Still use Amazon for certain items because of fast delivery but the site is a complete mess. At some point Amazon leadership failed to understand that there’s a lot more to a good customer experience than “selection size.”
If I search for X I’d vastly prefer a few simple options that aren’t counterfeit or junk vs here’s 150 variants of your thing, most of which are junk but hey look at the size of our selection!
macintux · 2026-06-30 19:09:16 UTC
I do my best to find a local or online shop that actually knows & understands what they sell. Getting harder, but for more expensive items definitely achievable.
Loughla · 2026-06-30 19:26:14 UTC
I have yet to find something on Amazon that I couldn't find at a local shop for within 5% of the Amazon price. I live in a very rural area, so I have to imagine that it's easier if you live near a city. Or maybe my sample size of 1 person isn't enough.
cmiles8 · 2026-06-30 19:37:09 UTC
A lot of things are actually LESS expensive in stores. All that speedy delivery adds a lot to costs that are baked in. Sometimes things on Amazon are 50+% more. You have to know your prices to know what’s a good deal vs what’s a total ripoff.
IE folks will take a 4 pack of something that sells for $20 and sell each bottle individually for $10 each.
secabeen · 2026-06-30 20:41:57 UTC
My rule of thumb is that every not-heavy product has about $7 of shipping costs baked in somewhere. For cheap items, there isn't enough markup to cover those costs, so they are usually higher priced than at retail. If it's $50 or more, there usually is, and the amazon price will be competitive or better than retail.
For heavy things the shipping ding is bigger, but they also usually cost at least $30. No one bothers to sell $5 items like 50lb bags of basic sand on amazon.
jonhohle · 2026-06-30 20:06:20 UTC
10 years ago I was working on this problem at Amazon. We were developing methods to normalize all the crap listings and methods 3ᴿᴰ party sellers used to get unique listings when consolidating them was known to drive down prices, which was the original goal.
I had some interesting insights (vendors want to be unique, but need to keep products visible in search, so they typically use a common transformation within their own listings to satisfy both properties), but left before implementation rolled out. Based on current search results, either they failed or the project was abandoned.
I’m shocked at how some categories just contain junk from random brands with unpronounceable names. Want a music player by Sony or even RCA? Those brands have left that market completely for B2B products or are a licensed name on top of some garbage. Now you can get a Zaqe, Picxiul, Lwyinp, Globluum, or Swofy!
Amazon, Walmart, Etsy... my kingdom for a marketplace that doesn't become just a dumping ground for shady fly-by-night dropshippers.
JKCalhoun · 2026-06-30 19:46:19 UTC
Don't allow 3rd party sellers?
jonhohle · 2026-06-30 19:57:00 UTC
But then how could you skim off the top of other people’s work?
giarc · 2026-06-30 20:25:39 UTC
I think that is key. I used to browse Best Buy's website for various electronics and it was typically pretty good. I knew that somewhere, a Best Buy product buyer was evaluating the products with at least a minimum set of expectations. Then they opened their marketplace to 3rd party sellers and it's the same low cost, low quality crap on every other site.
geraldcombs · 2026-06-30 21:48:47 UTC
It depends on the brand, but a lot of the stuff I buy is available directly from the manufacturer's site, usually via Shop Pay.
danesparza · 2026-06-30 19:14:17 UTC
Amazon could easily solve this problem if they wanted to. They just don't want to.
kjellsbells · 2026-06-30 19:26:50 UTC
Its been "day 2" at Amazon for a long time now. I guess the Leadership Principles need an update.
HumblyTossed · 2026-06-30 19:39:04 UTC
Of course not. They _created_ this problem.
theflyinghorse · 2026-06-30 20:27:13 UTC
That's a problem for you — the customer - not for Jeff, the VP.
ahartmetz · 2026-06-30 21:58:48 UTC
Maybe the customers are Amazon shareholders now and Amazon is selling Amazon's financial performance.
pan69 · 2026-06-30 20:31:02 UTC
"We're not competitor obsessed, we're customer obsessed. We start with the customer and work backwards." - Jeff Bezos
Backwards indeed.
gertrunde · 2026-06-30 19:36:16 UTC
I tend to find ebay less shady than Amazon these days, which is a bit disapointing really.
smallerfish · 2026-06-30 19:41:53 UTC
AliExpress is less shady. If only they had customer service and a decent UI.
jonhohle · 2026-06-30 19:56:24 UTC
I recently dealt with a merchant in Aliexpress who was intentionally selling things well below market price, not to build their storefront reputation, but to collect sales and then ask the customer to cancel. I forced them to cancel the order, which harms their rep.
