Addicted to Amazon

[kenmbz]

My wife tries to buy clothes at local stores, but many stores don't bother to stock very much and drive you to online.
This way they save money on personnel.
It also tries to make up for all the theft we see in the local cities.

For a MR11 bulb I need to fix one of the wife's Halloween decorations, I just bought at Amazon.
Easy for things I can't find local since not near a big city or don't want to spend on the $4/gallon gas plus tolls to get there.

 

[ponytug]

On the reviews, I got a card in the mail from an item we bought that offered us a $25 or $50 (I can't remember now) gift card if I gave a 5 star review...

Whenever I get one of those, I turn it over to Amazon, as I think bribing folks for a review is like pissing in the well.

Yes, I mostly read just the negative reviews, but lately, I seem to have hit a string of reviews by folks who don't know how to turn on the gizmo and declare it broken, or are giving it 1 star because the delivery person left the package exposed to the weather. Some of the Vine reviews don't seem very grounded in reality, but some get pretty detailed, which I find useful.

Still, I find it a big improvement on the endless calling around and driving around to find parts that I used to do. That's just time out of my life that I don't get back.

All the best,

Peter

 

[paulsharvey]

On reviews, your best info will be the 4 and 3 star reviews. Look at what their complaint is, and see if it applies to your use case. Often, the complaints will be from people who either didn't understand what they bought, or found it usable, with annoyances. The 5 and 1 stars are often useless. 4/3/2 stars may be dumb, but atleast honest, IMO

 

[JeepHead]

And ALWAYS set the reviews to "most recent" instead of top reviews. It's there where you will find the most realistic ones...

 

[bdhsfz6]

My first choice is always to buy local. "Local" for me however can be a 90 minute ride, depending on what I need.

UPS, FedEx and USPS have regular routes past my place. Ecologically, it makes sense to use them.

 

[2manyrocks]

In my area, its either waste at least 1/2 the day to find out if anyone nearby has what I need, much less what they want for it, or try to order it and wait a week for it to get here.

After paying to have one hydraulic hose made to length here a few months ago, it was 1/3 the price to buy a premade hose on eBay the next time I needed one instead, and it was cheaper on eBay than on Az. So I went ahead and bought a spare, too.

 

[California]

And ALWAYS set the reviews to "most recent"

YES! The early reviews are often bogus, paid.

'Recent', is more likely real owners.

I have one purchase (a near useless cheap critter camera) where the thousands of positive reviews were posted a year earlier and when there is detail, it describes an unrelated product.

 

[Runner]

The reviews I wonder about are the ones that are recently posted for products purchased years ago "I bought this cheese grater 5 years ago and it's given me nothing but problems....". I guess it could be real, but I couldn't imagine taking the time to go back to Amazon.com years later with a complaint.

 

[Yander]

We are just behind you at 203 orders place in 2024, I need to pick up the pace : )

 

[ultrarunner]

A few friends retired to the Philippines and say Amazon is a game changer and Costco now has interests…

 

[California]

The reviews I wonder about are the ones that are recently posted for products purchased years ago

I've done that, a favorable review of something I've learned to appreciate. Just a heads-up to someone considering it. For example HP laser printers from back when they were excellent, and still are a good value when sold as refurbished/guaranteed/returnable.

Or - something outdated that I bought used from Goodwill and the Amazon comments are the only tech support I could find. In particular, $7 high-end wifi routers a couple generations old. Or my first-generation $12 Arlo wifi cameras/hub set, originally $300(??) and now abandoned by Arlo. In both cases I learned what I needed for setup from Amazon reviews, and posted minor comments.

 

[dodge man]

I had to look it up. We placed 33 orders so far this year.

 

[ArlyA]

We did 81 so far this year.

 

[jyoutz]

Not too often. In summer I keep a short goatee. Winter I beard out. It's so much warmer than a bare face. Nice for ice fishing and cross country skiing. Weddings, funerals, or special request from wife I'll shave back to goatee. Only thing regularly shaved is my cheeks under my glasses and my neck.

Last month we went to Oregon for vacation. Wife asked me to trim up. I set the beard trimmer on #3 and hit my mustache area only to find it was set on #1.

So it all came off. Had to start over.

I gave up on both the beard and mustache when my hair went completely grey. I may have grey hair, but I don’t have to look like Santa Claus.

 

[MossRoad]

I gave up on both the beard and mustache when my hair went completely grey. I may have grey hair, but I don’t have to look like Santa Claus.

I still have the salt and pepper.

 

[Oaktree]

I gave up on both the beard and mustache when my hair went completely grey. I may have grey hair, but I don’t have to look like Santa Claus.

I gave up on both even before that. Don't really have thick enough facial hair to grow anything that isn't scraggly. Plus it would itch. Had one maybe 3-4 years, one day had enough and shaved it off.

 

[bigtiller]

Mine is all white, but I keep it about ¼ to ½ inch long

 

[BravoXray]

I keep my beard short, about 1/4", in the summer, but let it grow out longer in the winter to help keep my face warm when outside.

 

[Oaktree]

On reviews, your best info will be the 4 and 3 star reviews. Look at what their complaint is, and see if it applies to your use case. Often, the complaints will be from people who either didn't understand what they bought, or found it usable, with annoyances. The 5 and 1 stars are often useless. 4/3/2 stars may be dumb, but atleast honest, IMO

I wish there was a way to review 3rd party vendors on Amazon. Reviews get rejected if you criticize the vendor...the merchandise may have been fine but the service was poor. There ought to be a way to give potential buyers a heads-up to maybe buy this from someone else.

 

[gstrom99]

I just had an order mix-up, where the vendor sent to wrong item. First mixup like that in quite a while. I ordered an upgraded vice for my saw chain sharpener. What they sent was the hydraulic "auto" vice hose kit, which I don't have...

Now I have to box up and run the wrong part into town for drop off and wait for the (hopefully) correct part. Wrong part got here in 3 days, "replacement" shipping (for hopefully the correct one) quotes 10 days...