Hacker News Reader

Comment by antonyh | Hacker News Reader

I'm outside the US, and boycotting Amazon for anything I can get elsewhere (which turns out isn't everything, but best efforts and all that). The shift towards AI is either a very bad thing (as per Microslop and the raft of recent articles about quality dropping), or just a cheap excuse to replace expensive staff with cheaper people.

Alternatively they may be using AI in HR as part of the decision making, and it's made the determination that these folk can go "because of AI" based on past firings and performance since then.

View on HN

I have been noticing recently that the level of quality of Amazon support has been dropping steadily. And I’ve also been trying to do the same, shopping elsewhere.

I have yet to find something on Amazon that I can't find on either eBay, straight from the retailer, or B&H. And usually for less money.

Sometimes yes but this not apple-to-apples unfortunately. Shipping and support are two places where Amazon _currently_ reigns supreme. Getting an item fast and returning an item easily are often lacking in alternative marketplaces.

I do try to buy stuff directly but so many times I order it and then it comes 10+ days later and often very little info upfront or during about when I will receive the order. I ordered from a website the other day where it said Dec 22nd delivery, it came mid-January and support was unhelpful (parroting the FAQ, might have been a LLM).

Now, I've head great experiences purchasing directly as well. The Smartest House [0] is where I buy everything I can smart-home-related. Their pricing is excellent, their shipping is fast, and their support is top-notch. I had a problem with 1 device, they got on a call and tried to fix it, then when that didn't work, they shipped me a replacement.

So I agree, there are great alternative out there and I also like B&H. I just wish it was easier to be (more) sure about how quick something will ship or how easy returns will actually be. Finding consistently good merchants online sometimes feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

[0] https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/

Free returns are Amazon’s value.

I find it very hard to believe you can't boycott Amazon completely. They don't even exist in my country and it has never been a struggle to find anything you might get there.

> They don't exist in my country ... it has never been a struggle to find anything.

Amazon absolutely crushed a lot of physical brick-and-mortar stores. Drove them out of business.

No, you and people like you drove them out of business by switching to Amazon.

Yes, please tell me about how it's my personal responsibility that a corporation that has millions of employees took over so much.

Was it the laws I passed to make them more profitable? Did I just start burning down the neighboring bookstores?

Absolutely not. In fact, if I were never even born, Amazon would be just as big and powerful today.

Wait, maybe it was all the time they bought out a small company and I told them they could!

But what if you want Amazon Basics brand batteries or counterfeit health products?

Amazon UK is the only reliable source of Pentel Energel 0.7 Green rollerball pens. For everything else, there's other places.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com