9 ms·

While I agree that Amazon.se looks like a clown shoes dumpster fire, all of Amazon’s properties have more and more devolved into looking like a Dollar Store web

While I agree that Amazon.se looks like a clown shoes dumpster fire, all of Amazon’s properties have more and more devolved into looking like a Dollar Store website (or Wish re-skin if you prefer that).

cameronh90 5y ago
I still quite like amazon.co.uk. It has pretty much everything, I've never had a fake product and I get same or next day delivery on most things.
- cryptoz 5y ago
  > I've never had a fake product Are you really certain about that? The fakes are so good sometimes I don't notice for a year or two. There are so many ways of faking different products, and the fakers are getting really really really good at making the product seem real. Have you done a few hours of searching and testing for everything you've bought? This is what it takes, IMO, to feel some level of confidence in an Amazon (US) product being 'real'. The levels of suspicion never really go away either - since I've been duped by probably a dozen products at least, that have turned out to be fake, I'm highly suspicious of any Amazon purchase. It's been a couple years since I bought anything from there. Too much stress worrying about authenticity to make it worth it.
  - cameronh90 5y ago
    As certain as I can be of any store purchase. Nothing I've bought from Amazon has been substandard quality and it's pretty much all lasted as well as I'd expect. I've had much better luck with Amazon than with local stores. If the fakes are literally indistinguishable, it's possible I've had some, but then I guess it makes little difference to me. As far as research goes, if it's expensive, I put some research in if it's a product or brand I've never used before, but I never specifically look to see if it's a fake product on Amazon. For reference, I spend about £5k a year at Amazon UK. Nearly all my experiences have been positive apart from the occasional damage in transit.
    - OJFord 5y ago
      I'm with you on never having had a fake (at least, echo your 'sure as I could ever be') - closest was a Marantz microphone that curiously identifies as a Blue Snowball, but I suspect they're probably just both farmed out to the same place and got mixed up or it always says Blue, or they're exactly the same underneath the shell. They're in the same price bracket anyway so not really my loss or any reason to fake that. What I have found though is that the quality of search results, the experience of using the site, has seriously deteriorated in the last two or three years. It's like AliExpress or eBay now. I used to read other countries' Amazon users (e.g. .com) complain about this and think what are you talking about it's great, but yeah, now... I still get as good stuff from Amazon because that's what I buy, I just have to wade through a lot of crap to get it.
      - Retric 5y ago
        > Marantz microphone that curiously identifies as a Blue Snowball If you don’t consider that a sign of a fake product, I don’t think you’re being objective. Fake products put significant effort into looking like real products, many times you need to take them apart to find the differences.
        mitchdoogle 5y ago
        Some people just aren't concerned with brand names. If it looks and works like it's supposed to, and it didn't cost any more money, then what's the problem?
        OJFord 5y ago
        Certainly if it's 'really' a Blue Snowball rather than a Marantz MPM-1000U, I don't care, they're in the same price bracket from two respected brands. (I only chose between them on the basis that the Snowball was slightly more expensive at the time I ordered and aesthetically I preferred the Marantz. So really, if it were internally a Snowball and that was different, it would be a win?) To be fair though it's not as clear as I was expecting, but I'm no expert so not really set up to do any proper testing, the room its in is probably acoustically awful anyway, etc. It's certainly not awful even if it isn't what it says it is, it's several steps up from the dirt cheap 'Tonor' branded and unashemedly 'Chinesium' thing I used before it. The great thing about Amazon though is that after this thread I contacted support (way out of return period) and they've shipped a replacement. I'll see if it's the same; if it is, of course that doesn't prove anything, but I'll be very interested if it does seem (more - still wouldn't know for sure of course) real to see what the differences are in packaging/construction/printing etc.
