I mean, Amazon is still a very good customer experience, but when I'm buying something big I always comparison shop now. As recently as a couple years ago, I would just buy it. No thought to whether it might be cheaper elsewhere. The convenience of Prime, plus the reasonable confidence that the price would be competitive with everybody else, was enough to where I didn't bother comparison shopping.
Obviously, Amazon isn't hurting. But, I can't help but think that having more of their longtime customers starting to comparison shop is a bad thing.
On another note, I am beyond tired of the craptacular deals that are >80% fly-by-night products with astroturf reviews. The gold box deals used to be a favorite bookmarked stop.
I used to read reviews on Amazon religiously even if I was buying somewhere else. That habit has kinda faded, though it's still one of the better sources of real world product knowledge.
But what's the Newegg of other stuff?
The other day I save $40 on a price gun from Staples. It was 89 in store, and 49 on on Amazon.
With Walmart drastically increasing their instore pay and providing better than retail avg. advanced scheduling + Amazons poor pay and working conditions for distro workers Amazon doesn't even even have a moral advantage. (According to my radio Walmart distro workers even start at above 16.50/hr, and thats in a rural area...)
2nd item was through a reseller though.
I don't use Amazon too often these days, but Newegg's lost me from these last few experiences. Their support basically said "meh" about both cases.
on Amazon it's the same if you buy from anything that doesn't say "sold and shipped by amazon". quality and return policy is a crapfest.
But isn't the value in not having to travel to Walmart, select the item, wait in line, pay for the item, and transporting the item back to your home worth something?
I assume you already go to the grocery store, so picking up tweezers isn't much effort. But what about something that isn't sold at a grocery store?
No. At least not for me, and I imagine a large chunk of other users.
The value of amazon was
1. Reviews: I can see feedback on the item in a way that's simply not possible with local stores
2. Selection: I have access to far more products than I do at a local store.
3. Price: Amazon used to essentially do the price matching work for me, they would always be around the same dollar price (and sometimes far lower) than local stores.
I would much rather go to a store and purchase an item because it does away with the hassle of waiting. But I used to value the reviews and increased selection size more than the immediacy of the purchase, and the price is just a great bonus.
As a previous heavy user of Amazon, my usage has essentially tanked over the past year because I no longer trust reviews.
Are some fake reviews easy to spot? sure. Are all of them? hell no.
Couple that with rapidly increasing prices and I'm thoroughly disillusioned. Finally, a lot of the larger local chains now have to-store shipping for less frequently bought items. I can hop on HomeDepot's site and have them ship a rare item to a local store, and pick it up in a few days. Often at a better price than Amazon.
Frankly, I loved prime 4 years ago. Not a big fan today.
Of recent purchases on Amazon (sold by others, but dispatched and warehoused by Amazon) 50% have been faulty and needed to be returned ... that's put friction into the process because they don't do any QC on what they're stocking.
I've also had an instance recently of something shipped by Amazon that was meant to be with me next day not turning up and needing to be re-ordered. They only admitted it was lost days later, so I didn't re-order sooner. OK, I got a free month of Prime for my troubles, but it's not the amazing friction free experience it used to be.
Amazon prices might beat local retail, but they are only sometimes competitive with other (often more specizlized) online retailers at this point.
Also, at least for me, shipping New Egg, Walmart and BBAB was faster than Amazon. I don't have Prime however.
Compared to other major retailers (Walmart, NewEgg) the experience is just so much more smoother on Amazon.
Sometimes speciality items are cheaper on manufacturer's website. But that requires me to make an account and fill a bunch of forms! Some websites allow guest checkout, but there's often some fuckup happening with that and then I can't even complain properly and/or have a good reference number without an account. And even without an account I still have to fill all those terrible, terrible forms.
Plus it always takes longer to receive my merchandise from random websites than amazon. Even if I pay for the super-quick option, which, by the way, is usually more expensive than the equivalent option on Amazon, I still get my merchandise later because the small store will more likely ship tomorrow while Amazon will gladly do night operations.
