Live data from Hacker News

Amazon without the knockoffs

knockoff.shopping

81–90 of 273 posts

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#81
post #61

Even better, buy direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon. I've found most of the time you get the same price and free shipping without giving Jeff Bezos a dime.

I've had bad experiances trying this: - Return experience is TERRIBLE. I'm not kidding, with Amazon you've got one click to a QR code and a UPS store dropoff. Some of these mfgs you are jumping hoops for a week plus! And then have to box, buy a label, often pay for shipping and more. IF you can even get in touch with someone. - Shipping experience is TERRIBLE. How does FedEx stay in business? I'm serious - the expres…

It is also often more expensive than Amazon, which is I think is largely due to Anazon's anti-competetive, and possibly illegal "most favored nation" terms, but as a consumer it does discourage avoiding Amazon (which is why Amazon has those terms).

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#82
post #76

I should check my purchase history, but I probably use Amazon more for buying stuff that they would classify as a "Knockoff", but isn't (i.e. there is no established brand they are knocking off). Because for legitimate brands, I try to simply buy elsewhere. This is an example: https://www.amazon.com/MiiKARE-Universal-Rotating-Adjustable... You'll find lots of different manufacturers selling this on Amazon, but there…

I use Ali Express for those things because I don’t need them next day and I need my money more than Jeff Bezos does.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#83
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you get a few thousand dollars by suing them for spamming you?

Not for physical mail.

Yeeeeey for living in a country where physical mail is prohibitively expensive. A standard letter, 2 - 5 business days, costs $3.50.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#84
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make your burrito or bowl at home, and it'll cost $4 or less.

Do you enjoy eating just rice wrapped in a tortilla or something? Burritos are a harsh illustration of the economy of scale. Doing a quick tally with sale prices, and I'd think buying all the ingredients to make one single burrito would be upwards of $20-25, at least. Never mind the time to cook each ingredient that needs to be cooked. And most of these supplies and prep are going to last what, ~4 days before they sp…

I see what you're doing, and you're completely correct. It's expensive to make meals solo.

But it's an uphill battle and you won't win.

Nobody cares that buying new ingredients to make tacos for a party of 1 is expensive.

If they aren't doing it yet, they will soon be telling you that you aren't holding it right, wherein:

You should enjoy leftovers. You should embrace and cherish the idea that electing to have some tacos one night dictates your meal choices for the days that follow.

That extra chopped onion that is all stinky and sulfurous by day 2? The meat that isn't ever going to be remotely the same again? The tomatoes that are reverting to slime? All that extra lettuce? That fresh cilantro that doesn't have any other culinary use in your chosen diet? Buck up and eat it, or shut up.

People are broadly incapable of having non-disingenuous conversations about the cost of preparing fresh food in small quantities.

---

Tacos for 2? Or 3? Or 8? Or 16! That's really easy and efficient to make for a one-time meal at home. It scales up very well, indeed. It's a great way to feed a bunch of people relatively inexpensively.

For a person cooking for themselves who isn't inclined to eat the same thing for multiple days in short succession, tacos get do kind of expensive -- expensive enough that buying them hot, fresh, and pre-made becomes very attractive.

(My personal favorite is when they tell me that I should try having different taste and just change my preference for the foods that I eat instead of complain about the price. Or when they tell me that I'm a very poor meal planner just because I want only one burrito: FFS.

Sometimes a burrito is just a burrito, and that's OK.)

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#85

Cuts two ways. Why should I pay $200 for a BigBrand dog bed if this knockoff site shows SHRDLU has the same thing for $40? We all know that BigBrand gets it from the same supplier. The real knockoff problem I see is that you buy what you think is BigBrand and get shipped Knockoff because someone is mingling inventory.

