But seriously, composting, no till, stop spraying R0undup aka glyphosate, plant trees in fields, more cover crops, more green mulch, more pollinators, more ponds, more pastureland, more aquaculture, more polyculture in general. The problem is the desert style of farming that led to the dust bowl and will lead to the next one. This comes from a very new (<3 years) farmer who has read a bunch and microfarmed for three years on 5 acres.
The problem is people got sold a bunch of lies about machines and chemicals and those lies are now coming home to roost. Organic and no till and permaculture are probably the way out of this. You can absorb nitro from the atmosphere but that's one way, nature has been doing it another way for eons.
Underground. Under the sea. Under the ground under the sea. Pfffft. The sun was already trying to kill you that's why living underground is smart anyway. Frankly there should be no expectation of privacy for things you can observe from space...
Red flags: ask if they have a standard operating procedure document or employee handbook. Basic stuff like where to go for healthcare, who to talk to about sick leave etc. This sort of logistical stuff is a weight on employee's to have to constantly be asking direct reports about. It's a bad sign when a company can't take the time to do a basic doc like this.
Obviously you're being glib, but the truth is that a lot of the "old" production and supply lines no longer exist. So ordering from afar (Amazon or its moral equivalent) has become necessary for some basics.
(If you're suggesting that farmers and ranchers should go back to the days before production of plastics, hard goods, petroleum products, and rubber materials...well then they will cease to be farmers or ranchers, because 1700s-era tech won't survive market forces today.)
Similarly, no one can build computers in the US any more. Apple's Mac Pro project is interesting, but very low volume and mostly just an assembly effort.
>Obviously you're being glib, but the truth is that a lot of the "old" production and supply lines no longer exist.
I would counter that "old" farmers were able to use the seed from the current crop to plant for the next season so that it was self-sustaining. Now, with modified seeds from places like Monsanto where the plant from the seeds of this year's crop will not produce fruit. This forces you to need to buy new seeds each year.
I'm also suggesting that we go back to planting more than one crop per farm, and then even switching which part of the farm each plant is grown in. Crop rotation is such a huge concept that we've just thrown away. We can still use "plastic" and even "smart" equipment. We don't have to go back to stone age tools, that's just daft. We had that before July 5 1994 too.
Long ago and far away I had an idea for a short story that touched on these issues of seeds gene-modified to be one-yield-only and multi-cropping. I fizzled on the story but not so hard that I shouldn't be able to pick it up again.
I'm glad for the research I did 15 years ago; I still encounter situations where it becomes relevant, e.g. this discussion here and why certain water pipes are colored purple [or other colors, but at this time I remember only what purple means].
You're right of course, and my comment was oversimplified.
But supply chains for agriculture are a lot more complicated than sourcing seeds.
I agree with you that the current state is unsustainable. On a more general level, again, it's similar in manufacturing. Seeds or other raw materials, tractors or other specialized equipment.
Globalization adds and subtracts different kinds of resilience. Specialization only subtracts resilience.
Neither of our points has much to do with AWS though. :)
A lot of farmers still do. Especially older ones. I don’t know about the USA but up here many older farmers operated entirely on in person deals with other farmers, farmers markets, and local grocers.
(Depending on how abstracted you want to get, but yes the farmer probably filled up their pickup for the morning delivery at a gas station that has a POS that connects to some service that interacts with AWS somewhere a long the line. Though the farmers I’d met likely used cash)
I'm really not sure where the GP was trying to take the sustaining w/o Amazon would be impossible. It's not like farmers are buying there tonnage of seeds from Amazon. They are not buying new calves at Amazon. They don't buy tractors from Amazon. Maybe they buy new items for the kitchen/office, but that's not a large line item on the farm.
It's hard to survive commercially if you're paying more for everything than the competition. Amazon has pushed prices down for a lot of items, has free delivery, and is JIT for a lot of things too.
I'll buy elsewhere if it's < 5% more. I've no problem paying £5 delivery on a £100 item just to support 'the little guy' all other things being equal. But on a £10 thing, Amazon wins.
Grant will be missed. I was definitely influenced by him at an early age. He gave me a glimpse of what being a roboticist and engineer looked like. And that was enough to propel my career forward.
