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Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

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Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#371

Post by everdrive »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #305
ThePhysicist wrote: post #88

It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…

Unfortunate, brand loyalty doesn't mean anything anymore: - a lot of companies don't manufacture the product themself - they don't even manufacture two products from the same subcontractor - sometime, the same product, between two batches, is not produce by the same sub-contractor - big players just don't care. Cisco is not going to lose business because you chose to not buy, and most people won't follow you to allow…

These are two different arguments, though. Yes, everything you listed is true, and it's largely what led to brand cynicism in the first place. However, this new Amazon problem (at least within the ecosystem of Amazon) is markedly worse. There are 1000 brands, and most of them are terrible, and the reviews are worthless, and you can't even see or hold the product in your hand. In this situation, a trusted brand has more internal consistency (despite all the issues you correctly noted) than the very inconsistent fly-by-night brands you can find on Amazon.

Of course, my argument falls apart if we can't spot counterfeits on Amazon.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#372

Post by peatmoss »

mikorym wrote: post #349
smnrchrds wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... I generally don't have to worry. Emphasis on generally . Apple still sells many (most?) of its iMacs with spinning rust drives. Just picking up something from Apple Store and paying tons for it does not guarantee it meets minimum quality standards one might expect.

What do you mean by that? That the quality is not good or that the stock is old?

Classic hard-drives with platters that physically spin rather than a solid state SSD hard-drive. Nothing necessarily wrong with the older HDD technology, though most people have come to expect the better performance characteristics that come with newer SSD technology.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#373

Post by usrusr »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #305
ThePhysicist wrote: post #88

It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…

Unfortunate, brand loyalty doesn't mean anything anymore: - a lot of companies don't manufacture the product themself - they don't even manufacture two products from the same subcontractor - sometime, the same product, between two batches, is not produce by the same sub-contractor - big players just don't care. Cisco is not going to lose business because you chose to not buy, and most people won't follow you to allow…

> - sometime, the same product, between two batches, is not produce by the same sub-contractor

Case example: I have two pairs of a specific model of cycling gloves, both are subtly different in materials and have different labeling styles, as well as different "made in" statements (one European, one Asian). Had I bought them from Amazon I might wonder which one is fake and it wouldn't be clear at all. But I got both pairs directly from company HQ stocks, the closest thing to a definition of "authentic" we have in today's inscrutable networks of subcontracting.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#374

Post by EmpirePhoenix »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #88

It's funny: I always thought the Internet and platforms like Amazon with the collaborative reviewing system would make brands more and more obsolete, because you could just pick high-quality products from smaller manufacturers by looking at user reviews. Now I find that I rely more and more on brands to decide which things I buy, because I simply cannot trust user reviews in most of the cases. Recently there are more…

Also funny, my result of this is that I now order basically everything directly via aliexpress. If all i get is chinese crap anyway, I can at least get it cheaper.

Then I noticed that aliexpress actually made some pretty good page design choices. Since you can see how long a seller is registered and how many they have sold (both directly on the product information site), it is pretty easy to find a at lest decent trader there

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#375

Post by mortivore »

sn4pp wrote: post #365
aguyfromnb wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> MS continues to do wrong, forced telemetry and upgrades, ads in the OS These things might be unpreferable to you, but none of them are "wrong".

"forced telemetry" is very wrong. Let's see how long it takes until that is illegal in your country.

There are some people that think if something isn't illegal, then it isn't wrong. It's really weird.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#376

Post by zeveb »

aguyfromnb wrote: post #355
mixmastamyk wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your logic. However, MS continues to do wrong, forced telemetry and upgrades, ads in the OS, are but a few examples. Only now drowned out.

> MS continues to do wrong, forced telemetry and upgrades, ads in the OS These things might be unpreferable to you, but none of them are "wrong".

Microsoft continue to produce proprietary software, i.e. software which infringes on its users' freedoms to use, examine, modify & share software; that is wrong.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#377

Post by snazz »

reaperducer wrote: post #224
citiguy wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, that’s neat. What is this script called? How do you run it?

Duck found this, but I haven't tried it yet: "To enable SSH on an AirPort base station you just need to set the dbug property to 0x3000, like this: python -m acp -t {ipv4-address} -p {password} --setprop dbug 0x3000 python -m acp -t {ipv4-address} -p {password} --reboot Then connect to the device with the username root and whatever password you use to manage the device." https://github.com/x56/airpyrt-tools/issues/1

Yup. That’s what I did.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#378

Post by arbitrage »

miked85 wrote: post #6

I have started buying most products directly from manufacturer's websites or in physical stores now. The amount of fake products on Amazon is appalling, I wonder why they don't put effort into stopping this.

I tried this recently. Bought something from the manufacturer, paid extra for shipping & handling, waited longer, the whole bit. I felt good about myself, because I don't want to be taken advantage of anymore, and hey ... I'm buying directly from the manufacturer, so they get a higher cut. Right?

No. I bought directly from the manufacturer's website, paid them, got email from them, the whole bit ... and it was fulfilled and delivered by Amazon. I got an amazon box, and an amazon invoice, and an amazon product.

You can't win anymore. Online commerce is subverted. What you see, no matter how savvy of a consumer or how much experience you have with online shopping, is not guaranteed to be what you get, anymore.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#379

Post by nappy-doo »

russh wrote: post #90
nappy-doo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My neighbor bought a set of woodworking clamps from Amazon. When the ~25lb. box arrived, the driver threw them up onto his porch (his house is quite raised from the street), and he has video of it damaging his siding as it took three attempts for the driver to get them over the railing onto his porch. When he contacted Amazon, they said to contact some insurance company they had. When my neighbor called the insurance…

Did your neighbor call the insurance commissioner and attorney general to tell them that they were operating a non-registered insurance company in Massachusetts?

No. He contacted the local news, who did nothing, and then had his second kid and life got in the way.

Re: Which of these Amazon Prime purchases are real?

#380

Post by wombat-man »

jimmaswell wrote: post #262
wombat-man wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cancelled my prime this year, haven't looked back. A lot of retailers offer free shipping if you order a certain dollar amount and while they have a smaller selection, I can be pretty sure I'm not receiving anything fake. They also tend to have a lot less noise in search results. main downside is I'm having to order from multiple places, but it hasn't been too bad.

I was tired one night and looking for a replacement brake set for my car (oem has a known problem with seizing I was experiencing). Followed a link from a reddit advice post to some company's site with the parts. Said it would take weeks but I needed it so oh well. Realized the next day Amazon had the same exact thing for less and 2 day shipping. Emailed support of the other site to cancel and days later they said th…

Yeah, amazonbasics stuff has been great for me too. I'm not boycotting Amazon, I just don't think Prime is worth it anymore for me. Amazon is truly better in some cases, but I just don't mind using saver shipping for the most part. Most of the typical household stuff and packaged foods are typically available for free 1 or 2 day shipping at other retailers. Worst case I can drag my butt over to a physical store, but I'm usually pretty good at ordering ahead.

One of things that pushed me away from amazon is their increased usage of "add-on item" labels. If I have to batch order anyway, Prime isn't actually that great of a deal.

Also for prices, I've actually found that for some items the prices are not always lower, but ymmv. Factor in that you're paying an annual fee. IMO, the 2 day shipping is almost not a factor anymore, since other major US retailers are starting to offer it for FREE. So for me it comes down to, is it worth the price so I don't need to batch order ~sometimes~ ? We could also be using Amazon very differently, so it may actually be a much better deal for you.

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