Hacker News Reader

Comment by hnburnsy | Hacker News Reader

I would add to that the final hurdle of sketchy third party sellers, it feels like very little now is sold by Amazon.

Salomon, Nike, and Garmin all got direct purchases from me recently because of what you describe.

Amazon became almost useless for many types of articles. For any type of item, there are 10-20 resellers selling the exact same cheap item, just with different color and branding. It's essentially become an expensive dollar store.

I've abandoned Amazon because of that, until they finally add a "no third party sellers" option. And also a "don't show items we don't actually send to your country" option.

I've not abandoned it yet, but I'm close. Also a "Don't show me things shipped from China that'll take 6 weeks to arrive".

I was trying to buy a Nintendo Switch yesterday here in the UK, and it said 'Sold by Amazon' and 'Dispatched by Amazon' for the one I chose. So then I clicked that item, went through to the checkout and it said "Sold by Mila AG".

I'm a technically proficient developer who's very careful about where I spend money online. If you're not very internet savvy, it'd have been really easy to miss that. In the end I've ordered from a national chain retailer which are doing click and collect nearby.

The upside, when purchasing directly from the brand, and this is valid for plane fares too, is that you get more options.

- Buy shoes from the Addidas website and you can have your name printed on your shoes for free,

- Buy from Quantas or Ibis instead of a price comparator and you’ll have free cancellations or rebooking for a period.

- Buy from LEGO.com and you get more LEGO as GWP (gift with purchase)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com