Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews

Skip the Amazon resellers and order direct from China on Alibaba. Their reputation system is less spammy than Amazon's.

One of my areas to watch: solid state relays.

Here we have yet another fake Fotek solid state relay on Amazon.[1] Note the "Made in China".

Here's the real thing.[2] Note the "Taiwan made" from the real Fotek. Costs a lot more. That's because it will actually handle the rated current. The fakes are notorious for overheating and burning out. The real thing has overheat and surge protection, will shut off if it overheats, and can stand a big short term overload for motor starting or when a short is in the process of tripping the circuit breaker upstream.

Here's a similar solid state relay from China, from the actual manufacturer.

They actually provide a table which shows how much they exaggerate the ratings. They're over-rated by 2X for a resistive load, and 6x for an inductive load. "For a motor with rated current of 15A and the motor is inductive load, the formula is 15A x 6 = 90A, so you should choose to buy 100A solid state relay".

For a little extra, you can have your own fake label. Minimum order 200 pcs.

Here's a fake Fotek.[4] What's amusing is that this is the actual manufacturer in China selling the fakes. They're in Guangdong, and they're selling under their own name, but with a fake label. No shame.

There are legit manufacturers in China selling solid state relays.[5] They put their own name on the product, show pictures of the inside their rather grubby factory, and have realistic numbers on their data sheets, along with pictures of UL certification documents. About 4x more expensive than the fakes. If you're in China and are building industrial equipment which needs these components, you need ones that won't fail and shut down a manufacturing line.

Here's a teardown of a fake. [6] The fakes are just solid state switches with power ratings way beyond what their components are good for. UL warning notice about fake Fotek solid state relays.[7] UL issued that notice six years ago, and they're still on Amazon and eBay.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/SSR-25-DC-AC-Solid-State-Relay/dp/B07...

[2] https://www.fotek.com.tw/en-gb/product-category/143

[3] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/1PCS-SSR-10-DA-DC-Con...

[4] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-quality-SSR-25DA...

[5] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/SSR-S25DA-H-DC-TO-AC_...

[6] https://youtu.be/DxEhxjvifyY

[7] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ul-warns-of-solid-s...

The thing that really annoys me is that when you go to report problems with a listing, none of the options you're given really match this. "Problem with item description" is the closest. Considering that this is one of the top three problems turning Amazon shopping into a garbage-fest, you'd think they'd have a clearer way to report it. That they don't shows that they just don't care.

I've come to similar conclusions as you.

> the anticipation and research heightens the joy of actually getting the thing

I've found that the research and thinking process is often the most fun part, and that I can replace that little dopamine hit from buying a bunch of cheap crap by window shopping for nicer, more expensive things for the future.

Then when I am finally ready to buy something nice, I've already done most of the research to know exactly what I want/need.

It also helps filter out stuff I don't really need or care about, since I tend to forget about that junk if I don't impulse buy it. Put junk in your cart but don't buy it until you sleep on it, and 9 times out of 10 you realize you don't really need it or even care about it once the novelty is gone.

I end up buying less throwaway crap, and I end up mostly very pleased with the nicer things I do buy.

I am not sure but volvo's cars are still pretty well rated and relied upon - https://www.caranddriver.com/volvo/xc90 . Jaguar is now owned by a Indian company and Volvo is owned by a chinese company but I haven't heard anyone claim drop in their quality.

Can you point out specific examples of how changing ownership has affected quality of their cars?

> so the investors could wring the value out of the company and throw the remains in the dumpster

What does that mean in practice?