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| Be aware defective products from Amazon NO recourse |
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| james_s:
--- Quote from: Stray Electron on August 18, 2022, 12:32:14 am --- I have to say that I completely agree. I can search for one very specific items and Amazon shows me hundreds of items that have to relationship to what I'm looking for. Then bombards me with numerous large banner ads of "Similar items" (NOT!), "people also bought", "children's toys" and other ridiculous categories. It's become impossible to find what you're looking for an Amazon and I rarely bother to even look now. It's much easier to go Ebay, and immediately find what I want and order it and pay for it with PayPal. I also KNOW that E-bay/PayPal will stand behind the product. Several weeks ago I ordered one item from Amazon, the first thing that I've ordered in months. Delivery was quoted as taking almost two weeks!!! I had ordered well in advance so I agreed to that. But since then, the deliver date has been extended FOUR times! FYI this is pet food made in the US and shipped within the US. There is no "china", "overseas shipping" or other "Covid" related excuses, just very slowing shipping time from the seller (two weeks) and now I think they're sending it via tortoise post. I'm just about DONE with buying anything on Amazon! --- End quote --- Amazon still has two very significant advantages. Returns are super simple, I fill out the request and then I drop the item off at the UPS store down the street from me, it doesn't cost me anything to ship it back. The other big advantage is they handle their own shipping so they can provide free shipping, that's a substantial savings, and it's FAR more reliable than FedEx which is the most common "free" shipping service offered by other retailers. Amazon is the only retailer that owns the whole process end to end. Ebay has some advantages but it has its own issues too. |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: xrunner on August 18, 2022, 01:00:57 am ---There's more to Prime than shipping. :-DD For example, I want it because Amazon has exclusive broadcast rights now to NFL Thursday Night Football. Now whether or not you care about that isn't my point, I'm simply pointing out what Prime offers. --- End quote --- Well there's the streaming video service which I have used at friend's houses and was never impressed with. I did not know about the NFL tie in, I don't personally care about that but I can see how some would. Is there anything else compelling that it offers? The only thing I ever hear anyone talk about is the shipping. |
| LaserSteve:
Did you mention Texas? They have a Deceptive Products Act in liu of a Consumer Product Safety Commission like many states and our Federal government here in the US. Even if you don't have legal standing in Texas, they can possibly choose to take corrective action on behalf of safety of the general public, depending on how the local law is worded. Overseas law suits are communicated by the foreign court in question to a US Court via the US Secretary of State's office. That is one of SecState's lessor known functions, certifying and relaying international judicial communications. Depending on how the treaties between our nations are worded, and how much Texas or Federal law has in common with your laws, you may actually have standing in a US Court via your local court, your diplomats, and one heck of a lot of slow international processes. Drop this agency an email: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/ The US CPSC takes their duties seriously, like forcing horrid changes to lawn mowers and spare gas tanks. Your welcome to send them an email. I seem to remember a vague Federal law on exporting dangerous goods as a no-no. I'm not saying you'll get justice, but never doubt the possibility of a state agency to pop in on a small business for an inspection. Steve |
| Bassman59:
--- Quote from: Stray Electron on August 18, 2022, 12:32:14 am --- I have to say that I completely agree. I can search for one very specific items and Amazon shows me hundreds of items that have to relationship to what I'm looking for. Then bombards me with numerous large banner ads of "Similar items" (NOT!), "people also bought", "children's toys" and other ridiculous categories. It's become impossible to find what you're looking for an Amazon and I rarely bother to even look now. --- End quote --- It's remarkable how you can enter specific details about an item, including manufacturer SKU, and get complete nonsense as search results. I'm convinced they're using artificial intelligence, because as we know, "To err is human. To really fuck things up requires a computer." |
| tooki:
--- Quote from: Bassman59 on August 18, 2022, 04:52:23 am ---It's remarkable how you can enter specific details about an item, including manufacturer SKU, and get complete nonsense as search results. --- End quote --- ”Remarkable” really is the right word for it. It’s impressively bad. I’ve experienced the exact same thing, where even a specific SKU doesn’t find the right item (even if they have it, with the same SKU saved in the item’s metadata). I’m sure part of the search sucking has to do with the fact that third party sellers can modify the dataset: if they add the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) to their list of items they sell, they can then modify the authoritative metadata of that ASIN. This is how they steal obsolete listings for highly-rated products, resulting in an ice cube tray becoming a trashy smartphone gimbal, with the hundreds of positive reviews of the former outweighing the overwhelmingly bad reviews of the latter. But even when not used for outright fraud, third party metadata editing is likely how we end up with inconsistent product options, with some variants missing and listed as their own separate item, while other variants are listed multiple times, etc. I wonder whether former/discontinued variants are still considered in the search, perhaps due to reviews. Maybe the content of reviews is also part of the search index. Either way, what a goddamned joke it’s become. Thank goodness that, at least for consumer electronics, computers, cameras, etc. Switzerland is now one of the cheapest countries in Europe to buy in, so that there’s no need to import and I can happily use a local online shop whose standard shipping will have the goods at my door by the next day. |
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