Live data from Hacker News

Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

latimes.com

91–100 of 101 posts

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#91
post #4

Amazon, Walmart, Etsy... my kingdom for a marketplace that doesn't become just a dumping ground for shady fly-by-night dropshippers.

B&Q in the UK went exactly the same way - used to be pretty reliable, and I didn't mind paying the extra to have all the things a home DIYer might need without going to half a dozen different builder's merchants and trade suppliers. Then they opened their store page up to anyone who wanted to list anything even tangentially related to home improvements and predictably it's a huge heap of drop-shipped rubbish and it's all been SEO'ed to the Nth degree to appear higher in the search rankings than anything actually sold by B&Q.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#92
post #4

Amazon, Walmart, Etsy... my kingdom for a marketplace that doesn't become just a dumping ground for shady fly-by-night dropshippers.

This has pushed me to high levels of brand loyalty with direct ordering from the brands I like and trust, plus a lot of buying used… also mostly products from a handful of trusted brands (this is largely clothes, nearly all of which I buy used except socks, underwear, and most sweaters)

I was an eBay PowerSeller 1999-2004 (the era of primarily accepting money orders). I don't even recognize that platform, anymore (perhaps one purchase, every few years, now – some diamond-in-the-rough rarity, unavailable elsewhere).

I closed my Amazon account, a few years ago, for similar reasons (both platforms seem to become the dumping grounds for brokens, defectives, and otherwise abandonables).

Most items I'll now purchase in-person, at a store – I want to feel the clothing's thickness, smell the hardware's newness, and/or pay more for warranted IRL customer support. Mandatory in-person purchases are memory (RAM or SSD), only because they have a supplier chain-of-custody, without mixed seller bins (which Amazon is attempting to resolve, albeit decades too late IMHO).

----

Random shoutout to Duluth Trading Company (not-affiliated, no stock owned – just a great brand): I drive 2.5 hours round-trip, once a year, to visit one of their clothing stores. If you haven't worn their firehose contractor pants, you're missing out on the incredibility of 3% spandex pants – thick, breathable, don't tear... and when you feel them in person you will absolutely not care about their pricetag. They have traditional US wwXhh mens-sizing, but also three separate "fits" (tightnesses).

If you're a fattietradesman (like me), trying things on is essential. Really glad to see certainly higher-end storefronts "coming back," as these customers demand quality.

Just wish they sold computers – although I did visit my first MicroCenter, recently: WOW! (Reminiscent of early-2000s Fry's Electronics, but smaller/better).

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#93
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't allow 3rd party sellers?

I think that is key. I used to browse Best Buy's website for various electronics and it was typically pretty good. I knew that somewhere, a Best Buy product buyer was evaluating the products with at least a minimum set of expectations. Then they opened their marketplace to 3rd party sellers and it's the same low cost, low quality crap on every other site.

I walked into a Best Buy, last summer, and the prominent retail location (i.e. right when you enter the store) had BBQ Grills for sale... not just one option, there were several sizes and configurations.

And somehow no local retailer had a corded phone (had to order off Amazon, unfortunately... friend's account) – not even the local telco! Exception: expensive fax machines (?!), with attached corded handset – in 2026.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has pushed me to high levels of brand loyalty with direct ordering from the brands I like and trust, plus a lot of buying used… also mostly products from a handful of trusted brands (this is largely clothes, nearly all of which I buy used except socks, underwear, and most sweaters)

To bad that the actual buying experience (once you have selected what to buy) is still so much better with Amazon. * One cart for everything you need to order * Fairly predictable shipping and tracking, especially for FBA stuff vs. the random shipping companies vs random shippers you have never heard about or weird shipping options selected by the seller (i.e. ID checks required where that makes no sense at all, prev…

I also direct order from brands I trust and this hasn't been my experience AT ALL. In fact using Apple Pay with an AMEX card means the experience is essentially amazing -- fingerprint checkout and the ability to reverse the charge with Amex is all I really need.

Of course, I'm still using Apple Pay, so that may not work for everyone.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thermoworks (which makes excellent thermometers) no longer sells on Amazon b/c there were too many counterfeits/people selling broken items etc. You can now only order from their website which I am more than happy to do as their customer service is excellent. https://www.thermoworks.com

https://www.amazon.com/stores/ThermoWorks actually... they gave up a while ago and have an amazon store.. it's been a few years IIRC

That is a 404 for me, in the US.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#96
post #2

Still use Amazon for certain items because of fast delivery but the site is a complete mess. At some point Amazon leadership failed to understand that there’s a lot more to a good customer experience than “selection size.” If I search for X I’d vastly prefer a few simple options that aren’t counterfeit or junk vs here’s 150 variants of your thing, most of which are junk but hey look at the size of our selection!

AI chat interface works where search does not. Not perfect, but much better, and allows more specific, accurate filtering.

I totally understand the downvote, as bad player adds bad tech must = bad. I'm just pointing out that the terrible search interface / results / algorithm / intention of Amazon is, for now, a bit alleviated by their AI interface that filters much more reliably based on prompt, and can adjust the prompt.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#97

I tend to find ebay less shady than Amazon these days, which is a bit disapointing really.

Ebay would be a lot more fun to use if a) You could search for keywords without also matching keywords that have your keyword as a sub-string b) "Sort by lowest price including shipping" actually did what it says As it is you often have to wade through tons of undesired crap to get to what you want. I also don't like that eBay sellers can see that you viewed their product and send you price offers. Oh and let's not f…

Exact keyword match in quotes doesnt work for you?

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/ThermoWorks actually... they gave up a while ago and have an amazon store.. it's been a few years IIRC

That is a 404 for me, in the US.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/ThermoWorks/page/4D6BCE63-39FE... apparently... sorry I didn't re click but you can also just search the brand and go to the brand store on amazon.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has pushed me to high levels of brand loyalty with direct ordering from the brands I like and trust, plus a lot of buying used… also mostly products from a handful of trusted brands (this is largely clothes, nearly all of which I buy used except socks, underwear, and most sweaters)

To bad that the actual buying experience (once you have selected what to buy) is still so much better with Amazon. * One cart for everything you need to order * Fairly predictable shipping and tracking, especially for FBA stuff vs. the random shipping companies vs random shippers you have never heard about or weird shipping options selected by the seller (i.e. ID checks required where that makes no sense at all, prev…

I’m done with Amazon, but unless something changed in the past year, buying through them is actually inconvenient.

The return experience is great, because it has to be. You buy so much crap because of drop-shippers and their search is atrocious due to paid placement.

If you know what you want (a Thermoscan was one of my last purchases), it can be cheaper to go elsewhere, you don’t deal with their search “engine”, and you don’t help Bezos buy the next election. My context is European, but I really don’t agree that Amazon is that great anymore.

There’s plenty of stuff I find cheaper in other places, plus I’ll know it’s authentic and not a drop-shipped counterfeit. Amazon was tremendous once, but that’s gone.

Re: Amazon seller reveals glimpse of shadow bribery market

#100
post #4

Amazon, Walmart, Etsy... my kingdom for a marketplace that doesn't become just a dumping ground for shady fly-by-night dropshippers.

Don't allow 3rd party sellers?

This sounds so obvious…Decathlon’s and Leroy Merlin’s 3rd-party sellers made their webshops a nightmare. Why would I go to Decathlon to buy from 3rd parties? We already had, like, 200 marketplaces for that.
Post reply on HN