5 ms·

On top of that they have a horrendous site and shopping experience. That people choose to go to amazon is beyond me. Don't you have other options?

by tjoff 4y ago

davidwritesbugs 4y ago
Not to mention the bizarrely bad search engine which is so utterly useless it can only be deliberately bad. This is an example of the consequences of monopoly you've nowhere else to go so they can ignore your dissatisfaction.
DocTomoe 4y ago
In 20 years of me being a customer with Amazon, I have never once had a problem with them. Returns are quick and easy. Payment systems work. I can't say the same for other stores. And thus, other stores successively lost my business (with the exception of some seriously fringe stuff, like speciality tea, electronics components ... and computer parts)
- Semaphor 4y ago
  The same for me, and the interface is actually better than many websites, including pretty much all larger warehouse-style stores.
- quijoteuniv 4y ago
  Yes, this is the problem. They are convenient for the customer. It does not mean that their business model is close to what man can call «evil»
  - DocTomoe 4y ago
    To be fair, that's the problem with OTHER vendors, not with them. They would have been free to put the customer first as well, but chose not to. Why should I as the customer accept subpar service just because the only place I get decent one is morally ambiguous to some people?
- seattle_spring 4y ago
  Same experience here. Only explanation I can think of is that people are buying the things that are obviously scams.
mavhc 4y ago
That's the point, no
petra 4y ago
What sites have a significantly better shopping experience?
- mrweasel 4y ago
  Pretty much any site local to your country. Amazons search is broken, finding anything is a major hassle and many of the search results are in fact ads. Checkout is horrible, Amazon cannot, or will not, give you the actual price until the very last page on the checkout flow. Shipping costs are horrendous, often shipping 30 - 50% of the actual cost. Random items cannot be shipped, for some reason you might be able to have a shirt shipped if you pick "small" or "XL", but not not "Medium" or "Large". But you can't tell the site to ignore any items that you can't buy anyway, so filtering is a manual process. Which reminds me, why does Amazon even pretend to have filters, they don't work. The only reason to shop at Amazon anymore is selection. There are a ton of products and books I cannot buy locally. Amazon is often the only company that will sell and ship to Denmark.
- herbst 4y ago
  AliExpress: - better search - delivery time suggestions usually match - way better customer support - No questions asked money back if the item is poor or delivery to slow - Not believing you buy a eco brand product when you actually just buy a rebrand from China anyway. The reality is 90% of the shit on Amazon is straight out of China. There is no reason other than lazyness to not import it yourself.
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    I’m a big fan of Aliexpress and used to buy a fair amount from there after finding it on Amazon. Now, if I see something on Aliexpress, I’ll check to see if it’s just as cheap or slightly cheaper on Amazon. Much of Aliexpress has inflated away the deep savings that were there in the 2014-2019 era.
thrdbndndn 4y ago
I don't have horrendous site and shopping experience using Amazon, to be honest. The search result is average but I mostly just buy branded items, so not a big deal. Shipping experience is getting worse and worse (in term of speed), but still ahead of others. Amazon shipping is free after $25 even if you're not a prime member, which already better than most. And if you're prime you got free 2-day shipping (which nowadays often goes to 3 or 4 days, but this isn't my biggest concern). The only online shop I've used that has better shipping is Apple. Not to mention, their return policy is very generous.
MattGaiser 4y ago
Which sites do you prefer? At least as a Canadian, I find every non Amazon site pretty terrible. Amazon has the best shoe size searching interface of any site. It has the best kitchen tool search interface. Amazon outperforms more niche retailers in search in their niches.
- fomine3 4y ago
  Newegg has really great product search feature for PC parts.
  - nipperkinfeet 4y ago
    They got third party sellers listed for a few years now.
mcv 4y ago
I never buy there. There are several Dutch webshops that are vastly superior, and as a result, amazon.nl hasn't been able to get much traction here. I'm surprised other countries don't have superior competitors.
- herbst 4y ago
  Switzerland here, we do. Ours even takes crypto as payment for like 6 years now and next day delivery is the standard. They also have actual support. Something that Amazon missed the boat on long ago
TeMPOraL 4y ago
Obligatory mention of McMaster-Carr. I'd accept both a price premium and a limited selection of goods, if I could use a website like MMC's for generic shopping.
kouteiheika 4y ago
