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I've become more and more disillusioned by Amazon over the years. Prices are now almost never the best; I only buy from them when I need something quickly (and

I've become more and more disillusioned by Amazon over the years. Prices are now almost never the best; I only buy from them when I need something quickly (and can't get it locally). NewEgg (nearly) always has better tech prices. Walmart often has better prices on everyday items and I can have it immediately. I just bought a pair of tweezers at my local grocery store for two bucks that was $6 on Amazon for the same make/model; sure, it's a terrible item to sell online because it's tiny and cheap and shipping it with prime shipping probably costs as much as the item itself, but I thought they'd solved that problem with "add on" items. I mean, Amazon is still a very good customer experience, but when I'm buying something big I always comparison shop now. As recently as a couple years ago, I would just buy it. No thought to whether it might be cheaper elsewhere. The convenience of Prime, plus the reasonable confidence that the price would be competitive with everybody else, was enough to where I didn't bother comparison shopping. Obviously, Amazon isn't hurting. But, I can't help but think that having more of their longtime customers starting to comparison shop is a bad thing.

illegal_in_ca 9y ago
Interesting. I also find myself picking up tech from NewEgg more often than Amazon. And I recently ordered most of the supplies for a cocktail party I was having at Walmart and Bed Bad and Beyond. Amazon prices might beat local retail, but they are only sometimes competitive with other (often more specizlized) online retailers at this point. Also, at least for me, shipping New Egg, Walmart and BBAB was faster than Amazon. I don't have Prime however.
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  And, NewEgg also generally has excellent customer service, in my experience. So, it's not like I'm trading away convenience or confidence in the vendor. I've bought hundreds of more items at Amazon than NewEgg in the past several years, but I'd bet my gross dollar spend is similar at NewEgg because I've bought a half dozen servers and computers.
  - illegal_in_ca 9y ago
    Agreed, NewEgg customer service is excellent. Easy returns. I've probably spent more in raw dollars at NewEgg than at Amazon, even though I've made maybe 10x as many Amazon purchases. Edit: I have NewEgg Premier though, so I get free shipping on certain items and free RMAs. Cheaper than Amazon Prime. I'm always amazed NewEgg doesn't get more love around here.
- untog 9y ago
  The issue I have with NewEgg is returns. There's always some condition, or expensive fee for return shipping. By comparison, Amazon makes it very easy
  - SwellJoe 9y ago
    Is that new? I don't remember ever having that experience, but I haven't had to return anything in a long time.
  - agwa 9y ago
    The flip side to Amazon's easy returns is that I regularly receive used/returned merchandise from Amazon that was advertised as new.
    - thirdsun 9y ago
      If the product clearly appears to be used I'd say that's a problem with Amazon's quality control for returns (though I never experienced those problems). However what do you think happens to returned items? You don't expect them to be thrown out, do you? Maybe I'm way off, but I was always under the impression that those returned items are re-packaged (if necessary) and sold as new. And I think that's fine since I really don't see any other way to handle it. Think about europe, where every shop has to offer a free 14 day return policy, regardless of if you're Amazon or a small Shopify seller. If the item can't be sold as new, that means the customer overstepped and should be held accountable.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - Stratoscope 9y ago
        Of course there is another way for retailers to re-sell customer returns. They can list them with labels such as "Used - Like New" or "Open Box" or whatever applies. For example, go into any Best Buy and ask them where the open box deals are, or look on their website. Or go to a Fry's Electronics store. They put returned items on the shelf with new ones, but there is a special label on the package noting this and generally offering a small discount. Lenovo has a factory outlet separate from their main website where they sell customer returns. Unopened returns may be listed as new; opened returns are listed as used or refurbished. Amazon lists returned products under "Amazon Warehouse Deals" in the New and Used section of a product listing, with the product condition noted in the description. For most product categories, Amazon prohibits a returned item from being resold as "New": https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161242 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... > New: Just like it sounds. A brand-new, unused, unopened item in its original packaging, with all original packaging materials included. Original protective wrapping, if any, is intact. Original manufacturer's warranty, if any, still applies, with warranty details included in the listing comments. There are some different policies in certain product categories; the page above lists them. Of course, third-party sellers on Amazon may well re-sell customer returns as "new". But if they don't comply with the rules on this page, they are violating their seller agreement.
- zitterbewegung 9y ago
  My newegg account got permamently banned so I shop at Amazon. I don't even know why.
  - SwellJoe 9y ago
    I do remember I had to jump through a couple of hoops to get something (about $8000 worth of something) shipped to an address not on file with my credit card, which is not something Amazon has ever done (I'm always shipping to weird places because I travel mostly full-time in an RV), but it wasn't too traumatic. I can't imagine why they'd ban someone permanently. I mean, they want money, right? That seems weird. But, also sucks.
    - zitterbewegung 9y ago
      The weird thing is that it occured after all my transactions happened. I wasn't buying anything from the account. It was really weird.
- nsb1 9y ago
  I buy from NewEgg whenever I can to show my support for their active patent troll hunting efforts. That's a worthwhile cause even if their prices are slightly higher.
ballenf 9y ago
