Amazon is now Ali Express

[Modeps]

My cat's water fountain broke so I want to replace it. Jump onto Amazon and there's a list of "sponsored" entries all the time, followed by a series of products with random company names all in capital letters containing product photos that are poorly photoshopped with awful grammar.

DEEIPET
DOGNESS
ZWMBYN

Someone needs to make a chrome extension to filter out all the bullshit.

 

[brianmanahan]

yeah i have to wade through all the garbage to find something that i want on amazon now

so much cheap junk and 5-star fake reviewing

 

[pmv]

Yeah, you have to wade through pages of obvious junk when searching for items.

I came across a listing for a supposed "984Gb" micro-SD memory card not long ago (that capacity was actually printed on the card).

 

[Muse]

Yeah, you have to wade through pages of obvious junk when searching for items.

I came across a listing for a supposed "984Gb" micro-SD memory card not long ago (that capacity was actually printed on the card).

Buying memory cards etc. through Amazon or Ebay is asking for trouble. For some things you have to go to those few reputable sellers.

 

[pmv]

Buying memory cards etc. through Amazon or Ebay is asking for trouble. For some things you have to go to those few reputable sellers.

I've had very little problem buying them from Amazon themselves. The tiresome thing is the vast number of very obvious fakes listed by third-party sellers. Would never buy from a third-party marketplace seller on Amazon, or from anyone on Ebay.

(The other tiresome thing is having to constantly watch out for Amazon's sales...memory cards seem to drop in price dramatically at those times, but so often I seem to miss them and have to wait for the next one).

 

[lxskllr]

I've heard they co-mingle stock from amazon proper and 3rd party sellers. Buying commonly counterfeited items from amazon is a risk imo.

 

[Exterous]

Buying memory cards etc. through Amazon or Ebay is asking for trouble. For some things you have to go to those few reputable sellers.

Yeah I am using Amazon as little as possible these days because of all the crap on their website. Not to mention mingling legitimate goods with cheap knockoffs

 

[Red Squirrel]

Pretty much. I always use them as a very last resort. If I need something I try to find a dedicated retailer. Not always easy here in Canada though... I find our buying power sucks compared to the states especially if looking for oddball parts that are not sold in a normal store. You really have to search deep to find certain things.

If I do use Amazon I always try to find reviews on a different site.

 

[Muse]

I've had very little problem buying them from Amazon themselves. The tiresome thing is the vast number of very obvious fakes listed by third-party sellers. Would never buy from a third-party marketplace seller on Amazon, or from anyone on Ebay.

(The other tiresome thing is having to constantly watch out for Amazon's sales...memory cards seem to drop in price dramatically at those times, but so often I seem to miss them and have to wait for the next one).

I use Honey and get emails when there are Amazon price drops. But a whole lot of the time the price is already jacked up from the drop that triggered the email. I have to check and look at the price history and I almost always alter the default 30 day history to show 120 days.

I buy a lot of stuff off Ebay, but I would never buy memory there. I ordered a blu-ray yesterday (used). I get a lot of that kind of thing there, media. I have almost never gotten burned, just once IIRC, and I got relief... many years ago. I get used books off ebay, and a few dedicated book sites. A lot of the best ebay sellers for used media are charities, they very very often have great deals on primo items compared to other ebay sellers. Discogs is good for media. I do Google searches and the results point to good prices, but I have to evaluate each hit for quality/authenticity/price. Ebay has a lot of listings that are sort of phishing expeditions. Many listings are looking for 1/2 blind suckers. If you know what you're doing you can sort it out.

 

[pmv]

I use Honey and get emails when there are Amazon price drops. But a whole lot of the time the price is already jacked up from the drop that triggered the email. I have to check and look at the price history and I almost always alter the default 30 day history to show 120 days.

I buy a lot of stuff off Ebay, but I would never buy memory there. I ordered a blu-ray yesterday (used). I get a lot of that kind of thing there, media. I have almost never gotten burned, just once IIRC, and I got relief... many years ago. I get used books off ebay, and a few dedicated book sites. A lot of the best ebay sellers for used media are charities, they very very often have great deals on primo items compared to other ebay sellers. Discogs is good for media. I do Google searches and the results point to good prices, but I have to evaluate each hit for quality/authenticity/price. Ebay has a lot of listings that are sort of phishing expeditions. Many listings are looking for 1/2 blind suckers. If you know what you're doing you can sort it out.

I've bought a few things from Discogs, mostly things I just couldn't find anywhere else. But I really don't like that site.

The process for buyers is a PITA. Takes forever to complete a sale (being a multi-stage process where you have to wait for the seller to first send you an 'invoice'), and I've found repeatedly that sellers then take an age to actually send items. The site seems set up for sellers, and for, I suppose, "collectors" to trade among themselves. As a casual buyer it's really off-putting.

Ebay is entirely out-of-the-question for potentially-faked things like memory cards, but as I say, I've not had problems buying memory cards that are provided by Amazon themselves. It's just a pain to find anything, as it's so swamped with complete junk or third-party sellers trying to 'game' the system by having a million different listings for identical or near-identical items.

 

[Muse]

I've bought a few things from Discogs, mostly things I just couldn't find anywhere else. But I really don't like that site.

The process for buyers is a PITA. Takes forever to complete a sale (being a multi-stage process where you have to wait for the seller to first send you an 'invoice'), and I've found repeatedly that sellers then take an age to actually send items. The site seems set up for sellers, and for, I suppose, "collectors" to trade among themselves. As a casual buyer it's really off-putting.