> On top of that they have a horrendous site and shopping experience. That people choose to go to amazon is beyond me. Don't you have other options? Oh boy, be glad you don't have to shop online in Japan. Compared to that Amazon is the pinnacle of user experience. Recently I wanted to buy an 4090 from a Japanese shop, and I had to go through *six* online shops to buy one. And it's not because it was out of stock, oh no, but because of various bullshit reasons which prevented me from buying one. Some of the issues that are common in Japanese e-commerce (I've experienced all of these myself, and I don't shop much): - A lot of shops don't accept debit/credit cards. - Shops that accept a debit/credit card often will accept your order, reserve the money (so it's not a technical limitation), but the very next day cancel your order with a message "sorry, your card was issued overseas; your order is now cancelled, try again with a Japanese issued card" - Shops that require you to verify through your phone to make an account (which is required to buy anything). You give them your phone, and they *call* you. You then have to pick it up, the call disconnects, then they send you an SMS with a code, which you type into the website to register the account. If you miss the initial automated call you have to wait 15 minutes. - You get automatically subscribed to a spammy newsletter (up to THREE EMAILS A DAY) once you register an account. - There's no "unsubscibe" link in the spammy newsletter emails. - You need to fill out a form to unsubscribe from it, and it's not automatic. - Even if you fill out a form it might not unsubscribe you anyway. (It's possible they're doing the unsubscribing manually.) - If you delete an account the spammy newsletter still keeps on coming, but now there's no way to unsubscribe from it. - If the name on your account doesn't exactly match the name on your card they won't accept it (because the name on the card includes your middle name, and that's too long to even type it into the form on the site). - Cancelling an order doesn't actually unreserve/unblock the money they reserved, so if you tried to buy something expensive (say, an 4090 for $2000) and your order got cancelled then you need to wait for a month before that money is automatically unblocked and you can actually use it again. (Although I'm sure you could probably call the CC company's support to get it fixed on your side.) So, no, even though I really don't want to give any extra money to Bezos the thing is that shopping through Amazon just works. I click on the item I want, I click order, and that's it. I get charged and a day or two later it comes to my doorstep. No bullshit.
- thrdbndndn 4y ago
gambiting 4y ago
I have absolutely nothing but positive things to say about amazon, frankly. Maybe their service in the UK is better than elsewhere, but at this point they are 10x better than any competition. The selection is great, nearly everything can be delivered the next day(or the same day for some items), and the support and returns process is absolutely fantastic. Try returning an item to Currys or Argos or even a high end store like John Lewis and compare with Amazon - amazon is just better, full stop. I've had 220 orders with them last year and the worst thing that happened was that one order was a day late - they just added a month of prime to my account when I complained. No fakes, no issues. Like seriously, what other options would you even consider at this point? Overpriced high street stores? Other tech giants who have awful return policies and/or customer support? I really don't see any alternative.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  That's basically how it is here in Japan too, with the added bonus that the site supports English really well, and auto-translates stuff that isn't in English. Prices are almost always lower than elsewhere, shipping is free for anything over 2000 yen, and while the return process isn't fantastic (you have to physically take it to the post office), it's free and it exists, which is more than I can say for the competition. The free returns alone is a big reason to shop on Amazon here. Most Japanese retailers will not accept returns without a very good reason (e.g. product defect). The site design is much better and easier to use too; Japanese companies are notorious for having truly awful UIs and web design.
mihaaly 4y ago
It is perfectly ok for buying simple and cheap things. I have cables, nightstand clock, extension lead, bike light, foldback clips and such nicknacks from Amazon. The same crap you'd get elsewhere, in relevant shops in your vicinity or webshops alike. One click and its there next day. Also the return experience is typically good if you run into something you don't like. For important and quality stuff yes, people should go elsewhere. (Ok, I had 2 pieces of important items from reliable brands from Amazon last year - e.g. Samsung SSD, not dozens of TBs though of course : ) -, but that is an exception to the rule)
ChrisRR 4y ago
The annoying part is they're a necessary evil. I was recently looking for a music book. I could have it delivered next day for included with Prime, and would cost me nothing. Ordering from one of the UK's most popular music stores on the other hand was more expensive, charged £5 for delivery and said 3-5 days delivery.