For example, let's look at laptops. Here's a list from PriceSpy of 15"-18" 1080p laptops with AMD graphics, 16+GB of RAM, SSDs, and 3+ USB ports.[3] For comparison, Webhallen[4] and Inet[5] (enthusiast shops, comparable to Newegg) only let you filter by class, screen size, or a few manufacturers. Elgiganten[6] and Media Markt[7] (similar to Best Buy in the US) have a few free-form options, but still nothing even close to the organization or breadth offered by Prisjakt. There are also few to no sliders or groups, instead you're stuck either approving individual screen sizes or predefined buckets of CPU series. Oddly, Elgiganten lets you filter for Intel's CPU price classes (i3/5/7) but not generations.
Amazon seems to follow the same recipe as Elgiganten/MM, which definitely leaves me wondering how Americans shop for computers. Or perhaps that's why so many seem to give up and praise Apple's "simple" lineup...
[3]: https://pricespy.co.uk/category.php?m=s320733439
[4]: https://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorer_och_tillbehor/barbar...
[5]: https://www.inet.se/kategori/81/15-16
[6]: https://www.elgiganten.se/catalog/datorer-tillbehor/se_barba...
[7]: http://www.mediamarkt.se/sv/category/_b%C3%A4rbar-dator-5103...
I saw ads for chrome extensions but I don't know if they are good.
You can visit the site and/or install a plugin.
All you'd see is the price you're being asked to pay, so you can evaluate whether it's worth that price or not.
For just about everything else, Amazon doesn't really offer a great price and the "convenience" value isn't really worth it anymore to me. I can't order lots of routine stuff due to the fraud issues. Even books are usually cheaper at the local bookstore these days.
Maybe that's a sign they've trapped me.
Electronics is really my only big/expensive habit and NewEgg gets a lot of my business. I bought my last laptop directly from Dell Outlet during a sale and saved about $300 off of the same refurbished machine from Amazon. Though the ordering process from Dell was stupidly inconvenient as I had to get an agent involved to apply the discount and to deal with payment, as for some reason my business debit card wouldn't work. It took half a day, so it's not something I would do for less than a significant discount.
And, as I mentioned, Walmart is often a better choice for regular stuff, and they now have a quite large online selection including stuff that is not stocked in stores.
Oh, yeah, I buy truck stuff, parts and the like for my old pickup. I buy about half from Amazon market sellers and half direct from diesel specialty dealers. And parts for my old RV, same story. Big items never come from Amazon, though; my rooftop AC replacement was purchased from a local dealer for $240 less than the Amazon price.
I guess Google Shopping is how I've found most of the specialty shops.
Amazon's goal is to make that well-nigh impossible.
camelcamelcamel.com is your friend to research how good of a deal it really is. (no affiliation, just a happy user)
I also saw quite a few products that were well above their normal prices, while showing as "80% off" because the prices were raised a week before. I didn't see anything that drastic from Sold-By-Amazon products. They were generally 3rd-party vendors.
Just like in the case of Steam, I'm more apt to believe it's sellers that are doing this than Amazon. While both stand to benefit, sellers stand to benefit much more overall.
Although it's never going to be perfectly accurate, I recommend anyone who shops Amazon for expensive stuff use a price tracking service, like CamelCamelCamel, to see exactly how good a deal on Amazon really is. Again, not perfect, but at least you can then get some context for what the price is currently showing up as.
https://www.amazon.com/GMC-Denali-Large-63-5cm-Frame/dp/B00F... ($220)
Ended up buying on walmart ($170) https://www.walmart.com/ip/25-700c-GMC-Denali-Men-s-Bike-Whi...
So much for paying $99 to get prime. I have noticed of late that lot of items are cheaper on Walmart and they offer free 2 day shipping.