Amazon sucks now. I can't buy most of the specific items I use in my work, and when I do find something it's swimming in a sea of clone crap. The best thing it does still is books. Anything else is a mizxed bag. AMZ is just Ali Baba for people who can't wait for the ship.
This. I used to read this comments and think it only applied to the US. Also happening to Spain. Amazon has become useless. Rankings are weird, quality stuff is is very hard to find and I have to resort to forums that point to Amazon links that you cannot find using Amazon search.
Also, I'm more and more attracted to specialized shops again. For example for the last two years I've been buying most electronic stuff from a local shop. I needed a laptop charger and it was a totally awful experience going by Amazon, even typing output values and such. Fed up, went out, walked 15 mins, got one that wasn't the same I had but did the job and matched the specs.
It's exactly that. Why should I use Amazon if I can go to Alibaba or Aliexpress, what's the point if it isn't more convenient than moving my ass to a local store or get it cheaper in China.
> Why should I use Amazon if I can go to Alibaba or Aliexpress
Because you want it tomorrow and not in 3 months (if ever)? And want to be able to return it?
I'm all for hating things that are popular, but I don't think anyone suggesting AliExpress as a replacement for Amazon has seriously used it.
AliExpress is for things like a replacement cable you don't need soon but you'll need sometime in the next few years, so you can save a few bucks. Anything else I'd use Amazon.
Buying from manufacturers' websites rarely seems worth it to me either. There's always an issue. I've been trying to talk to the manufacturer of my high-end ski goggles to get them replaced. They leisurely take a month to reply to my ticket. Some manufacturers don't even bother.
Amazon has issues, but let's not forget how good we have it. The alternatives aren't exactly slaying it either.
Basically getting some echo chamber fatigue where every HNer has to hop on the whiny bandwagon. We can order anything to our doorstep anytime from anywhere and return it. It's not that bad just because you can enumerate some issues and pet peeves.
This may change soon
Worldwide shipments within 72 hours
Alibaba owns more than 50 % in Cainiao, a logistical company, and the latter organized a Global Smart Logistic Summit today, where it revealed new technologies for smart logistics. The summit was also the location where the group unveiled its plans to expand its global network with another five hubs: Dubai, Hangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Liege (BELGIUM, note added by me) and Moscow.
It's not hating, I wouldn't buy something expensive in Amazon either. Anything where I need some real backup in case of something going bad I buy somewhere physical that I trust. In case of consumer electronics and pc parts I use Pcbox and App Informática, two Spanish franchises. Most of the times the price difference is under 5€ but guess most people is not aware.
It has been this way for me for two years or so. I think I made the right choice. Research on the internet, go fnac, pcbox, appinformatica, cetronic, decathlon... I don't even live in a big city and there are good options for almost everything.
And I'm +30, it's not like I didn't adapt to the internet.
I use both Amazon and AliExpress a fair amount. There are a lot of things I can wait 2-3 weeks for. I broke a car phone vent mount the other day. $10 or so on Amazon. $2.60 or so on Ali. I can keep my phone in the cup holder or my pocket for 75% saving.
When ePacket was often free, I used Ali a lot and small parcels would often be just over a week to the east coast.
With all the Amazon clones/fake/crap, I've found that eBay is quickly filling my needs. I used to overlook eBay because the same problems Amazon now has, but I'm finding eBay an easier platform to weed out the fakes...and things tend to ship quicker.
Same in Germany. Started training archery in the woods as sport and needed arm protector. Amazon offered plenty of them, most the same as in AliExpress. Or the ones as in specialized archery stores with 20% higher prices. Sadly there were no archery store near by to walk in and I was limited to online shopping.
Niche stores tend to be better, at least the feedback from clients means something, unlike amazon where sellers just open up with another account. And some of them test what they buy.
The problem is it varies so much. I've been trying to find a replacement pedal for a sewing machine. As far as I can tell there's no model number for the part. I just have the sewing machine model. Everything is sold out online.