  - the-dude 5y ago
    If the fake is almost real, does it really matter?
    - p49k 5y ago
      It definitely matters. Watch some of the teardowns of power adapters on YouTube: they look and work almost identically and you’d likely never tell the difference, but one is much more likely to set your house on fire if it malfunctions.
      - cik 5y ago
        Admittedly one could argue that this is the reason we have insurance. I don't know that my Apple X won't light my house on fire, as opposed to my knock off Snapple X.
        ilkan 5y ago
        That's what the UL or CE mark is for
        the-dude 5y ago
        Are you aware that at least CE is 'self certification' ? Only when a case goes to court, it will be determined if the certification was rightful or not.
        wl 5y ago
        Too bad so many of those marks are fake on Amazon.
        cik 5y ago
        Unfortunately I can't comment below this point, in the thread I started. You're making the point I'm making. While I don't (to the best of my knowledge) purchase counterfeit items, I don't pretend that certification is anything other than certification. Hopefully certification comes with standards, and aren't self-reporting... but that's not always the case.
  - petee 5y ago
    I just wanted to add to this --fakes can be near perfect in appearance. A number of years ago Black Diamond had to put out an advisory on one of their pieces of mountain climbing gear because someone was making an exact replica of their climbing hardware...but with substandard metal. Everything matched, with laser cut serial numbers and everything. The only way they could ensure it was real was by material testing, or known purchase from an authorized dealer. Years ago there was a decent chance amazon had the real thing, but now I'd avoid anything that can potentially kill you
    - Scoundreller 5y ago
      Sounds like they outsourced their production and their producer ran extra shifts on the side. Or whomever setup their plant setup an extra plant on the side. Though I increasingly suspect any bad batch gets labelled as a counterfeit to avoid liability.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
    Does it matter if it works for a year or two? While meanwhile in the age of planned obsolescence the originals don't work any longer, because of 'warranty period optimised design', or other artificial factors like no (security)-updates, for instance.
- six2seven 5y ago
  Sadly, on contrary, I avoid amazon in UK as much as possible. I just had too many adventures. This includes being sent e.g. a fake product in a box of dimensions resembling the ordered expensive one (at least the refund is instant). Or long discussions turns-out-scamming sellers who "dispatch" products not giving any tracking information (finally getting a refund after weeks). The last straw were pretty often just bad quality products sold by sellers who are advertised as Amazon's "Top Choice", etc. Amazon has just became a cheap quality bazaar for me and if I need to spend time to cherry pick a possibly fine quality product, then, no, thank you. I just try to search and order from local UK websites or stores. These often offer comparable or even better prices (esp. books), plus good contact with the seller and very often a better quality. Amazon just being either my last resort if I cannot buy a product in a local mom and pop store. With possibility of not even receiving a genuine product I prefer to buy, especially electronics, just directly in normal shops.
  - PUSH_AX 5y ago
    I use fakespot, plus I avoid anything not fulfilled by Amazon. Had no issues really with the UK business.
    - eganist 5y ago
      Amazon commingles all their merch when they're fulfilling a purchase, even when they're the seller. Best to avoid buying any items sold both by Amazon and a FBA seller; they're nearly guaranteed to be commingled, running you the risk of getting a third party's FBA counterfeit. But that'll probably get rid of a large chunk of your shopping list.
      - gambiting 5y ago
        >>Amazon commingles all their merch when they're fulfilling a purchase, even when they're the seller. I've seen proof this happens in the US, I'm yet to find any that this happens in the UK as well.
        5y ago
- mikehollinger 5y ago
