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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

I assume it must be location-dependent.

The only problem I've had over the past year or two was with a headset that didn't work properly. I returned it via a UPS will pick up the box and slap on a shipping label option. They never did. But there was eventually a tracking number in the system anyway. UPS basically shrugged and said that the computer says it was picked up. But the refund went through anyway. I assume Amazon decided that UPS had picked it up and lost it.

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I'm guessing it's more price-dependent. I'm sure Amazon would refund a headset and not really care if they got it back or not. But try getting a refund on a $5,000 studio microphone and you will probably have an entirely different experience.

Somewhere around $1,000-ish seems to be the magic threshold where their rules change and you get lost in the management void.

I'm actually surprised people buy expensive audio/video/photo equipment on Amazon, since usually their prices aren't good on those, and their packaging is very bad. That's okay for random consumer garbage, but I wouldn't order anything high-end from them.

I presume the “their” and “them” in this comment refer to third party sellers, which could be anyone. I would rather order from the brand directly, or Home Depot or Best Buy or any other established business that does not try to pawn me off as a customer to someone else.

Especially for audio/video/photo stuff there's a bunch of dealers just for that, which tend to be quite good (in terms of prices, packaging, customer services), and also specialized distributors ("sells small numbers to professionals"), that's why I'm surprised people go for Amazon.

Some examples:

Random camera: Amazon: 2000 €, any photo dealer: 1800 €

Random high-end lens: Amazon: 2500 €, photo dealer: 2000 €

Random microphone: Amazon: 275 €, A/V distributor: 220 €

Studio microphone: Amazon: <not authorized to sell>, A/V distributor: 600 €

And that's before considering that Amazon is probably going to ship more slowly (even on prime) than most other "pro" dealers, and that Amazon is probably going to throw a box in a more or less empty parcel, while someone at a proper dealer will actually bother to package the stuff correctly.

I haven't really found Amazon to be consistently more expensive or slower, but yes I normally order that kind of thing from B&H (or Adorama).

anytime I order anything, but amazon the package takes 3 to 5 days at minimum. Amazon is 1 day most of the time.

For my last camera purchase of about $3500, Amazon had it on sale for a couple hundred bucks less, and I was going to buy from them because it was a big enough difference to overcome my loyalty to B&H.

I decided to think on it for a day, and sure enough by the next day B&H had the same price. Pretty sure it was a manufacturer discount but in general I think they try to match prices.

Different here in Canada. For example particular lens I am looking for is $1,900 on Amazon and $2,200 from other retailers.

I bet the reason people do it is because they had good experiences buying dozens of sub-$100 items in Amazon and don't want to risk trying out a new online store. Amazon support is great for cheap stuff, so most people assume it's the same for expensive ones.

Also, people new to a hobby won't know that B&H, or Thomann, or Sweetwater, etc, also have great customer support like Amazon.

Sweetwater is nothing like Amazon’s customer support.

You can’t call Amazon and ask them what equipment you need to accomplish a task. Among many other differences…

I never said or implied the opposite. "Great like Amazon" is not the same as "exactly like Amazon".

Sorry. I realize that. I just think the comparison gives the wrong impression because of how much more you can get in service from Sweetwater, that most people would never realize were possibilities if Amazon is what they are used to.

Was only trying to improve the info you offered a bit more.

Fair enough! I completely agree with you!

That's entirely possible as well. Which is one reason that, although I have used Amazon for fairly expensive electronics, they're not my default. (I also expect some people live places where thefts from porches, etc. are more common than in my case where I'm at the end of a long driveway.)

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