Amazon is broken

There are services like Fakespot that try to weed out fake reviews to give you a better idea of what the genuine reviews say, but you're correct that the system is broken and only exists to exploit consumers.

I'm done with it I hate the mountain of Chinese crap pushed by the algorithms

Exactly. All these “brands” that don’t actually exist outside of Amazon.

I stopped ordering from Amazon in 2021.

We are DROWNING in cheap shit that none of us needs and that isn't built to last -- hence the need to keep buying even more shit. It's a vicious cycle.

Last week Amazon sent me an open box of cat litter. The tab had been pushed in and the packing box was filled with litter. The week before that I opened a box and an army of ants ran out. WTF.

When eBay allowed itself to be captured by its sellers, it almost collapsed. Now they have to guarantee everything they sell to lure back buyers.

I'm back to shopping in person at my favorite local stores where I can see and handle what I am buying. I share all the reasons you guys mentioned plus I got tired of all the boxes and packing. Now I don't have to break down boxes or make special trips to the country dump. Plus fuck China.

I think Amazon has found ways to make their shopping experience very addictive.

I have family members who have fallen prey. My dad, in his retirement, constantly buys crap from the website. He was never a big shopper before. I have a friend who's the same way. Amazon feeds the need for immediate gratification in a way shopping in brick-and-mortar stores never could. And because they sell so much cheap crap, they create endless opportunities to order more crap.

Search for *Namebrand product *, get 600 results, none of which are that name brand. look at the filter options for brand name and while it has 20 brand names they're all 'cosjeueubdrommzz, xuljduwiwna, sdjd8wiwjwj10p' etc brands. look to filter by features and, for example, if it's a clothing item get feature options like gluten free, made of cast iron and bpa free. finally filter by color, maybe white and get 7000 orange items.

All with a 32 day shipping /delivery date.

Leave any platform that has built up a critical user mass. It's destined to enshittify.

[quote] Amazon feeds the need for immediate gratification in a way shopping in brick-and-mortar stores never could

Whah?

The only thing more obnoxious than amazon when trying to get a specific item is fucking etsy.

r11 you can buy anything you ever wanted on Amazon, all without leaving your chair. In a brick-and-mortar store, you are limited by the selection, and it also takes more of an effort to shop. Also, shopping in person removes the "thrill" of having a package delivered and the anticipation of opening it. The whole process of Amazon is addictive.

after the whole Washington Post thing, I am putting Amazon at the bottom of the list. We have Walmart Plus and have been very happy with it. Product mix and prices between Amazon vs Walmart, is about the same (Walmart may be a bit cheaper). Knowing I am not contributing to Bezos $ gazillions is a satisfying comfort.

Listen to r10!

I consider “instant gratification “ to be the delivery, not the purchase. Amazon is impressive on getting your crap to you quickly, but at a brick and mortar you usually get it immediately.

r16 the anticipation is a big part of the Amazon "experience. "

I have Prime and delivery has gotten slower and slower. I just received an order I placed a week ago.

Fuck the anticipation. I want it NOW!

Anyway over the course of this thread I’ve decided I don’t need what I was about to buy, so thanks for that. Almost pulled the trigger, but for a pesky extra inch .

Amazon no longer has any vetting process standards for their vendors or their products. Years back items I would buy from Amazon were of decent quality and reliable. Now they sell a lot of low quality garbage you can find anywhere including your local dollar store.

75 percent of the crap on there is the exact same crap you can get on aliexpress or shein for a third of the price. No it's not aliexpress copying legitimate vendors/designs, it's the exact same vendors.

Now our building has an Amazon Key on our front door entry system. Amazon drivers can let themselves into the vestibule if and only if they have a verified delivery that day to a resident in our building. Meanwhile, FedEx and UPS throw our packages on the front steps next to a busy city sidewalk (in a sketchy area). I hate that we had to do this but it makes Amazon deliveries worry free.

True. But if there’s a problem, Amazon will give you a refund.

I try to shop in my local drug stores but the shelves look like Soviet Russia. I can’t find unbleached qtips, or the hand soap I like, a variety of brands of vitamins to choose from—and I used to.