Also, I presume GMC doesn't actually make these, any idea who does?
https://camelcamelcamel.com/Blue-Yeti-USB-Microphone-Silver/...
I bought one on sale for $100 last summer, and according to CamelCamelCamel, it was a good deal at the time.
https://twitter.com/wirecutter/status/884900863218769920
Will have to wait for their full write up but there genuinely were a lot of quality items for the lowest price ever.
Hmm. OK. click
"Please review your order. $8.99 for next day shipping or free two day shipping."
Uh, OK. 'Check two day shipping. Submit'
"Your order has been placed. Delivery date - 5 days from now"
Trying to win free shipping as a paying prime member is now often a game of trying to be clever - the game they really, really want you to play. I'm growing more and more tired of it, but for now - the time saved going to places locally or site-hopping to find the best deal is still worth more to me, but "for now" means that it's basically under review - that game playing is really making me evaluate that convenience/cost balance..
It makes me feel like I'm going crazy, but I'm sure there's some sort of bug during the checkout process which switches me back to two-day shipping after I've selected one-day.
Is the carrier LaserShip? They're well known for lying in order to meet daily delivery numbers.
UK, which until recently, had to abide strict EU mandated consumer protection protection laws. You cannot make unsubstantial claims even in ads. Companies had been sued and fined heavily for that.
There's a rather common set of "truth in advertising" laws (e.g. to show a "x % off", the base price can't be made up ("recommended price") but you must have sold this item for certain amount of time for that old price already, the sale can't last for more than x months (in that case, that becomes the base price), etc, etc. USA has chosen not to adopt such laws.
In the US the attitude seems to be more "will I get sued over this"?
That said the FTC does seems to be on the case in this instance.
The solution is to purchase products shipped and sold by Amazon. Avoid third party sellers unless you either know the seller well or if the seller is the manufacturer of the product.
And remember: "SHIPPED by Amazon" isn't enough since Amazon assists third party sellers by storing and shipping products on their behalf under Amazon's fulfillment program. The product has to be "SOLD by Amazon" as well in order for the above advice to apply.
Just like the root poster, I am disgusted by clusters of knockoffs and increasingly more weary of seeing them. Just about anything common you run across on Amazon is probably not original (is there such a thing as an uncommon product these days?) The worst part is that I can't get myself to trust any reviews - good or bad - which was my go-to for feeling assured about a purchase. A knockoff competitor may review or pay reviewers to ding someone else's version of the product, and boost their own, and they've created a scorched earth of uncertainty from this seller ecosystem.
For example, if you look up can openers, you'll see a bunch of ones that look exactly alike but are labeled as different brands. They contain slightly altered stock photos, but almost certainly all are stemming from the same original product. Mixed reviews give you cautions for some products, but not for others that are identical. Does it stay sharp, or doesn't it? Does it fail after 10 uses, or doesn't it? Does it work with lipped cans or doesn't it?
If you look carefully, you can probably guess in which order a product imitation was born in, based on the progressively more distorted JPEGs of the cover photo.
Look for a wire brush and you'll see same photo of the same product, "manufactured" by different companies. Senkary, Sucool, Tekton, eBoot, ABN, and a few dozen seemingly randomized names. I think I don't care about wire brush manufacturing consistency as long as it doesn't arrive wrapped in 1/4 lb of plastic and foam, and dripping with machine oil (I chuckled when I got it).
On the other hand, I do care whether a sprinkler head I get is actually pressure regulated and calibrated to 30 PSI, that the variable arc nozzle is built to spec and won't decompose in sunlight and clog rest of the irrigation system, and I do care whether a phone charger might burn my house down. Unless I order those three products directly from the known manufacturer, I won't trust that it's genuine.
- Charging cables, iOS and Android. - Memory cards, were supposed to be san disk but obviously were fake and didn't work well. - GoPro batteries.