I found a local place. Normally I would just go in and talk to them, but because of the circumstances I called. I called Saturday at 1pm and left a message and got a call back mid-day Monday. Their website still shows hours 7-days a week, but maybe they've reduced hours or staff and haven't updated. They confirm the style and model I'm looking for and say they'll call me back if it's in stock or if they'll have to order it. I called them today (Thursday) late-afternoon and they said they had been meaning to call me back. They have the part, I pay for it, and they say they'll call when it's available. When I ask when that might be they said, "If it makes it on the truck, then tomorrow. If not, probably in a week."
None of this is bad customer service, but it's really nice to click "buy" with a good faith estimation for delivery and expect it to show up on my doorstep in a day or two.
I noticed professional businesses are really into their thing, but aren't always on top of the customer service/running a business part of things. It's most obvious to me with tradesmen who make house calls. It's hard to schedule something, it's hard to get an invoice and even sometimes pay them.
Amazon ships in 1-2 days, while at least from Europe Alibaba/AliExpress seem to be in the 14-60 days timeframe, and I imagine returns would be more hassle.
I find this odd. I read these sorts of comments every time Amazon in mentioned on HN, how its literally only clones, fakes, and scams, and impossible to find legitimate products anymore.
I have literally never received a fake/clone/scam off amazon, and I can't explain that discrepancy. I personally only buy things that are sold or fulfilled by amazon, never shipped by third party sellers, but surely everyone else as savy as HN readers does the same? Why order things with brutal shipping costs and times, only things fulfilled by amazon are quick.
I’ve made you’re exact same comment in the past. And more recently I’ve responded to comments like yours with this exact same comment that I’m leaving now.
It never happened to me so I assumed it was people blowing it out of proportion or bad shopping habits. Then I got a fake item. Sold by a legit manufacturer and fulfilled by amazon from the manufacturers official page. But the item was a fake. Then it happen again. And again. And again. All on legit-looking items.
It’s certainly not often, maybe once out of 10 items. But it’s often enough that there are certain items I’d never buy from Amazon. Any food item, or something I put in my body or something I depend on the quality more than the price. It’s just both worth the risk.
After having my “completely legitimate” Swiss Gear backpack split wide open in an airport and realizing the truth of a couple of reviews saying they had fakes with cheaper stitching and a few other wrong things, I don’t leave comments like that anymore.
When I visited Shenzhen a few years ago I marveled at how any certification label you needed (UL, CSA, ESA) were being openly sold by the roll by dozens of vendors.
They even had "PASSED" and "TESTED" labels with what appeared to be hand written (blue ink) signatures/initials - making them look like ones that a QA person on the line would stick onto the product after testing.
I've been through Shenzhen a few times and saw rolls and rolls of tamper proof hologram stickers (for Nokia and Microsoft and Sony and so on ...).
I did not see fake UL stickers ... however, I don't doubt that they are there.
Know this: a fake UL sticker is a criminally negligent act. Setting aside the appallingly negative morality of anyone that would deploy one, Amazon needs to be brought to regulatory action in the US and the EU for each and every single counterfeit UL device they ship.
This is a life and death issue. People should not pay, with their lives, for the refusal of Amazon to regulate this behavior.
>I have literally never received a fake/clone/scam off amazon, and I can't explain that discrepancy.
Shopping patterns?
I buy a lot of things, not just for myself but as gifts for a large family. I have found some areas are so filled with scams that I no longer buy items from those areas on Amazon. Other areas (which make up the majority) I have no problem at all, at worst getting a slightly delayed or damaged box.
Any sort of name brand small electronic was a scam more times than not to the point now I no longer order them off Amazon. But books, board games, or video games have been 100% what I payed for. As far as I can tell I've never received a fake Amiibo, though a few times I never had it delivered and had to call for a refund. Even my few orders of used electronics have been good (though I never did get around to converting my used PS Vita into an emulation center).
Food is good too, but I rarely buy it and only for a few specific items as most other things are far too overpriced. Mainly I order tea and I pay close attention to who is filling the order.
Gardening supplies are probably the most mixed bag of the bunch. Often enough I don't get the seeds I order but it can sometimes be fun to see what actually does spout up.
Result: A few areas: 90%+ rip offs. A few other areas: 50/50. Most areas: 100% good.
As a side note, on anything I buy I go read the 1 star reviews and skip if they mention fakes or if there aren't any at all.
