[klingonopera]

> " Dammit, Amazon, it's so hard to quit you."

What? I'm not even in the US, but DDG'ing the "Eufy RoboVac 30" brings me straight to the manufacturer's website, where it's even $40 cheaper. Why give "Lord Bezos" a piece of the cake, when he doesn't even need to have one?

Maybe it wasn't so at the time of writing, but I have a weird feeling it's en vogue to claim to be against Amazon, but to then find some half-assed reason as to why they're still the "only sensible" choice, and so it's all good. WTF? Are these Amazon-financed articles?

[Eric_WVGG]

When I buy something off another site…

- Will I have to register an account? Will I have to take time unsubscribing from the email lists they sign me up for?

- Will the checkout form work? Will it be secure? Will it be a single page, or will there be separate pages of shipping info, billing info, payment method, confirmation of sale, and receipt?

- Will any of those pages be broken, forcing me to start over?

- When will it show up? I'm not even so impatient that I need the "two day thing" (I usually pick a later date for a $1 Amazon digital credit anyway), but, when? There are nearly never estimates, and about half the remaining MIGHT send a tracking number later.

Other things crop up, but basically there's countless little things that can go wrong and you if you pick Amazon they _all_ go away.

[miked85]

You do have the real possibility of receiving a counterfeit item from Amazon though, which you do not have directly from the manufacturer.

[lotsofpulp]

Yeah, no kidding. I'd rather deal with all of the other problems (which aren't really problems as I'm not liable anyway), than risking getting a counterfeit product from Amazon. Also, more websites need to implement Apple Pay.

[blacksmith_tb]

Certainly a problem with easy-to-counterfeit items, but I would think knocking off a robot vacuum would be pretty difficult?

[sqlacid]

more likely to get a used returned item being sold as new; I bought an expensive water filter cartridge from AMZ and got shipped one that was obviously used. Somebody probably bought a new one, then returned their current used one. AMZ refunded money without question tho. You could get a new vac with a spent expensive battery pretty easily.

[klingonopera]

> "Will I have to register an account? Will I have to take time unsubscribing from the email lists they sign me up for?"

Registering an account would shoo me away too, but with PayPal and a study that showed this'll scare 75% of potential customers away, that mostly seems to be a thing of the past. Subscription lists in the EU have been greatly reduced by GDPR. Some still offend this, granted, but they are occuring less and less.

> "Will the checkout form work? Will it be secure? Will it be a single page, or will there be separate pages of shipping info, billing info, payment method, confirmation of sale, and receipt?"

The bureaucratic things you mention are governed by law here in Germany, so I needn't bother with that, for their (prolonged) existence presumes compliance. The technical security details are legit concerns in my opinion, too. OTOH, sticking to one merchant brings with it the risks of mono-cultures.

> "Will any of those pages be broken, forcing me to start over?"

Come on.

> "When will it show up? I'm not even so impatient that I need the "two day thing" (I usually pick a later date for a $1 Amazon digital credit anyway), but, when? There are nearly never estimates, and about half the remaining MIGHT send a tracking number later."

I usually can plan such purchases in advance, that a delay of even a week doesn't bother me. Parcel delivery services in Germany rarely require more than 5 working days for national shipments.

> "Other things crop up, but basically there's countless little things that can go wrong and you if you pick Amazon they _all_ go away. "

For this, I appear to have eBay. I feel they grant more autonomy to the merchant, which I believe to be actually better for the customer in the long-run. Amazon feels closer to the customer, but such a customer strategy runs the risk of a bait-and-switch to the disadvantage of the customer, once their monopoly solidifies.

[Eric_WVGG]

"Come on" what? It happens all the time.

You just countered my list with a list of "this usually doesn't happen" responses. But sometimes they do, and it adds up. And don't get me started on eBay, where about 15% of stuff I've bought has gotten lost somewhere in the void.

[wyre]

When I stopped using Amazon two years ago I started using ebay almost exclusively. I've never received the wrong item or have had things gotten lost. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Even if thats the case, I would rather have an item get lost and wait for it to get reshipped than my experience with Amazon mailing me the wrong product and then waiting to mail it back, get a refund, and then order the right product.

When I'm on a site who's checkout doesn't complete, I spent a minute looking for another seller and buy it from them. I would rather use a minute looking somewhere else then waiting a few days because I have to return the wrong product to Amazon.

