I’ll be the odd person out and say that whatever it’s faults as a company, my shopping experience on Amazon has been great. Not perfect, but nearly so. Certainly better than most other online retail channels, plus the convenience of Prime, and being a “one stop shop” certainly is super useful.
I don’t know what everyone is shopping for, But I’ve bought tons of items across a wide variety of categories. I usually avoid the obvious Chinese knockoff stuff (unless it’s some trivially unimportant thing), and don’t find it hard to do so at all.
Same here. The only time I had anything approaching a problem was buying a plastic shed (~$400) from a sketchy seller. It was cheaper, though not ridiculously so, than the other sellers, and I had a feeling it was some kind of scam. Needless to say, it didn't arrive after a few weeks, and a quick chat with an Amazon rep refunded my money.
On another hand, I ordered something (~$80) from Home Depot online, shipped to my house. The box arrived, without the item inside. HD phone and chat support both claimed the ship weight was correct, and that I'd need to file a dispute with my credit card to resolve it. What kind of crap service is that!? Why would they not ship another one, considering their cost is probably much less than $80 rather than lose the entire $80, product, and piss off someone who spends thousands there every year?
Amazon didn't get to be the #1 online retailer and 3rd largest company in the world by ripping people off. Clearly, they have online figured out much better than all of their large competition.
Same here. As long as you buy known stuff like GoPro or Garmin etc, it is perfect and fast. Anytime you buy a brand you never heard of, that's when the problem begins. I'd say 95% of my purchases were happy purchases from Amazon.
Other than getting a knockoff sheet pan once (which was still great quality, but missing the vendor's stamp on the bottom), everything I've gotten has been more or less what I expected. I don't know if it is because I deal with Chinese companies often, but the bad stuff is painfully obvious to me and easy to avoid.
That kind of unimportant stuff is usually found on ebay for much cheaper. Usually things that cost no more than $10 or $20 on Amazon sell for much less on eBay. The trinkets category. I make a point of not engaging with that category on Amazon. It's the least I can do to feed the monster less.
Seriously. If it has that Prime mark on it, I know I'm getting it at a ridiculous speed, plus that 5% cash back on thus ugly old metal card that I used to like. Well, the cash back reward is still very nice.
I really wish I could switch to other online or brick and mortar vendors, but nothing executes as well as Amazon in my experience. I even tried ordering some computer parts from newegg and it was fine, but it felt like I was back in 2002 or so.
I don’t know what everyone is shopping for, But I’ve bought tons of items across a wide variety of categories. I usually avoid the obvious Chinese knockoff stuff (unless it’s some trivially unimportant thing), and don’t find it hard to do so at all.