Over and over again I've realized just before or after buying an item from Amazon that I paid way too much. I have finally broken the ingrained habit of leaping before looking. That can't be good for Amazon if too many people do that. On another note, I am beyond tired of the craptacular deals that are >80% fly-by-night products with astroturf reviews. The gold box deals used to be a favorite bookmarked stop.
- kylehotchkiss 9y ago
  Gold box (and so much of prime day) seemed like warehouse spring cleaning days.
  - cobookman 9y ago
    It actually reminded me of woot.com before they were bought by Amazon.
    - Faith_ 9y ago
      I just got paid $6784 working off my laptop this month. And if you think that's cool, my divorced friend has twin toddlers and made over $9k her first month. It feels so good making so much money when other people have to work for so much less. This is what I do, ===http://www.millionaireprofit.cf/ http://www.millionaireprofit.cf/
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  This is another big one. Amazon is filled with garbage products. It can be very hard to tell what's quality, anymore, and the reviews aren't trustworthy the way they used to be. I used to read reviews on Amazon religiously even if I was buying somewhere else. That habit has kinda faded, though it's still one of the better sources of real world product knowledge.
  - Fej 9y ago
    The bad reviews are useful. The positive ones are almost universally worthless (excluding Benson's).
jostmey 9y ago
I buy almost everything online, comparing prices between Walmart and Amazon. Walmart almost always has the better prices
- wutthrow 9y ago
  Second this for most of my small and large purchases. Diabetes test strips and a kent bicycle were both the best price including walmart free shipping. (Throwaway because I don't support Dang's tyranny against postings that run counter to his forced narrative.)
  - skinnymuch 9y ago
    What forced narrative? Genuinely curious. Is it Amazon is the best/something pro Amazon? That's the best I can glean from your passive aggressive hinting.
    - hueving 9y ago
      I'm guessing it's something like dang==liberal and liberals in the US generally hate Walmart.
janesvilleseo 9y ago
I have saved thousands of dollars thanks to Amazon. Not because I bought from them. No, but because I use their app to compare items and get a price match. Nearly every major store (Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, Staples, Office Max/Depot) match or beat Amazon. With Amazons app I can instantly scan all my products at a store. I may only save 2-5 dollars per item, but I do it every time I shop. The other day I save $40 on a price gun from Staples. It was 89 in store, and 49 on on Amazon.
- ReverseCold 9y ago
  So Amazon gets a list of everything you're interested in offline as well, even if you don't buy from them. Sounds like win/win for them!
  - SwellJoe 9y ago
    At least customers get paid for giving them that information (in the form of the discount that the price-matcher gives). I've done it, too, at Fry's when I needed some hard disks and a laptop on short notice. Saved about $100 in one trip (they were expensive hard disks), just by pulling up Amazon and pointing at the price for the service rep. Competition is good.
    - civilitty 9y ago
      I can't believe so few people know about this. Fry's and Best Buy both price match reputable online retailers ("Sold by Amazon" or whatever they say when Amazon is the retailer and distributor) and I just get all of my hardware like that. For the cost of gas, I get it instantly and can instantly return DOAs instead of waiting for RMA or Amazon returns. In the case of lower cost products like USB cables, which have been the target of counterfeiters and fraud on Amazon, it prevents damage to other devices because the physical retailers are generally more careful about sourcing.
      - Sleeep 9y ago
        Even if the store didn't price match, you can get the price match from using a credit card that has a good price protection (like Discover) and submitting a claim (very easy in my experience).
sliverstorm 9y ago
Where do you wind up going instead? I frequently wouldn't even know where to go to buy, say, a pair of lacrosse balls and adjustable sprinkler nozzles for a better price. I'm sure there's better deals to be had somewhere, but is there a go-to? Or a search engine that does particularly well deal-hunting? Maybe that's a sign they've trapped me.
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  I dunno. I don't shop for that stuff, generally. For sporting equipment, I usually go to craigslist as it's often really cheap and I like to reuse for environmental reasons, but for consumable items, it probably only makes sense to buy new. But, I've bought weights and the like from craigslist sellers. Electronics is really my only big/expensive habit and NewEgg gets a lot of my business. I bought my last laptop directly from Dell Outlet during a sale and saved about $300 off of the same refurbished machine from Amazon. Though the ordering process from Dell was stupidly inconvenient as I had to get an agent involved to apply the discount and to deal with payment, as for some reason my business debit card wouldn't work. It took half a day, so it's not something I would do for less than a significant discount. And, as I mentioned, Walmart is often a better choice for regular stuff, and they now have a quite large online selection including stuff that is not stocked in stores. Oh, yeah, I buy truck stuff, parts and the like for my old pickup. I buy about half from Amazon market sellers and half direct from diesel specialty dealers. And parts for my old RV, same story. Big items never come from Amazon, though; my rooftop AC replacement was purchased from a local dealer for $240 less than the Amazon price. I guess Google Shopping is how I've found most of the specialty shops.
voidlogic 9y ago
Depending on the item, I almost always price compare either Newegg vs. Amazon or Walmart vs. Amazon. The Walmart ecommcerce experience is drastically improved to what it was 4 years ago... prices are good.. and the new shipping and ready to reorder feature.. its so hard not to comparison shop. With Walmart drastically increasing their instore pay and providing better than retail avg. advanced scheduling + Amazons poor pay and working conditions for distro workers Amazon doesn't even even have a moral advantage. (According to my radio Walmart distro workers even start at above 16.50/hr, and thats in a rural area...)
