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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
The quality of stuff being sold on Amazon has been a race to the bottom for a while now, somewhat following in the steps of Ebay.
In this video Louis has two crimp butt connectors: one bought from Amazon and one bought from a hardware retail store - the Amazon purchased one, which a regular user of the site may consider as reputable at a glance, fails to crimp the wires securely. The hardware store one however securely crimps the wires in place.
It’s a pretty mundane example, but extends across to other products in other industry verticals too. A pretty major concern raised in the video was that the failure of this specific product would cause excess heat, potentially leading to an electrical fire in the worst case scenario.
There’s also the issue of reputable brands not even listing their products on Amazon anymore, leaving users with mostly poor quality alternatives shown prominently in search results.
Personally I find myself preferring to shop at dedicated or independent online storefronts, where it’s a bit more obvious what exactly I’m purchasing, and where there’s at least some minimum guarantee of quality - in contrast to a Prime “dropshipped”, generic product from Amazon. Also kind of like the fact that by purchasing from sites that aren’t massive marketplaces or outlets, real individuals benefit from my custom, not massive behemoths that don’t need the sales to survive
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Initially items were cheaper. The prime got then to you fast but the deals were largely gone. Then it was the simple return policy if the quality wasn’t there. Now they’re hoping we still just choose Amazon out of habit I guess?
Largely the only things I get from Amazon anymore are commodity products where I’m expecting the Chinese knockoff experience, and it’s priced accordingly. For that type of stuff it’s basically Alibaba but faster and slightly less annoying.
For anything mission critical I’ll purchase from an actual supplier. Mouser, Digikey, etc. Or the manufacturer directly, if the option exists. Typically the “deals” on Amazon aren’t, really, and if you’re going to purchase a big ticket piece of equipment you can get all the same stuff just buying direct… free shipping, returns, etc. The only exception is some small time manufacturers who will only sell on Amazon, using it as their sole storefront so they don’t have to maintain their own.
You really have to know what you are purchasing on Amazon.
For example, I like when major brands have a storefront. I then compare prices at multiple distribution points and purchase from the best. Sometimes Amazon wins but usually other outlets get my business.
The most annoying trend recently is the online pricing versus in-store pricing being radically different. Office Depot, Target, Walgreens, and many others have gotten stupid about this especially with electronics. My new hobby while standing in line at checkout is to validate the pricing of everything I am purchasing.
I almost always end up finding something radically different.
Usually they’ll price match their own web site if you complain. It’s still a hassle, though.
My business is an undercutter in our industry, and our online price is the same as our in store price. Ain’t nobody got time for that shit. Consequently, roughly 70% of my customers are online or phone sales and I never meet them. Suits me fine.
Not too long ago I found that Home Depot had a product cheaper than Amazon and in stock near me. When I showed up in store, it was more expensive and they would not price match their own website. So I left and ordered it from Amazon for cheaper than the in-store price. I could have gotten it cheaper from the HD website but I was so annoyed with the experience that I didn’t purchase from them.
The HD website purchasing experience is dogshit anyway.
Honestly? Some of the shit sold on Amazon can be had on AliExpress for a fraction of the price.
Just bought a bunch of espresso accessories, they are LITERALLY 5-6x the price on Amazon for the EXACT same product.
Some sellers on there even have 5 day shipping. I’d rather wait.
I find it difficult to even find name brand stuff there. You have to specifically search for a brand if you don’t want to get lost in a sea of random ass popup companies from China that are named as some random word like Beegu, Houndd, or Keepee, usually in ALL CAPS.
Does that (searching by brand) actually work for you? I can search the specific brand and model and still get flooded with nonsense results that are neither the brand I’m looking for or anything like the actual thing I want. Other websites like Newegg I can filter results, but the filtering on Amazon results is useless.