[[ “Since I consider Bezos evil incarnate, I am helping the world by not contributing to his company.” ]]
We purchased a $700 Nikon digital camera through one of Amazon’s third parties, and it turned out to be a gray market ticket with costly issues. The camera store refused to refund or repair the camera, and Amazon would not back it up either, so while we still purchase a few small items through them, they lost a good customer overall.
And I really do not like how Amazon “Prime shames” a person if they do not scoop it up.
I bought two 6 TB bare drives to populate a NAS server. One was legit, one was gray market. The merchant was crooked. Even though there were lots of complaints about the merchant, Amazon did not discipline them or fire them. That is the most disappointing thing I’ve found on Amazon — the failure to properly manage third party vendors even in the face of big complaint volume.
I’m struck by the number of complaints by conservatives about Bezos. He is the quintessential American success story and made it without government subsidies like Musk sucks up to make his fortune. Yes, Bezos’ politics are awful, but he has created an amazing enterprise that has changed the character of world wide retail in amazing ways. Early on he saw the e-commerce potential of the internet and took advantage of it. Whoever would have believed back when he was a BOOK seller that he would one day become the world’s richest man and make $12 BILLION in ONE day?
[[We purchased a $700 Nikon digital camera through one of Amazon’s third parties, and it turned out to be a gray market ticket with costly issues]]
I bought a $3600 camera with same issues- was defective- had to have it repaired three times- then they told me they were done repairing it- Still doesn’t work right- and I’m expecting the electronic board in it to crap out again anytime- Worst purchase I’ve ever made- Canon refused to stand behind their product even though the issues were due to known (yet hidden) defective components-
The issues didn’t rear their ugly heads until after the return policy- so i was out that option as well
Gray market sucks
I just purchased some weed eater spools. They were advertised as original Black and Decker and I had purchased them before. On reordering, I got some Chinese knockoffs. When I wrote a review that stated Amazon needs to address all the third-party fraud on their site, they refused to publish it. The reviews are also total fraud. It used to be a decent place to research, but now it’s about as reliable as than the Washing Post. Amazon Prime is a good deal if you use it, but the site and its owner are not ethical. Screw Bezos.