On top of that they have a horrendous site and shopping experience. That people choose to go to amazon is beyond me. Don't you have other options?

by tjoff 4y ago

On top of that they have a horrendous site and shopping experience. That people choose to go to amazon is beyond me. Don't you have other options?

davidwritesbugs 4y ago

Not to mention the bizarrely bad search engine which is so utterly useless it can only be deliberately bad. This is an example of the consequences of monopoly you've nowhere else to go so they can ignore your dissatisfaction.

DocTomoe 4y ago

In 20 years of me being a customer with Amazon, I have never once had a problem with them. Returns are quick and easy. Payment systems work. I can't say the same for other stores. And thus, other stores successively lost my business (with the exception of some seriously fringe stuff, like speciality tea, electronics components ... and computer parts)

Semaphor 4y ago
The same for me, and the interface is actually better than many websites, including pretty much all larger warehouse-style stores.
quijoteuniv 4y ago
Yes, this is the problem. They are convenient for the customer. It does not mean that their business model is close to what man can call «evil»
- DocTomoe 4y ago
  To be fair, that's the problem with OTHER vendors, not with them. They would have been free to put the customer first as well, but chose not to. Why should I as the customer accept subpar service just because the only place I get decent one is morally ambiguous to some people?
seattle_spring 4y ago
Same experience here. Only explanation I can think of is that people are buying the things that are obviously scams.

mavhc 4y ago

That's the point, no

petra 4y ago

What sites have a significantly better shopping experience?

mrweasel 4y ago
Pretty much any site local to your country. Amazons search is broken, finding anything is a major hassle and many of the search results are in fact ads. Checkout is horrible, Amazon cannot, or will not, give you the actual price until the very last page on the checkout flow. Shipping costs are horrendous, often shipping 30 - 50% of the actual cost. Random items cannot be shipped, for some reason you might be able to have a shirt shipped if you pick "small" or "XL", but not not "Medium" or "Large". But you can't tell the site to ignore any items that you can't buy anyway, so filtering is a manual process. Which reminds me, why does Amazon even pretend to have filters, they don't work. The only reason to shop at Amazon anymore is selection. There are a ton of products and books I cannot buy locally. Amazon is often the only company that will sell and ship to Denmark.
herbst 4y ago
AliExpress: - better search - delivery time suggestions usually match - way better customer support - No questions asked money back if the item is poor or delivery to slow - Not believing you buy a eco brand product when you actually just buy a rebrand from China anyway. The reality is 90% of the shit on Amazon is straight out of China. There is no reason other than lazyness to not import it yourself.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  I’m a big fan of Aliexpress and used to buy a fair amount from there after finding it on Amazon. Now, if I see something on Aliexpress, I’ll check to see if it’s just as cheap or slightly cheaper on Amazon. Much of Aliexpress has inflated away the deep savings that were there in the 2014-2019 era.

thrdbndndn 4y ago

I don't have horrendous site and shopping experience using Amazon, to be honest. The search result is average but I mostly just buy branded items, so not a big deal. Shipping experience is getting worse and worse (in term of speed), but still ahead of others. Amazon shipping is free after $25 even if you're not a prime member, which already better than most. And if you're prime you got free 2-day shipping (which nowadays often goes to 3 or 4 days, but this isn't my biggest concern). The only online shop I've used that has better shipping is Apple. Not to mention, their return policy is very generous.

MattGaiser 4y ago

Which sites do you prefer? At least as a Canadian, I find every non Amazon site pretty terrible. Amazon has the best shoe size searching interface of any site. It has the best kitchen tool search interface. Amazon outperforms more niche retailers in search in their niches.

fomine3 4y ago
Newegg has really great product search feature for PC parts.
- nipperkinfeet 4y ago
  They got third party sellers listed for a few years now.

mcv 4y ago

I never buy there. There are several Dutch webshops that are vastly superior, and as a result, amazon.nl hasn't been able to get much traction here. I'm surprised other countries don't have superior competitors.

herbst 4y ago
Switzerland here, we do. Ours even takes crypto as payment for like 6 years now and next day delivery is the standard. They also have actual support. Something that Amazon missed the boat on long ago

TeMPOraL 4y ago

Obligatory mention of McMaster-Carr. I'd accept both a price premium and a limited selection of goods, if I could use a website like MMC's for generic shopping.

