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Comment by erichurkman | Hacker News Reader

Their quality control, or lack thereof, also extends into Prime Now. It is now a game when I get a Prime Now delivery: what did they replace without telling me, what products did they get wrong, and most critically: what did they overbill me for?

It's now to a point I weigh everything coming in, and over half of the items are off weight, some egregiously so (0.2 oz of jalapeno, but billed for 1 pound; .5 pound of chicken but billed for 3; a sliver of broccoli but billed for 2 pounds; the list is endless).

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I don't get groceries by mail order, but I generally don't look very carefully at prices at a grocery store - until one time recently that I was charged the wrong price for something. I complained, and was refunded like 20 cents at the customer service desk. I kind of did a double take because I could swear they used to have a policy of giving you anything that came up with the wrong price for free. It's not that the money matters, but where's the deterrent for making mistakes? I also saw once where the unit price was obviously wrong (comparing it with a similar product of a different size) and it felt so pointless to complain. Quite likely a random error, but what's preventing them from doing it systematically if there isn't vigorous enforcement?

Automation initially provides accuracy, but then it provides the potential to systematically conceal inaccuracy.

> It's now to a point I weigh everything coming in

Instead of just not using the service? If it's not bad enough for you to stop then Amazon seems to be making a good business decision.

Time investment to weigh and verify incoming items (did they mistakenly buy green cabbage instead of romaine?) is still significantly less, even when factoring in the 5 or 6 taps to refund orders via my phone.

I've tried the other services (Instacart, local stores) but they are even _worse_.

Why are you buying food on Amazon? It’s kind of weird.

Amazon has Prime Now, a grocery delivery service mostly via Whole Foods and a few other stores in major metro areas. Grocery delivery isn't anything new in big cities, but their UI and selection is far above anyone else.

(Unfortunately.)

Most major grocery stores allow you to order delivery directly through their website now. There's no need to involve a 3rd party and their markup.

Agreed.

The site is always trying to get me to buy groceries and I'm like "no thanks, I like to see what I'm buying". When I buy potatoes weekly I might look at 10 bags before I find one that doesn't look like crap, spinach/kale/greens I look at the best buy dates because they need to last me a week until the next visit, peppers I don't want to see a single wrinkle on because I want them to be good for more than a day or two, if some green onions are already wilting I don't want them, bananas I want a bunch that is all green and a bunch that the bananas still have a decent amount of green so that I have bananas for the entire week. The bread I care about the date and the smell because sometimes bags fail at a seam or get cut and a good date can mean bread that is already starting to mold.

If I still ate meat regularly, it'd be the same sort of thing there. You can tell a lot by looking at a piece of chicken or red meat.

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