Ebay is entirely out-of-the-question for potentially-faked things like memory cards, but as I say, I've not had problems buying memory cards that are provided by Amazon themselves. It's just a pain to find anything, as it's so swamped with complete junk or third-party sellers trying to 'game' the system by having a million different listings for identical or near-identical items.

My experiences with discogs (just a few) were not that complicated. Pretty straight forward and worked out. I also deal with a few book specific sites without problems, e.g. alibris.

 

[Mai72]

I swear. 90% of Amazon products are cheap Chinese knock-offs.

 

[Stiff Clamp]

yeah, all those gibberish/nonsense "brands". I'm not buying a card-reader from UGREEN, Identive, SmartQ, BUDI, Hicober, Sabrent. It's like the seller made up a name on the spot when creating the listing.

I don't care if it has 10s of thousands of reviews and 4.6 star rating.

Stupid consumers will flock to them, if the reviews gain critical mass, and kind of build a real brand out of nothing - like Anker, or Govee.

 

[repoman0]

Sabrent

This is a real brand that makes solid SSDs 😀

 

[repoman0]

I've bought a few things from Discogs, mostly things I just couldn't find anywhere else. But I really don't like that site.

The process for buyers is a PITA. Takes forever to complete a sale (being a multi-stage process where you have to wait for the seller to first send you an 'invoice'), and I've found repeatedly that sellers then take an age to actually send items. The site seems set up for sellers, and for, I suppose, "collectors" to trade among themselves. As a casual buyer it's really off-putting.

Weird, I have never had to wait for an invoice for anything I've bought on discogs. Must be a UK thing? I can fill a cart and just send payments to each seller via Paypal. I've bought a lot of older vinyl records from that site.

 

[igor_kavinski]

yeah, all those gibberish/nonsense "brands". I'm not buying a card-reader from UGREEN, Identive, SmartQ, BUDI, Hicober, Sabrent. It's like the seller made up a name on the spot when creating the listing.

I don't care if it has 10s of thousands of reviews and 4.6 star rating.

Stupid consumers will flock to them, if the reviews gain critical mass, and kind of build a real brand out of nothing - like Anker, or Govee.

I'm a user of these three brands. Thanks for calling me stupid. And oh, I don't have anything negative to report about them yet 🙂

 

[pmv]

Weird, I have never had to wait for an invoice for anything I've bought on discogs. Must be a UK thing? I can fill a cart and just send payments to each seller via Paypal. I've bought a lot of older vinyl records from that site.

Maybe it is different in UK vs US? Unless they changed the system at some point (was quite a while ago I last used the site). The system was definitely that you had to wait for them to send you an invoice via email or the internal message system before you could pay, then you had to wait again for them to confirm they'd gotten payment.

I think at least once I 'bought' something then never received an invoice at all (didn't cost me anything, but was a waste of time).

Also the few times I bought things there was not only a long wait for that invoice, but then they took an age to ship the item as well. Just never found it a very usable site. If it wasn't that it was the only place I could find certain items (rare deleted singles, etc) I'd not have bothered.

 

[WilliamM2]

Amazon has been doing this for years, People are just noticing now? I've bought several of the no name Chinese items, depending on what it is, Camera batteries, cables, drive enclosures, even a carb for my Echo leaf blower. No issues with any of them.

Evertthing is made in China anyways, what's the difference. Amazon will still gaurantee it.

 

[repoman0]

Maybe it is different in UK vs US? Unless they changed the system at some point (was quite a while ago I last used the site). The system was definitely that you had to wait for them to send you an invoice via email or the internal message system before you could pay, then you had to wait again for them to confirm they'd gotten payment.

I think at least once I 'bought' something then never received an invoice at all (didn't cost me anything, but was a waste of time).

Also the few times I bought things there was not only a long wait for that invoice, but then they took an age to ship the item as well. Just never found it a very usable site. If it wasn't that it was the only place I could find certain items (rare deleted singles, etc) I'd not have bothered.

Yeah sounds like it's either US vs UK or it's changed since you last used it. Now sellers can set their shipping rates for the first item and automatically either ship additional items for free or tack on some set amount per item. Seems to allow the site to auto-generate invoices that the buyer can pay immediately.

I like and dislike the site. It's kind of clunky and dated, but it also is neat because it seems to encourage browsing sellers' stores, similar to browsing someone's collection or store irl. What I often do is find an item I want in good condition from 2-3 sellers, then browse their stores for anything else that's any good to toss in and not pay for extra shipping

 

[K1052]

Amazon has gotten pretty terrible for pet stuff in particular in the last couple years, what we buy from them the most. Mostly transitioned over to Chewy now.

Petco's stock is so inconsistent in stores the odds of them having what we need are 50/50 or worse.

 

[mindless1]

I whole heartedly agree, so tired of wading through generic, nonsensically named chinese junk.

I don't think we should have to use a browsers add-on, should be a checkbox that stays ticked, Do Not Include Made Up Fictional Brands.

I'm not too worried about buying major brand flash memory based products from Amazon-as-seller. If the performance or capacity doesn't look right, it's a free return. First thing I do after getting a flash drive or memory card, SSD, etc, is benchmark, then fill to capacity and check that first files written are intact instead of overwritten.