They really are no different than Temu or Aliexpress at this point.

IgorPartola 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There are some differences.

Temu’s UI is unusable. You are constantly presented with roulette wheels for coupons you can’t dismiss. Its dark patterns have dark patterns. AliExpress is only mildly better in that you can dismiss stuff.

Both T and A still have listings for things that will likely result in you getting something entirely different. This usually applies to more expensive and physically larger items. You might order a greenhouse and get a photo of one or a schematic of one. And I don’t mean that the description will make it clear.

Both have a pattern where they might list let’s say an MP3 player which costs $30 but the price on the listing will be $3 because one of the product variants is just the case.

Amazon has comparatively reliable shipping and it’s included with the price on a majority of products if you have a Prime membership. While Temu and AliExpress do have US-based shipping they still don’t guarantee when the thing will arrive and if you are looking at these products the price difference basically disappears.

I am not defending Amazon by any means, but purely on usability it wins hands down.

	▲	ponector 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		In my opinion, Amazon has terrible ui. It's impossible to find something unless you are looking for a particular product of well-known brand.
	▲	toyg 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I've never had a problem with just getting a schematic, in my world that's typical of eBay (lots and lots of Apple boxes...). The dark pattern on listing prices is real though. As it is the lower level of quality control - the same sellers will put the same product on both Amazon and Chinese stores, but the latter will get production batches that are lower quality (coil whine, etc).
	▲	aembleton 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> Both have a pattern where they might list let’s say an MP3 player which costs $30 but the price on the listing will be $3 because one of the product variants is just the case. eBay do that too. Really annoying. Some day I'll make a browser extension to highlight it.

▲

bad_haircut72 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Theres also no moral reason to support Amazon, they give nothing back to the society their buyers live in, much like the chinese suppliers. Might aswell just go with the cheapest.

▲

walrus01 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You mean you don't want to buy the finest grade $59.95 blender for your kitchen from LONCEVON or ARVAGGCCY or ADVWUXITEKPRO ?

The tricky part now is identifying the individual CN vendors which are not yet well known in the English marketplace, that are also known to make good quality things (and generally they're not cheap), I'll use Sofirn flashlights and headlamps as an example. Mostly not sold via Amazon.

▲

IgorPartola 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Those flashlight are amazing and amazing value. I would also include in this Triangle Labs and MKS offerings for 3D printer parts.

▲

scotty79 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What's wrong with those? For established industrial designs small difference in better quality control is never worth overpaying few times for something.

▲

mrngld 6 hours ago | parent [-]

I can't remember what YT channel recently did it, but they compared name brand batteries, third party batteries and knock-off batteries (equivalent to Temu) for some power tools.

The name brand and third party batteries from actual companies both performed great.

The garbage knockoffs were not a "small difference in better quality control", they had completely different battery cells, lower capacity, missing safety features, were easy to overheat, etc.

Also look at the reports coming in from governments around the world on clothes sold by some of these companies. All manner of illegal toxins. You report them, the seller changes some consonants around and relists under the new name.

I'd encourage everyone to do their own homework on this if they really think the differences aren't significant. And the problem is unless you test to failure or send things to labs you don't know if you rolled the dice and got lucky or not, until your house burns down or your toddler gets a weird autoimmune thing that you have no family history of.

	▲	ChoGGi 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> I can't remember what YT channel recently did it, Project Farm?
	▲	scotty79 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yeah, you are right, some categories of products are too risky and additional QA is actually worth it. Batteries, computer storage, anything that has prolonged contact with the body, items that come in contact with food and drinks, items for children.

▲

6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]