By now I have a hard time to differentiate between Amazon and Ali Express or temu or whatever. It's full of cheap shit.
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
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Pages and pages of identical junk. And for anything of actual value (electronics etc) you also run the risk of getting an open box return yet you pay full price. At this point it's a useless store unless you're buying some kind of commodity item.
I want to emphasize that Amazon in it's entirety is not malicious (well it is, but not for my point in this discussion), but the practice of blindly buying from Amazon is the bad practice. Because more knowledgeable hobbyists and professionals will be able to find specific components from brands they want that might be on Amazon, ebay, fb marketplace, etc. However, you can't just look up "compound bow" and expect the first one with 5 star bot reviews to be serious equipment.
That maliciousness crept into Amazon when they added 3rd party sellers and making them close to indistinguishable from reliable vendors.
The combination of the easy one place shop for everything and ignorant people will kill people one of these days.
Almost certainly already has.
Even when you're buying an established brand on Amazon (or you think you are), counterfeits are rampant and Amazon mixes all the suppliers (real and counterfeit), so whether you get a real one or not is just luck of the draw. And they sell a bunch of different things that could put someone's life at risk if done poorly. Medical equipment, car brake parts, power tools, batteries*, bicycle and motorcycle helmets, climbing gear, sailing equipment, etc, etc, etc.
Never buy from Amazon for anything important. (Ideally, never buy from them at all. But especially, don't buy anything important from them that actually needs to work and could cause damage/injury if it doesn't work right.)
*Poor quality batteries can start unexpected and difficult-to-extinguish fires, when charging or discharging, or sometimes even just randomly for no reason.
At least for cats, since the cheaper self-cleaning litter boxes have a decapitation problem.
Amazon used to sell genuine and quality stuff. Those days are long gone, and I specifically don't trust marketplace sellers.
Plus, there’s this thing called customer service. Newbies need guidance, and a competent salesperson can give valuable, personalized advice. Websites can’t.
I get a bunch of refunds for lower quality stuff just by leaving a bad review (even 3-4 stars) with pictures. Happened like 5+ times at this point.
You just need to determine if you’re ok with lower quality. I do woodworking and there are some things I want to have high quality and order items where I don’t care.
Even then, for a lot of hobbies, I'll buy from Banggood before Amazon.
Worst part is the box it shows up in usually.
I've only use it to check the base price of anything, then look for it in real shops. I got burned by non matching item once. I vowed to never buy online, unless I can't source it from local market and needing it.
Amazon is fine. Just don't buy the garbage. I really find it amusing that this is a foreign concept to folks.
PEBKAC.
PEBKAC
Is that one of the no name brands on Amazon?
It's sad because that's an amazing name for drop shipped tech goods but I would've totally missed it if I just scrolled past it on Amazon.
Problem Between Keyboard and Chair.