kelukelugames 9y ago
Is there an easy way to comparison shop on Amazon? I saw ads for chrome extensions but I don't know if they are good.
- Baeocystin 9y ago
  I've been using the Honey extension on Amazon for the past few months. Averaged out, it has saved me a little under 10% of what I would have spent, so I am happy with it. At least this way some of that marketing money is coming back to me. It has also incidentally shown me just how often Prime items are jacked in price.
  - Larrikin 9y ago
    Honey made Firefox extremely slow when I tried it out a few months ago. I was using PriceBlink but their latest update also slowed down Firefox considerably.
    - Baeocystin 9y ago
      I can report that it is well-behaved in Chrome, at least.
- thinkmassive 9y ago
  I've been happily using the Camelizer for years: https://camelcamelcamel.com/ https://camelcamelcamel.com/ You can visit the site and/or install a plugin.
  - Aye_Jeigh 9y ago
    Been using the Camelizer for years! It's a great tool.
- gnicholas 9y ago
  I would love if one of the extensions mentioned in sister replies would include a feature that hides the "regular price" so that you can't be falsely anchored (and duped into thinking you're getting a good deal). All you'd see is the price you're being asked to pay, so you can evaluate whether it's worth that price or not.
johnm1019 9y ago
If you really want to save money on household type items, go shopping in the 'market' area at your local IKEA store. Compare that with Amazon prices for pretty much everything and you'll be blown away by how cheap IKEA is.
- guelo 9y ago
  Depends how much you value your time. At least at my local Ikea it is very difficult to get in and out in less than an hour even when I know exactly what I want.
  - lorenzhs 9y ago
    Don't know about the US but here in Germany Ikea has an online store, too. Shipping for non-giant non-superheavy things is 3.90€ so pretty okay. They're not as fast as Amazon, though.
    - kbart 9y ago
      ..or you can order online then go to shop and collect your order for free. It's usually the fastest method (except going to the shop and look for things yourself). I hate shopping so this is my preferred way of getting things locally.
      - 4ad 9y ago
        Only if you don't value your time. To get to IKEA and back it takes me at least an hour, and I think on average I am on the quick side.
        kbart 9y ago
        It depends on your location. It's on my way home from work, so it takes 10-15min max.
- DrScump 9y ago
  Cost and selection aside,the no-way-out store layout (forcing you to traverse the entire floorplan) drove me away.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
vlunkr 9y ago
As a long time customer I'm sick of having Prime constantly shoved down my throat. I use amazon, I'm a paying customer, stop bothering me. I've been getting a lot of Walmart. The shipping is great, the prices are competitive, and as someone else said, the whole experience has improved drastically in the past few years. Of course they don't have quite the selection that Amazon does though.
abecedarius 9y ago
Another such change: charging more and more for Prime on the grounds that it now includes a lot of stuff I don't want, like videos. That might make it a better deal for some people, but I canceled it.
jumpkickhit 9y ago
I've fallen for Newegg's slightly lower prices a few times, last two new items i ordered, both were opened up. 2nd one missing crucial parts that someone poked all of them out through the bag inside of the device's box. 2nd item was through a reseller though. I don't use Amazon too often these days, but Newegg's lost me from these last few experiences. Their support basically said "meh" about both cases.
- gcb0 9y ago
  you missed the item condition? on Amazon it's the same if you buy from anything that doesn't say "sold and shipped by amazon". quality and return policy is a crapfest.
  - jumpkickhit 9y ago
    Condition was listed as "new", via Newegg. Both times.
- StreamBright 9y ago
  For a really long time (over a year) I was trying to get my oders to be shipped to an address in California, Daly City. I had 30% success rate. I have called Amazon several times but they gave me bullshit. I figured out that the delivery guy was stealing all of the shippment and I could prove it. Amazon did not care. After a while I just stopped ordering anything because it is impossible to get delivery there. All of the shippments were arriving to a different address few miles from that one. Funniest part that the shipping company was actually owned by Amazon.
  - imjk 9y ago
    Were your orders being stolen or were they being shipped to another address? You comment was a little conflicting.
    - StreamBright 9y ago
      Being stolen. Reported delivered all the time. Once I went and followed the delivery truck and checked when the guy reported it delivered. When I confronted the driver he said he got lost.
didibus 9y ago
To be fair, Amazon never claimed the lowest prices, that's Walmart's motto I believe. Amazon strikes for best customer experience, I think it tries to achieve the best balance of convenience, value and service.
- philjohn 9y ago
  Eh, it's dropping the ball to be honest. Of recent purchases on Amazon (sold by others, but dispatched and warehoused by Amazon) 50% have been faulty and needed to be returned ... that's put friction into the process because they don't do any QC on what they're stocking. I've also had an instance recently of something shipped by Amazon that was meant to be with me next day not turning up and needing to be re-ordered. They only admitted it was lost days later, so I didn't re-order sooner. OK, I got a free month of Prime for my troubles, but it's not the amazing friction free experience it used to be.
  - acuozzo 9y ago
    > it's not the amazing friction free experience it used to be It is if you avoid third party sellers like the plague. I only order from a small handful of third party sellers I trust; otherwise it better be shipped and sold by Amazon or I'm looking elsewhere.
- jaclaz 9y ago
  Yep, but - still to be fair - please list the last three items that you could find (locally or online) at a lower price but that you decided to buy from Amazon instead because of the superior customer expereince.
  - ithkuil 9y ago