  > I've never had a fake product I've accidentally bought a fake board game. We didn't know until we reached out to the manufacturer because the cardboard cutouts for coins / tokens / markers were all offset randomly. On one sheet white, unprinted cardboard was visible when we punched them out. When we contacted the manufacturer, they plainly knew it was a fake, said we should return it to Amazon, and we did so. When we bought another from elsewhere, we did a side-by-side comparison before sending the fake back: 1. The box was slightly different in size. Not enough that you'd notice, but the box top on the fake was just a little harder to remove. 2. the token/marker printing was of poor quality. It was like they'd taken the misprints from a real run and were selling those. 3. The instruction manual was printed on different paper. It felt real enough, but was obviously different from the "real" one. 4. Some extra flyers and adverts were missing from the box vs the real one
  - salamandersauce 5y ago
    MicroSD cards are a gamble too. Even buying from Amazon because they pool all their stock together so if one seller provides fakes you can randomly get a fake. I got a fake SanDisk 32GB card that was actually an 8GB card. I was really surprised that someone bothered to fake a 32GB card at the time because there was maybe a $20 price difference between 8 and 32GB at the time.
    - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
      Flashback to 2010: On MicroSD-Problems - https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=1022 https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=1022 From the samy guy, 30c3 - The Exploration and Exploitation of an SD Memory Card - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuX_ElPhWHs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuX_ElPhWHs Same video from source - https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5294_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201312291400_-_the_exploration_and_exploitation_of_an_sd_memory_card_-_bunnie_-_xobs https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5294_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201312291...
- josefx 5y ago
  I ordered a pair of headsets three weeks ago, they still haven't shipped them. Been a long time since I got anything same day or even on the promised delivery date.
- Reason077 5y ago
  The worst thing about amazon.co.uk now days is that the search results are so polluted by knock-off and irrelevant products. Even when Amazon has exactly the product you're searching for, they'll often bury it under a dozen vaguely related junk items (which sometimes don't match your search term at all). Presumably because those vendors have paid for elevated search placement?
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  I haven't really had any issue in the USA either. I would say 99% of what I've bought was as described. I tend to not buy the first cheap thing I see though. Never got a bad drive, usb key, or kitchen gadget like these other comments are saying. I'm not saying it doesn't happen though. I have received some duds but I turned around and sent them back and left a bad review. I probably should be better about leaving good reviews though, that old human nature thing about being easier to complain than to congratulate is kind of true.
cpach 5y ago
I live in Sweden and I really don’t get the hype for Amazon. Around here there are so many other web shops for electronics, books, clothes, etc, and many of them also offer free shipping. When I buy stuff from other countries I vastly prefer Ebay to Amazon.
- arkitaip 5y ago
  Yup, the Swedish ecom market is too sophisticated for there to be any low hanging fruit for Amazon to pick. There are actors like Apotea.se (pharmacy) that have very low prices with next day delivery for free. And their UI is second to none.
  - hattmall 5y ago
    That's interesting, because Sweden is a pretty small market, so it could really make sense to see some regional marketplaces pop up in America and be pretty successful. FB marketplace is good for big items locally already.
- Johnny555 5y ago
  While lots of places offer free shipping, it's harder to find sites that offer free next day shipping (or offer same-day shipping). And harder still to find a site where you can by a cooking pan and a computer motherboard in the same purchase as well as buy your weekly groceries and have them delivered later today. Amazon wins through convenience.

