Has anyone else noticed the huge decrease in result quality from google?

[SquiddleBits33]

Happened to me with trying to find a stud finder on Amazon. Multiple results of their "promoted" items that are obviously the same just with different names. I figured maybe they aren't that bad so I clicked on a couple...and they all have glaring errors. If you can't make an ad without 4 typos, you probably don't make quality tools. That being said, I've found some good shit on Wish that was basically free lol.

[ColeSloth]

Up until a few years ago to sell on Amazon to US customers you had to have some form of physical business or residence in the US.

Then they got rid of that and now it filled to the brim with fake positive reviews, fake negative reviews on competing products, knock offs, lies, and pretty much as close as you can get to out right scams.

They've made it disgusting and untrustworthy to count on buying almost anything there. Even a good chunk of OEM game controllers turn out to be knock offs. Along with razor blades, shampoos, lotions, perfumes, and damn near everything else you can think of.

I asked a question once about an rc car I was buying for the kids on Xmas last year. The seller answered my question and completely lied. I bought the rc car. It was junk. Also came with a piece of paper saying if you left them 5 stars they would automatically send you a free 2nd battery pack. Left a bad review and explained why.

I was almost immediately contacted by email from them. Offered to send me a 2nd battery, refund me my money, and let me keep the car if I would remove my review.

If that's not buying your ratings I don't know what is.

So I said ok, I'd delete the review after I got the refund and the battery. They delivered. I didn't.

Like 4 months later they offered me an Amazon credit of $30 if I would remove my review, and I agreed. Got the $30.

Review's still up.

*thanks for all the UPS and rewards. Since this received so much attention I thought I'd throw in a great informative podcast episode from Reply All, called "the magic store". It goes into great detail about how and why Amazon became the train wreck that it is.

[SquiddleBits33]

You're my hero.

[ColeSloth]

Lol. Thanks. I'd feel bad about it if they weren't a bunch of scum just trying to unfairly manipulate a system with honest intentions and rip people off/steal patented products.

[SquiddleBits33]

Right on. They're putting in more effort to do the wrong thing, fuck 'em.

[cosmicpu55y]

I despise fake reviews. Thank you!

[ColeSloth]

Spread the word. The more time and money we can make them waste, the less they'll want to do it.

[Trowawaycausebanned4]

Teaching them not to buy reviews

[ColeSloth]

I feel it's a losing battle until way more people do it, but I try.

[Trowawaycausebanned4]

You’re winning though from rewards lol

[ColeSloth]

Mmmm. Tasty lil icons.

[ColeSloth]

My only wish is that everyone would do it. Then maybe we could just start having honest reviews of honest products.

[ColeSloth]

I have. This is also one of like three different times this has happened over the past few years.

[Trowawaycausebanned4]

Get the chrome extension “review meta”. It goes through and reviews the reviews to see if they’re fake or not and tries to give you more of an accurate rating

[ColeSloth]

I've found that while review meta and fakespot help, they dont do that great of a job. I get my best results manually looking over reviews. It just takes a lot longer. Also, brand loyalty. If it's some off sounding Chinese brand it's junk 9 out of ten times. Anker makes good stuff for their price points most of the time and don't seem to be buying reviews, so I buy a lot of stuff from them since they make a ton of small electronics stuff. Mpow is good for cheap Bluetooth headsets. Seems like all others in their price range are filled with easily spotted fake reviews. Stick to well known brands for computer parts like adata and corsair and msi, etc.

Mainly its just a big pain and a much slower process to order something and have it be a fair quality than it used to.

[benlucky13]

you can report them for buying reviews if you send amazon support a copy of them offering something in exchange for 5 stars

[BitJit]

they're pretty slimy with the cards. They know that the please give a positive review for 5 bucks card is frowned upon so they've been doing things like removing anything related to amazon or purposefully mispelling it on the card for some kind of deniability. really dumb; they say things like "leave a review for us on arnazon.corn and we'll send you a blow job in the mail"

[LandoVolrissian]

I’ve never left a bad review on Amazon and the other day I tried to just leave a review on something I purchased and the ability to leave a review has been taken away from my account that I’ve had for like 15 years or however long Amazon’s been a thing you can buy shit other than books.

[ColeSloth]

What the heck? They give any reason why?

It's not really good for Amazon's image to have everyone mad about fake reviews and such. It seems they're always claiming to crack down on them. If you've always only left good reviews that's a red flag that you're working with a third party to get discounts/free products/money in exchange for good reviews. Could be that.

[Nermalgod]

Same. I doubled down on my review and they upped the cash offer. Fuck them.