    I won't enumerate the three items, but I do but things from Amazon that I know I could buy for a bit cheaper either in some local store or online. I so it because I value my time and looking around for the best deal takes time too
  - wccrawford 9y ago
4ad 9y ago
I agree Amazon has dropped the ball, but I still prefer to buy from Amazon compared to literally every other site because of the superior UI. Compared to other major retailers (Walmart, NewEgg) the experience is just so much more smoother on Amazon. Sometimes speciality items are cheaper on manufacturer's website. But that requires me to make an account and fill a bunch of forms! Some websites allow guest checkout, but there's often some fuckup happening with that and then I can't even complain properly and/or have a good reference number without an account. And even without an account I still have to fill all those terrible, terrible forms. Plus it always takes longer to receive my merchandise from random websites than amazon. Even if I pay for the super-quick option, which, by the way, is usually more expensive than the equivalent option on Amazon, I still get my merchandise later because the small store will more likely ship tomorrow while Amazon will gladly do night operations.
mannykannot 9y ago
> I can't help but think that having more of their longtime customers starting to comparison shop is a bad thing. Amazon's goal is to make that well-nigh impossible.
Spooky23 9y ago
I use Amazon now as an eBay replacement for specific hard to find items. I wanted a heavy duty cabana-style beach umbrella. Amazon was the best place to find it by far. For just about everything else, Amazon doesn't really offer a great price and the "convenience" value isn't really worth it anymore to me. I can't order lots of routine stuff due to the fraud issues. Even books are usually cheaper at the local bookstore these days.
Nullabillity 9y ago
That makes me curious, does the US not have any good comparison shopping websites? Personally Prisjakt[1] (PriceSpy[2] in the UK) is pretty much always my starting point when I'm looking for something, just because their search and discovery tools are so much better than any stores I've seen. For example, let's look at laptops. Here's a list from PriceSpy of 15"-18" 1080p laptops with AMD graphics, 16+GB of RAM, SSDs, and 3+ USB ports.[3] For comparison, Webhallen[4] and Inet[5] (enthusiast shops, comparable to Newegg) only let you filter by class, screen size, or a few manufacturers. Elgiganten[6] and Media Markt[7] (similar to Best Buy in the US) have a few free-form options, but still nothing even close to the organization or breadth offered by Prisjakt. There are also few to no sliders or groups, instead you're stuck either approving individual screen sizes or predefined buckets of CPU series. Oddly, Elgiganten lets you filter for Intel's CPU price classes (i3/5/7) but not generations. Amazon seems to follow the same recipe as Elgiganten/MM, which definitely leaves me wondering how Americans shop for computers. Or perhaps that's why so many seem to give up and praise Apple's "simple" lineup... [1]: https://www.prisjakt.nu/ https://www.prisjakt.nu/ [2]: https://pricespy.co.uk/ https://pricespy.co.uk/ [3]: https://pricespy.co.uk/category.php?m=s320733439 https://pricespy.co.uk/category.php?m=s320733439 [4]: https://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorer_och_tillbehor/barbara_datorer/alla_barbara_datorer/ https://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorer_och_tillbehor/barbar... [5]: https://www.inet.se/kategori/81/15-16 https://www.inet.se/kategori/81/15-16 [6]: https://www.elgiganten.se/catalog/datorer-tillbehor/se_barbar_dator/barbar-dator https://www.elgiganten.se/catalog/datorer-tillbehor/se_barba... [7]: http://www.mediamarkt.se/sv/category/_b%C3%A4rbar-dator-510351.html http://www.mediamarkt.se/sv/category/_b%C3%A4rbar-dator-5103...
clubm8 9y ago
>Walmart often has better prices on everyday items and I can have it immediately. But isn't the value in not having to travel to Walmart, select the item, wait in line, pay for the item, and transporting the item back to your home worth something? I assume you already go to the grocery store, so picking up tweezers isn't much effort. But what about something that isn't sold at a grocery store?
- Flammy 9y ago
  OP is talking about Walmart's online store, which has been giving Amazon competition for the last year or two.
- jonwachob91 9y ago
  Walmart is the largest Grocery Store chain in the US... So that kinda mutes your argument...
- horsawlarway 9y ago
  > But isn't the value in not having to travel to Walmart, select the item, wait in line, pay for the item, and transporting the item back to your home worth something? No. At least not for me, and I imagine a large chunk of other users. The value of amazon was 1. Reviews: I can see feedback on the item in a way that's simply not possible with local stores 2. Selection: I have access to far more products than I do at a local store. 3. Price: Amazon used to essentially do the price matching work for me, they would always be around the same dollar price (and sometimes far lower) than local stores. I would much rather go to a store and purchase an item because it does away with the hassle of waiting. But I used to value the reviews and increased selection size more than the immediacy of the purchase, and the price is just a great bonus. As a previous heavy user of Amazon, my usage has essentially tanked over the past year because I no longer trust reviews. Are some fake reviews easy to spot? sure. Are all of them? hell no. Couple that with rapidly increasing prices and I'm thoroughly disillusioned. Finally, a lot of the larger local chains now have to-store shipping for less frequently bought items. I can hop on HomeDepot's site and have them ship a rare item to a local store, and pick it up in a few days. Often at a better price than Amazon. Frankly, I loved prime 4 years ago. Not a big fan today.
thewhitetulip 9y ago
even I noticed this and I'm in India. I buy second hand books now from an Indian startup. It has high quality second hand books for low prices & I don't mind second hand as long as there is no compromise on quality. I got 11 books for 1148 eight of John Grisham and rest are other authors
brreakdown 9y ago
lol dude - you're paying for convenience - and that's alls there is to it - sit your fat ass down on a couch and blabber whatever you want at Alexa - then... THE SHIT SHOWS UP - this is why u pay more no??