cameronh90 5y ago

I still quite like amazon.co.uk. It has pretty much everything, I've never had a fake product and I get same or next day delivery on most things.

cryptoz 5y ago
> I've never had a fake product Are you really certain about that? The fakes are so good sometimes I don't notice for a year or two. There are so many ways of faking different products, and the fakers are getting really really really good at making the product seem real. Have you done a few hours of searching and testing for everything you've bought? This is what it takes, IMO, to feel some level of confidence in an Amazon (US) product being 'real'. The levels of suspicion never really go away either - since I've been duped by probably a dozen products at least, that have turned out to be fake, I'm highly suspicious of any Amazon purchase. It's been a couple years since I bought anything from there. Too much stress worrying about authenticity to make it worth it.
- cameronh90 5y ago
  As certain as I can be of any store purchase. Nothing I've bought from Amazon has been substandard quality and it's pretty much all lasted as well as I'd expect. I've had much better luck with Amazon than with local stores. If the fakes are literally indistinguishable, it's possible I've had some, but then I guess it makes little difference to me. As far as research goes, if it's expensive, I put some research in if it's a product or brand I've never used before, but I never specifically look to see if it's a fake product on Amazon. For reference, I spend about £5k a year at Amazon UK. Nearly all my experiences have been positive apart from the occasional damage in transit.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    I'm with you on never having had a fake (at least, echo your 'sure as I could ever be') - closest was a Marantz microphone that curiously identifies as a Blue Snowball, but I suspect they're probably just both farmed out to the same place and got mixed up or it always says Blue, or they're exactly the same underneath the shell. They're in the same price bracket anyway so not really my loss or any reason to fake that. What I have found though is that the quality of search results, the experience of using the site, has seriously deteriorated in the last two or three years. It's like AliExpress or eBay now. I used to read other countries' Amazon users (e.g. .com) complain about this and think what are you talking about it's great, but yeah, now... I still get as good stuff from Amazon because that's what I buy, I just have to wade through a lot of crap to get it.
    - Retric 5y ago
      > Marantz microphone that curiously identifies as a Blue Snowball If you don’t consider that a sign of a fake product, I don’t think you’re being objective. Fake products put significant effort into looking like real products, many times you need to take them apart to find the differences.
      - mitchdoogle 5y ago
        Some people just aren't concerned with brand names. If it looks and works like it's supposed to, and it didn't cost any more money, then what's the problem?
        OJFord 5y ago
        Certainly if it's 'really' a Blue Snowball rather than a Marantz MPM-1000U, I don't care, they're in the same price bracket from two respected brands. (I only chose between them on the basis that the Snowball was slightly more expensive at the time I ordered and aesthetically I preferred the Marantz. So really, if it were internally a Snowball and that was different, it would be a win?) To be fair though it's not as clear as I was expecting, but I'm no expert so not really set up to do any proper testing, the room its in is probably acoustically awful anyway, etc. It's certainly not awful even if it isn't what it says it is, it's several steps up from the dirt cheap 'Tonor' branded and unashemedly 'Chinesium' thing I used before it. The great thing about Amazon though is that after this thread I contacted support (way out of return period) and they've shipped a replacement. I'll see if it's the same; if it is, of course that doesn't prove anything, but I'll be very interested if it does seem (more - still wouldn't know for sure of course) real to see what the differences are in packaging/construction/printing etc.
- the-dude 5y ago
  If the fake is almost real, does it really matter?
  - p49k 5y ago
    It definitely matters. Watch some of the teardowns of power adapters on YouTube: they look and work almost identically and you’d likely never tell the difference, but one is much more likely to set your house on fire if it malfunctions.
    - cik 5y ago
      Admittedly one could argue that this is the reason we have insurance. I don't know that my Apple X won't light my house on fire, as opposed to my knock off Snapple X.
      - ilkan 5y ago
        That's what the UL or CE mark is for
        the-dude 5y ago
        Are you aware that at least CE is 'self certification' ? Only when a case goes to court, it will be determined if the certification was rightful or not.
        wl 5y ago
        Too bad so many of those marks are fake on Amazon.
        cik 5y ago
        Unfortunately I can't comment below this point, in the thread I started. You're making the point I'm making. While I don't (to the best of my knowledge) purchase counterfeit items, I don't pretend that certification is anything other than certification. Hopefully certification comes with standards, and aren't self-reporting... but that's not always the case.
- petee 5y ago
  I just wanted to add to this --fakes can be near perfect in appearance. A number of years ago Black Diamond had to put out an advisory on one of their pieces of mountain climbing gear because someone was making an exact replica of their climbing hardware...but with substandard metal. Everything matched, with laser cut serial numbers and everything. The only way they could ensure it was real was by material testing, or known purchase from an authorized dealer. Years ago there was a decent chance amazon had the real thing, but now I'd avoid anything that can potentially kill you
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    Sounds like they outsourced their production and their producer ran extra shifts on the side. Or whomever setup their plant setup an extra plant on the side. Though I increasingly suspect any bad batch gets labelled as a counterfeit to avoid liability.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  Does it matter if it works for a year or two? While meanwhile in the age of planned obsolescence the originals don't work any longer, because of 'warranty period optimised design', or other artificial factors like no (security)-updates, for instance.
