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> even sold by Amazon Honest question: after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add - do you re

> even sold by Amazon Honest question: after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add - do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? I went from spending > 10k€ per year to less than 5%, probably not even that, on there, all by their own fault. And i see no reason to buy there anymore: - the default assumption of having the best price on the web went out of the window years ago - next (or 2) day delivery - does not happen anymore in most cases, Prime or not - even finding (!!) what you're searching for is a total sh.t show - for years, Amazon is now a front for chinese cr.p shipped by the boatload - the once useful review system has been and is being gamed, it is beyond broken these days and should not be trusted (basically forget everything that scores 4.5 or less, read all reviews and ensure that the review you're reading is not for some other variant of the item you're looking for or that the review you're looking at hasn't been swapped one item for another, because that's a thing as well on there...) I mean - buying things on Aliexpress is more trustworthy, for crying out loud - yet, most people can't seem to be bothered. scratchinghead

trenchpilgrim 1y ago
I quit Prime months ago and honestly the only feature I miss is fast shipping for household items. I can find the same or better prices (including shipping) from other suppliers.
- kccqzy 1y ago
  The only reason I didn't quit Prime already is that it gives me discounts on certain items from Whole Foods. I save enough from my groceries using Prime that I don't cancel it. And Whole Foods is the grocery store closest to my home. Otherwise I rarely shop on Amazon.
  - trenchpilgrim 1y ago
    Ah, the Whole Foods in my neighborhood closed years ago - they couldn't compete with the locally owned grocery that everyone already shopped at.
jchw 1y ago
> Honest question: after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add - do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? Not really 100% sure why you're getting down-voted (edit: I guess not anymore. Comment was gray when I replied.), but to answer your question, no. I do not trust Amazon for anything important. I do still sometimes use Amazon in spite of this, only because they are nonetheless very useful. They have a very wide selection, and are often able to do same-day and 1-day shipping of almost anything even over here in some random suburbia. This has become important lately because things I used to just buy physically are no longer obtainable physically. For example, the last local electronics store went out of business, and the nearest Micro-Center is probably an hour drive or so, and that's not even as good for electronics. Still, I'm always skeptical of Amazon. I never trust that the prices are the lowest, and often they're not. And I never trust that the product will be authentic, because it might not be, though it usually still is. And yep, the review system is bullshit. You can see people playing around with "variations" to basically group unrelated things, if not literally re-using an old Amazon product ID. And when you search for anything, even if Amazon actually has decent products from known brands, they'd prefer to show you key-smash anonymous Chinese brands instead, even when the prices aren't that much cheaper anyway. But, that's just how it goes. People voted with their wallets and they chose Amazon, and now that they did and all of the smaller local shops are all dead, Amazon doesn't really need to worry about competing with them anymore.
- Moru 1y ago
  I go out of my way to support local business. I don't care if I have to wait a day or two more. So be it. I am NOT supporting amazon.
  - jchw 1y ago
    Totally understand that and pretty much agree, the main problem I have is that the local businesses I liked to support are basically all gone. Not sure what to do now.
  - traceroute66 1y ago
ChiefNotAClue 1y ago
They may not have the best prices at every point in time, but they consistently have good deals. There are several price trackers out there; Keepa and CamelCamelCamel are the big ones. Use them to your advantage and figure out whether the item you're after is a good deal or not.
traceroute66 1y ago
> do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? Not the person you're asking, but yes, I do. You know the biggest reason wny ? Their no-bullshit returns policy. Seriously. Click button, get your returns label. The refund is sent to you as soon as the courier or post office has scanned the barcode. Hell, sometimes Amazon just refund you and don't even want the item returned ! You don't get that anywhere else. At most other vendors you have to fight to even get a returns label. And even if those other vendors give you a returns label without a fight, you have to wait until their warehouse has processed your return and hope that you don't get charged a restocking fee or they try to claim some bullshit excuse about you having lightly scratched something. Oh, you want to know another reason too ? I don't like spreading my personal data far and wide. Yeah, sure I'm sure I could buy my widget from some random shop. Probably at a cheaper price than Amazon too, I'm sure. But that means another place with my personal data on their database. Open to that company spamming me, and the Russians hacking them and spaffing my personal data all over the darkweb. Say what you like about Amazon. But I think their Infosec practices are pretty good.
- sieve 1y ago
  > Their no-bullshit returns policy. I have been waiting for three weeks for them to pick up some fake POD-crap they delivered instead of the books that I had ordered and refund Rs. 800 (~ $8). I have had about 8-10 phone calls with them regarding this issue and CS is completely unbothered (with one exception, but too little too late). They do their fake apologies and set up another return pickup. These last three weeks have been absolutely terrible as far as deliveries and Amazon CS are concerned. I have been moving all new purchases to Walmart-owned Flipkart as I no longer have the mental bandwidth to deal with these people.
- icebergonfire 1y ago
  > Their no-bullshit returns policy. Caveat emptor though, I trusted this policy as well and got my account closed for unclear reasons. They hinted at returns fraud (not the case) and a high return rate (not the case either). I provided detailed records of everything and even escalated this to jeff@amazon.com, no luck. Still have a few hundred euros in Amazon Echos in storage that I cannot use anymore.
nyarlathotep_ 1y ago
> Honest question: after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add - do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? For me, it's just physical books, basically. Occasionally, I'll order an Anker charger or something too.
- alfiedotwtf 1y ago
  See my comment above lol :)
Dylan16807 1y ago
> after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add If we're putting co-mingling into its own category, I don't remember any reports of fakes being sold by Amazon. Do you have any links?