The problem is that many 1-star reviews that are meaningful are being drowned in the inane. ("I bought seeds, but they don't sprout if I don't add soil and water" kind of inane).
There's either a massive influx of stupidity, or this is deliberately useless one-stars to drown out useful ones.
Fakes: Are you sure you haven't received a fake item? If you don't have a reference point, you might not be able to tell unless/until something goes wrong with it.
Clones: If you shop through referral links (e.g. click through from The Wirecutter) or seek out a specific model number from a major brand you won't experience the clone problem.
But how confident do you feel starting your search at Amazon for items like Bluetooth Headphones? There are 20 pages of results that look identical. Or how about a search for Bike Tail Light?
Never had any issues either. Like you most things I buy are fulfilled by amazon. I believe people who experience this must be buying exclusively from 3rd parties. Ideally Amazon would try to stop this, but to do so they'd need to solve the fake review problem first.
It's highly dependent on what you're looking for. If you search for "Belkin USB charger", you'll usually end up getting some good results at the top of the listings.
But if you search for "USB charger", you need to prepare yourself for pages upon pages of identical-looking chargers from "Amoner", "RAVpower", "iSmart", "Ailkin", "Anker", "Power7", "Nekmit", etc.
And most of them have hundreds or thousands of 4/5-star reviews, most of them compensated in some form or another, so good luck trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.
For about half the things I search for on Amazon, it's a similar situation.
Some of those are legitimately good brands (Anker and RAVpower being two I'm personally familiar with). Anker has even grown in North America to the point of having distribution within physical stores such as Sam's Club[1].
That said, your point still stands. These are not household names in the North American market, and it's not immediately obvious what is a legitimate and reliable option vs. a throw-away brand selling imported fire hazards.
> But if you search for "USB charger", you need to prepare yourself for pages upon pages of identical-looking chargers from "Amoner", "RAVpower"
RAVpower is actually a pretty good maker, with some pretty unique offerings (RP-PB19 is a USB UPS which takes in USB!). They even have an informative blog staffed with support personnel who reply to comments.
From my experience, Anker make good products. I specifically look for them when I'm buying charging hardware, and they've never failed me. I think it's possible you're dismissing perfectly fine products unfairly.
RAVPower has a totally awesome GaN based USB-C charger in 60 watts for like $30, and 100w for not much more, which is about 1/3 the size of the Apple one.
Absolutely agree, Amazon used to be my first stop for most online purchases. If I was shopping for something I wasn't super familiar with it was a fair bet I could quickly find most of the 'best' products in whatever category it is on Amazon. These days I have to wade through cheap clones of the exact same product rebranded, all with wildly different reviews and product descriptions in broken English.
Recently I find myself doing a 180 and returning more to in-store purchasing (Current pandemic situation aside) because I've been burned so many times by random Amazon orders in the last few years. To be fair their support has always made the situation right, but after a point the value from ordering from Amazon is gone if I'm rolling the dice on whether the product will match the description or be defective.
Books are a huge nightmare. Especially older books - search results are completely flooded and dominated by poor-quality fly-by-night print-on-demand publishing "companies" that take bad OCRs or even worse and reprint them. Making matters worse, reviews for different editions (including electronic editions!), publishers, and translations are all conflated!
This makes it impossible to ascertain anything about the quality and nature of the book you are actually buying - you might read ten reviews complaining about the translation, only none of them are actually about the translation you're looking at - you have no way of knowing unless they happen to mention it in the review you're looking at. You might read many reviews about very poor binding - but is it from the publisher you're looking at? No clue!
This isn't even getting onto the counterfeit issue you mention.
Another huge problem is translations between versions. An example of this is the paperback and hardcover versions of a book being well-translated by person X, but the Kindle version being a poor translation done by person Y. All of these will be on the same "book" page, even though they're fundamentally different.
I love my kindle, but translation + kindle is an awful experience.
I recently ordered from Powell's and was shocked at just how good the packing job is. They basically shrink-wrap your books to a thick piece of cardboard to prevent damage. With Amazon, I don't think I've ever gotten a book without a bit of damage.
I agree. I stupidly ordered a copy of Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier from Amazon and it just arrived yesterday, and the back cover was all bent along the edge because they did a terrible job of packing it.
