5 ms·

That might be the case but individuals are still free to refuse to buy items from amazon. I know that they won’t fail anytime soon because of AWS but I absolute

by jhloa2 7y ago

That might be the case but individuals are still free to refuse to buy items from amazon. I know that they won’t fail anytime soon because of AWS but I absolutely refuse to buy any items from their store because 7/10 times it’s garbage. They might not fail but luckily there’s still good online alternatives

leetcrew 7y ago
> I absolutely refuse to buy any items from their store because 7/10 times it’s garbage. genuinely curious, what kinds of things do you order? I place 1-2 orders every month and I've never received anything that I suspected was counterfeit.
- colejohnson66 7y ago
  I place 5-20 orders a month and have never received counterfeit
  - Hypx 7y ago
    Are you sure? It's not like a counterfeit broadcasts itself as a counterfeit. Totally possible you've already bought a counterfeit.
  - foobiekr 7y ago
    I was the same way, and then one day, got a set of completely obvious counterfeit undersink water filters that had nothing in them.
  - wetpaws 7y ago
    This is usually called 'survivor bias'
- jhloa2 7y ago
  Maybe not counterfeits, but many of the listing are very poorly made. Most of the clothing I've bought through them (even supposed name brands) have fallen apart extremely quickly. Looking through my history: - a car battery maintainer that doens't really charge the battery - 2 puzzles that the pieces don't fit together and many of them broke. - a snowboard edge tuner that ended up breaking after about 5 uses. - an iphone charging cable that fell apart after about a year even though it claimed to be kevlar braided. - a spatula that must have been 24 gauge sheet metal stamped into a "spatula" shape. - some glass screen protectors for my iphone that don't fit. - an air filter for my car that doensn't fit the car it's listed for. - a wireless charger that the micro-usb port broke within 2 months. All of those were from 2018. Now that I look through my history I'll change the 7/10 to 5/10 but in my book that's sill absolutely unacceptable. I'm sure there's more diligence I can do to make sure that I only buy name brand products but Amazon has lost my trust.
  - weiming 7y ago
    Try to find the real manufacturer. If it's a no-name/no-brand seller from China, then you should know what to expect. Example: 1. Search for "car battery charger" 2. "Amazon's Choice" result is a brand called Ampeak 3. Google "Ampeak trademark" 4. Ahhhh, "AMPEAK is a trademark of SHENZHEN JIADING ECOMMERCE LTD." Exercise of trying to find any information about "Shenzhen Jiading Ecommerce LTD" left to the reader. Also: 1. Try to find a website for both the brand and the manufacturer. "Ampeak" does have a website but lacks company information. 2. Note if the listing is dominated by gushing 5-star reviews and 1-star "what the heck did I just buy" reviews, something you can observe in the Ampeak charger listing.
    - ar0 7y ago
      If this is really the only way to successfully shop at Amazon, I wonder why so many people are still doing that. It seems to me that it would be the role of the shop I am shopping at to perform this kind of due diligence and quality assurance.
      - baybal2 7y ago
        > I wonder why so many people are still doing that. Because a lot of people kept doing that their entire life. Just now, it's becoming normal for people in America
      - corey_moncure 7y ago
        The role of the shop you are shopping at is to get filthy rich peddling shoddy junk made with effectively slave labor, while degrading both the manufacturer and consumer societies at the same time.
        Tsubasachan 7y ago
        Indeed. Stores are not your friend. And its not like it was better before Amazon. In fact with online shopping I learned how those brick and mortar retailers were scamming me for decades with their middleman rent seeking.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  Some categories are worse than others. Bluetooth anything, cables, phone accessories are often fake. For awhile, iPhone accessories were either fake or grey market. I think that improved recently.
- jfaat 7y ago
  I recently got a counterfeit pair of socks.
  - blondin 7y ago
