6 ms·

I've completely stopped ordering from Amazon, for three reasons: they have too much market power, they have serious ethics problems, and their 3rd party seller

I've completely stopped ordering from Amazon, for three reasons: they have too much market power, they have serious ethics problems, and their 3rd party seller program has made the buying experience garbage. Welcome to the club.

ethbr0 6y ago
I've come full circle and only order books (usually used) or things I don't care if they're Chinese bargain-version off Amazon anymore. Target, or occasionally Walmart, gets what used to be Amazon's business from me.
- coldpie 6y ago
  Even books aren't safe. Support your local booksellers! https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazon-caught-selling-counterfeits-of-publishers-computer-books-again/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazo...
  - dan-robertson 6y ago
    Even for non-counterfeit books, I’ve often got shit quality print-on-demand versions with plates that look like an inkjet printer running low on ink and with the letters having fuzzy boundaries.
    - steelframe 6y ago
      For books I've gone from buying on a Kindle to Kobo+OverDrive which I use to check out e-books from the library. But I'm one of those freaks who actually prefers e-ink devices over dead tree books.
      - 80mph 6y ago
        I love my Kobo e-reader. Syncs perfectly with my library and Pocket, and using the natural light feature hasn't hampered my ability to fall asleep.
      - Moru 6y ago
        So instead of dead tree books it's better with dead ecosystem electronics? :) Have you seen what they do in China too get those rare earth minerals needed for electronics and batteries?
    - aaron-santos 6y ago
      I purchased a book this year which included encoding errors. Original greek text which amounted to a couple of quotes was replaced with garbage output. Tables were printed but unformatted. Furthermore, it only included the first 1/2 of the text. The entire second half of the book was missing. I could look past many of these except for the last. Selling half a book is fraud.
- hinkley 6y ago
  B & H photos has done right by me so far. CDW seems okay. Newegg appears to have vendors reselling stuff from Amazon with markup. And while you can filter third party out, you quickly discover Newegg doesn’t have much inventory.
  - cratermoon 6y ago
    Newegg went down the toilet in 2016 when Liaison Interactive bought it out. Adorama is also good and, like B&H, you can't do any business with them on Saturday.
    - coldpie 6y ago
      Has any retail company ever gotten better after being bought out (thinking NewEgg, Toys R Us, Guitar Center...)? Some incentive is fucked up if decent businesses are being run into the ground.
      - cratermoon 6y ago
        Toys R Us and Guitar Center are among the retailers bought by private equity firms explicitly so the investors could wring the value out of the company and throw the remains in the dumpster. G.I. Joes was another. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-us-bankruptcy-private-equity/561758/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-... By the way the remnants of Toys R Us are now owned by Tru Toys and they are looking to make a comeback.
        sampo 6y ago
        > so the investors could wring the value out of the company and throw the remains in the dumpster What does that mean in practice?
        genericone 6y ago
        Low expected long term business value due to predicted market shifts. Compress all dwindling future value into an immediately extractable source of income at the cost of the existence of the business itself. Basically, squeeze the brand name dry until the brand name itself means nothing.
- monksy 6y ago
  Don't give them money if you don't support them doing crappy things. Still using them is giving them money. Also if you're looking for Chinese knockoffs.. go directly to the source and go with Aliexpress.
  - dasudasu 6y ago
    Ebay isn't that bad either for cheap Chinese products. Lots of direct Chinese sellers.
  - julianlam 6y ago
    Many Chinese sellers will list items on Amazon for a multiple of the price listed on AliExpress. You're essentially paying a multiple of the price for faster shipping.
    - nucleardog 6y ago
      And a middleman that will give you your money back more or less no questions asked if the product doesn’t match its description. Getting something in two days instead of two months and being able to get a refund if it was completely misrepresented is easily worth, say (as an example from today), paying $50 for an IP cam instead of $40 from Aliexpress for something with firmware so butchered from upstream it doesn’t even fulfill basic requirements or provide listed functionality anymore. And being stuck with it. At least the firmware is so full of security holes I can probably find some use for the device one day when I feel like spending another evening with it.
- coffeefirst 6y ago
  Bookshop.org and Better World Books are great alternatives to Amazon for new and used respectively.
- hndude 6y ago
  For used books you could try thriftbooks.com
- randallsquared 6y ago
  I would love to use Target or Walmart, but the killer feature that Amazon PrimeNow and Fresh still have for me over all the rivals is that they will not allow me to put something in my cart that they do not have. That's it. Instacart, Shipt, Seamless (yes, I've bought groceries through Seamless in NYC...), this is all I want from you: let me know what I'm getting.
georgeecollins 6y ago
It is really good to diversify your purchasing. Walmart is often a great alternative to Amazon: Newegg or Bestbuy for consumer electronics; Jensen for bikes; Adafruit or Robotshop for hobby electronics; Apogee for rockets.

