"Amazon shifted gears so that it now litters its storefront with pay-to-play advertisements. In addition to overcharging its customers, Amazon is degrading the services it provides them."
Amazon is literally aliexpress but with a more sophisticated UI.
Nothing but absolute shit chinese knock off products. No longer can you get the same kind of savings like you could in the past. You’re basically paying full retail now, plus prime or shipping.
Temu is weird. They really are willing to sell stuff at a lost to garner market share and I’m sure there are some legitimately astounding deals if done right but also I’m just as likely to spend several days hunting and planning it out how to do so and still get shit on by a scam product anyways… so I avoid it but I know I’m losing out a chance to get a mini win.
Yeah, unless I need something ASAP, I usually only buy name brands, but not expensive items on Amazon. Other stuff I go to Ali for and just wait a little longer. Expensive stuff I buy in person or directly from the manufacturer when possible. Recently I’ve been trying to supplement Amazon purchases with small businesses where possible.
Not sure what you buy off Ali, but nearly everything I used to buy for electronic/robotic projects has gotten to the price that I might as well buy off NA suppliers.
Sellers even drop ship from AliExpress and similar sites. Basically every time the shipping is quoted longer than a week it’s probably drop shipped from one of the Chinese sites. They add $5-$10 to the price and take their cut without ever touching the product.
I canceled my prime membership and stopped using Amazon entirely after I ordered something that turned out to be drop shipped straight from Walmart. But online shopping in general is a nightmare these days.
Amazon is literally aliexpress but with a more sophisticated UI.
Nothing but absolute shit chinese knock off products. No longer can you get the same kind of savings like you could in the past. You’re basically paying full retail now, plus prime or shipping.
Ali has good stuff depending on what you’re buying. Amazon usually has the exact same stuff for like 50% more
I used to shop exclusively on Banggood. At the time AliExpress was sketchy.
A few years ago they flip flopped. Now Banggood is hot garbage, and AliExpress isn’t bad.
Gearbest, Temu, and Wish were always bad in my experience.
Temu is weird. They really are willing to sell stuff at a lost to garner market share and I’m sure there are some legitimately astounding deals if done right but also I’m just as likely to spend several days hunting and planning it out how to do so and still get shit on by a scam product anyways… so I avoid it but I know I’m losing out a chance to get a mini win.
Yeah, unless I need something ASAP, I usually only buy name brands, but not expensive items on Amazon. Other stuff I go to Ali for and just wait a little longer. Expensive stuff I buy in person or directly from the manufacturer when possible. Recently I’ve been trying to supplement Amazon purchases with small businesses where possible.
Exactly. My hobby is making my own smart devices, and I can get 10x of one sensor from Ali for the cost of 1x from Amazon.
But ali takes like 2 months to ship.
No it doesn’t. It usually takes 10 days for me. Sitting in US customs is like 5-6 days of that time, too.
Not sure what you buy off Ali, but nearly everything I used to buy for electronic/robotic projects has gotten to the price that I might as well buy off NA suppliers.
Sellers even drop ship from AliExpress and similar sites. Basically every time the shipping is quoted longer than a week it’s probably drop shipped from one of the Chinese sites. They add $5-$10 to the price and take their cut without ever touching the product.
I canceled my prime membership and stopped using Amazon entirely after I ordered something that turned out to be drop shipped straight from Walmart. But online shopping in general is a nightmare these days.
Prime AND shipping half the time these days.
More than full retail most of the time! They’re not even bothering to compete with Walmart or Target anymore on the same products.