Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#81

Post by burlesona » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:26 PM UTC

I’ve got the same experience as many other posters here and have been buying less from Amazon lately.

One thing I haven’t seen people talking about much is how profound and impact Apple Pay is for direct online retail.

I used to find products on a company website and then go to Amazon to buy, mainly so I didn’t need to create yet another account, and because of prime shipping and Amazon’s return policy.

The amazing thing with Apple Pay is how much it creates an even better purchasing experience than Amazon’s “one-click,” while being open to any merchant. You don’t have to create an account, put in your shipping or billing info, or do anything really. You just click “buy with Apple Pay,” and click to confirm.

Between that, and offering “free shipping” (just include it in the product price), and a good return policy, I see retailers being much more able to sell direct and compete with Amazon’s fading reputation.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#82

Post by usrusr » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:26 PM UTC

mkl wrote: post #31

thechao wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a trivial way for native English speakers to learn this rule: replace ‘it’ with ‘his’, appropriately, adjust comma to suit. > Amazon has ceded control of hi’s site to a 3rd party... Obviously incorrect.

It's an apostrophe, not a comma, and unfortunately that won't work in the case where it should be "it's", like at the start of this sentence, but yes. "It's" only ever means "it is" or "it has".

What if he actually is an apostrophe?

Disregarding the semantic absurdity (and the e/i mismatch), the rule works fine: "his an apostrophe" should look a lot more wrong to anyone with enough understanding of English that its/it's mistakes make a difference than "he's an apostrophe".

"He's" also only ever means "he is" or "he has", just like "it's". That's the entire point of this little memory aid.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#83

Post by cmrdporcupine » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:27 PM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #62

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #34

This among many reasons is is why I cancelled my prime membership. The quality control is abysmal. It's become an eBay, but without a proper dispute system, and crazy prices. Many goods get listed at multiples of the price available elsewhere and if you're not paying attention you can get screwed. It's totally buyer beware. The trust that Amazon established over the years has been lost. I ordered something on Amazon…

And then you stumble over stories like this[1]. In a way it's her own damn fault. If I invest a significant amout of money into a branded product I'd probably visit the store of the brand, or a reseller licensed by the brand. But I sure as hell wouldn't order a $1000 coat from Amazon. That just yells: RIP ME OFF! [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/count...

Here in Canada, at least, sporting gear and technical outdoor clothing is a complete joke on Amazon. Sometimes two, three, times the price.

And, yeah, likely fraudulent.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#84

Post by MaupitiBlue » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:27 PM UTC

NikolaNovak wrote: post #74

MaupitiBlue wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had about 150 orders last year and never saw this happen.

Interesting; I have about ~50-70 prime orders a year, in Canada (Amazon.ca), and that's the norm for me - it'll show 2-3 options for shipping, and the slowest free option is usually picked by default. If I want same day / next day shipping, I need to click on that button. Still free, no worries, but needs that extra interaction.

The only time it doesn’t default to the fastest possible shipping is when there is the option to ship items separately, or to combine the shipments with a delay. I think it will default to the delay in that situation. My guess is that occurs when the closest distribution center doesn’t have all the items in the order.

For context, I’m in the US and about 20 minutes from a good-sized distribution center.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#85

Post by rchaud » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:27 PM UTC

sergiotapia wrote: post #3

We used to buy from Amazon since it was a stamp of quality. I tried buying a usb-c cable for my mac mini, and it was terrible. So many brands and no way of knowing what to get. Today you might as well buy from Ebay. What online store exists today, where I can be guaranteed to buy quality things? Do they no longer exist?

> What online store exists today, where I can be guaranteed to buy quality things? Do they no longer exist?

I'm in Canada, and increasingly I'm buying direct from brick-and-mortar retailers w/ online ordering and delivery.

Best Buy, Staples, Walmart, the Apple Store, the Microsoft Store, etc. BB's site does have third party sellers, but the website has a useful, clearly marked toggle labeled "Best Buy Only" which I always click. Walmart's search function is terrible, but once you locate the product, you can usually pick it up same day or have it delivered to a pickup point in a couple of days if you live in a city.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#86

Post by julianlam » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:27 PM UTC

At the risk of dogpiling on other comments, I also feel Amazon's quality has hit rock bottom. I used to use Amazon because it had a reputation for quality items. Now they all come from China and I pay Western prices for the privilege of having it shipped to me faster.

USB keys and SD cards are almost all universally garbage rip-offs, and I recently purchased a stroller from Amazon, but had a bit of a panic moment when I wondered whether the baby carrier itself was certified by Canadian authorities (it was, but I shouldn't have to ever wonder).

For all of my child's items, I'm now steering clear of Amazon.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#87

Post by burlesona » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:28 PM UTC

leemcalilly wrote: post #57

Darmody wrote: post #13

Amazon overall quality has droped in recent years. I use to buy from Amazon because I knew I was buying original brands and no chinese cheap copies. Well, that changed a lot. There are specific things that I still buy from Amazon but on most things there's almost no difference between they and Aliexpress. I can buy the same products from Aliexpress way cheaper and have them delivered in 2-3 days. Thankfully there are…

As a small niche retailer that makes and sells guitar straps in Nashville I couldn’t agree more. Our experiments selling on Amazon have only hurt us, but Prime is a huge time & shipping $$ saver for re-ordering supplies for our shop and even materials used to make our products. We’ve experimented with selling on a lot of different sites (Amazon, Etsy, Reverb, etc) and have found the best way to control the brand and…

Very nice website and you offer Apple Pay. I’d totally buy direct from you over going to Amazon. I think you’re on the right track.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#88

Post by JohnJamesRambo » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #72

sergiotapia wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take the number of helmets in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

Pulling a listing is not the same as issuing a recall. And your arithmetic does nothing to account for the hit to reputation and trust.

Pretty sure it’s a spin on a Fight Club quote.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#89

Post by ethbro » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #46

That and they've gone the wall-mart route of actually PUSHING anything / the lowest price possible. I get stuff that's like 5% cheaper but quality looks to be about 50% the quality pushed on me all the time on Amazon now. I went to Amazon originally to find QUALITY products that my local stores didn't carry because of price pressures. Now Amazon seems to be switching to just being ... wall-mart and that's already nea…

It feels like the only rational explanation is "Bezos wants it like this."

I know the folks at Amazon are talented, but the abject failure to optimize for quality over quantity is pretty much only explainable as intentional.

I guess a second runner up would be that they're so organizationally KPI-focused, and their KPIs are so myopic, that no one actually realizes how much they're screwing up customer experience. But that seems a stretch.

Re: Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

#90

Post by djsumdog » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #58

Yikes: > A Wall Street Journal investigation found 4,152 items for sale on Amazon.com Inc. ’s site that have been declared unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled or are banned by federal regulators—items that big-box retailers’ policies would bar from their shelves. Among those items, at least 2,000 listings for toys and medications lacked warnings about health risks to children. > Of the 4,152 products…

I always wondered how we got all these reports of lead in products and children's toys. There was a post a few weeks back where someone explained it and it made perfect sense: recycling.

China takes a ton of US recycling. They often melt down metals, e-waste and solder and it's difficult to separated out lead and unleaded source material. A lot of it just gets put together and used in bulk.