Ask HN: Has Amazon.com gone downhill?

It will vary greatly based on whether the product is fulfilled by Amazon or not. If it's Prime-eligible it should show up on time (even at great cost to the workers delivering them, sadly). Despite appearances, Amazon is actually an eBay-like marketplace of thousand of individual sellers.

I use Amazon a lot and I don't have the same experience. I've trended toward buying more through Amazon than elsewhere for things like clothes and various sundries like soap, toothpaste, etc. and overall it's been a good experience.

Granted, I try to use Prime whenever possible, and as much as I can, I try to buy items that are fulfilled by Amazon. Where I have run into issues are things shipped directly from China. Those can take weeks, but generally speaking I know ahead of time.

Fake reviews are a part of ecommerce so I'm not too terribly worried about that, but some of the reviews can be funny, too. Mostly I try to use the stars a product has received as a barometer and then vet the 5-star ones to see if they seem real. Ditto for the 1-star reviews, because often times people will complain about something that is outside of the seller's control, or even something that is subjective.

As a consumer, Amazon is amazing in terms of breadth, price and ease of use. I'm not claiming that they have every product, nor are their prices always the best. But their selection is very good and their prices are typically very competitive. And if I'm just buying run-of-the-mill stuff that doesn't require too much research (e.g. a USB memory stick), it takes me about 60-120 seconds to search the site and check out and I'll almost always receive the product on time, 2 days later. Very few other retailers can match the shipping time. Plus, when I have had issues with products, I've generally been very happy with their customer service.

However, from a consumer's perspective, I have two major issues with them:

1) Knock off and counterfeit products - there seems to be more and more of them these days, especially with third party sellers or even fulfilled-by-Amazon items, since it seems like they might co-mingle inventory. If I'm making a large purchase where there is risk of buying a counterfeit item (e.g. Bose headphones), I tend to go elsewhere these days, unless Amazon has a very competitive price. In particular, for electronics, Best Buy will match Amazon prices and I trust their supply chain more. I also find that B&H has excellent customer service, a great selection, great interface and are reliable to work with.

2) Suspicious Reviews - No doubt there are a lot of fake reviews on Amazon. When you're talking about the largest online retailer where reviews make or break a product, obviously there are going to be fake reviews. Then there are products with what I'd call "hired reviews". I believe that this is no longer permitted, but this is where a company gives free (or very cheap) samples in exchange for an "honest" review of the product. Naturally, people who are given free (or cheap) samples in exchange for writing a review are going to give biased reviews. Finally, for many items, it could be as simple as friends and family writing reviews of your product, which are also going to be biased. Because there's so much incentive to game reviews, it's gotten to a point where I no longer trust them anymore [1].

As a consumer, what I'd really like to see is a competitor to Amazon with a more curated selection. For example, I don't need 250 different options for blenders. What I would prefer is a site that offers 5 options at various price points which have all been vetted by the store owner. User reviews are helpful, but most users aren't really familiar with the alternatives. I can say that I like my blender, but at most, I have experience with one or two other blenders. However, when a store-owner says they prefer a blender, I have more trust that they have experience with the other models (even if they haven't used them, they've seen the returns and/or customer complaints) [2].

From third party sellers' points of view, I've heard many horror stories of issues they have had selling with Amazon, but I won't get into that right now.

[1] There are two other big issues with user reviews in general. The first is that when a product (or establishment) gets enough good reviews, people buy the product and are inevitably disappointed. This is an even bigger issue with reviews for things like restaurants. For example, say a local diner gets 100 five-star reviews on Yelp. Now, people come across the place on Yelp and they see it has great reviews and so they decide to check it out. But they came in with very high expectations so they are inevitably disappointed and so when they write their own review, it will be lower than it might have been if they had gone in with average expectations and were pleasantly surprised. The other issue with user reviews is that every user has different needs and expectations and many of them won't match mine. For example, say I'm a professional photographer reviewing the Sony RX100 V camera, which retails for about $950 and is popular with amateur...

I would say that if you're not a prime member then yes. I was a prime member and then decided to cancel my membership and service has gotten worse for me. It takes longer to get items sent to me. example: I ordered an item 1/1 but did not get it until 1/11. That would never have happened before prime was created. What's funny is that the item as shipped on 1/10. I got next day shipping but the held it for 8-9 days.

Also, there are a lot of prime incentive sale items on the site that I can't order but I see every time I'm there. What it does for me is to make me lose interest in Amazon.

I've started to order more from Newegg and Walmart. The prices are not that much different but I don't need to be a prime member to get acceptable service.