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I stopped purchasing from Amazon years ago. I used to have a phase where I was a really good customer, back in the 2005-2012. It felt trashy back then as well

I stopped purchasing from Amazon years ago. I used to have a phase where I was a really good customer, back in the 2005-2012. It felt trashy back then as well, but in a good sense. These days, Amazon is full of faked reviews, duplicate products with vast prize difference, very bad product description quality, and all the things you dont want from a reseller. Granted, for a while, we were willing to accept a certain sloppy style in exchange for the pricing, but this treshold has been crossed long ago. Me perceiving Amazon as complete trash has even spilled over into other offerings. I will not touch Alexa (for various reasons), and I am definitely not going to use their video stuff. I dont want to be customer of a company that has so little standards.

SheinhardtWigCo 5y ago
Same here, I used to get multiple Amazon packages per week, now I try to avoid them. The only reason I buy from them now is to take advantage of their ultra lax return policies. It wasn’t just Amazon that changed though. The proliferation of easier payment options (Apple/Google Pay, PayPal) and availability of one-touch credit card autofill on other websites eroded their moat, at least in my case.
specialist 5y ago
A close relative once had a pretty good business hosted on eBay. (I occasionally helped with computer stuff.) Robust enough for a large garage full of inventory and my aunt and uncle to quit their day jobs. eBay's stewardship of the marketplace started bad and then steadily got worse. Just fighting the search results, where legit products were buried under SEO and copycats, became a full time job. A little bit of jostling, that's just healthy competition, same as it ever was. But when legit business has to cheat just to stay afloat, the market's broken. Eventually, it just wasn't worth the bother.
- TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
  I just canceled my Ebay account a couple days ago (and rarely buy anything from Amazon any more). Ebay and Amazon are victims of their own "success." Everyone understands what they're doing wrong, and exactly when they went astray, but they don't seem to be doing anything about it. Ebay and Amazon continue to strive to be all things to all people selling and buying online, and won't fix the problems we can all plainly see. I note that other apps/services like Etsy or Shopify or Reverb are filling in the gaps left behind from this mentality. I hope these second-tier apps continue to attract more disillusioned people from the first tier, but stay focused on what has made them successful so far.
  - mlang23 5y ago
    I mostly agree with your comment. However, dont get me started on Etsy. This is probably likely due to my location/language, but the first and last time I looked at Etsy, every product description was autotranslated with Google Translate into my native tung, and there was no obvious option to disable this behaviour. In a sense, Etsy gave me a glimpse into the grim future of internationalisation. That experience was even worse then some Amazon product descriptions. I really wondered what sort of customer would be willing to strike a deal based on that presentation. But I gather people are mostly looking at photos these days. In a world of icons and pictures, proper text is probably on the way out.
permo-w 5y ago
I think your problem is arising from your approach to it. It sounds like you see it as a less regulated version of shop, rather than a more regulated version of eBay. In a shop, you might buy the cheapest option, and be fairly confident it will work. You wouldn’t, or at least shouldn’t do that on ebay. It’s the same on amazon
- cptskippy 5y ago
  There is a certain level of confidence to be gained from handling a product that lose with online products.
- thebruce87m 5y ago
  I think the point is that it didn’t used to be like this, but at some point it changed. Probably due to the addition of the “Marketplace”.
- mlang23 5y ago
  Nah. Where I live, eBay is a synonym for buying used stuff. I know thats not quite true, but this is how eBay was conceived, and is still perceived around here. We have a more local service for that, which is fine for finding something which doesnt need to be new... But at least a few years ago, there was a clear difference between amazon.de and say willhaben.at :-) Maybe that has changed even more, I wouldn't know. I basically gave up on looking up stuff on amazon.

SheinhardtWigCo 5y ago

Same here, I used to get multiple Amazon packages per week, now I try to avoid them. The only reason I buy from them now is to take advantage of their ultra lax return policies. It wasn’t just Amazon that changed though. The proliferation of easier payment options (Apple/Google Pay, PayPal) and availability of one-touch credit card autofill on other websites eroded their moat, at least in my case.

specialist 5y ago

A close relative once had a pretty good business hosted on eBay. (I occasionally helped with computer stuff.) Robust enough for a large garage full of inventory and my aunt and uncle to quit their day jobs. eBay's stewardship of the marketplace started bad and then steadily got worse. Just fighting the search results, where legit products were buried under SEO and copycats, became a full time job. A little bit of jostling, that's just healthy competition, same as it ever was. But when legit business has to cheat just to stay afloat, the market's broken. Eventually, it just wasn't worth the bother.

TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
I just canceled my Ebay account a couple days ago (and rarely buy anything from Amazon any more). Ebay and Amazon are victims of their own "success." Everyone understands what they're doing wrong, and exactly when they went astray, but they don't seem to be doing anything about it. Ebay and Amazon continue to strive to be all things to all people selling and buying online, and won't fix the problems we can all plainly see. I note that other apps/services like Etsy or Shopify or Reverb are filling in the gaps left behind from this mentality. I hope these second-tier apps continue to attract more disillusioned people from the first tier, but stay focused on what has made them successful so far.
- mlang23 5y ago
  I mostly agree with your comment. However, dont get me started on Etsy. This is probably likely due to my location/language, but the first and last time I looked at Etsy, every product description was autotranslated with Google Translate into my native tung, and there was no obvious option to disable this behaviour. In a sense, Etsy gave me a glimpse into the grim future of internationalisation. That experience was even worse then some Amazon product descriptions. I really wondered what sort of customer would be willing to strike a deal based on that presentation. But I gather people are mostly looking at photos these days. In a world of icons and pictures, proper text is probably on the way out.

permo-w 5y ago

I think your problem is arising from your approach to it. It sounds like you see it as a less regulated version of shop, rather than a more regulated version of eBay. In a shop, you might buy the cheapest option, and be fairly confident it will work. You wouldn’t, or at least shouldn’t do that on ebay. It’s the same on amazon

cptskippy 5y ago
There is a certain level of confidence to be gained from handling a product that lose with online products.
thebruce87m 5y ago
I think the point is that it didn’t used to be like this, but at some point it changed. Probably due to the addition of the “Marketplace”.
mlang23 5y ago
Nah. Where I live, eBay is a synonym for buying used stuff. I know thats not quite true, but this is how eBay was conceived, and is still perceived around here. We have a more local service for that, which is fine for finding something which doesnt need to be new... But at least a few years ago, there was a clear difference between amazon.de and say willhaben.at :-) Maybe that has changed even more, I wouldn't know. I basically gave up on looking up stuff on amazon.