illegal_in_ca 9y ago

Interesting. I also find myself picking up tech from NewEgg more often than Amazon. And I recently ordered most of the supplies for a cocktail party I was having at Walmart and Bed Bad and Beyond. Amazon prices might beat local retail, but they are only sometimes competitive with other (often more specizlized) online retailers at this point. Also, at least for me, shipping New Egg, Walmart and BBAB was faster than Amazon. I don't have Prime however.

SwellJoe 9y ago
And, NewEgg also generally has excellent customer service, in my experience. So, it's not like I'm trading away convenience or confidence in the vendor. I've bought hundreds of more items at Amazon than NewEgg in the past several years, but I'd bet my gross dollar spend is similar at NewEgg because I've bought a half dozen servers and computers.
- illegal_in_ca 9y ago
  Agreed, NewEgg customer service is excellent. Easy returns. I've probably spent more in raw dollars at NewEgg than at Amazon, even though I've made maybe 10x as many Amazon purchases. Edit: I have NewEgg Premier though, so I get free shipping on certain items and free RMAs. Cheaper than Amazon Prime. I'm always amazed NewEgg doesn't get more love around here.
untog 9y ago
The issue I have with NewEgg is returns. There's always some condition, or expensive fee for return shipping. By comparison, Amazon makes it very easy
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  Is that new? I don't remember ever having that experience, but I haven't had to return anything in a long time.
- agwa 9y ago
  The flip side to Amazon's easy returns is that I regularly receive used/returned merchandise from Amazon that was advertised as new.
  - thirdsun 9y ago
    If the product clearly appears to be used I'd say that's a problem with Amazon's quality control for returns (though I never experienced those problems). However what do you think happens to returned items? You don't expect them to be thrown out, do you? Maybe I'm way off, but I was always under the impression that those returned items are re-packaged (if necessary) and sold as new. And I think that's fine since I really don't see any other way to handle it. Think about europe, where every shop has to offer a free 14 day return policy, regardless of if you're Amazon or a small Shopify seller. If the item can't be sold as new, that means the customer overstepped and should be held accountable.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - Stratoscope 9y ago
      Of course there is another way for retailers to re-sell customer returns. They can list them with labels such as "Used - Like New" or "Open Box" or whatever applies. For example, go into any Best Buy and ask them where the open box deals are, or look on their website. Or go to a Fry's Electronics store. They put returned items on the shelf with new ones, but there is a special label on the package noting this and generally offering a small discount. Lenovo has a factory outlet separate from their main website where they sell customer returns. Unopened returns may be listed as new; opened returns are listed as used or refurbished. Amazon lists returned products under "Amazon Warehouse Deals" in the New and Used section of a product listing, with the product condition noted in the description. For most product categories, Amazon prohibits a returned item from being resold as "New": https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161242 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... > New: Just like it sounds. A brand-new, unused, unopened item in its original packaging, with all original packaging materials included. Original protective wrapping, if any, is intact. Original manufacturer's warranty, if any, still applies, with warranty details included in the listing comments. There are some different policies in certain product categories; the page above lists them. Of course, third-party sellers on Amazon may well re-sell customer returns as "new". But if they don't comply with the rules on this page, they are violating their seller agreement.
zitterbewegung 9y ago
My newegg account got permamently banned so I shop at Amazon. I don't even know why.
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  I do remember I had to jump through a couple of hoops to get something (about $8000 worth of something) shipped to an address not on file with my credit card, which is not something Amazon has ever done (I'm always shipping to weird places because I travel mostly full-time in an RV), but it wasn't too traumatic. I can't imagine why they'd ban someone permanently. I mean, they want money, right? That seems weird. But, also sucks.
  - zitterbewegung 9y ago
    The weird thing is that it occured after all my transactions happened. I wasn't buying anything from the account. It was really weird.
nsb1 9y ago
I buy from NewEgg whenever I can to show my support for their active patent troll hunting efforts. That's a worthwhile cause even if their prices are slightly higher.

ballenf 9y ago

Over and over again I've realized just before or after buying an item from Amazon that I paid way too much. I have finally broken the ingrained habit of leaping before looking. That can't be good for Amazon if too many people do that. On another note, I am beyond tired of the craptacular deals that are >80% fly-by-night products with astroturf reviews. The gold box deals used to be a favorite bookmarked stop.