I use Amazon mostly for cheap batteries (I have a lot of LED candles in my home), hair product and the occasional book. I belong to a FB group that highlights super cheap deals with coupon codes. I've scored some great deals on contact lens solution and other random stuff.

R24. Everywhere gives refunds. Have you been using Amazon so much that you forgot.

How much of the stuff you order do you even need?

I have bought 1 think on Amazon in the past 5 years. That’s it. And I could have bought that through Ulta but did not know at the time.

People make so many excuses for using Amazon but you don’t actually need it. It could be that you are just morally lacking and also lazy.

No offense but I’ve noticed that you can almost predict how much someone uses Amazon by how overweight they are. There is a correlation.

I feel bad for people with health struggles but sitting in the house ordering everything seems like a bad idea.

I’ve never shopped on those Chinese shopping sites. Not sure I trust them on refunds.

Quit buying all that crap. You bunch of hoarders.

That’s why everything is so expensive because people are compulsive hoarders.

I don't order from them that often, but my partner does, especially for his business. We really don't have a lot of problems with them. And their customer service is very good.

I guess YMMV.

R31 your money is going to the vault of a billionaire who used that money to buy up WaPo and stick his nose in it.

I prefer being able to sleep at night.

No wonder so many comfortable people went along with the holocaust. “Not my problem”

What R9 says.

I hate the fake Chinese non-brands

Fuck Jeff Bezos.

Amazon and google are similar in that you really need to know how to navigate the search results.

I had a delivery left on the sidewalk by my building entrance. Who the fuck do these delivery companies think they are?

Companies can only get away with what consumers will allow.

[quote]I have bought 1 think on Amazon in the past 5 years. That’s it

It shows...

Here's a new twist. The last 2 things I bought on Amazon were delivered to my local Post Office and the last mile was handled by them. Thing is, we live with a ghetto PO and we get mail twice a week and even though they have a key to enter our vestibule, they throw the packages at the front door feet from a busy sidewalk. What's going on with this fresh hell?

At this point, Jeff Bezos deserves to have Temu make him irrelevant.

I ordered a box of copy paper during the last Prime Day and was sent 13 zip up Kinder-care logo hoodies. You can't make this stuff up. After the WaPo fiasco I'm completely rethinking my relationship with Amazon. We're in a rural area so it's difficult to buy local.

I enjoy Kindle.

What got me addicted to Amazon was the free return shipping.

Also, if you have any problem whatsoever, Amazon is quick to refund you.

I detest what Bezos with the holding the Kamala endorsement so will try any other program that will mimic Amazon

Also, here's something many do not know about. Someone who is a higher volume purchaser from Amazon will get a better price on an item than another person who doesn't buy much from them. I found that out by accident when ordering something for a friend who was home recuperating from major surgery. I first found the item using my account and when he decided that's what he wanted I logged onto Amazon using his account and his price was higher. I then called Amazon and spoke with a rep to ask why and she point blank told me that people who buy more get better prices.

FUCK AMAZON AND JEFF BEZOS.

[quote] I then called Amazon and spoke with a rep to ask why and she point blank told me that people who buy more get better prices.

SERIOUSLY???

^^^Serious as a tornado in a trailer park.

Grocery stores don’t stock non food items like they used to because of Amazon. I was looking for shoe laces, Gold Bond body powder and a couple of other things you used to be able to find, no problem. As someone already said, the shelves are practically bare.

[quote] I use Amazon mostly for cheap batteries

Why not buy rechargeable batteries? A little more up-front cost, but then you don't have to think about it for a while. Plus, better for the environment.

I don't see that much wrong with offering a frequent buyer a lower price.

R10 paywalled.

In the past couple of years I had to cancel several orders which were, in retrospect, scammy. Basically, shady affiliated sellers who would sell stuff you were never going to get, creating bogus tracking numbers, etc. Their vetting process is shit and the buyers' reviews are not very helpful either.