Yes. Especially when most of the physical books I do order from Amazon are hardcover photography coffee table books. Probably at least half get sent back for obvious damage, and I could go more if I was even more picky.
Amazon first solved the Discovery problem, and they went and solved distribution, but somehow Discovery was completely lost after they solved Distribution.
You cant make distribution work without huge selection and volume. And selection is the enemy of discovery. It is a hard balance.
Agree with you about Amazon experience becoming less ideal.
Since the beginning of 2020, I submitted a couple of product reviews with detailed and factual explanation about why products in question aren't good enough. One of them was Amazon basic chair [https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Low-Back-Computer-Chair-...], which makes squeaky noises after 6 months of use (I'm a 135 lbs male), and another was Secura milk frother, which also make screechy noises after 1 month of light use (once or twice everyday). Turns out my review for their chair didn't get posted, so I tried again and finally wrote a question on the product page as to why my review isn't showing up. Then the review somehow showed up a week after. For Secura, they don't have a way to upload a video in product review (I see some people uploaded videos/images, but in my Amazon account UI for product review, there's no such feature), so I took a video and uploaded it to YouTube and shared the link as an example in my review. They wrote me a week later saying my review was not posted because of third-party links, so I went ahead and removed the YouTube link and only described the title of my YouTube video if anyone wants to search for it. No words from Amazon after two weeks of submitting that revised review. So I just checked the product review button (as seen in My Orders section) and the message I wrote there is still there. So I just clicked submit again. We'll see what happens.
In the past, when you write review, you get an email from Amazon telling you either that they are reviewing it or that it has been posted. Now, the experience is super confusing and subpar. In the worst interpretation, you even start to suspect if they post every review or they censor some based on their bias toward the seller (e.g., Amazon Basics products get less negative reviews)
Also, since COVID-19 made the shipping times are significantly slower on Amazon, I opened an account on AliExpress last week and started ordering some items. Unfortunately though, the effort it takes to sift through products on AliExpress is still much more challenging/tiring than that is on Amazon now. So some of the comments here are correct that although Amazon is not living up to our ideal vision of how an online retailer should be like, they are still ahead of their competition... I hope it changes some day and we see a decent competitor so that it is better for consumers (although I'm not sure if it'd be better for warehouse workers though...)
I'm curious about your product review diligence. Mainly: why do you bother? I stopped around 2015 when I started to sense that I was shouting into a void. Now I don't give any feedback, ever, not even stars. I either keep the item or return it; that's about as far as I'm willing to go in terms of being unpaid to provide a signal to the producers of items.
I bother because I felt like these products were particularly bad and yet have good ratings. So I wanted others to avoid the same fate as I faced. But yeah, generally, I will stop providing ratings after these two incidents. It could be the beginning of Amazon's slow downfall if they don't fix it and IF another rival can consistently compete with them on the quick shipping front.
Amazon used to protect books for shipment, sealing them in plastic with a piece of carboard so the book couldn’t move. Now they just shove it in an envelope. Almost all books are delivered with at least minor damage. You’re better off buying a used book.
I didn't renew my prime membership. Why am I paying for things that no longer get shipped in a timely manner, and a lot of things I want I can no longer get because they have determined it's "non essential." Most deliveries take 2 weeks to get here instead of 2 days. Yes, I'm aware what's going on, but that doesn't change the fact I'm paying $100 for a service that I am no longer receiving.
It is surprising that their relevance algorithms isn't able to show diverse results. If you look 4 or 5 pages down the search, you can still find innovating items but they are literally in the sea of almost exact same looking white-label items. My guess is that there are SEO businesses making ton of money by SEOing the hell out of Amazon for white label products off of Alibaba.
If Amazon did nothing else but allowed to filter products by where was it made/designed, the problem will be solved in significant way.
I've essentially stopped shopping at Amazon, their Audible product is really all I use.
I used to be an Amazon seller, and ran through maybe 100K in sales a year, but I stopped (wasn't profitable enough for the time spent.) I should have known, with my experience all those years ago, how easy it would be for scammers to get into the market. Hijacking a listing or mislabeling your product under a listing was really really easy. And for the volumes you can move, I can see why you'd do it.
