5 ms·

Your experience with review gaming is fairly universal, it's not specific to Canada. Amazon reviews are fundamentally untrustable at this point, to the point th

Your experience with review gaming is fairly universal, it's not specific to Canada. Amazon reviews are fundamentally untrustable at this point, to the point there are multiple startups providing 'fake or not' services for them. I've stopped buying anything from Amazon about two years ago. When you start to price compare, you realise how bad of a deal Amazon has become real quick. For the majority of the stuff I was buying, Amazon prime was marginally more expensive. For a minority of them, it was substantially (30%+) more expensive, and I had no idea.

dleslie 8y ago
Oh, in case it wasn't clear: as a Canadian, Prime has been of dubious value. We don't have catalog parity either, but that has been less of an issue for a few years now.
- Marsymars 8y ago
  Depends on the Amazon services you use. Amazon Music Unlimited is cheaper than other music streaming services in Canada if you have Prime, so taking that price difference into account, I'm basically paying $40 just for the unlimited photo storage. (I don't use Amazon Video, and always select the slowest shipping option for the environmental efficiency.)
Scoundreller 8y ago
> When you start to price compare, you realise how bad of a deal Amazon has become real quick. For the majority of the stuff I was buying, Amazon prime was marginally more expensive. For a minority of them, it was substantially (30%+) more expensive, and I had no idea. Agreed, but I'm currently trying to get a close friend to realize that Amazon can have terrible pricing. But I think the convenience factor is difficult to overcome. Before Amazon, you had to just "know" which venue to buy each particular product. Now you can go to one place for practically anything online. For every purchase (online or not), I do some mental calculation of "My estimate of what this costs to make is X", and I wouldn't pay more than X + Y%. I also think "Which venue would have the best price for this?". For small junk, I would do some complicated Ebay searches and buy it for $4 from China. For larger things, I would do some complicated analysis of supply vs. demand for a used good and maybe check local classified ads. For other stuff, I'd go to Costco, or some specialized store. I also have to do an analysis of how much I'd be willing to save to get it in 1 week or 1 month instead of tomorrow. But most people just don't think that much. Relatively guaranteed shipping of 1-2 days and all from one place is enough for people that don't do this kind of thinking for purchases. Costco doesn't always have the best pricing, but you know that you'll never overpay too much, it's always quality, and they'll take a return if you're willing to trade some of your life to do it.
Larrikin 8y ago
What were you buying and where are you buying from now. I almost always compare items on atleast three sites before I buy. Amazon often times comes ahead of or is the same as Jet, target, costco and walmart. Combined with camelcamelcamel and the few truly bad deals are easily spotted.
icelancer 8y ago
I use a comparator plugin and I never have this experience. I spend probably at least $1000 a month on Amazon between personal and business and the difference in savings is negligible at best from switching to various other sites from Amazon (most of the time Amazon is the cheapest price). Prime shipping has been annoying to my residence because I live in Seattle and they use contractors which often just fuck things up for same-day delivery, but it's never longer than 2 days. Almost no other site can match that speed and convenience, which is the real reason any of use Prime. If I saw the same 30% overcharging phenomenon people keep talking about on HN, I'd probably consider switching. But it is well under 5% and probably ~0%, honestly, and the value of my time and efficiency of shopping online is worth quite a bit to me.
- dleslie 8y ago
  Which plugin?
  - icelancer 8y ago
    There's tons; Wikibuy, Honey, etc, etc. I use Honey but I've used a bunch and the results are generally the same. The paranoia inflicted upon me by HN crowd saying I'm overpaying on Amazon by 30% makes me investigate all these claims and I just find them all to be completely false in my case. I'm not saying people don't have these experiences, but I don't. And even if I did for like 5% or something, the shopping experience on Amazon is 10x better than Walmart.com or Target.com (where it's more like 100x), and that isn't worth nothing. It's like patio11 insisting that basis points fees aren't worth arguing over on Stripe when you are infinitely more productive using Stripe's developer kit vs. Authorize.net or any other terrible gateway, and people everywhere on HN claim how expensive Stripe is and how you can save money and don't factor in even a very conservative estimate on labor hours for a C-level exec or a manager in a company. It doesn't take much time saved or annoyances avoided for a high-level executive to make a small price difference be completely irrelevant. And that's what Amazon has mostly done.
    - thisacctforreal 8y ago
not_kurt_godel 8y ago
Personally I've had few troubles with fake reviews & ratings. Aggregate ratings and review are just one signal in a purchasing decision. If I'm buying something non-disposable, particularly if it costs more than $50, I almost always look at the top 3-4 products to compare features and scrutinize reviews carefully to look at hidden issues and tradeoffs. With this approach, fake reviews almost always fall in the same bucket as real ones that I perceive to be undiscerning or ignorant - I'm much more compelled by detailed reviews that mirror my own perspectives, interests, concerns, and thought processes. On the rare occasions that I wind up with something unsatisfactory, it's hardly an issue to take 3 minutes to get a full refund. I also couldn't disagree with you more on how bad a deal Amazon is. Yes, you pay a premium on many things. On the other hand, that premium pays for itself 100+ times over due to the tremendous amount of time and frustration I save by virtue of not having to physically go somewhere to do the vast majority of my shopping. Furthermore, I also find huge value in being able to make careful, informed decisions about what I buy without time-pressure and other annoyances imposed by the physical world. I hate shopping at most stores and when I'm there the strong desire to leave as soon as I can tends to take precedence over making the smartest purchase. Overall I would say using Amazon for most of my shopping has greatly improved my quality of life due to these factors.

dleslie 8y ago

Oh, in case it wasn't clear: as a Canadian, Prime has been of dubious value. We don't have catalog parity either, but that has been less of an issue for a few years now.