kylehotchkiss 9y ago
Gold box (and so much of prime day) seemed like warehouse spring cleaning days.
- cobookman 9y ago
  It actually reminded me of woot.com before they were bought by Amazon.
  - Faith_ 9y ago
    I just got paid $6784 working off my laptop this month. And if you think that's cool, my divorced friend has twin toddlers and made over $9k her first month. It feels so good making so much money when other people have to work for so much less. This is what I do, ===http://www.millionaireprofit.cf/ http://www.millionaireprofit.cf/
SwellJoe 9y ago
This is another big one. Amazon is filled with garbage products. It can be very hard to tell what's quality, anymore, and the reviews aren't trustworthy the way they used to be. I used to read reviews on Amazon religiously even if I was buying somewhere else. That habit has kinda faded, though it's still one of the better sources of real world product knowledge.
- Fej 9y ago
  The bad reviews are useful. The positive ones are almost universally worthless (excluding Benson's).

jostmey 9y ago

I buy almost everything online, comparing prices between Walmart and Amazon. Walmart almost always has the better prices

wutthrow 9y ago
Second this for most of my small and large purchases. Diabetes test strips and a kent bicycle were both the best price including walmart free shipping. (Throwaway because I don't support Dang's tyranny against postings that run counter to his forced narrative.)
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  What forced narrative? Genuinely curious. Is it Amazon is the best/something pro Amazon? That's the best I can glean from your passive aggressive hinting.
  - hueving 9y ago
    I'm guessing it's something like dang==liberal and liberals in the US generally hate Walmart.

janesvilleseo 9y ago

I have saved thousands of dollars thanks to Amazon. Not because I bought from them. No, but because I use their app to compare items and get a price match. Nearly every major store (Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, Staples, Office Max/Depot) match or beat Amazon. With Amazons app I can instantly scan all my products at a store. I may only save 2-5 dollars per item, but I do it every time I shop. The other day I save $40 on a price gun from Staples. It was 89 in store, and 49 on on Amazon.

ReverseCold 9y ago
So Amazon gets a list of everything you're interested in offline as well, even if you don't buy from them. Sounds like win/win for them!
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  At least customers get paid for giving them that information (in the form of the discount that the price-matcher gives). I've done it, too, at Fry's when I needed some hard disks and a laptop on short notice. Saved about $100 in one trip (they were expensive hard disks), just by pulling up Amazon and pointing at the price for the service rep. Competition is good.
  - civilitty 9y ago
    I can't believe so few people know about this. Fry's and Best Buy both price match reputable online retailers ("Sold by Amazon" or whatever they say when Amazon is the retailer and distributor) and I just get all of my hardware like that. For the cost of gas, I get it instantly and can instantly return DOAs instead of waiting for RMA or Amazon returns. In the case of lower cost products like USB cables, which have been the target of counterfeiters and fraud on Amazon, it prevents damage to other devices because the physical retailers are generally more careful about sourcing.
    - Sleeep 9y ago
      Even if the store didn't price match, you can get the price match from using a credit card that has a good price protection (like Discover) and submitting a claim (very easy in my experience).

sliverstorm 9y ago

Where do you wind up going instead? I frequently wouldn't even know where to go to buy, say, a pair of lacrosse balls and adjustable sprinkler nozzles for a better price. I'm sure there's better deals to be had somewhere, but is there a go-to? Or a search engine that does particularly well deal-hunting? Maybe that's a sign they've trapped me.

SwellJoe 9y ago
I dunno. I don't shop for that stuff, generally. For sporting equipment, I usually go to craigslist as it's often really cheap and I like to reuse for environmental reasons, but for consumable items, it probably only makes sense to buy new. But, I've bought weights and the like from craigslist sellers. Electronics is really my only big/expensive habit and NewEgg gets a lot of my business. I bought my last laptop directly from Dell Outlet during a sale and saved about $300 off of the same refurbished machine from Amazon. Though the ordering process from Dell was stupidly inconvenient as I had to get an agent involved to apply the discount and to deal with payment, as for some reason my business debit card wouldn't work. It took half a day, so it's not something I would do for less than a significant discount. And, as I mentioned, Walmart is often a better choice for regular stuff, and they now have a quite large online selection including stuff that is not stocked in stores. Oh, yeah, I buy truck stuff, parts and the like for my old pickup. I buy about half from Amazon market sellers and half direct from diesel specialty dealers. And parts for my old RV, same story. Big items never come from Amazon, though; my rooftop AC replacement was purchased from a local dealer for $240 less than the Amazon price. I guess Google Shopping is how I've found most of the specialty shops.

voidlogic 9y ago

Depending on the item, I almost always price compare either Newegg vs. Amazon or Walmart vs. Amazon. The Walmart ecommcerce experience is drastically improved to what it was 4 years ago... prices are good.. and the new shipping and ready to reorder feature.. its so hard not to comparison shop. With Walmart drastically increasing their instore pay and providing better than retail avg. advanced scheduling + Amazons poor pay and working conditions for distro workers Amazon doesn't even even have a moral advantage. (According to my radio Walmart distro workers even start at above 16.50/hr, and thats in a rural area...)

kelukelugames 9y ago

Is there an easy way to comparison shop on Amazon? I saw ads for chrome extensions but I don't know if they are good.

