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Comment by cmrdporcupine | Hacker News Reader

This among many reasons is is why I cancelled my prime membership. The quality control is abysmal. It's become an eBay, but without a proper dispute system, and crazy prices. Many goods get listed at multiples of the price available elsewhere and if you're not paying attention you can get screwed. It's totally buyer beware. The trust that Amazon established over the years has been lost.

I ordered something on Amazon Canada, it was listed as sold by Amazon.com.ca. It qualified for prime. I ordered expecting it to arrive in 2 days. It took over a week and it became clear after the fact that it had been sourced from a US supplier and because it happened over the 4th of July it sat in a warehouse for a few days over the holiday.

Amazon hid that it was a third party supplier. Amazon hid that it was coming from across the border. Amazon refused to cancel and refund the order once this became clear.

They've really gone down hill.

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> It's become an eBay, but without a proper dispute system, and crazy prices.

I have to disagree about the dispute process. My experience as a buyer on Amazon is definitely that the pricing is all over the place, but in every case I've asked for a refund I've received it, and in the majority of cases I've not returned the item, _or_ paid for return shipping.

Well I agreed until this recent situation, where they refused to cancel and refund because the "order was already in shipping" -- which when I looked at the tracking they eventually gave me simply meant they had printed a shipping label for transferring it from the third party to an Amazon warehouse, before they even shipped it to the Canadian Amazon warehouse.

They hid that it was third party supplied and then failed to respond when I asked them to cancel based on that.

The item I ordered was time sensitive. If I'd known it was coming from the US I would have ordered from a domestic supplier that would have shipped faster except the shipping was more.

> They hid that it was third party supplied and then failed to respond when I asked them to cancel based on that.

Yeah, this is really really poor on their behalf, and I'm not a fan of it at all.

> If I'd known it was coming from the US I would have ordered from a domestic supplier that would have shipped faster except the shipping was more.

It's funny you say that. I'm more inclined to order via prime, because I somewhat trust the shipping dates, so for a time sensitive order, non-prime is usually 3-5 working days. I've been lucky so far.

Agreed with everything you've said though, I've actually had more luck with ebay for <random household item>

>This among many reasons is is why I cancelled my prime membership

I'm about there as well. I have Prime solely for free shipping, and it's frustrating as hell that when there are multiple listings for an item, the one with "Free Prime Shipping" is a few dollars more expensive, generally by an amount equal to the shipping cost.

At least with eBay you can see the actual product that will be shipped to you, and if not represented correctly you can dispute (as you mentioned). With Amazon you might buy something that gets "fulfilled by one or more third parties" which may or may not look like the picture.

> I ordered expecting it to arrive in 2 days.

Was the estimated delivery date in checkout and order confirmation e-mail in 2 days?

I've encountered some rare items (refurbished car parts) on Amazon EU that seemed to get sourced on-demand, but it was always accurately represented on the estimated delivery date so I haven't cared.

And then you stumble over stories like this[1].

In a way it's her own damn fault. If I invest a significant amout of money into a branded product I'd probably visit the store of the brand, or a reseller licensed by the brand.

But I sure as hell wouldn't order a $1000 coat from Amazon. That just yells: RIP ME OFF!

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/count...

I read the story and honestly don't see that the writer is at fault. Sure, criticize the woman for not knowing better, but that's where her blame stops and Amazon takes the rest.

Sure, Ultimately it is Amazon's fault for not policing their site and allowing blatant fakes to be sold.

I'd still argue that it's really better to buy expensive brands at shops licensed by the brand.

I can be pretty sure that I don't get a dud, when I drop 800$ on a Rimowa suitcase in one of their stores. Not so much, when ordering from Amazon.

Here in Canada, at least, sporting gear and technical outdoor clothing is a complete joke on Amazon. Sometimes two, three, times the price.

And, yeah, likely fraudulent.

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