I want to shop local, I really do. But so often they don't have my (absolutely average) size, or the store offers me to "order it for me". So many times I try local, ending up empty-handed. Waiting for the bus, you open the Amazon app, find what you're looking for, and it will be delivered tomorrow if not tonight.

[quote] she point blank told me that people who buy more get better prices

Well, duh. Everybody tells you that.

I'm confused. I get it that Amazon is not preferred. But is the alternative really Walmart+ now? Assuming that 'local shops' is not a viable option for 20% of my purchases, which online retailer can you recommend?

R54, if I want to buy something, I will usually go straight to the source website and compare prices with Amazon. If the source has reasonable price, return policy, and shipping , then I buy from the source. That way you can hopefully avoid counterfeit and expired stuff.

Also, if it’s a small business, then amazon is not taking a cut.

[quote] I first found the item using my account and when he decided that's what he wanted I logged onto Amazon using his account and his price was higher. I then called Amazon and spoke with a rep to ask why and she point blank told me that people who buy more get better prices.

Pricing on Amazon is dynamic, but we haven't reached the yield-management stage... yet. They have different accounts business vs, consumer accounts, and they do offer volume discounts, most of which are stated up front. However, the one thing I can tell you definitively is that Amazon support is a joke. They don't train their agents; they have scripts that are activated by keywords, so when you asked about whether pricing is better for frequent purchasers, that was the answer the agent was given by the algorithm. Yes, it's all based on an algorithm, with voice recognition and the words the agent searches their knowledge base on.

You have to remember that about 60% of what's sold on Amazon is third party merchants. not Amazon itself. Amazon does the shipping, which allows them to present specific offers to you based on your location (why they want you to log in to even search, and they really frown on and block VPNs because they have to know your location in order to know what to present to you that can ship the most cost-effectively to you among competing offers). The pricing, however, is set by the merchant under controls that Amazon is now being challenged over at the FTC and they are facing some massive problems, fines, and exposure of wrongdoing on a scale that will significantly impact the stock price.

Frankly, if anything, Bezos pulled the WaPo endorsement of Kamala not because of some grandiose belief in objective journalism bur rather getting rid of Lina Kahn would solve a huge problem for Amazon and even though he no longer runs it, he is still its largest individual shareholder.

amazon is selling self cleaning litterboxes that are killing peoples cats closing on their necks

You have to look closely at the seller's name before you place an order. Many fraudulent Chinese sellers will hijack a reputable brand/listing so find the seller's name on the page then click on it for customer reviews. Many will be one-star reviews stating they never received the item, or it will say Just Launched which means it's a newly created account and probably bogus.

I've noticed since Bezos stepped down the new CEO seems to excel in cost-cutting and pissing off formerly loyal customers such as myself. He upped the annual PRIME fee significantly when he took over then he began cutting PRIME FEATURES. Why am I paying for PRIME when I'm now expected to pay a separate $9.99 fee each month for "free" grocery delivery. Why am I watching "free" PRIME films with ads interspersed? They'll remove the ads for the small fee of just $2.99 per month. Why am I paying for PRIME Free two-day delivery when they no longer guarantee two-day delivery? This new guy is an asshole, and he has completely changed the tone of the company and not for the better.

I don’t know where else to go to buy DVDs and I love listening to commentary tracks and having the physical disc. It seems to me that streaming sources are really missing a bet when they don’t offer the special features and commentaries for a small nominal fee.

I know we all hate Walmart stores and work hard to never have to go into one, but they do maintain an online ordering portal just like Amazon. Their prices are almost always the same as Amazon, some times even cheaper. They store and ship a lot of merchandise for their affiliated sellers and you have the luxury easy returns if there's something wrong. You don't have to send it back, you can just take it to the nearest Walmart store and return it there and get your refund processed immediately. If an affiliated seller maintains their own inventory and does the shipping Walmart still is responsible for handling the order and if you should have a problem with a 3rd party seller Walmart will help you get the problem resolved. I just make sure anything I order is shipped by Walmart to alleviate the need to deal with a 3rd party.