I have some acquaintances that just buy in bulk from Alibaba and then sell them on Amazon. The seller usually doesn't know what they received is fake...nor do they care. The margin is high enough. Amazon seller fees absorb so much of your profit, you're fighting a losing battle unless you can find a cheap supplier or own the market on an in demand item. Then there are actual scammers that know what they are selling is fake and are manipulating listings...so there are multiple problems with the setup.
Of course the bad thing is Amazon doesn't seem to care, and if anything they try to screw the people doing the -right- thing with huge seller fees, and then killing them with their own line of Basic products.
I don't know how to solve it, and I don't think Amazon does either. I actually don't think Amazon cares, because their ultimate goal is to absorb fees and to take over markets with their own products. They can't do that without sales data, fulfillment fees, seller fees, etc. On top of that they make the big kids compete for coveted listing space with ads. They compete with their own logistics companies, but have them over the coals because they make up so much volume. It's a racket.
It even sucks for books. Defaulting to the Kindle/Audible versions, changing the search category to Kindle/Audible, and the unique key of a book in a list is (format, title), so collision detection is predicated on you remembering which format you preferred. Absolute garbage overall and very hostile to prospective bookbuyers who prefer paper formats.
I've switched to https://bookshop.org. I'm in a better place financially than I was when Amazon was my default for books, I can afford the mark-up and don't mind.
Well, that's a pretty strong indictment of how badly their business operates. Every book I've ever ordered from Amazon has been damaged (either badly folded covers or even ripped pages). I started buying from local bookshops and the experience is infinitely better.
Agreed. I've had so many problems in the last few months. An incredibly lazy fake that was "Sold by Amazon", a book with water damage in pristine packaging, and food items that had gone stale.
I’ve had an annoying time with books too. In particular with ordering a book which is not particularly common and getting something that was printed on demand. The quality has been terrible, much worse than something offset printed. But I’ve heard that Amazon’s print on demand offering produced pretty good quality books so maybe this is an issue with the sellers of the books I’ve bought. Obviously I notice bad printing but don’t really notice good printing
They're prioritizing only essential goods, everything else is delayed until later. That's the best solution for the largest number of people, especially those at higher risk, for whom one click one stop shop is a very attractive value proposition. But if you can, this is a perfect time to buy direct from your local businesses who offer curb side pick-up or delivery.
Are you talking about covid essential goods? From the context of your post, it sounds like you are. The Amazon shopping horribleness has been ongoing for at least a couple years, this isn't a new thing. It's been at least 18 months since I've stopped purchasing things I need to trust, like laptop chargers, electronics, etc, from Amazon.
What is the competition though. We need someone with a clue on competition. I'd go with anyone with a broad / reliable selection - ebay has been working recently - is that the future?
Exactly this. For computer parts in the UK I usually go to Overclockers UK - free shipping is possible if you take part in their forums and prices are often identical to Amazon.
Even the big-box electronics retailers like Currys regularly peg their prices to the Amazon one now, and I've got three within a 25-minute drive so I can get the item the same day rather than waiting 1-2 days for delivery.
This is 100% Amazon's fault. If you are going to be a seller, a platform and a supplier you need to verify the authenticity of the goods provided. Especially if you set prices, shipping options and take a cut of sales. This has been going on for years, its just be exacerbated now. I placed an order and was given a estimated delivery 5 weeks out.
Does eBay verify authenticity? No. No reasonable 3rd party marketplace dealing with millions of products can.
And again... estimated delivery 5 weeks out is because of a pandemic. Or because you ordered something from a third party that shipped from China. Or it was out of stock, which is a normal thing to happen sometimes in any business.
> Does eBay verify authenticity? No. No reasonable 3rd party marketplace dealing with millions of products can.
Not exactly, but IIRC eBay puts seller reputation front and center, while Amazon greatly obscures it.
Amazon's focus on "product reputation" and near-total lack of emphasis on "seller reputation" also enables certain kinds of fraud (e.g. using inventory commingling to launder counterfeits, transferring ratings from one product to an entirely unrelated one by rewriting the listing).
