Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 495 posts

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#361

Post by SpikedCola »

dan_quixote wrote: post #211
mauvehaus wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I beg to differ. Rock Auto is where it's at for auto parts. The website is ugly as hammered shit, but it's fast, shows you the options grouped by rough quality level (economy/you cheapskate, daily driver, performance, etc), shows you what part to select so it ships from the same warehouse as the parts already in your cart and saves you shipping, and returns are painless (disclaimer: I've only ever done returns for co…

My nomination is McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com) - They have a huge catalog of parts/tools yet somehow it's so intuitive to browse. I was a mechanical engineer in a previous life and McMaster's website was my bible. Step one for any new prototype design was to browse this site. Best case scenario, you could cobble together your prototype from various COTS (commercial off the shelf) McMaster parts. And if that wasn't an…

Unfortunately McMaster-Carr won't deal with Canadian companies they believe could be associated with the cannabis industry "due to US Federal Laws". I've been at two companies where we've placed an order with them, then had it immediately cancelled. Only after following up did I learn the reason.

When I tried to re-order through my personal company (not in any way cannabis-related) I was told I'm not a big enough company for them to deal with (and they cancelled the order).

From a CAD/dimensional standpoint, their website is a goldmine. I just wish they would take my money.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#362

Post by tln »

tmaly wrote: post #281
ebg13 wrote: post #23

I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery from the store and while saying that some things can only be delivered from a warehouse and that some things can only be delivered from a specific store and that delivery from each store has a $45 minimum purchase before they'll even consider delivery despite th…

I ordered a chest freezer from Home Depot. When I ordered it, I double checked that it was not listed as out of stock. I got a notice they were delivering on April 4. It was never delivered. The delivery company told me they were never shipped the freezer to deliver. When I called Home Depot, they said freezers are on back order to June. They told me I could call the manufacturer. This is a bit crazy. I have never ha…

I had to place orders with three companies for me to actually get a freezer. Walmart was the only one that came through. Freezers are a hot commodity!

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#363

Post by _8j50 »

Two things about amazon:

1) Their customer service is astonishing! Still have not seen better. Google might just take over the world if they came even 20% close to Amazon with this regard.

2) Their giftcards. I don't know what it is but theirs has the highest value. Even visa and mastercard will not be accepted at some places if you don't have a cash gift card, but amazon's have incredible purchasing power.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#364

Post by gregmac »

Spooky23 wrote: post #286
jakearmitage wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HomeDepot's ecommerce is a joke. Not only the shopping experience is poor, they treat logistics as if they were doing you a favor. And, on top of all that, you get damaged items. I made 7 purchases and all 7, in different periods of time, had to be returned or replaced. Same for Lowe's. There's a reason people shop on Amazon. Other than BestBuy, no other retailer "gets" ecommerce.

That’s crazy. Target smokes Amazon for most things these days, especially with pickup. Ditto for NewEgg and Walmart. Amazon is increasingly overrated, they peaked a decade ago and have declined to a warehouse club/flea market.

I honestly don't understand the 3rd party seller thing.

I went from buying almost all PC parts from NewEgg (without even bothering to price shop), to pretty much avoiding the site entirely.

If you look at almost any of the 3rd party sellers' pages and sort by rating, you'll pretty much see the same pattern on all: a tiny handful of 4-5 star reviews, 1 star reviews by the bottom of page 1, and the remaining 80 pages of products have no reviews at all.

Is this really helping Walmart/NewEgg/Amazon/etc vs them just selling the same products directly themselves? Why do this -- are they just trying to avoid these sellers starting competing no-name e-commerce sites?

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#365

Post by gniv »

StillBored wrote: post #45

Yah, the only thing that's been arriving from Amazon lately are the things sold and shipped by 3rd party sellers. Frankly, i've been paying the extra to just order from the smaller shops lately because amazon's critical "prioritization" algorithm doesn't seem to know what is actually critical. Part to fix my cloths washing machine? 3 weeks from Amazon, two days from Granger. Problem solved, plus unlike a similar part…

Did you mean grainger.com ?

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#366

Post by filoleg »

sneak wrote: post #261
boomboomsubban wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still stealing, the correct move would be to go back and pay the correct amount as you likely would have done if they overcharged you. That said, I doubt you could legally be held responsible and I see no problems with what you did morally either. If you noticed at the time I'd find it morally questionable, but you can't fix every mistake.

Stealing requires intent, generally.

Not just that, but like, the parent commenter actually got his items rung up in the store. So the parent wouldnt have even noticed they didn’t get charged for those items unless they were constantly checking their bank account for actual dollar amounts charged for every purchase. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would be able to claim that the parent commenter is at fault here.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#367

Post by temp167 »

Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

Happy to help, I live in SVL and can deliver groceries or pick up if you would like.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#368

Post by EE84M3i »

bdcravens wrote: post #357
sneak wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal morals find a difference between “we sell physical goods and anyone can buy them without restriction” and “we will build you a whole set of dedicated custom data centers with racist hiring policies”. https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/ Also, Apple doesn’t sell OSes. One could buy secondhand Macs. Linux is used by the military, too. The issue is not “not matching”, it is a question of providing financial s…

Apple has engaged in active development, not just passive sales https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-defense-tech/pentagon...

Microsoft has an equivalent to Amazon GovCloud, it's called "Azure Government" and they have similar US Citizenship requirement. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-government/docu...

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#369

Post by parshimers »

caymanjim wrote: post #171
cpascal wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Other than BestBuy, no other retailer "gets" ecommerce Target.com is a pretty solid experience. Walmart.com is also surprisingly good. Although I'm sure people can provide horror stories for both retailers.

newegg.com is great. They primarily sell computers and office equipment, but if I'm buying that stuff, it's my go-to. Fast delivery, fantastic customer service. If something is defective, they'll send you a replacement with a return shipping label, no questions asked. Been using them for nearly 20 years without a single complaint.

Their return policies are not good. Amazon will take things back, without fuss. Newegg will charge a very hefty restocking fee, or might not even take it back at all. It is very unfortunate to see this have happen, because I remember in the early 00's they built their business on providing the exact opposite kind of experience to that kind of nickle-and-dime technique that was commonplace at the time.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#370

Post by Diederich »

temp167 wrote: post #367
Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

Happy to help, I live in SVL and can deliver groceries or pick up if you would like.

Wow, thank you so much. We've gotten quite a few offers.
Post reply on HN