    you mean from a well known brand like nike, adidas, etc.? why not get it from their own website or app directly? sometimes it's even cheaper and the perks you get far out-weights what amazon has to offer.
    - jfaat 7y ago
      You basically never get free shipping on a pair of socks from a brand like Nike though, right? Usually you have to spend ~$50. These were ‘Darn Tough’, a more niche hiking/active brand. Amazon had the best price. I only found out they were counterfeit by doing some research when they got a hole way too soon, but just after the return window. I mended the hole and they’re serviceable for now. In the future, I’ll only buy these from either REI or direct from the manufacturer. Lesson learned. But yeah not your typical sock-buying situation, I’m way too big of a hipster for that ;)
      - selimthegrim 7y ago
        Darn Toughs are nice enough when I left a pair behind by mistake at my hostel after a Grand Canyon trip I prevailed upon the hostel to mail them back to me for $2 for their time + postage. Thanks for the heads up about Amazon.
      - smolder 7y ago
        I know someone who buys a LOT of shoes from them (though just for himself) and they just awarded him a free pair recently.
    - krick 7y ago
      That's a weird question. I mean, it may totally make sense to do what you are saying, but people tend to get used to shopping in one place, not even to mention that every sane wholesaler does everything in his power to make people used to that (relevant ads, promos, personalized discounts or bonus points, unobtrusive UI...) That's kinda the whole point of being a reseller.
- bluGill 7y ago
  I used to order seaweed snacks. The type of things I enjoy but is hard to find locally. I can't take the chance anymore, Amazon needs a perfect reputation before I'm willing to eat something from them.
ademup 7y ago
7/10 garbage??? Are you not receiving the items you ordered? Or are you ordering the lowest-priced items and expecting premium product? We have two couples living in our house and receive 5-15 Amazon packages a week and have never had a single "OMG this is counterfeit/fake/literal garbage" moment. And all of us LOVE to complain about any opportunity that has a sliver of a chance at a discount. Meanwhile, I have read numerous HN accounts of "OMG, Amazon is always sending me counterfeit/fake stuff" At this point, I'm honestly thinking there are troll(s) on HN bashing Amazon. Also, the returns are EASY, so... What gives? I hate that Amazon is TBTF and Bezos controls more resources than some Nations, but the facts for me are: Amazon delivers what I want very quickly at reasonable prices. They often have items that I literally cannot buy locally. I wish I could always support my local people, but often as not, Amazon does a better job with less friction. Seriously? 7\10?? You buy 10 widgets and (want to) return 7 of them? I'm just going to say this now: you are either pulling numbers out of your ass (on a technical-loving web site) or you are outright lying.
- threezero 7y ago
  Not the person you’re replying to, (and not a troll) but I just looked at my orders and I was at almost a 50% return/exchange rate for damaged/counterfeit/not-as-described items in the last year before I completely stopped ordering from Amazon. As someone who buys at least one item a day over the internet, that’s a lot of mistakes. At one point I talked to my local UPS shop doing one of my weekly mass Amazon return drop offs, and he said I wouldn’t believe how much of their business was amazon returns. On the other hand, I order a lot of items that I have a lot of knowledge about, so it’s not hard for me to spot a fake or find the damage almost immediately. However, I could see the average consumer just accepting an item without paying too much attention. Since then I’ve switched to specialty retailers, and Target and Walmart for everything else.
TheRealPomax 7y ago
That has literally nothing to do with Amazon, the company. If you don't buy products on Amazon.com you're still paying online companies who pay Amazon for using their web services. THAT'S what it means for Amazon to be too big to fail: the consumer does NOT have any power anymore. We passed that point. Simply by participating in society, some of your money will end up in Amazon's hands, because they own the infrastructure on which society now runs.

