[mdszy]

If you're buying from AliExpress/Wish (aka: direct from china) I don't think there's much room for being surprised when you get fakes. eBay in many cases too.

Amazon especially needs to get its shit together, though. I unsubscribed from Prime and have all but stopped using Amazon because of how it's turned into basically "eBay with marginally faster shipping" at this point given all the absolute offbrand crap that's filling the site.

[MichaelApproved]

AliExpress=eBay=Amazon. They all sell the same stuff, it's only the shipping speed that's different.

They all hide behind the "Platform" laws and get to offload liability to some no-name fly by night company.

[dsfyu404ed]

>AliExpress=eBay=Amazon. They all sell the same stuff, it's only the shipping speed that's different.

One of these companies does the warehousing, shipping and delivery as well as does a significant amount of promoting certain products, selling products itself and even has a house brand. The other two do not.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

Same. My partner and I have both let our Prime subscriptions lapse because of this shit. We no longer buy from Amazon.

[nimajneb]

I let mine lapse a couple years ago because I realized I don't actually care that much if a package comes in 2 days or 3-5. I then noticed a lot of my Amazon shipments were coming in 3 days anyways.

[julianlam]

I've found that in recent years, non-Prime orders will sit at the "ordered" phase for an extra few days, before finally being shipped at the same speed as a prime order.

I thought it might've been a holiday crush sort of situation, but it continued well past the new year (2019)

[mdszy]

I've noticed the same thing.

I'm almost certain that at the scale Amazon works at, there has to be a priority queue for these sorts of things. There's no way they could make Prime work if they just changed the shipping method to make it faster, there has to be order fulfilment prioritization too.

[nkrisc]

I have as well, but Amazon isn't bad when what you need is cheap crap (a bag of 1000 cable ties, for example). Bonus: they keep offering me free trials of Prime so I just save up a cart of stuff and then buy it when they give me free shipping.

[quickthrowman]

Would you order those cable ties if you were a low-voltage contractor suspending a bundle of ~100 cables for 200’ above an ACT grid ceiling? Cheap cable ties may work for bundling cables in your home rig or home stereo setup, but they may not be sufficient for a more robust load that a commercial application demands.

[nkrisc]

No, I wouldn't. But I'm not a low voltage contractor. To hold two Cat5e cables running through my basement, though? Sure. Heck I'd use tape if it wasn't a pain to remove later.

If I was buying for a commercial project I would use a supplier I trusted.

[quickthrowman]

That’s fair, the 1000 pack is what contractors generally buy, which is why I wanted to make the point that counterfeit junk could make its way into permanent installations in commercial spaces and eventually fail. Not all contractors use quality materials, though generally the ones that offer guaranteed work and stand behind it spend the extra money for Panduit/Legrand/Etc.

[nkrisc]

To be fair to you, I probably misstated when I said 1000, it was just an example. I think what I actually bought was really closer to 200 or something.

[dkdk8283]

In your specific example: Yes, and I would use more ties so the failure of one isn’t a problem. I wouldn’t however sell a customer a fake BMS panel or other electronics.

I believe the right thing to do is use wax cord in this circumstance anyway. I’d use a cheap one too.

[mdszy]

I've also just stopped using Amazon for ethical reasons on top of the decline in quality.

However, if I want cheap stuff, that's what I use eBay for.

Given Amazon has just turned into, like I said, eBay with slightly faster shipping, I have no reasons to use it anymore.

[tonyedgecombe]

At least with eBay you know what you are getting, Amazon seems to go out of its way to hide the fact you are buying from a 3rd party.

[mdszy]

Exactly, that's why I use it when I want cheap above all else.