The quality of stuff being sold on Amazon has been a race to the bottom for a while now, somewhat following in the steps of Ebay.

In this video Louis has two crimp butt connectors: one bought from Amazon and one bought from a hardware retail store - the Amazon purchased one, which a regular user of the site may consider as reputable at a glance, fails to crimp the wires securely. The hardware store one however securely crimps the wires in place.

It’s a pretty mundane example, but extends across to other products in other industry verticals too. A pretty major concern raised in the video was that the failure of this specific product would cause excess heat, potentially leading to an electrical fire in the worst case scenario.

There’s also the issue of reputable brands not even listing their products on Amazon anymore, leaving users with mostly poor quality alternatives shown prominently in search results.

Personally I find myself preferring to shop at dedicated or independent online storefronts, where it’s a bit more obvious what exactly I’m purchasing, and where there’s at least some minimum guarantee of quality - in contrast to a Prime “dropshipped”, generic product from Amazon. Also kind of like the fact that by purchasing from sites that aren’t massive marketplaces or outlets, real individuals benefit from my custom, not massive behemoths that don’t need the sales to survive


Piped link in comments

  • Kandorr@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 years ago

    Initially items were cheaper. The prime got then to you fast but the deals were largely gone. Then it was the simple return policy if the quality wasn’t there. Now they’re hoping we still just choose Amazon out of habit I guess?

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      Largely the only things I get from Amazon anymore are commodity products where I’m expecting the Chinese knockoff experience, and it’s priced accordingly. For that type of stuff it’s basically Alibaba but faster and slightly less annoying.

      For anything mission critical I’ll purchase from an actual supplier. Mouser, Digikey, etc. Or the manufacturer directly, if the option exists. Typically the “deals” on Amazon aren’t, really, and if you’re going to purchase a big ticket piece of equipment you can get all the same stuff just buying direct… free shipping, returns, etc. The only exception is some small time manufacturers who will only sell on Amazon, using it as their sole storefront so they don’t have to maintain their own.

  • kowcop@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 years ago

    Imagine having to plan what silly reaction face you are going to pull to advertise your video