Marsymars 8y ago
Depends on the Amazon services you use. Amazon Music Unlimited is cheaper than other music streaming services in Canada if you have Prime, so taking that price difference into account, I'm basically paying $40 just for the unlimited photo storage. (I don't use Amazon Video, and always select the slowest shipping option for the environmental efficiency.)

Scoundreller 8y ago

> When you start to price compare, you realise how bad of a deal Amazon has become real quick. For the majority of the stuff I was buying, Amazon prime was marginally more expensive. For a minority of them, it was substantially (30%+) more expensive, and I had no idea. Agreed, but I'm currently trying to get a close friend to realize that Amazon can have terrible pricing. But I think the convenience factor is difficult to overcome. Before Amazon, you had to just "know" which venue to buy each particular product. Now you can go to one place for practically anything online. For every purchase (online or not), I do some mental calculation of "My estimate of what this costs to make is X", and I wouldn't pay more than X + Y%. I also think "Which venue would have the best price for this?". For small junk, I would do some complicated Ebay searches and buy it for $4 from China. For larger things, I would do some complicated analysis of supply vs. demand for a used good and maybe check local classified ads. For other stuff, I'd go to Costco, or some specialized store. I also have to do an analysis of how much I'd be willing to save to get it in 1 week or 1 month instead of tomorrow. But most people just don't think that much. Relatively guaranteed shipping of 1-2 days and all from one place is enough for people that don't do this kind of thinking for purchases. Costco doesn't always have the best pricing, but you know that you'll never overpay too much, it's always quality, and they'll take a return if you're willing to trade some of your life to do it.

Larrikin 8y ago

What were you buying and where are you buying from now. I almost always compare items on atleast three sites before I buy. Amazon often times comes ahead of or is the same as Jet, target, costco and walmart. Combined with camelcamelcamel and the few truly bad deals are easily spotted.

icelancer 8y ago

I use a comparator plugin and I never have this experience. I spend probably at least $1000 a month on Amazon between personal and business and the difference in savings is negligible at best from switching to various other sites from Amazon (most of the time Amazon is the cheapest price). Prime shipping has been annoying to my residence because I live in Seattle and they use contractors which often just fuck things up for same-day delivery, but it's never longer than 2 days. Almost no other site can match that speed and convenience, which is the real reason any of use Prime. If I saw the same 30% overcharging phenomenon people keep talking about on HN, I'd probably consider switching. But it is well under 5% and probably ~0%, honestly, and the value of my time and efficiency of shopping online is worth quite a bit to me.

dleslie 8y ago
Which plugin?
- icelancer 8y ago
  There's tons; Wikibuy, Honey, etc, etc. I use Honey but I've used a bunch and the results are generally the same. The paranoia inflicted upon me by HN crowd saying I'm overpaying on Amazon by 30% makes me investigate all these claims and I just find them all to be completely false in my case. I'm not saying people don't have these experiences, but I don't. And even if I did for like 5% or something, the shopping experience on Amazon is 10x better than Walmart.com or Target.com (where it's more like 100x), and that isn't worth nothing. It's like patio11 insisting that basis points fees aren't worth arguing over on Stripe when you are infinitely more productive using Stripe's developer kit vs. Authorize.net or any other terrible gateway, and people everywhere on HN claim how expensive Stripe is and how you can save money and don't factor in even a very conservative estimate on labor hours for a C-level exec or a manager in a company. It doesn't take much time saved or annoyances avoided for a high-level executive to make a small price difference be completely irrelevant. And that's what Amazon has mostly done.
  - thisacctforreal 8y ago

not_kurt_godel 8y ago

Personally I've had few troubles with fake reviews & ratings. Aggregate ratings and review are just one signal in a purchasing decision. If I'm buying something non-disposable, particularly if it costs more than $50, I almost always look at the top 3-4 products to compare features and scrutinize reviews carefully to look at hidden issues and tradeoffs. With this approach, fake reviews almost always fall in the same bucket as real ones that I perceive to be undiscerning or ignorant - I'm much more compelled by detailed reviews that mirror my own perspectives, interests, concerns, and thought processes. On the rare occasions that I wind up with something unsatisfactory, it's hardly an issue to take 3 minutes to get a full refund. I also couldn't disagree with you more on how bad a deal Amazon is. Yes, you pay a premium on many things. On the other hand, that premium pays for itself 100+ times over due to the tremendous amount of time and frustration I save by virtue of not having to physically go somewhere to do the vast majority of my shopping. Furthermore, I also find huge value in being able to make careful, informed decisions about what I buy without time-pressure and other annoyances imposed by the physical world. I hate shopping at most stores and when I'm there the strong desire to leave as soon as I can tends to take precedence over making the smartest purchase. Overall I would say using Amazon for most of my shopping has greatly improved my quality of life due to these factors.