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For consumers, it's easy: Amazon offers a consistent effortless experience. They already have all your payment and shipping data, so no need to create accounts

For consumers, it's easy: Amazon offers a consistent effortless experience. They already have all your payment and shipping data, so no need to create accounts and passwords at some random site with unknown security standards, you know what to expect in terms of shipping vs whatever that random shop is using, no need to worry if the shop will be around in a year or two to honor warranties, no worry about bullshit surrounding returns, warranty claims or refunds.

ufocia 3y ago
How does Amazon handle warranties, especially in a year or two? Pray tell.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  Amazon is a multibillion dollar company that has a consistent track record of prioritizing customer satisfaction ever since its inception, as does PayPal - admittedly though at the expense of merchants, where we've seen more than enough horror stories on HN about these two companies. Besides: The chances of either of them going belly-up are faaaaar lower than for Joe Random's webshop or, heaven forbid, physical store.
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    > Amazon is a multibillion dollar company that has a consistent track record of prioritizing customer satisfaction ever since its inception A massive issue missing from this statement are the problems around fakes which has grown and is unaddressed by Amazon. Not such an issue with books though.
- sdoering 3y ago
  My experience with warranty at Amazon was nothing but great every single time. Okay, I am from Germany with quite strong consumer protection. But still. Shopping at Amazon is so damn riskless, why would I buy at a small shop I don't know anything about? I got burned, family got burned - I just became very, very selective with buying elsewhere. The risk is too damn high.
  - farbklang 3y ago
    I lost 450$ on amazon.com for a product that never arrived. Apparently I complained too late and they 'have no shipping info' - might do an ask HN about it and try my best at a writeup.
- imgabe 3y ago
  Amazon is the store. The manufacturer handles warranties. If your Samsung TV breaks you don’t complain to Wal-Mart, you complain to Samsung.
  - tomrod 3y ago
    Walmart has return merchandising agreements with suppliers.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    > If your Samsung TV breaks you don’t complain to Wal-Mart, you complain to Samsung. WTF, here in Germany (or rather Europe as a whole) it is the other way around for the mandatory 2 years - if something happens, you return the item where you bought it and the seller is completely responsible for dealing with everything, and on the hook for delivering you a working item. Only after these two years expire and you have an "extended warranty" in place you have to deal with the manufacturer.
    - Symbiote 3y ago
      Britain had and still has compatible laws, so I can link to a good summary in English for Americans etc: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act-aKJYx8n5KiSl https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-...
- Fnoord 3y ago
  In my experience: first 2 or 3 months you can send it back np. After 2 years they say your warranty is forfeit. Which isn't true if you can reasonably expect the product to last longer (if it is an expensive one). In my case the battery was damaged due to bogus firmware update and they refused to deal with it, citing warranty with seller is exhausted (untrue). They said I should go to the manufacturer instead. I got "lucky" there: they couldn't repair it and replacement would take 3 months so they proposed sending me a newer revision for an extra price of a little bit over 100 EUR. Result is I will actively buy the product elsewhere if it is an expensive one.
  - andirk 3y ago
    That is so genius: Completely handle all immediate issues which probably involve a lot of idiot user error and no issue on the hardware, and then completely drop fools after 30 days! You only have to deal with the issues that aren't actually issues!
teeray 3y ago
The shipping is huge. I’m so much more inclined to purchase something that’s FBA rather than wait for some seller to see the notification that a sale was made, drive back from the lake house because it’s the weekend, pack up the item on Monday sometime, then finally drive it to the post office on Tuesday.

ufocia 3y ago

How does Amazon handle warranties, especially in a year or two? Pray tell.

mschuster91 3y ago
Amazon is a multibillion dollar company that has a consistent track record of prioritizing customer satisfaction ever since its inception, as does PayPal - admittedly though at the expense of merchants, where we've seen more than enough horror stories on HN about these two companies. Besides: The chances of either of them going belly-up are faaaaar lower than for Joe Random's webshop or, heaven forbid, physical store.
- lostlogin 3y ago
  > Amazon is a multibillion dollar company that has a consistent track record of prioritizing customer satisfaction ever since its inception A massive issue missing from this statement are the problems around fakes which has grown and is unaddressed by Amazon. Not such an issue with books though.
sdoering 3y ago
My experience with warranty at Amazon was nothing but great every single time. Okay, I am from Germany with quite strong consumer protection. But still. Shopping at Amazon is so damn riskless, why would I buy at a small shop I don't know anything about? I got burned, family got burned - I just became very, very selective with buying elsewhere. The risk is too damn high.
- farbklang 3y ago
  I lost 450$ on amazon.com for a product that never arrived. Apparently I complained too late and they 'have no shipping info' - might do an ask HN about it and try my best at a writeup.
imgabe 3y ago
Amazon is the store. The manufacturer handles warranties. If your Samsung TV breaks you don’t complain to Wal-Mart, you complain to Samsung.
- tomrod 3y ago
  Walmart has return merchandising agreements with suppliers.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  > If your Samsung TV breaks you don’t complain to Wal-Mart, you complain to Samsung. WTF, here in Germany (or rather Europe as a whole) it is the other way around for the mandatory 2 years - if something happens, you return the item where you bought it and the seller is completely responsible for dealing with everything, and on the hook for delivering you a working item. Only after these two years expire and you have an "extended warranty" in place you have to deal with the manufacturer.
  - Symbiote 3y ago
    Britain had and still has compatible laws, so I can link to a good summary in English for Americans etc: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act-aKJYx8n5KiSl https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-...
Fnoord 3y ago
In my experience: first 2 or 3 months you can send it back np. After 2 years they say your warranty is forfeit. Which isn't true if you can reasonably expect the product to last longer (if it is an expensive one). In my case the battery was damaged due to bogus firmware update and they refused to deal with it, citing warranty with seller is exhausted (untrue). They said I should go to the manufacturer instead. I got "lucky" there: they couldn't repair it and replacement would take 3 months so they proposed sending me a newer revision for an extra price of a little bit over 100 EUR. Result is I will actively buy the product elsewhere if it is an expensive one.
- andirk 3y ago
  That is so genius: Completely handle all immediate issues which probably involve a lot of idiot user error and no issue on the hardware, and then completely drop fools after 30 days! You only have to deal with the issues that aren't actually issues!

teeray 3y ago

The shipping is huge. I’m so much more inclined to purchase something that’s FBA rather than wait for some seller to see the notification that a sale was made, drive back from the lake house because it’s the weekend, pack up the item on Monday sometime, then finally drive it to the post office on Tuesday.