Then Amazon shouldn’t mix being a first party marketplace with being a third party marketplace. They take care of distribution and refunds so at least some of the responsibility falls on them as long as they keep playing peekaboo with who the source of Amazon items is.
Amazon should have a separate logo style for pages not sold by Amazon.
How does that solve the problem? By showing 3rd party products next to their own, they make it seem like Amazon has given their approval of that product, when that is absolutely not the case. Walmart is responsible for every product sold in their store, the same is not case for Amazon. This is the problem with so many internet companies, they want all the upside without the responsibility.
To your first point, eBay has started the dark pattern of not really displaying seller reviews. You can still see them if you're looking for them specifically, but the main stars they post at the top is now a review for the item itself, not the seller. I just got burned last week, complete with fake UPS tracking number. When my item didn't arrive, I checked with the seller and the seller no longer existed and the item was removed for ToS violations. To its credit, eBay gave me an immediate refund, but had I realized the seller had been brand new with zero reviews, I would have thought twice.
Amazon commingles inventory with the same SKU. You can choose a legit manufacturer, and they get credit for the sale, but you could still receive a counterfeit item that was actually stocked by some scammer. (Later someone may choose to buy from the scammer and get a genuine item by mistake.)
eBay is an auction site where all the products you buy are from a random third party seller. Period. Amazon is a mix of of their own products, products they sell and fulfill on behalf of third parties and transactions they merely facilitate while the third party is responsible for fulfillment.
While the distinction between these products may seem obvious to you or I, many typical consumers I talk to who use Amazon seem baffled when I mention that not everything Amazon sells actually comes from or is fulfilled by Amazon. Their UI to describe these different purchasing scenarios is vague at best.
The sold out part? No it absolutely hasn't. And as long as you stick to "Sold by and shipped from Amazon", "clone crap" is virtually never an issue.
Yes, one person in ten thousand might receive a co-mingled counterfeit item or something, just like you might buy a laptop at Best Buy only discover a brick in the box because somebody scammed a return.
Literally any article about Amazon on HN inevitably devolves into a bunch of useless anecdotes about how much Amazon supposedly sucks. You could set a watch to it. It's beyond tiresome. If you did nothing but read HN you'd think Amazon was filing for bankruptcy imminently.
The fact that amazon sucks as a place to get reputable items or find brand-specific stuff, and that they are rolling in money, should show several things:
* They still satisfy consumer demand "enough"
* They don't have enough competition in enough spaces
* They can suck at some things, be good at others, and make money
Sure: everyone I know almost exclusively uses Amazon (20-40 age bracket) aside from the grocery store, so Amazon clearly can't be as bad as HN's Chicken Littles suggest.
If only my friends read HN to know how useless Amazon was!
I don't think people are saying "Amazon is useless" or "Amazon is going to go out of business".
They are bloated with Chinese knock-offs. No name brands that are all the same thing with a different sticker and a bribe to offer a 5-star review. Listings are manipulated to get max reviews. There is so much wrong with trying to find consistent brands and any quality.
That said, if you want knock-off stuff that may work as well as you expect for the price, it's not bad. When the pandemic isn't here, you have quick shipping on everything. And certainly, many other stores have inferior navigation to Amazon.
One more time: No one is saying Amazon is going anywhere or that it sucks for everything. For the goal of looking for non-Chinese crap, though, it has regressed significantly.
Because internet commenters trample over each other to hop on the bandwagon once they ID any situation as "oh, it's pet peeve time? Everyone must hear my story about how things aren't perfect!"
If we’re going to overgeneralize, there’s a comment like yours on every article criticizing any of the big companies. It’s more productive to the conversation to simply state why you don’t think the conversation is accurate, or why you feel like the company in question is not being criticized fairly. I would guess the downvotes have more to do with the lack of substance to the comment than anything specially about Amazon. Like most things on HN, things look biased one way or another to us — but usually you can find plenty of posts and comments that go in both directions on any given topic.
Just to answer. None of your concerns are covered by the license he has (Special Occupation Tax aka SOT). With a SOT7 + one of the other ones you can own and transfer machine guns and Destructive Devices legally. This is the same license a gunsmith will get to manufacture and sell(transfer) firearms incidentally.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840...