Comment by jasode | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jasode | Hacker News Reader

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>Second, for a lot of things you want to order, the manufacturer has its own online store these days and a lot of them are actually well-built, perfectly pleasant to use.

It depends on what you buy but in general, the manufacturer's website will often cost more than Amazon. E.g. In the USA, Apple Watch 46mm GPS+Cellular is currently $429 on amazon.com but $529 on apple.com

Also, manufacturers are often contractually required to have higher prices (i.e. MSRP) than the retailers that sell their products. So getting a discount from Amazon is more realistic than the manufacturer's official website. Another example is buying TurboTax software on Amazon ($55.99) costs less than Intuit's website ($80)

>Third, Amazon’s prices aren’t notably cheaper than the alternatives.

Again, it depends on what types of products you're buying. For things like USB cables and rechargeable batteries, Amazon costs less than Best Buy. Buying a Fiskars garden shears cost $10 less at Amazon than Home Depot and Lowe's. What's happening is that those local stores are using price discrimination to upcharge the impatient walk-in customers who need "instant gratification". Home Depot charges $5 more for a toilet plumbing repair kit than Amazon because they know customers are likely making an emergency purchase. Yes, the local stores sometimes have a "match Amazon's price" policy but it's a hassle to hunt down a manager and get an override of the price at the cash register.

Where Amazon often costs more (often 2x because of shipping) is commodity household items like toothpaste and Windex glass cleaner. A local Walmart will have cheaper prices on those.

Lastly, I recently went through my 200+ accounts in my password manager to migrate my email address and the lesson I've learned is to avoid creating new accounts at more ecommerce websites. It's not worth it. Maybe I'll make an exception for Shopify in the future because a lot of sellers have consolidated there but I'm going to hold out as long as I can.

I really like having my orders history in one website instead of scattered across Newegg, ZipZoomFly, BHPhotoVideo, etc, etc.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Cellular-Smartwatch-Aluminium-A...

[1] https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-watch/apple-watch

>It depends on what you buy but in general, the manufacturer's website will often cost more than Amazon. E.g. In the USA, Apple Watch 46mm GPS+Cellular is currently $429 on amazon.com but $529 on apple.com

This pretty much, I do not buy from Amazon because of the experience but because of price. Like you said very often Amazon is significantly cheaper than local stores here in Europe, like I was buying woodworking tools and I could get same tool, same manufacturer warranty for 20 percent less. Apple devices cost even more than official Apple store in my country because Apple does have a first party store, meanwhile Amazon has below MSRP prices always. The only downside is that they dont have customization options.

You're using Amazon because of the cheap prices and convenience of having all your shopping in one place.

Have you considered not using Amazon, and giving up those slight conveniences, to not keep supporting such an unethical company?

Different experience here in Germany. Amazon is often 2-10% more expensive than cheaper alternatives on most goods (just check a random product on idealo.de). People are still buying at Amazon, frequently citing the "hassle-free returns" experience. I'm satisfied with the alternatives (no issues with returns so far) and rarely use Amazon. Also, most shops have guest checkout, no need to open an account on all of them.

I don't think Amazon's return policy is matched by anyone in my country. I dread even thinking of purchasing something and make use of the warranty, it's usually a pointless exercise that deprives you of your purchase for months.

Compare that to Amazon that will easily refund a purchase made 18 months earlier no questions asked.

I almost never buy from Amazon, but there's no denying I feel much safer ordering there than elsewhere. My last expensive non-Amazon purchase got me an opened box (either a return or plain used item). Even PayPal didn't care to do anything about it.

You don't need Amazon's return policy if the country has decent pro-consumer laws. In Netherlands, for example, you can return an item purchased online. For that you need to notify the seller within 14 days of receipt and then send it back within next 14 days.

Oh yes you definitely have rights, but also you have to make sure they're not infringed. They could easily just say "you damaged the box" or, very commonly, withhold shipping fees as well as making you pay for that shipment. So for no fault of your own, you're 15€ down on a 50€ product.

Hell even Apple has been fined by Italy for not properly disclosing that customers have 2 years warranty from the seller. I even had to tell customer service about it just last year, who acted like they didn't even know.

Amazon -> 30-day return policy, they cover shipping costs, no questions asked, doesn't matter how much you used the item.

Law -> 14-day return policy, you pay for shipping, the shop will make it as difficult as possible to let you return the item (even if it's illegal), they don't have to take the item if you opened it (which makes no sense - how do I know I don't want it if I can't try it?)

Your mileage may vary. I've had horrible experience with German shops, when you have an issue they do whatever to make it look like it's your own fault. And you can only call them or send them snail mail, which is still quite common.

Amazon has their chat, which replies immediately and you get your money back pretty easily.

> I've had horrible experience with German shops, when you have an issue they do whatever to make it look like it's your own fault.

That's just the usual experience of German customer service. The consumer is expected to quote the relevant paragraphs to explain customer service why they need to cover cost of return shipping or whatever and they will fight you every step of the way (or try to ignore you). It seems to be a cultural thing.

Exactly this. And if I can avoid that, I will.

Edit: and what makes this so annoying is that I really want to be a nice guy for the customer service, not an asshole. And when they treat me like this, I turn into a monster and I'm not happy about it.

Both of those stores price match Amazon unless the item is not fulfilled by them (and could be counterfeit)

It also depends on the items you're buying. Household goods, like laundry detergent and deodorant, are usually more expensive on Amazon, sometimes by a wide margin.

The whole market is one big price discrimination where you spend time to avoid getting ripped off by shameless decoy prices. I haven't noticed Amazon being routinely less for any category. It is generally more for household items, but that still isn't a hard rule. If you're not shopping around, you've already lost - most other large retailers have free shipping as well, and frankly it's often quicker than Amazon's slow spiteful shipping.

Really I want some user-representing local-first software that searches many stores with one query. Of course these sites fight tooth and nail to make that comparison harder (the main point of captchas). Still maybe we'll get there as the surveillance industry enters its screw-turning extractive phase.

As for (sub)Prime, it still boggles my mind that people pay for it as an ongoing subscription. I activate the free trials when they're conducive to some other goal (eg fixing/making something that's going to require a bunch of iterated rounds of parts). Between my account, my partner's account, and my "business" account (more price discrimination, hooray!), I'd say there's a free trial more than half the time. And the once or twice a year I need something quick and don't have a trial, there's always the $2 for one week option.

(Also, I'm sure it's been mentioned elsewhere in this thread - one of the "economic blackout" flyers has March 7-14 as Amazon-specific boycott. I don't think this kind of thing is going to move the needle on overall revenue any time soon, but rather it's about sending some kind of message to the neofascists and those who readily support them. Frankly we need many more of these days. And if that seems inconvenient, look at it as practice for when we're back to full blown Trumponomics with empty store shelves everywhere)

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