Baeocystin 9y ago
I've been using the Honey extension on Amazon for the past few months. Averaged out, it has saved me a little under 10% of what I would have spent, so I am happy with it. At least this way some of that marketing money is coming back to me. It has also incidentally shown me just how often Prime items are jacked in price.
- Larrikin 9y ago
  Honey made Firefox extremely slow when I tried it out a few months ago. I was using PriceBlink but their latest update also slowed down Firefox considerably.
  - Baeocystin 9y ago
    I can report that it is well-behaved in Chrome, at least.
thinkmassive 9y ago
I've been happily using the Camelizer for years: https://camelcamelcamel.com/ https://camelcamelcamel.com/ You can visit the site and/or install a plugin.
- Aye_Jeigh 9y ago
  Been using the Camelizer for years! It's a great tool.
gnicholas 9y ago
I would love if one of the extensions mentioned in sister replies would include a feature that hides the "regular price" so that you can't be falsely anchored (and duped into thinking you're getting a good deal). All you'd see is the price you're being asked to pay, so you can evaluate whether it's worth that price or not.

johnm1019 9y ago

If you really want to save money on household type items, go shopping in the 'market' area at your local IKEA store. Compare that with Amazon prices for pretty much everything and you'll be blown away by how cheap IKEA is.

guelo 9y ago
Depends how much you value your time. At least at my local Ikea it is very difficult to get in and out in less than an hour even when I know exactly what I want.
- lorenzhs 9y ago
  Don't know about the US but here in Germany Ikea has an online store, too. Shipping for non-giant non-superheavy things is 3.90€ so pretty okay. They're not as fast as Amazon, though.
  - kbart 9y ago
    ..or you can order online then go to shop and collect your order for free. It's usually the fastest method (except going to the shop and look for things yourself). I hate shopping so this is my preferred way of getting things locally.
    - 4ad 9y ago
      Only if you don't value your time. To get to IKEA and back it takes me at least an hour, and I think on average I am on the quick side.
      - kbart 9y ago
        It depends on your location. It's on my way home from work, so it takes 10-15min max.
DrScump 9y ago
Cost and selection aside,the no-way-out store layout (forcing you to traverse the entire floorplan) drove me away.

deleted 9y ago

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vlunkr 9y ago

As a long time customer I'm sick of having Prime constantly shoved down my throat. I use amazon, I'm a paying customer, stop bothering me. I've been getting a lot of Walmart. The shipping is great, the prices are competitive, and as someone else said, the whole experience has improved drastically in the past few years. Of course they don't have quite the selection that Amazon does though.

abecedarius 9y ago

Another such change: charging more and more for Prime on the grounds that it now includes a lot of stuff I don't want, like videos. That might make it a better deal for some people, but I canceled it.

jumpkickhit 9y ago

I've fallen for Newegg's slightly lower prices a few times, last two new items i ordered, both were opened up. 2nd one missing crucial parts that someone poked all of them out through the bag inside of the device's box. 2nd item was through a reseller though. I don't use Amazon too often these days, but Newegg's lost me from these last few experiences. Their support basically said "meh" about both cases.

gcb0 9y ago
you missed the item condition? on Amazon it's the same if you buy from anything that doesn't say "sold and shipped by amazon". quality and return policy is a crapfest.
- jumpkickhit 9y ago
  Condition was listed as "new", via Newegg. Both times.
StreamBright 9y ago
For a really long time (over a year) I was trying to get my oders to be shipped to an address in California, Daly City. I had 30% success rate. I have called Amazon several times but they gave me bullshit. I figured out that the delivery guy was stealing all of the shippment and I could prove it. Amazon did not care. After a while I just stopped ordering anything because it is impossible to get delivery there. All of the shippments were arriving to a different address few miles from that one. Funniest part that the shipping company was actually owned by Amazon.
- imjk 9y ago
  Were your orders being stolen or were they being shipped to another address? You comment was a little conflicting.
  - StreamBright 9y ago
    Being stolen. Reported delivered all the time. Once I went and followed the delivery truck and checked when the guy reported it delivered. When I confronted the driver he said he got lost.

didibus 9y ago

To be fair, Amazon never claimed the lowest prices, that's Walmart's motto I believe. Amazon strikes for best customer experience, I think it tries to achieve the best balance of convenience, value and service.

philjohn 9y ago
Eh, it's dropping the ball to be honest. Of recent purchases on Amazon (sold by others, but dispatched and warehoused by Amazon) 50% have been faulty and needed to be returned ... that's put friction into the process because they don't do any QC on what they're stocking. I've also had an instance recently of something shipped by Amazon that was meant to be with me next day not turning up and needing to be re-ordered. They only admitted it was lost days later, so I didn't re-order sooner. OK, I got a free month of Prime for my troubles, but it's not the amazing friction free experience it used to be.
- acuozzo 9y ago
  > it's not the amazing friction free experience it used to be It is if you avoid third party sellers like the plague. I only order from a small handful of third party sellers I trust; otherwise it better be shipped and sold by Amazon or I'm looking elsewhere.
jaclaz 9y ago
Yep, but - still to be fair - please list the last three items that you could find (locally or online) at a lower price but that you decided to buy from Amazon instead because of the superior customer expereince.
- ithkuil 9y ago
  I won't enumerate the three items, but I do but things from Amazon that I know I could buy for a bit cheaper either in some local store or online. I so it because I value my time and looking around for the best deal takes time too
- wccrawford 9y ago

4ad 9y ago

I agree Amazon has dropped the ball, but I still prefer to buy from Amazon compared to literally every other site because of the superior UI. Compared to other major retailers (Walmart, NewEgg) the experience is just so much more smoother on Amazon. Sometimes speciality items are cheaper on manufacturer's website. But that requires me to make an account and fill a bunch of forms! Some websites allow guest checkout, but there's often some fuckup happening with that and then I can't even complain properly and/or have a good reference number without an account. And even without an account I still have to fill all those terrible, terrible forms. Plus it always takes longer to receive my merchandise from random websites than amazon. Even if I pay for the super-quick option, which, by the way, is usually more expensive than the equivalent option on Amazon, I still get my merchandise later because the small store will more likely ship tomorrow while Amazon will gladly do night operations.

mannykannot 9y ago

> I can't help but think that having more of their longtime customers starting to comparison shop is a bad thing. Amazon's goal is to make that well-nigh impossible.