ethbr0 6y ago

I've come full circle and only order books (usually used) or things I don't care if they're Chinese bargain-version off Amazon anymore. Target, or occasionally Walmart, gets what used to be Amazon's business from me.

coldpie 6y ago
Even books aren't safe. Support your local booksellers! https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazon-caught-selling-counterfeits-of-publishers-computer-books-again/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/amazo...
- dan-robertson 6y ago
  Even for non-counterfeit books, I’ve often got shit quality print-on-demand versions with plates that look like an inkjet printer running low on ink and with the letters having fuzzy boundaries.
  - steelframe 6y ago
    For books I've gone from buying on a Kindle to Kobo+OverDrive which I use to check out e-books from the library. But I'm one of those freaks who actually prefers e-ink devices over dead tree books.
    - 80mph 6y ago
      I love my Kobo e-reader. Syncs perfectly with my library and Pocket, and using the natural light feature hasn't hampered my ability to fall asleep.
    - Moru 6y ago
      So instead of dead tree books it's better with dead ecosystem electronics? :) Have you seen what they do in China too get those rare earth minerals needed for electronics and batteries?
  - aaron-santos 6y ago
    I purchased a book this year which included encoding errors. Original greek text which amounted to a couple of quotes was replaced with garbage output. Tables were printed but unformatted. Furthermore, it only included the first 1/2 of the text. The entire second half of the book was missing. I could look past many of these except for the last. Selling half a book is fraud.
hinkley 6y ago
B & H photos has done right by me so far. CDW seems okay. Newegg appears to have vendors reselling stuff from Amazon with markup. And while you can filter third party out, you quickly discover Newegg doesn’t have much inventory.
- cratermoon 6y ago
  Newegg went down the toilet in 2016 when Liaison Interactive bought it out. Adorama is also good and, like B&H, you can't do any business with them on Saturday.
  - coldpie 6y ago
    Has any retail company ever gotten better after being bought out (thinking NewEgg, Toys R Us, Guitar Center...)? Some incentive is fucked up if decent businesses are being run into the ground.
    - cratermoon 6y ago
      Toys R Us and Guitar Center are among the retailers bought by private equity firms explicitly so the investors could wring the value out of the company and throw the remains in the dumpster. G.I. Joes was another. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-us-bankruptcy-private-equity/561758/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/toys-r-... By the way the remnants of Toys R Us are now owned by Tru Toys and they are looking to make a comeback.
      - sampo 6y ago
        > so the investors could wring the value out of the company and throw the remains in the dumpster What does that mean in practice?
        genericone 6y ago
        Low expected long term business value due to predicted market shifts. Compress all dwindling future value into an immediately extractable source of income at the cost of the existence of the business itself. Basically, squeeze the brand name dry until the brand name itself means nothing.
monksy 6y ago
Don't give them money if you don't support them doing crappy things. Still using them is giving them money. Also if you're looking for Chinese knockoffs.. go directly to the source and go with Aliexpress.
- dasudasu 6y ago
  Ebay isn't that bad either for cheap Chinese products. Lots of direct Chinese sellers.
- julianlam 6y ago
  Many Chinese sellers will list items on Amazon for a multiple of the price listed on AliExpress. You're essentially paying a multiple of the price for faster shipping.
  - nucleardog 6y ago
    And a middleman that will give you your money back more or less no questions asked if the product doesn’t match its description. Getting something in two days instead of two months and being able to get a refund if it was completely misrepresented is easily worth, say (as an example from today), paying $50 for an IP cam instead of $40 from Aliexpress for something with firmware so butchered from upstream it doesn’t even fulfill basic requirements or provide listed functionality anymore. And being stuck with it. At least the firmware is so full of security holes I can probably find some use for the device one day when I feel like spending another evening with it.
coffeefirst 6y ago
Bookshop.org and Better World Books are great alternatives to Amazon for new and used respectively.
hndude 6y ago
For used books you could try thriftbooks.com
randallsquared 6y ago
I would love to use Target or Walmart, but the killer feature that Amazon PrimeNow and Fresh still have for me over all the rivals is that they will not allow me to put something in my cart that they do not have. That's it. Instacart, Shipt, Seamless (yes, I've bought groceries through Seamless in NYC...), this is all I want from you: let me know what I'm getting.

georgeecollins 6y ago

It is really good to diversify your purchasing. Walmart is often a great alternative to Amazon: Newegg or Bestbuy for consumer electronics; Jensen for bikes; Adafruit or Robotshop for hobby electronics; Apogee for rockets.