[mdszy]

"I might be mildly inconvenienced so it's 100% necessary for me to support a company that abuses its workers, sorry guys :/"

[wpietri]

Can you help me understand how you know the other companies are better?

There's no denying that Amazon is known for being not great to workers, especially warehouse staff who are hired as contractors. But long before Amazon existed I did temp factory and warehouse work for a couple of summers. I promise you that also varied from miserable to criminal. I have no reason to think a random vendor is better than Amazon here.

Reasonable people could differ, but my current thinking is I'm better off pressuring Amazon, who at least has a brand they care about, than to swap to whatever anonymous company is doing US fulfillment for a random Chinese manufacturer.

[klingonopera]

The arguments for ways other companies are better work both in and out of favor for them. Conversely, centralizing it (Amazon becomes a monopoly) also works both ways: It's possible worker conditions can be better or worse compared to the average standard, but with greater number of them in a single go.

Thus the counter-argument, for me at least, stands out, which is less volatility from a decentralized market, however, if a centralized market would turn out to have better employee conditions, then this reduced volatility would in turn work against other companies as an argument, and so we're back at square one.

History tells us that monopolies tend to ...treat their employees badly? I don't know and I think it depends on the company and market it serves, but my gut-feeling says yes and so, to me, less volatility sounds like the sanest gut-decision I can make.

It's up to each and everyone for themselves to decide, I guess.

[Eric_WVGG]

I don't like it. I also don't have time to run all over town (or web) trying to find a highly specific bicycle seat post, or go to every sporting goods store to get the one brand of bouldering chalk I like, or every housewares store shopping for the specific coffee grinder that will fit in my 300sq-foot apartment.

Maybe I should go Thoreau and live in a cabin, but until then I'm very busy. I do a lot of other things to adapt my life to try and improve the general world, but ecommerce habits just isn't making the cut yet.

[redsaz]

One of my concerns is on the security front, specifically credit card info, if PayPal isn't an option. I'm interested in trying out Privacy's one-time use credit cards to reduce that risk.

[CrazyStat]

The manufacturer's website shows $239.99 for me, the post says he got it for under $200. I'm not sure how you get $40 cheaper from the manufacturer out of that.

In addition, checking the Internet Archive shows that the manufacturer had it listed for $269.99 in September 2019, two months after the post was written.

[squaresmile]

I'm in the US and I'm seeing $240 on both the manufacturer's website and Amazon (Sold by EufyHome and Fulfilled by Amazon). Amazon even has a $15 coupon.

[klingonopera]

I can even join Prime and then save $24, bringing it to a total of $39 in discount. And all I'd need to do is join the Amazon ecosystem and I'd probably even be one of the customers that Amazon would make a net loss on, to my gain!

Honestly, that just trips my too-good-to-be-true alarm bells. The times I'd need Amazon I can usually find a similarly priced competitor, where buying is more of a breeze and bliss than Amazon, having to work through the special conditions of coupons, terms, etc.

There was only one case in my experience, in 2013 or -14, where Amazon was the "only choice", when I "want-needed" a cheap China-made USB microscope, and Amazon had it, but not a single merchant on eBay. The device was quite fresh on the market, and about half a year later was also available on eBay. I waited.

[0xffff2]

To muddy the waters even more, I'm also in the US and I'm seeing $215 (plus the $15 coupon) on Amazon.

[sqlacid]

I see an older model with 1300Pa suction available at $219; the current 1500Pa I see at $249

[amelius]

I guess you should read kaskavalci's comment for a good reason to still buy from Amazon.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22592661

[bluntfang]

>Are these Amazon-financed articles?

I mean...duh? Have you been living under a rock? Amazon affiliate has been a great passive income strategy for over a decade.

[klingonopera]

...which is just a modern way of saying "sales agent", yes?

It's muddy, because AFAIK, anyone can write on Medium, so it's not immediately recognizable as marketing, correct? Which, I presume, is also part of the strategy.

It's a legit strategy, it's just that one needs to keep in mind to second-guess everything the author says, since it could be a paid ad. Something, something along the lines of commercial and independent reviewers. I guess it's a never-ending war that must be fought.

[jachee]

Impatience and one-stop-shopping are compelling motivators.

[klingonopera]

True, but a 5 minute search for a competitor that'll save you $10 is effectively you working at $120/h in regards to your wallet.

Sure, I wish I could claim otherwise, but in my experience, it's almost never worth going for one-stop buys :/