But once these marketplace sellers came into being, the qualify of the experience is on the whole, lacking.
Years ago, my family would use a particular salad dressing enough that when we found it on Amazon as a "send me a case of this every three months" thing, we were happy with that. It was marginally cheaper than buying at the store, but it was far more convenient
At some point, we started receiving things from sellers that were obviously not Amazon themselves, and then endless emails asking us to rate their service, etc. Sometimes the product would be poorly package or damaged in shipping. Once it seemed like something had maybe turfed off their pantry shelf into a box to send us. It was annoying but not worth our time to 'fix', so we just canceled that order.
But lately it seems like things have been getting harder to deal with when these third party sellers are involved. I don't want to save $1.37 on a $200 router that I receive in obviously opened-and-returned condition and missing parts, and then receive an insulting letter from the (actual) seller about it somehow being my fault and saying that I should pay the return cost.
It may be possible go get amazon involved in resolving this - BUT IT IS NOT WORTH MY TIME. At some point, it was easier and cheaper to use Amazon for all these types of purchases, but Amazon Marketplace is hurting their brand. Weakest link and all that.
(Maybe we'll get a return to brick & mortar stores for radio-shack or similar things.)