by jhloa2 7y ago

leetcrew 7y ago

> I absolutely refuse to buy any items from their store because 7/10 times it’s garbage. genuinely curious, what kinds of things do you order? I place 1-2 orders every month and I've never received anything that I suspected was counterfeit.

colejohnson66 7y ago
I place 5-20 orders a month and have never received counterfeit
- Hypx 7y ago
  Are you sure? It's not like a counterfeit broadcasts itself as a counterfeit. Totally possible you've already bought a counterfeit.
- foobiekr 7y ago
  I was the same way, and then one day, got a set of completely obvious counterfeit undersink water filters that had nothing in them.
- wetpaws 7y ago
  This is usually called 'survivor bias'
jhloa2 7y ago
Maybe not counterfeits, but many of the listing are very poorly made. Most of the clothing I've bought through them (even supposed name brands) have fallen apart extremely quickly. Looking through my history: - a car battery maintainer that doens't really charge the battery - 2 puzzles that the pieces don't fit together and many of them broke. - a snowboard edge tuner that ended up breaking after about 5 uses. - an iphone charging cable that fell apart after about a year even though it claimed to be kevlar braided. - a spatula that must have been 24 gauge sheet metal stamped into a "spatula" shape. - some glass screen protectors for my iphone that don't fit. - an air filter for my car that doensn't fit the car it's listed for. - a wireless charger that the micro-usb port broke within 2 months. All of those were from 2018. Now that I look through my history I'll change the 7/10 to 5/10 but in my book that's sill absolutely unacceptable. I'm sure there's more diligence I can do to make sure that I only buy name brand products but Amazon has lost my trust.
- weiming 7y ago
  Try to find the real manufacturer. If it's a no-name/no-brand seller from China, then you should know what to expect. Example: 1. Search for "car battery charger" 2. "Amazon's Choice" result is a brand called Ampeak 3. Google "Ampeak trademark" 4. Ahhhh, "AMPEAK is a trademark of SHENZHEN JIADING ECOMMERCE LTD." Exercise of trying to find any information about "Shenzhen Jiading Ecommerce LTD" left to the reader. Also: 1. Try to find a website for both the brand and the manufacturer. "Ampeak" does have a website but lacks company information. 2. Note if the listing is dominated by gushing 5-star reviews and 1-star "what the heck did I just buy" reviews, something you can observe in the Ampeak charger listing.
  - ar0 7y ago
    If this is really the only way to successfully shop at Amazon, I wonder why so many people are still doing that. It seems to me that it would be the role of the shop I am shopping at to perform this kind of due diligence and quality assurance.
    - baybal2 7y ago
      > I wonder why so many people are still doing that. Because a lot of people kept doing that their entire life. Just now, it's becoming normal for people in America
    - corey_moncure 7y ago
      The role of the shop you are shopping at is to get filthy rich peddling shoddy junk made with effectively slave labor, while degrading both the manufacturer and consumer societies at the same time.
      - Tsubasachan 7y ago
        Indeed. Stores are not your friend. And its not like it was better before Amazon. In fact with online shopping I learned how those brick and mortar retailers were scamming me for decades with their middleman rent seeking.
Spooky23 7y ago
Some categories are worse than others. Bluetooth anything, cables, phone accessories are often fake. For awhile, iPhone accessories were either fake or grey market. I think that improved recently.
jfaat 7y ago
I recently got a counterfeit pair of socks.
- blondin 7y ago
  you mean from a well known brand like nike, adidas, etc.? why not get it from their own website or app directly? sometimes it's even cheaper and the perks you get far out-weights what amazon has to offer.
  - jfaat 7y ago
    You basically never get free shipping on a pair of socks from a brand like Nike though, right? Usually you have to spend ~$50. These were ‘Darn Tough’, a more niche hiking/active brand. Amazon had the best price. I only found out they were counterfeit by doing some research when they got a hole way too soon, but just after the return window. I mended the hole and they’re serviceable for now. In the future, I’ll only buy these from either REI or direct from the manufacturer. Lesson learned. But yeah not your typical sock-buying situation, I’m way too big of a hipster for that ;)
    - selimthegrim 7y ago
      Darn Toughs are nice enough when I left a pair behind by mistake at my hostel after a Grand Canyon trip I prevailed upon the hostel to mail them back to me for $2 for their time + postage. Thanks for the heads up about Amazon.
    - smolder 7y ago
      I know someone who buys a LOT of shoes from them (though just for himself) and they just awarded him a free pair recently.
  - krick 7y ago
    That's a weird question. I mean, it may totally make sense to do what you are saying, but people tend to get used to shopping in one place, not even to mention that every sane wholesaler does everything in his power to make people used to that (relevant ads, promos, personalized discounts or bonus points, unobtrusive UI...) That's kinda the whole point of being a reseller.
bluGill 7y ago
I used to order seaweed snacks. The type of things I enjoy but is hard to find locally. I can't take the chance anymore, Amazon needs a perfect reputation before I'm willing to eat something from them.

ademup 7y ago

7/10 garbage??? Are you not receiving the items you ordered? Or are you ordering the lowest-priced items and expecting premium product? We have two couples living in our house and receive 5-15 Amazon packages a week and have never had a single "OMG this is counterfeit/fake/literal garbage" moment. And all of us LOVE to complain about any opportunity that has a sliver of a chance at a discount. Meanwhile, I have read numerous HN accounts of "OMG, Amazon is always sending me counterfeit/fake stuff" At this point, I'm honestly thinking there are troll(s) on HN bashing Amazon. Also, the returns are EASY, so... What gives? I hate that Amazon is TBTF and Bezos controls more resources than some Nations, but the facts for me are: Amazon delivers what I want very quickly at reasonable prices. They often have items that I literally cannot buy locally. I wish I could always support my local people, but often as not, Amazon does a better job with less friction. Seriously? 7\10?? You buy 10 widgets and (want to) return 7 of them? I'm just going to say this now: you are either pulling numbers out of your ass (on a technical-loving web site) or you are outright lying.

threezero 7y ago
Not the person you’re replying to, (and not a troll) but I just looked at my orders and I was at almost a 50% return/exchange rate for damaged/counterfeit/not-as-described items in the last year before I completely stopped ordering from Amazon. As someone who buys at least one item a day over the internet, that’s a lot of mistakes. At one point I talked to my local UPS shop doing one of my weekly mass Amazon return drop offs, and he said I wouldn’t believe how much of their business was amazon returns. On the other hand, I order a lot of items that I have a lot of knowledge about, so it’s not hard for me to spot a fake or find the damage almost immediately. However, I could see the average consumer just accepting an item without paying too much attention. Since then I’ve switched to specialty retailers, and Target and Walmart for everything else.

TheRealPomax 7y ago

That has literally nothing to do with Amazon, the company. If you don't buy products on Amazon.com you're still paying online companies who pay Amazon for using their web services. THAT'S what it means for Amazon to be too big to fail: the consumer does NOT have any power anymore. We passed that point. Simply by participating in society, some of your money will end up in Amazon's hands, because they own the infrastructure on which society now runs.