Amazon is screwing you.

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
So, this is what? The Amazon Basics stuff? I don't go for those unless my investigations have me thinking they are worth it. Those appear to be products that Amazon works out with suppliers who have other markets. Rebranding them for their own marketing. They make their claims but I don't believe them unless reviews have me thinking they're OK. They are seldom top tier. Lots of stuff you see on Amazon.com is questionable.

To me, the worst thing they did was about a couple years ago when they completely raped the customer comments to blank the responses to comments. There were sometimes very long strings of responses to someone's review, often very illuminating and amounting to a thread, similar to threads here at Anandtech Forums, actually (but without niceties like bolding, italics, font size, etc.). Amazon deep sixed all that stuff. Now it's as though none of that ever happened. The reviews are still there, the thread of comments to reviews simply disappeared. I hate them for that and will NEVER forgive them.
 
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shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
82,854
17,365
136
no more than amazon basics. its also regular name brand products that are fake and amazon makes no effort to filter out. its actually become a real problem in recent years.
 
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pcgeek11

Lifer
Jun 12, 2005
21,279
4,406
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But you already knew that.



So, how do you fuckers avoid getting ripped off?


From the article:

But thousands of pages of internal Amazon documents examined by Reuters – including emails, strategy papers and business plans – show the company ran a systematic campaign of creating knockoffs and manipulating search results to boost its own product lines in India, one of the company's largest growth markets. The documents reveal how Amazon's private-brands team in India secretly exploited internal data to copy products sold by other companies, and then offered them on its platform.


Simple: I don't live in India.
 

HomerJS

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
35,963
27,640
136
I'm not a wordsmith or a lawyer but what's the difference between "factually incorrect" and "not true"

"We believe these claims are factually incorrect and unsubstantiated."

If I was accused of choking someone until they died I wouldn't say "that's factually incorrect", I would say "that's not true"

My spidey sense is tingling
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
37,734
18,003
146
I'm skeptical of many of my purchases there, read reviews, and often just go to the vendors website and buy directly. Some items are just better from the source.
 

Justinus

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2005
3,167
1,509
136
I'm not a wordsmith or a lawyer but what's the difference between "factually incorrect" and "not true"



If I was accused of choking someone until they died I wouldn't say "that's factually incorrect", I would say "that's not true"

My spidey sense is tingling

But it is factually incorrect. You choked them until they passed out and their crushed trachea lead them to suffocate to death after your hands left their neck.

See, claiming it's factually incorrect doesn't mean they're saying it's not true. They're saying it's not exactly what the documents claim it to be. (Or the conclusions being reached with information from the documents).
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
68,852
26,643
136
Amazon’s skewing search results is more annoying than knock off products. You have to wade through pages of garbage to find the thing you know exists.

What is more annoying to me is when manufacturers create lookalike products for the mass merchandisers that externally look the same as their good units but have crap components inside. Milwaukee tools used to do this with models sold at HD.
 
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ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
37,734
18,003
146
I often go from Amazon to the manufacturer to check out their own sites. For some gear, recently anchor gym and optp, I bought it straight from the company for the same price or with a first time buyer coupon.
 

WilliamM2

Platinum Member
Jun 14, 2012
2,353
463
126
My only issue with Amazon is shitty packaging. I ordered a $20 2022 Calendar for my wife, today I'm waiting for number three to arrive. They keep shipping it from Florida to Michigan in a plain plastic bag. Arrives all folded up. The last one had a hole in the center of it. I don't know how they make money shipping it three times, and paying return shipping twice so far, on a $20 item.

Not the first time either...
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
83,717
47,406
136
Kirkland booze is good shit. I've had their scotch
Kirkland everything is good shit. I don't have a costco membership because I live in NYC and my apartment doesn't have enough storage to buy stuff in bulk but if I lived somewhere else I would be up to my ass in Kirkland stuff.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
23,331
10,236
136
So, this is what? The Amazon Basics stuff? I don't go for those unless my investigations have me thinking they are worth it. Those appear to be products that Amazon works out with suppliers who have other markets. Rebranding them for their own marketing. They make their claims but I don't believe them unless reviews have me thinking they're OK. They are seldom top tier. Lots of stuff you see on Amazon.com is questionable.

To me, the worst thing they did was about a year ago when they completely raped the customer comments to blank the responses to comments. There were sometimes very long strings of responses to someone's comment, often very illuminating. Amazon deep sixed all that stuff. I hate them for that.
Never bye Amazon Basics. Crap!
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
23,331
10,236
136
You guys are just figuring out about store brand items now? You're going to be so mad when you hear about Kirkland.
It's a crap shoot. Some of it's a good deal and OK. Some of it's just terrible. I also discovered that problems with big ticket online orders can get ugly, and their communications suck.
 

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
16,188
14,090
136
I'm not a wordsmith or a lawyer but what's the difference between "factually incorrect" and "not true"



If I was accused of choking someone until they died I wouldn't say "that's factually incorrect", I would say "that's not true"

My spidey sense is tingling

That in addition to the fact that "unsubstantiated" means "you can't prove it."
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
I'm skeptical of many of my purchases there, read reviews, and often just go to the vendors website and buy directly. Some items are just better from the source.
Examples? You're saying that Amazon is selling items purported to be the real thing but aren't? Examples?
 

balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
6,288
2,682
136
My only issue with Amazon is shitty packaging. I ordered a $20 2022 Calendar for my wife, today I'm waiting for number three to arrive. They keep shipping it from Florida to Michigan in a plain plastic bag. Arrives all folded up. The last one had a hole in the center of it. I don't know how they make money shipping it three times, and paying return shipping twice so far, on a $20 item.

Not the first time either...
Amazon packing is the worst by far. Most boxes I get have little to no airbags for protection. I would never purchase a collectable item from them because it's almost guaranteed to have its box damaged.
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
37,734
18,003
146
Examples? You're saying that Amazon is selling items purported to be the real thing but aren't? Examples?


Um, yea, i'm saying their marketplace makes it easy for third party sellers to sell knock offs. It was a big problem for a long time, and Amazon has made some effort here and there to squash it, but it's still something to keep in mind:



I bought a foam roller direct from OPTP because multiple reviews on amazon were saying they didn't get a legit roller 18" long, they got some no name that was a 36" cut in half. Just an example.

Just be cautious dude :)
 
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