six2seven 5y ago
Sadly, on contrary, I avoid amazon in UK as much as possible. I just had too many adventures. This includes being sent e.g. a fake product in a box of dimensions resembling the ordered expensive one (at least the refund is instant). Or long discussions turns-out-scamming sellers who "dispatch" products not giving any tracking information (finally getting a refund after weeks). The last straw were pretty often just bad quality products sold by sellers who are advertised as Amazon's "Top Choice", etc. Amazon has just became a cheap quality bazaar for me and if I need to spend time to cherry pick a possibly fine quality product, then, no, thank you. I just try to search and order from local UK websites or stores. These often offer comparable or even better prices (esp. books), plus good contact with the seller and very often a better quality. Amazon just being either my last resort if I cannot buy a product in a local mom and pop store. With possibility of not even receiving a genuine product I prefer to buy, especially electronics, just directly in normal shops.
- PUSH_AX 5y ago
  I use fakespot, plus I avoid anything not fulfilled by Amazon. Had no issues really with the UK business.
  - eganist 5y ago
    Amazon commingles all their merch when they're fulfilling a purchase, even when they're the seller. Best to avoid buying any items sold both by Amazon and a FBA seller; they're nearly guaranteed to be commingled, running you the risk of getting a third party's FBA counterfeit. But that'll probably get rid of a large chunk of your shopping list.
    - gambiting 5y ago
      >>Amazon commingles all their merch when they're fulfilling a purchase, even when they're the seller. I've seen proof this happens in the US, I'm yet to find any that this happens in the UK as well.
      - 5y ago
mikehollinger 5y ago
> I've never had a fake product I've accidentally bought a fake board game. We didn't know until we reached out to the manufacturer because the cardboard cutouts for coins / tokens / markers were all offset randomly. On one sheet white, unprinted cardboard was visible when we punched them out. When we contacted the manufacturer, they plainly knew it was a fake, said we should return it to Amazon, and we did so. When we bought another from elsewhere, we did a side-by-side comparison before sending the fake back: 1. The box was slightly different in size. Not enough that you'd notice, but the box top on the fake was just a little harder to remove. 2. the token/marker printing was of poor quality. It was like they'd taken the misprints from a real run and were selling those. 3. The instruction manual was printed on different paper. It felt real enough, but was obviously different from the "real" one. 4. Some extra flyers and adverts were missing from the box vs the real one
- salamandersauce 5y ago
  MicroSD cards are a gamble too. Even buying from Amazon because they pool all their stock together so if one seller provides fakes you can randomly get a fake. I got a fake SanDisk 32GB card that was actually an 8GB card. I was really surprised that someone bothered to fake a 32GB card at the time because there was maybe a $20 price difference between 8 and 32GB at the time.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
    Flashback to 2010: On MicroSD-Problems - https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=1022 https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=1022 From the samy guy, 30c3 - The Exploration and Exploitation of an SD Memory Card - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuX_ElPhWHs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuX_ElPhWHs Same video from source - https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5294_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201312291400_-_the_exploration_and_exploitation_of_an_sd_memory_card_-_bunnie_-_xobs https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5294_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201312291...
josefx 5y ago
I ordered a pair of headsets three weeks ago, they still haven't shipped them. Been a long time since I got anything same day or even on the promised delivery date.
Reason077 5y ago
The worst thing about amazon.co.uk now days is that the search results are so polluted by knock-off and irrelevant products. Even when Amazon has exactly the product you're searching for, they'll often bury it under a dozen vaguely related junk items (which sometimes don't match your search term at all). Presumably because those vendors have paid for elevated search placement?
stjohnswarts 5y ago
I haven't really had any issue in the USA either. I would say 99% of what I've bought was as described. I tend to not buy the first cheap thing I see though. Never got a bad drive, usb key, or kitchen gadget like these other comments are saying. I'm not saying it doesn't happen though. I have received some duds but I turned around and sent them back and left a bad review. I probably should be better about leaving good reviews though, that old human nature thing about being easier to complain than to congratulate is kind of true.

cpach 5y ago

I live in Sweden and I really don’t get the hype for Amazon. Around here there are so many other web shops for electronics, books, clothes, etc, and many of them also offer free shipping. When I buy stuff from other countries I vastly prefer Ebay to Amazon.

arkitaip 5y ago
Yup, the Swedish ecom market is too sophisticated for there to be any low hanging fruit for Amazon to pick. There are actors like Apotea.se (pharmacy) that have very low prices with next day delivery for free. And their UI is second to none.
- hattmall 5y ago
  That's interesting, because Sweden is a pretty small market, so it could really make sense to see some regional marketplaces pop up in America and be pretty successful. FB marketplace is good for big items locally already.
Johnny555 5y ago
While lots of places offer free shipping, it's harder to find sites that offer free next day shipping (or offer same-day shipping). And harder still to find a site where you can by a cooking pan and a computer motherboard in the same purchase as well as buy your weekly groceries and have them delivered later today. Amazon wins through convenience.