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Comment by candiddevmike | Hacker News Reader

A cursory search for sectionals (something I'm currently in the market for) had appliancesconnection.com as the consistently cheapest place to buy from. So what's the catch with them, why are they so cheap? I buy from Wayfair and other "trusted sites" because they have a rapport, brand, and good return policy.

I think your site should offer more features like a way to validate the sellers or compare them somehow. Read the fine print/do the due diligence for me. Also, are you sure they're selling the exact same furniture and not something that has dings/was previously rejected and sold to these budget companies like TJ Maxx etc do?

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Based on our research, they have very positive customer reviews. (Appliance Connection has 4.5/5 stars on Trust Pilot, where Wayfair has 1.4/5 stars.)

Yes, we couldn't agree more regarding seller comparisons, and on the ability to compare across many dimensions. A way we think about this is that the price you are willing to pay might vary by the experience you expect to have. We have in mind something like Hipmunk's agony index. With a tool like that, users can decide how much more they would pay to avoid a possible bad experience.

There was an unfounded conspiracy theory[1] spread in 2020 about Wayfair that continues[2] to affect its review scores. Also, many of the positive reviews from Appliances Connection are marked as having been solicited by Appliances Connection itself[3].

I've never used either site so maybe Appliances Connection is actually that much better than Wayfair but I don't think I would necessarily draw that conclusion from the Trustpilot results.

  [1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53416247
  [2]: https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/6212e0afbc5a51af69c88c9c
  [3]: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/appliancesconnection.com?stars=5

Great points and excellent research. It impresses upon us the importance of diversifying the source of our reviews and ratings, and introducing our own means of validating sellers.

Trust Pilot is not exactly an unbiased altruistic source of reviews...

I was not simply not aware of the controversy around Trust Pilot or, more importantly, their business model.

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