water inside! * Underwear from a brand that sells items inside a sealed bag and discards returns came used, without bag (yuck!) * A module of Samsung RAM had visible wear signs and di…
I'm always shocked when I read these comments on HN. I swear it must be just the American Amazon that's so shit, because I literally never had any problems nor know anyone with these problems here in UK. Just this year I'm on 108 orders and counting, every single one of them was fine, working, definitely not used, definitely not counterfeit and delivered within 1 day as promised with Prime. Last year I've had 140 ord…
Just this year I'm on 108 orders and counting, every
single one of them was fine, working, definitely not
used, definitely not counterfeit
I've also never really heard anybody else complaining about problems with Amazon either. I have a pretty large extended social circle, and I just don't hear any problems.
I 100% believe those who say they have these problems! I'm just trying to put things in perspective.
While this may seem shocking, logistically it makes sense. It’s potentially easier to destroy or dump a returned product than re-preparing it for sale. I went out on a date with a program manager for one of Amazon’s return programs and she told me her job was basically finding out ways to repurpose returns as cheaply as possible. Apparently destroying and dumping it’s the easiest and least resource consuming way to d…
> It’s potentially easier to destroy or dump a returned product than re-preparing it for sale. Why can't returned goods be resold as "open box" or "scratch and dent" products with missing or damaged packaging for a significant discount? Surely making some money is better than paying to dispose of it - not to mention the terrible optics when you get caught.
Most likely because a person has to carefully inspect and repackage it (expensive and the volume is large) and it's a separate inventory category that has to be managed and have separate storage space allocated for it (another expense) and, on top of all that, it doesn't bring in as much money as a new item. And if there was some problem or damage that wasn't caught by the inspection, it's yet another return.
The difficulty of managing customer returned items is common to all retailers and has been known for a while, e.g.:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/10/growing-online-sales-means-m...
https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/26/news/retail-returns-landfil...
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Yep, I recently made a mistake of buying a new Lenovo laptop directly from Lenovo instead of Amazon, and it was a huge mistake - the machine arrived with a broken screen and I waited over 2 weeks for the replacement, their support was generally useless and every time I rang them got a different answer to what was actually happening(they said the replacement is ready, only to say it's not and I'll get a refund 2 days…
At least yours arrived. I also made the mistake of buying a new Lenovo laptop directly from Lenovo some years ago, they canceled the order but didn't give the money back. Their support was completely useless, every time I called they said I had to send an email, and my emails went completely unanswered. When I tried contacting them through the consumer protection organization (PROCON), they sent a nonsense answer (as…
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> It is called "The Netherlands"; not "Netherland". That's an archaic Anglicism in my opinion. Nobody in Netherland calls the country "de Nederlanden", and probably hasn't in two centuries. I think it's about time that English finally followed suit.
I’d think it’s more important to get people to stop calling the whole country “Holland” first.
:(
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I'm curious about the policy. "You can't return a TV if there has been a sports game on TV".
You could institute a restocking fee on any returns.