This was my local drugstore the other day:

I ordered dog food from AMAZON the other day, because the prices were competitive with my local chain pet supply stores (PetSmart, Petco, and Pet Supplies Plus) and the convenience - I don't have to lug a big bag of dog food up the outside stairs to my door. Those pet stores do not offer free shipping on a bag of dog food.

When I went to order the food, I checked my account and sure enough the item I wanted was in my 'buy again' list - as I buy from them every six weeks or so. I clicked on it to put into my cart and another brand of dog food showed up. I removed it, went back to 'buy again' and the same thing happened - only this time it was a brand I never heard of which went into my cart (at a cheaper price). I logged out of my account, and then logged in the next morning to try and purchase the dog food I've been buying for the past 20+ years - only to have yet another brand put into my cart. At the point, I decided to go to Petco on my way home from work - which is on my way.

Not sure why it kept happening over and over.

Shut up, OP, OR I SHALL DESTROY YOU.

[quote] What got me addicted to Amazon was the free return shipping

I bought a pair of shoes on QVC per a friend’s suggestion, and they were too big. It was 6.95 shipping and 11.00 to return.

I found the same shoe cheaper on Amazon and purchased a smaller size. It didn’t quite fit either. To return it, I drove 5 mins. to their drop off place and that was it.

I don’t try to purchase everything on Amazon, but if it’s something I’m iffy about, I will because of their return policy.

It's all cheap Chinese knockoffs now. The names for some brands are a hilarious alphabet soup.

O Fank U. My Amazon needs fixded.

[quote] It's all cheap Chinese knockoffs now. The names for some brands are a hilarious alphabet soup.

That bothers me a lot more on Etsy. It pisses me off that they have exactly the same 'artisan' items that I can also find on Temu for half the price. On AMZ I know that I need to be careful. On Etsy it feels like fraud on their proposition.

Buy locally or from the manufacturer's site. It's not just reviews that are mixed up. They literally mix their own stock from manufacturers in with the "fulfilled by Amazon" stock they receive from sellers. As long as the barcode and dimensions and such are the same, they put it in the same group. IOW, you can buy directly from Amazon and receive fake goods because of their greedy, shitty system. Avoid.

And even if all the above weren’t true - fuck Jeff Bezos.

R82 for pet food, one word: Chewy

R70 Chewy is now owned by Amazon. They want an order of $49 or more for free shipping - my dog food is $44. I'm not going to pay for shipping on a 12 pound bag of food.

[quote]Chewy is now owned by Amazon

Sorry R71, that's not true. Chewy is owned by the same VC that owns PetsMart (PetsMart bought Chewy, then spun it off in an IPO and the VC, BC Partners, owns 80% of Chewy and all of PetsMart).

With regard to the buy again issues you're having on Amazon, it's likely due to someone manipulating Amazon's system. AMZ is a cutthroat system in which nefarious sellers can game the listings through a variety of technical means. Your description sounds like the classic ASIN (Amazon Specific Identification Number is what it stands for, I think) being hijacked by another brand/seller and all of the details changed. Unscrupulous sellers do this to acquire the history and reviews of popular items, then swap them for cheaper and less popular items, knowing that buyers will rely on Amazon to be doing their jobs (which they do a piss poor one of in situations like this) and blithely purchase the item. It makes no difference to the buyer since returns are ridiculously easy; in this case, if you received the incorrect item, they'll credit you and likely won't make you send it back and tell you to dispose of the food as you see fit. The seller who gamed the system will probably have already been paid and then disappeared. Eventually, Amazon will close or correct the listing, but not before making the legitimate sellers (including the brand) go through hell getting it corrected.

Amazon has some real problems when it comes to catalog maintenance. They don't want to pay employees to run it well. They rely on contributions from all of the sellers on the listing, and fix problems (poorly) after the fact; it allows for bad sellers to step in, sell a bunch of bad/wrong/counterfeit product, and abscond with the proceeds before Amazon even knows what's going on.

