The Best Thing About Amazon Was Never Going to Last | If shopping on the site feels different now, that’s because it is::If shopping on the site feels different now, that’s because it is.

  • Flying Squid
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    389 months ago

    There is a way to avoid buying utter shit on Amazon most of the time, but it’s annoying- type in the full product name including the manufacturer. Like instead of “noise-cancelling earbuds,” you have to type in “Skullcandy sesh ANC” (highly recommended and inexpensive wireless earbuds, by the way). Then the result is at least near the top of the list. Of course, this requires you to know what you want before you go there, which can sometimes, due to researching it, require going to some other website to make the same purchase anyway.

    I basically don’t do non-specific searches Amazon at this point unless I want it to be cheap and I honestly don’t care if it sucks. If I buy a male-to-male cable converter and it craps out after a month… well, it was only $1.

    • @[email protected]
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      319 months ago

      The problem with this is that if a non-manufacturer sells the “same” product, and they both use the same warehouse, Amazon keeps both versions of the product in the same bin, and there’s no way to guarantee whether you’re getting the real product or the knockoff.

      If you buy post-it notes from the official post-it’s Amazon store, they’re not necessarily giving you post-its from the official post-its stock. You could be getting post-its from seller A6Zodiyn which were never stored properly and several years old so the sticky note glue doesn’t hold anymore. But both sellers were selling post-its in the same packaging, so they’re in the same box in the warehouse and what the pickers grab is random.

      But also the completely fake post-its are in that box too, and they don’t stick as well plus their color is off, and there are fewer sheets per pad. But because the outer packaging is the same, same same warehouse box.

      • @[email protected]
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        179 months ago

        This has been a big problem in beauty products particularly, I know. People having sudden reactions to a cream they’ve used for years, because it’s actually a counterfeit.

      • Flying Squid
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        39 months ago

        I personally haven’t had that issue so far, so I can’t speak for that.

        • @[email protected]
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          9 months ago

          I have. I won’t buy ssds or sd cards from Amazon anymore for this exact reason. I got counterfeits twice. Once with an sd card and once with an ssd. Now I buy from B&H for stuff like that so I know I’m getting what I ordered.

          I was able to return both counterfeits to Amazon so I didn’t lose any money, but I don’t want the hassle of having to test and verify shit I buy to make sure it’s what it’s supposed to be.

          Edit: I try to avoid Amazon entirely, but sometimes it’s the only option.

      • @[email protected]
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        09 months ago

        That’s not the issue. If the wrong product was sent to you, you just make a refund and reorder.

    • @[email protected]
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      149 months ago

      This is it.

      Nonspecific searches will show you the same three keyboards branded differently because they’re dropshipped by some rando, and rated highly from purchased reviews.

      Always look up what you want through a actual review site (not like bestvacuumstobuy2023 .com - which are also owned by dropshipper) and then shop around on Amazon and around the rest of the internet.