Spooky23 9y ago

I use Amazon now as an eBay replacement for specific hard to find items. I wanted a heavy duty cabana-style beach umbrella. Amazon was the best place to find it by far. For just about everything else, Amazon doesn't really offer a great price and the "convenience" value isn't really worth it anymore to me. I can't order lots of routine stuff due to the fraud issues. Even books are usually cheaper at the local bookstore these days.

Nullabillity 9y ago

That makes me curious, does the US not have any good comparison shopping websites? Personally Prisjakt[1] (PriceSpy[2] in the UK) is pretty much always my starting point when I'm looking for something, just because their search and discovery tools are so much better than any stores I've seen. For example, let's look at laptops. Here's a list from PriceSpy of 15"-18" 1080p laptops with AMD graphics, 16+GB of RAM, SSDs, and 3+ USB ports.[3] For comparison, Webhallen[4] and Inet[5] (enthusiast shops, comparable to Newegg) only let you filter by class, screen size, or a few manufacturers. Elgiganten[6] and Media Markt[7] (similar to Best Buy in the US) have a few free-form options, but still nothing even close to the organization or breadth offered by Prisjakt. There are also few to no sliders or groups, instead you're stuck either approving individual screen sizes or predefined buckets of CPU series. Oddly, Elgiganten lets you filter for Intel's CPU price classes (i3/5/7) but not generations. Amazon seems to follow the same recipe as Elgiganten/MM, which definitely leaves me wondering how Americans shop for computers. Or perhaps that's why so many seem to give up and praise Apple's "simple" lineup... [1]: https://www.prisjakt.nu/ https://www.prisjakt.nu/ [2]: https://pricespy.co.uk/ https://pricespy.co.uk/ [3]: https://pricespy.co.uk/category.php?m=s320733439 https://pricespy.co.uk/category.php?m=s320733439 [4]: https://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorer_och_tillbehor/barbara_datorer/alla_barbara_datorer/ https://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorer_och_tillbehor/barbar... [5]: https://www.inet.se/kategori/81/15-16 https://www.inet.se/kategori/81/15-16 [6]: https://www.elgiganten.se/catalog/datorer-tillbehor/se_barbar_dator/barbar-dator https://www.elgiganten.se/catalog/datorer-tillbehor/se_barba... [7]: http://www.mediamarkt.se/sv/category/_b%C3%A4rbar-dator-510351.html http://www.mediamarkt.se/sv/category/_b%C3%A4rbar-dator-5103...

clubm8 9y ago

>Walmart often has better prices on everyday items and I can have it immediately. But isn't the value in not having to travel to Walmart, select the item, wait in line, pay for the item, and transporting the item back to your home worth something? I assume you already go to the grocery store, so picking up tweezers isn't much effort. But what about something that isn't sold at a grocery store?

Flammy 9y ago
OP is talking about Walmart's online store, which has been giving Amazon competition for the last year or two.
jonwachob91 9y ago
Walmart is the largest Grocery Store chain in the US... So that kinda mutes your argument...
horsawlarway 9y ago
> But isn't the value in not having to travel to Walmart, select the item, wait in line, pay for the item, and transporting the item back to your home worth something? No. At least not for me, and I imagine a large chunk of other users. The value of amazon was 1. Reviews: I can see feedback on the item in a way that's simply not possible with local stores 2. Selection: I have access to far more products than I do at a local store. 3. Price: Amazon used to essentially do the price matching work for me, they would always be around the same dollar price (and sometimes far lower) than local stores. I would much rather go to a store and purchase an item because it does away with the hassle of waiting. But I used to value the reviews and increased selection size more than the immediacy of the purchase, and the price is just a great bonus. As a previous heavy user of Amazon, my usage has essentially tanked over the past year because I no longer trust reviews. Are some fake reviews easy to spot? sure. Are all of them? hell no. Couple that with rapidly increasing prices and I'm thoroughly disillusioned. Finally, a lot of the larger local chains now have to-store shipping for less frequently bought items. I can hop on HomeDepot's site and have them ship a rare item to a local store, and pick it up in a few days. Often at a better price than Amazon. Frankly, I loved prime 4 years ago. Not a big fan today.

thewhitetulip 9y ago

even I noticed this and I'm in India. I buy second hand books now from an Indian startup. It has high quality second hand books for low prices & I don't mind second hand as long as there is no compromise on quality. I got 11 books for 1148 eight of John Grisham and rest are other authors

brreakdown 9y ago

lol dude - you're paying for convenience - and that's alls there is to it - sit your fat ass down on a couch and blabber whatever you want at Alexa - then... THE SHIT SHOWS UP - this is why u pay more no??