trenchpilgrim 1y ago

I quit Prime months ago and honestly the only feature I miss is fast shipping for household items. I can find the same or better prices (including shipping) from other suppliers.

kccqzy 1y ago
The only reason I didn't quit Prime already is that it gives me discounts on certain items from Whole Foods. I save enough from my groceries using Prime that I don't cancel it. And Whole Foods is the grocery store closest to my home. Otherwise I rarely shop on Amazon.
- trenchpilgrim 1y ago
  Ah, the Whole Foods in my neighborhood closed years ago - they couldn't compete with the locally owned grocery that everyone already shopped at.

jchw 1y ago

> Honest question: after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add - do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? Not really 100% sure why you're getting down-voted (edit: I guess not anymore. Comment was gray when I replied.), but to answer your question, no. I do not trust Amazon for anything important. I do still sometimes use Amazon in spite of this, only because they are nonetheless very useful. They have a very wide selection, and are often able to do same-day and 1-day shipping of almost anything even over here in some random suburbia. This has become important lately because things I used to just buy physically are no longer obtainable physically. For example, the last local electronics store went out of business, and the nearest Micro-Center is probably an hour drive or so, and that's not even as good for electronics. Still, I'm always skeptical of Amazon. I never trust that the prices are the lowest, and often they're not. And I never trust that the product will be authentic, because it might not be, though it usually still is. And yep, the review system is bullshit. You can see people playing around with "variations" to basically group unrelated things, if not literally re-using an old Amazon product ID. And when you search for anything, even if Amazon actually has decent products from known brands, they'd prefer to show you key-smash anonymous Chinese brands instead, even when the prices aren't that much cheaper anyway. But, that's just how it goes. People voted with their wallets and they chose Amazon, and now that they did and all of the smaller local shops are all dead, Amazon doesn't really need to worry about competing with them anymore.

Moru 1y ago
I go out of my way to support local business. I don't care if I have to wait a day or two more. So be it. I am NOT supporting amazon.
- jchw 1y ago
  Totally understand that and pretty much agree, the main problem I have is that the local businesses I liked to support are basically all gone. Not sure what to do now.
- traceroute66 1y ago

ChiefNotAClue 1y ago

They may not have the best prices at every point in time, but they consistently have good deals. There are several price trackers out there; Keepa and CamelCamelCamel are the big ones. Use them to your advantage and figure out whether the item you're after is a good deal or not.

traceroute66 1y ago

> do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? Not the person you're asking, but yes, I do. You know the biggest reason wny ? Their no-bullshit returns policy. Seriously. Click button, get your returns label. The refund is sent to you as soon as the courier or post office has scanned the barcode. Hell, sometimes Amazon just refund you and don't even want the item returned ! You don't get that anywhere else. At most other vendors you have to fight to even get a returns label. And even if those other vendors give you a returns label without a fight, you have to wait until their warehouse has processed your return and hope that you don't get charged a restocking fee or they try to claim some bullshit excuse about you having lightly scratched something. Oh, you want to know another reason too ? I don't like spreading my personal data far and wide. Yeah, sure I'm sure I could buy my widget from some random shop. Probably at a cheaper price than Amazon too, I'm sure. But that means another place with my personal data on their database. Open to that company spamming me, and the Russians hacking them and spaffing my personal data all over the darkweb. Say what you like about Amazon. But I think their Infosec practices are pretty good.

sieve 1y ago
> Their no-bullshit returns policy. I have been waiting for three weeks for them to pick up some fake POD-crap they delivered instead of the books that I had ordered and refund Rs. 800 (~ $8). I have had about 8-10 phone calls with them regarding this issue and CS is completely unbothered (with one exception, but too little too late). They do their fake apologies and set up another return pickup. These last three weeks have been absolutely terrible as far as deliveries and Amazon CS are concerned. I have been moving all new purchases to Walmart-owned Flipkart as I no longer have the mental bandwidth to deal with these people.
icebergonfire 1y ago
> Their no-bullshit returns policy. Caveat emptor though, I trusted this policy as well and got my account closed for unclear reasons. They hinted at returns fraud (not the case) and a high return rate (not the case either). I provided detailed records of everything and even escalated this to jeff@amazon.com, no luck. Still have a few hundred euros in Amazon Echos in storage that I cannot use anymore.

nyarlathotep_ 1y ago

> Honest question: after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add - do you really consider Amazon being a reliable source for anything that is not some unimportant trinket? For me, it's just physical books, basically. Occasionally, I'll order an Anker charger or something too.

alfiedotwtf 1y ago
See my comment above lol :)

Dylan16807 1y ago

> after all the reports of co-mingled inventory, plain fakes etc. being sold by Amazon - for years i might add If we're putting co-mingling into its own category, I don't remember any reports of fakes being sold by Amazon. Do you have any links?