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Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

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Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#491

Post by q-big »

albert180 wrote: post #474
q-big wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon is unusable at this point, and I don’t get how they have so many customers. At least in Germany, using Amazon is often the easiest way to buy copies of foreign-language (often, but not always English) textbooks about scientific topics.

Literally every other Bookstore has them listed too, with overnight delivery

My experience differs.

Perhaps the reason is that the scientific textbooks that I love to buy are often "long-tail business", i.e. textbooks about very specialized topics.

The situation is even more biased towards Amazon if we are talking about used obscure textbooks in good condition for a fair price.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#494

Post by YeBanKo »

ljm wrote: post #301
sanitycheck wrote: post #246

My process for getting usable results on Amazon (.co.uk, presumably the others too): 1. Search for thing 2. Filter by department (necessary for 3) 3. Filter by Seller: only Amazon 4: Filter by reviews: 4 stars+ 5: Sort by price, Low > High 6: (Further filters as appropriate) 7: Look at only products with a high number of reviews 8: For every product, "See all reviews" and filter on "Verified purchase only" and "Show…

I had to buy a replacement USB cable in a pinch the other week. Probably the first time since pre-COVID where I could justify next day delivery (where I would normally be happy to just wait however long it takes from a more local retailer). I knew exactly the kind to look for but I couldn't just search for that and pick the first item on the list. I could have easily bought the wrong thing in one click and not known…

For small things like that monoprice has been my go to.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#495

Post by primax »

adrr wrote: post #452
hgsgm wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's wrong with getting the Amazon Basics version of whatever commodity?

Because Amazon Basics is the bottom of the barrel. Their cables do not last. You can buy Anker cables for around the same price. Their batteries are also terrible. It’s not like Costco’s Kirkland signature.

I find cable failures to be extremely rare. Are you pulling them out by the cable or the plug? Everyone I see who destroys cables pulls by the cable.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#496

Post by YeBanKo »

jabo wrote: post #53

I recently had to buy something mundane - a light bulb, with a specific lumen and color temperature spec. Weeding out all the junk listings, ads and clearly fake reviews, I ended up spending an hour trying to get to the one I wanted to buy. Had a very similar experience for another product as well. At this point, I hesitate to look up stuff on Amazon just considering the time it takes to find stuff. I much rather pre…

For household stuff i started using Grainger and large hardware store more often, than amazon. It might be more expensive, buy i endup spending less time on a purchase.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#497

Post by r0fl »

Symbiote wrote: post #341
r0fl wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing comes close to matching the ease of using amazon. In Canada if I need Kleenex I search kleenex, click buy now and it arrives to my house the same day! Sometimes I have to wait until the next day. The total time spent on the purchase is way under 1 minute. To use costco I have to buy at least $75 or shipping is not free. Walmart I have to fill out all my personal info and credit card info, and it's never same…

Don't you consider how wasteful this is? Packaging and transport for a box of tissues, then the packaging to dispose of. Write yourself a note if necessary (post-it, phone app, whatever) and buy Kleenex the next time you're at the supermarket.

I have the complete opposite logic. I have to drive my gas guzzling suv to get Kleenex and a few other items OR the person delivering Amazon packages can drive a few minutes from the house down the street that is getting an Amazon package.

Amazon is not driving the Kleenex from the warehouse to my house in an empty car!

My delivery is an incremental carbon footprint. Going to the supermarket is significantly worse.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#498

Post by llanowarelves »

agentcoops wrote: post #288

I’m part of the I’m sure infinitesimal and ever-shrinking portion of Amazon’s userbase who actually try to use the site to buy rare and used books. Most annoying for my experience is that they recently replaced what was in fact a best-in-class recommendation engine, which lead to a lot of my purchases, with a totally useless ad bar that displays universally terrible “related” books. There’s a world where after effect…

It's funny

Alexa is named after the Library of Alexandria. Their other products are named Kindle and Fire.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#499

Post by sanitycheck »

ikt wrote: post #488
sanitycheck wrote: post #246

My process for getting usable results on Amazon (.co.uk, presumably the others too): 1. Search for thing 2. Filter by department (necessary for 3) 3. Filter by Seller: only Amazon 4: Filter by reviews: 4 stars+ 5: Sort by price, Low > High 6: (Further filters as appropriate) 7: Look at only products with a high number of reviews 8: For every product, "See all reviews" and filter on "Verified purchase only" and "Show…

> It does feel just a little like Amazon's goals might not be perfectly aligned with those of the customer. Why do you still use it? Is it just because it's cheap?

This is a good question. I use it a lot less than I used to, and I don't have Prime.

Sometimes it's because of price, if something's significantly cheaper on Amazon I'll buy it from Amazon. Free delivery tips it in Amazon's favour sometimes.

Sometimes it's availability. It can be quite painful to order things from outside the UK, most sellers aren't equipped to deal with VAT/duty their end so I end up with the delivery company holding packages hostage until I pay those (which is fine) plus a £20-30 "admin fee" for their package-hostage service. Pre-Brexit I could avoid this by ordering from elsewhere in the EU, but now I'm even more limited. Looking through my Amazon purchase history 3 of the last 5 things I've ordered are only available from Amazon in the UK (and at twice the price from a couple of dodgy looking online stores I've never heard of).

The other reason is their returns policy, if the thing I order doesn't work they'll take it back with no fuss and refund the money. Other major retailers in the UK make this difficult, frustrating and/or time-consuming.

I think they succeeded in retail because of a relentless focus on making the experience for customers better than their competitors. That's all still there, in the background - but it's being eclipsed by some other part of the org that wants to trick those customers into buying a load of shit.

Re: Almost everything on Amazon is becoming an ad

#500

Post by sanitycheck »

sylvainkalache wrote: post #489
sanitycheck wrote: post #246

My process for getting usable results on Amazon (.co.uk, presumably the others too): 1. Search for thing 2. Filter by department (necessary for 3) 3. Filter by Seller: only Amazon 4: Filter by reviews: 4 stars+ 5: Sort by price, Low > High 6: (Further filters as appropriate) 7: Look at only products with a high number of reviews 8: For every product, "See all reviews" and filter on "Verified purchase only" and "Show…

I would suggest adding Fakespot to your process. They analyze reviews and will spot the ones that are most likely fake, and then adjust the rating of the product accordingly.

I've looked at a couple of services which look for patterns in reviews to flag fakes, but I think this only helps me if I'm prepared to buy from third-party sellers - which I'm not.

Fake reviews are paid for by sellers shifting tat that Amazon themselves will not sell (because someone in that bit of Amazon still cares about quality). If Amazon themselves wanted to add fake reviews they could easily do it in a way undetectable by Fakespot etc.

Fakespot in particular is a business with a business model, and that is (I think) all about ads and affiliate links. Just a guess, but probably VC-funded with a pressure to actually make a profit somehow. I am thus not their customer, and their incentives may not always align with mine so it's hard to trust them.

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