Literally every unmanaged, user content controlled platform devolves into the basest scams, thuggery, and unpleasantness. This is why we can’t have nice things.
gruez · 2026-06-30 22:24:40 UTC
>but to collect sales and then ask the customer to cancel
How does that help them?
hnuser123456 · 2026-06-30 22:26:54 UTC
A particular number goes up which matters too much to someone with too much power, conceivably.
victorbjorklund · 2026-06-30 20:42:48 UTC
I only had good experiences with the customer service. Do they wanna have long conversations? Nope. But they are quick to just give you a refund.
galleywest200 · 2026-06-30 22:25:35 UTC
I have ordered items on eBay just for the seller to order it on Amazon and send it to me that way. Just happened to me this week with club bells/Indian clubs.
fhn · 2026-06-30 22:26:10 UTC
Ebay is no less shady. Buy something(from China) that takes a long time to arrive, reviewing is disabled. Ebay is junk.
tenpoundhammer · 2026-06-30 19:40:45 UTC
"This item will arrive tomorrow at 9 AM" -> Pay -> "Sorry this item can't be delivered by tomorrow will be delivered 2 days later" -> Next day -> "This item will be delivered 3 weeks from now"
nomel · 2026-06-30 19:47:45 UTC
I think Amazon is catching on. I had this happen last week, and after the 2 days late, Amazon sent an automated apology with the option to cancel if it didn't show up after the third day.
saghm · 2026-06-30 20:08:39 UTC
I'm not sure that's "catching on". One would think that if they can't reliably offer a service, they shouldn't be offering it in the first place.
cmiles8 · 2026-06-30 20:21:31 UTC
OMG yes this. So annoying.
It’s like Uber saying book and pay for a ride, cars are 2 min away. Great here’s my money, send a car. 15 min later still waiting for car…
fhn · 2026-06-30 22:26:57 UTC
sounds like fraud to me
moltar · 2026-06-30 20:15:05 UTC
This has been going on for a decade.
radicality · 2026-06-30 20:25:24 UTC
> leave a product review in exchange for a free bed scrunchie accessory
I wonder what the exact language was. If it included something like “5 star review” on that card, then the guy deserves getting kicked out from Amazon and getting his business shut down (it’s federally illegal to do that per ftc regulation).
If it was just very neutral language asking for reviews, then that sucks, and hope he can get it resolved with Amazon eventually.
buzer · 2026-06-30 20:51:04 UTC
In 2022 I got physical mail about leaving a review for something I bought from Amazon (sold by company X, shipped by Amazon) in exchange for Amazon Gift Card. It contained the name of the product I bought. When I tried to report it to Amazon:
* there was no obvious way to do it. Closest thing was by reporting issue on product.
* there was no way to show the customer service agent a picture of the mail. Chat did not support sending pictures & they were unable to open imgur link.
* agent recommended me to leave a report it by leaving review to the seller page. I did that and next day review was deleted.
So it's pretty clear that Amazon didn't care and I doubt it has changed (unless the law you are talking about is recent one).
worik · 2026-06-30 20:47:36 UTC
The only thing I use Amazon for is price guidance - is that hardware $1, $2, $10 or $100?
I have not bought from them since 2005.
There is no need
ynac · 2026-06-30 21:33:45 UTC
1999 or maybe 2000 for me. Dollars are votes for how I want to see the world.
Comments
If I search for X I’d vastly prefer a few simple options that aren’t counterfeit or junk vs here’s 150 variants of your thing, most of which are junk but hey look at the size of our selection!
IE folks will take a 4 pack of something that sells for $20 and sell each bottle individually for $10 each.
For heavy things the shipping ding is bigger, but they also usually cost at least $30. No one bothers to sell $5 items like 50lb bags of basic sand on amazon.
I had some interesting insights (vendors want to be unique, but need to keep products visible in search, so they typically use a common transformation within their own listings to satisfy both properties), but left before implementation rolled out. Based on current search results, either they failed or the project was abandoned.
I’m shocked at how some categories just contain junk from random brands with unpronounceable names. Want a music player by Sony or even RCA? Those brands have left that market completely for B2B products or are a licensed name on top of some garbage. Now you can get a Zaqe, Picxiul, Lwyinp, Globluum, or Swofy!
Backwards indeed.
Literally every unmanaged, user content controlled platform devolves into the basest scams, thuggery, and unpleasantness. This is why we can’t have nice things.
How does that help them?
It’s like Uber saying book and pay for a ride, cars are 2 min away. Great here’s my money, send a car. 15 min later still waiting for car…
I wonder what the exact language was. If it included something like “5 star review” on that card, then the guy deserves getting kicked out from Amazon and getting his business shut down (it’s federally illegal to do that per ftc regulation). If it was just very neutral language asking for reviews, then that sucks, and hope he can get it resolved with Amazon eventually.
* there was no obvious way to do it. Closest thing was by reporting issue on product.
* there was no way to show the customer service agent a picture of the mail. Chat did not support sending pictures & they were unable to open imgur link.
* agent recommended me to leave a report it by leaving review to the seller page. I did that and next day review was deleted.
So it's pretty clear that Amazon didn't care and I doubt it has changed (unless the law you are talking about is recent one).
I have not bought from them since 2005.
There is no need