“Knockoffs” can be of many different types:

- Coming from the same factory line with the same quality control, just rebranded (Costco famously does this a lot)

- Factory seconds, goods with very minor defects (sometimes not even in the product itself but in the box etc)

- Manufacturers copying specs and running illicit production lines without the company’s authorization

- Complete knockoffs, where the external design was copied but the product is totally different

Ultimately for most of these Amazon brands you have no idea which of these you are getting. Just because a product looks the same doesn’t mean it is the same. And in a lot of cases, e.g. with battery operated electronics the knockoff manufacturers skip a lot of safeguards and it ends up burning your house down.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#86

Cuts two ways. Why should I pay $200 for a BigBrand dog bed if this knockoff site shows SHRDLU has the same thing for $40? We all know that BigBrand gets it from the same supplier. The real knockoff problem I see is that you buy what you think is BigBrand and get shipped Knockoff because someone is mingling inventory.

Whenever I see keyboard-mashed company names I know I can go to Temu/AliExpress and get it directly there. You can tell when they are all sourcing from the same batch and instead of paying $40 the same thing is often $3.28 if you don't mind waiting a week.

Aliexpress used to ship almost exclusively from China, so your package took 4-6 weeks in a best case scenario.

The value prop of Amazon is (was?) getting your item fast (not cheapest anymore and certainly not highest quality).

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#87
post #61

Even better, buy direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon. I've found most of the time you get the same price and free shipping without giving Jeff Bezos a dime.

I've had bad experiances trying this: - Return experience is TERRIBLE. I'm not kidding, with Amazon you've got one click to a QR code and a UPS store dropoff. Some of these mfgs you are jumping hoops for a week plus! And then have to box, buy a label, often pay for shipping and more. IF you can even get in touch with someone. - Shipping experience is TERRIBLE. How does FedEx stay in business? I'm serious - the expres…

I recently bought a camping tent from Naturehike, a budget but respected Chinese brand. I ordered on their website and, long story short, my parcel got stuck at a warehouse for weeks, presumably lost. They said they can't refund me before they retrieve the tent and "inspect the package", as if I somehow went to a warehouse in a different country, found it there, and damaged it.

It took me well over a month of back and forth to get a refund, and only after I repeatedly threatened them with a chargeback. I ordered the exact same tent on Amazon and had it the next day. As a bonus, it was now discounted on Amazon but not on the manufacturer's website.

I only order from Amazon a handful of times a year when I can't find an item elsewhere, but manufacturers are really doing their best to push me towards it.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#88
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I do that I get frustrated: - shipping sometimes goes to from day(s) to weeks - suddenly their ads start going to email - please review us emails I'd rather bezos get his cut.

This. Amazon has the best checkout and delivery system in the world, and that alone is worth a few extra dollars. The excess crap gets caught in the appropriate filters and I just end up with my item in a box.

> This. Amazon has the best checkout and delivery system in the world, and that alone is worth a few extra dollars.

IIRC amazon yeets you out of their marketplace if you sell items cheaper than on amazon.com. Which you can work around by giving our coupon on your website, but that results in email/sms spam.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#89
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I do that I get frustrated: - shipping sometimes goes to from day(s) to weeks - suddenly their ads start going to email - please review us emails I'd rather bezos get his cut.

This. Amazon has the best checkout and delivery system in the world, and that alone is worth a few extra dollars. The excess crap gets caught in the appropriate filters and I just end up with my item in a box.

Amazons checkout is terrible though. Maybe it's better if you're in the US, but here you're not told the actual price, after currency conversion and shipping costs until the very last minute. Their shipping is awful, because it doesn't integrate with anything, so you can select a pickup point, and shipping is often weeks rather than next day.

Re: Amazon without the knockoffs

#90

Cuts two ways. Why should I pay $200 for a BigBrand dog bed if this knockoff site shows SHRDLU has the same thing for $40? We all know that BigBrand gets it from the same supplier. The real knockoff problem I see is that you buy what you think is BigBrand and get shipped Knockoff because someone is mingling inventory.

Depends on the company. If it's a respectable Asian brand? I'm safe.

If it's an old and established US mark like Philips or Maytag or something? ZGGCD is the way to go.

Post reply on HN