kouteiheika 4y ago

> On top of that they have a horrendous site and shopping experience. That people choose to go to amazon is beyond me. Don't you have other options? Oh boy, be glad you don't have to shop online in Japan. Compared to that Amazon is the pinnacle of user experience. Recently I wanted to buy an 4090 from a Japanese shop, and I had to go through *six* online shops to buy one. And it's not because it was out of stock, oh no, but because of various bullshit reasons which prevented me from buying one. Some of the issues that are common in Japanese e-commerce (I've experienced all of these myself, and I don't shop much): - A lot of shops don't accept debit/credit cards. - Shops that accept a debit/credit card often will accept your order, reserve the money (so it's not a technical limitation), but the very next day cancel your order with a message "sorry, your card was issued overseas; your order is now cancelled, try again with a Japanese issued card" - Shops that require you to verify through your phone to make an account (which is required to buy anything). You give them your phone, and they *call* you. You then have to pick it up, the call disconnects, then they send you an SMS with a code, which you type into the website to register the account. If you miss the initial automated call you have to wait 15 minutes. - You get automatically subscribed to a spammy newsletter (up to THREE EMAILS A DAY) once you register an account. - There's no "unsubscibe" link in the spammy newsletter emails. - You need to fill out a form to unsubscribe from it, and it's not automatic. - Even if you fill out a form it might not unsubscribe you anyway. (It's possible they're doing the unsubscribing manually.) - If you delete an account the spammy newsletter still keeps on coming, but now there's no way to unsubscribe from it. - If the name on your account doesn't exactly match the name on your card they won't accept it (because the name on the card includes your middle name, and that's too long to even type it into the form on the site). - Cancelling an order doesn't actually unreserve/unblock the money they reserved, so if you tried to buy something expensive (say, an 4090 for $2000) and your order got cancelled then you need to wait for a month before that money is automatically unblocked and you can actually use it again. (Although I'm sure you could probably call the CC company's support to get it fixed on your side.) So, no, even though I really don't want to give any extra money to Bezos the thing is that shopping through Amazon just works. I click on the item I want, I click order, and that's it. I get charged and a day or two later it comes to my doorstep. No bullshit.

thrdbndndn 4y ago

gambiting 4y ago

I have absolutely nothing but positive things to say about amazon, frankly. Maybe their service in the UK is better than elsewhere, but at this point they are 10x better than any competition. The selection is great, nearly everything can be delivered the next day(or the same day for some items), and the support and returns process is absolutely fantastic. Try returning an item to Currys or Argos or even a high end store like John Lewis and compare with Amazon - amazon is just better, full stop. I've had 220 orders with them last year and the worst thing that happened was that one order was a day late - they just added a month of prime to my account when I complained. No fakes, no issues. Like seriously, what other options would you even consider at this point? Overpriced high street stores? Other tech giants who have awful return policies and/or customer support? I really don't see any alternative.

midoridensha 4y ago
That's basically how it is here in Japan too, with the added bonus that the site supports English really well, and auto-translates stuff that isn't in English. Prices are almost always lower than elsewhere, shipping is free for anything over 2000 yen, and while the return process isn't fantastic (you have to physically take it to the post office), it's free and it exists, which is more than I can say for the competition. The free returns alone is a big reason to shop on Amazon here. Most Japanese retailers will not accept returns without a very good reason (e.g. product defect). The site design is much better and easier to use too; Japanese companies are notorious for having truly awful UIs and web design.

mihaaly 4y ago

It is perfectly ok for buying simple and cheap things. I have cables, nightstand clock, extension lead, bike light, foldback clips and such nicknacks from Amazon. The same crap you'd get elsewhere, in relevant shops in your vicinity or webshops alike. One click and its there next day. Also the return experience is typically good if you run into something you don't like. For important and quality stuff yes, people should go elsewhere. (Ok, I had 2 pieces of important items from reliable brands from Amazon last year - e.g. Samsung SSD, not dozens of TBs though of course : ) -, but that is an exception to the rule)

ChrisRR 4y ago

The annoying part is they're a necessary evil. I was recently looking for a music book. I could have it delivered next day for included with Prime, and would cost me nothing. Ordering from one of the UK's most popular music stores on the other hand was more expensive, charged £5 for delivery and said 3-5 days delivery.