I am pretty much 100% skeptical of anything I buy on Amazon now, which is why I have drastically cut back my purchasing from them. Like most who are posting here I mostly go to Walmart and Costco or look for local retailers for my needs.
The Act prohibits false or misleading representations to the public as to the ordinary selling price of a product, in any form whatsoever. Ordinary selling price is validated in one of two ways: either a substantial volume of the product was sold at that price or higher, within a reasonable amount of time (volume test); or the product was offered for sale, in good faith, for a substantial period of time at that price or a higher price (time test).[0]
[0] http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/02...
>“It’s strategy called ‘Price-anchoring.’ It’s pretty common across the board. Now as far as it being against the law or breaking any rules or regulations, it could be considered false and deceptive marketing under the FTC Section 5,” Kelly adds.
Many States call this practice out specifically as an unfair trade practice in their laws as well.
An old state law which for all I know was repealed ages ago or whatever was that an item couldn't be marked as on sale for half the year or more. You couldn't say it was 40% off for 300 days out of 365, that sort of thing. The easy workaround was to make it 40% off for three months, then have it on no sale at all but mark the sale price as the original price for the next three months, and switch back and forth whenever you want. So long as the item wasn't always marked "on sale" you were fine.
I don't think the US has ever had real evidence based tests like that, except in major class action suit which have largely ceased to exist thanks to mandatory arbitration clauses.
I'm guessing the FTC will have their eye on Amazon pricing soon.
I'm pretty cynical but I was still shocked at the number of results. This seems to be a completely normal practice. Price and being on "SALE" seemed to be optimized or A/B tested almost separately. And the "regular price" field on sale items was garbage data that correlated with nothing.
After all, why would a retailer ever discount more than 10-20% off what everyone else is charging, outside of a clearance?
What, have people never shopped in Sears/Macys/Mervyns or any other department store since the beginning of time?
Seriously, the only response I can come up with to this news is "Well... duh."
This is illegal in many countries, so waving it off as "everyone does it" is not only morally weak, but factually inaccurate.
Amazon has dropped the ball.
Politicians taking bribes? Not newsworthy, been happening forever.
Either way, the article concludes with the vendor saying he think its just an issue with tweaking their algorithms, and not an actual tactic from Amazon.
Is there any other source that claim the same?
Quick check: yep. $10. "Set Yourself Apart - Keep your competitive edge with courses for $10—ends 7/31!"
Pretty sure by 8/3, there will be another sale for $10.
People are just complaining to complain. It's also kinda cool right now to hate Amazon. It's gotten too big, ya know. They're evil, lol.
Also, i do not think those addicted to Amazon care about these types of things. They keep ordering and ordering. Convenience is the name of their game
What? This is economics 101 of supply and demand. When demand exceeds supply, the price will increase. [0]
Just look at the stupidity of video card prices recently if you want a concrete, non-sale example of why price increases when supply cannot meet demand.
[0] http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3....
The relevant Econ 101 buzzword isn't "supply and demand," it's "agency problem".
Amazon is "tanking sales" unilaterally, while the supplier manages stock on assumptions of higher sales at the regular, lower price point.
My opinion Amazon is NOT hurting consumers but rather Trump and the Republicans want to hurt it. YMMV
FoxNews can be right once in a full moon.
Amazon is large enough now that they have a "captive market".
If you had a friend that had been trying to sell his car on Craigslist and manipulated the price right before offering to sell it to you "at a discount", I think you'd be pretty disappointed with your "friend".
Sure, Amazon isn't your friend, but I think it's short-sighted when corporations engage in sociopathic behavior and are hostile to their customers. Especially when their business model is predicated on customer loyalty.
If a product is normally $10, and then it's sold as "discounted 50% for Prime Day, now only $10," that's fraudulent.
If Amazon decides to charge more and people are willing to pay it, there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is when they lie to make people think they're getting more of a deal than they are.
Now i'm starting to question whether or not we're getting a good deal.
Can't do that with jewelry on Amazon.