Amazon posted $15 Billion in [italic]profit[/italic] (not sales) last [italic]quarter.[/italic] and will not spend the money to provide catalog maintenance, vet sellers, provide competent customer and seller support, or maintaining a marketplace free from poor quality cheap knockoffs and counterfeits. And Temu scares the living hell out of them because one of the last things Bezos did before "retiring" was open the platform to Chinese sellers, and promised preferential treatment of them to the Chinese government in order to fuel growth. Chinese sellers don't have to comply with the same rules and regulations that US-based sellers do, and it is causing tremendous problems on the platform.

Meanwhile Temu games the system by bringing their cheap slave-made products in through Mexico avoiding US customs and tariffs and/or shipping directly from China at rates lower than you or I can access through the Post Office due to poor negotiations and favorable Chinese treatment by Trump's postmaster general Louis deJoy (whom Biden has been unable to fire due to a legislative gimmick governing the USPS).

FYI - Chewy only uses FedEx Ground which is the 7th Circle of Hell for just dumping packages by front doors and not even ringing the doorbell.

The thing is the stores don’t have what I’m looking for. I’ve tried to shop locally and I’m always disappointed. They just don’t have it or There’s just one item. Months ago, I went to target looking for potholders and white ceramic Pots for my house plants. Target had one style of potholder, a gray one and the white pots were plastic. I I found what I was looking on Amazon.

I like Anazon for my grocery delivery, cleaning supplies, and odds and ends like a new fan or small lamp. I occasionally have a problem that is promptly taken care of, so no complaints. I shop ebay too

I actually like the cheap Chinese knockoff. I can get the exact piece of crap for much cheaper

[quote] That bothers me a lot more on Etsy. It pisses me off that they have exactly the same 'artisan' items that I can also find on Temu for half the price

There’s an Etsy subreddit about this type of issue. Some of the artists’ work is being ripped off and sold on SHEIN and Temu and Etsy is not helping with false advertising on Etsy itself.

Before Etsy became corporate it was great.

We are all just mindless CONSUMERS now. Just buy, buy, buy. Don't question it. Just buy no matter how cheap it is, disposable it will become, or where it came from. Complaining we can't find our necessary unbleached Q-tips, specialty dog food, and white ceramic pots for our house plants in local stores. We must be the most pretentious people to have ever existed.

R74 that’s exactly my experience with retail vs Amazon for at least the last five years

[quote] I actually like the cheap Chinese knockoff. I can get the exact piece of crap for much cheaper

I'm guessing you're also fond of all the chemicals and invasive plastics found in cheap Chinese crap.

[quote] We are all just mindless CONSUMERS now

[quote]necessary unbleached Q-tips

I’m actually being mindful. Unbleached is better than bleached for the environment and without plastic.

Some people on DL have real issues much deeper than ignorance on how to shop effectively online.

Thank you for your concern

Oh, bother you r78! I’m not a mindless consumer. I don’t buy for the thrill of buying.

I wonder how much of this crap that people really believe they need but don’t need at all.

I seem to get by just fine without Amazon.

[quote]I think Amazon has found ways to make their shopping experience very addictive.

It *used* to be super easy to impulse buy on Amazon because their checkout process was so fast and easy, making it easy to buy shit without much thought or effort. That's gone now. Their checkout process has become a fucking gauntlet full of booby traps. First I have to get past a screen begging me to join Prime. Then I have to look through 10 fucking lines of charges to try and spot which ones are bullshit charges they snuck in there unnecessarily (like charging me an extra $6.99 for next-day shipping when I don't fucking want that). I used to buy mad shit on Amazon back in the day when there were actual deals on there, but those days are long gone.

Everything is a money grab now. I love my Kindle and own several different models. I was wavering on buying the new color version ColorSoft, but there are more bad reviews than good about how grainy, dim and bad the new technology is. There is also a yellow stripe issue is so bad many are returning the unit.

This seems like they pushed the entire thing to be ready for the holidays rather than make something worthwhile.

I was also horrified to discover almost all black plastic kitchen utensils are made from recycled computer hardware, loaded with toxins that can leach into food from heat and acidity, and that Amazon doesn’t have any way of assuring us those utensils are free from these chemicals.