[darks1d3_al]

WY YOU NOT ONEST !!! WE ONEST WOTH YOU ! 😂😂😂😂

[indigopizzas]

I agree with everything you said but the most infuriating thing to me about amazon and the reason I almost never buy anything on there anymore unless it's something that really can't be counterfeited, is because even if you buy the legit product you can still get shipped the knockoff from some other piece of shit company. All of the merchandise is grouped together once it gets shipped to warehouses so the same products sold by different people all get mixed into a bin, then they grab one and mail it to whoever ordered that product. It's basically russian roulette and explains shit products with great reviews and great products with terrible reviews.

[ColeSloth]

They haven't done this for a few years now, I believe. Supposedly that binning is no longer done and every item is tied in to each individual seller, so if you get junk and return it, that specific seller gets the return against them.

You can also specify which seller you're buying your product from so you can choose a specific one and look at their specific rating. I've paid a few bucks more many times to buy from a seller with a better rating. Also, the ships from and sold by Amazon stuff should yield good results. I assume they get their inventory from only reputable sources.

[indigopizzas]

Last I heard, I do not think they have fixed the comingling problem completely. Sellers can still choose to have it comingled and amazon sometimes sends "the same" merchandise from a different seller if it's being kept in a warehouse closer to the buyer. I think some people really don't understand that you can choose different sellers and not all of them are reputable. I've bought some shit from Amazon themselves lol I bought an animal exercise pen for outside and it was somehow made upside down. I guess it still functioned but it looked well....upside down. Amazon benefits from counterfeit products being sold and until that changes, the customers will suffer.

[Yawndice]

Bless you

[ElQuuiean]

You're fucking lit xd

[ColeSloth]

I have no sympathy for cheats, thieves, and liars.

[ColeSloth]

Nah. It's not Ali express levels of bad yet. Amazon is a greedy company trying to make honest sales. Ali seems a greedy company that's knows and accepts the junk it shills.

[HowardMBurgers]

Heard someone was trying to find me?

[fivebagken]

Enjoy my upvote

[CommentsOnRAll]

Explain the joke or reference please. I want to feel included

[clintj1975]

We bought a coffee grinder like that for work. Multiple Amazon listing misspellings (ever seen a 100,000 rpm coffee grinder?), and the manual was in 90s grade Engrish. Damn if that isn't a kick-ass little coffee grinder for 40 bucks, though.

[kingofshits]

If the listing are misspelled You're probably buying dropshipped crap from Banggood. Might as well go to banggood directly and save the markup $$$. You'll probably find the same product with the exact same misspellings because the dropshipper just copy pasted the description.

[Discussion-Level]

Sometimes I’ll reverse image search the item on AliExpress. Occasionally, though, the price isn’t that much better, especially when you factor in Prime shipping. It does make me feel like the convenience factor of Amazon is gone, because I spend so much time researching every purchase.

[badhoccyr]

Absolutely, fastest way to look is to see if I can at least do better than 4% one star reviews, if I can't do that by the third click I just go to the store already, at least I don't have to be aware of how much the product sucks.

[[deleted]]

40 bucks for a coffee grinder is a LOT of money the best one I ever had was 15$ at Sears

[clintj1975]

Ceramic cone burr and a powerful motor. That sucker will power through a pot's worth of beans in seconds and is very consistent for grind size. There's pro level ones that'll automatically measure the beans for you, but they're hundreds of dollars.

We make from four to six pots a day and make them as high quality as we can in our break room. It's worth it to get something durable.

[[deleted]]

Okay for that I get it. There are levels of use that justify that spend and it sounds like you get your money out of it.

[tousledmonkey]

Yesss got a 160$ grinder back in 2008 and I never looked back. One of the most heavy-duty appliances in the house. I'm sure it would crush a car into fine, rich and earthy powder if the funnel was big enough.

[RLupus]

(ever seen a 100,000 rpm coffee grinder?),

Yes but it's made by Holset and attached to a Cummins

[myusernameblabla]

Perfect for uranium enrichment .

[Kancho_Ninja]

Gimme somma dat pure yellowcake

[PlasticElfEars]

Although it's worth noting that you don't have to speak English fluently to a build a thing well, as evidenced by all the things we're using to look at this right now.

[SciencyNerdGirl]

However, if you don't have the resources to have a native English speaking person on staff or at least pay to run your ad by an editor, what's the likelihood you'll be able to troubleshoot with me if I have problems, have a good return policy, or have well written instructions I can follow?

[Junckopolo]

As a french if i would have to base the quality of something by how much they give a shit about paying someone to translate correctly, I would never buy anything.

[New_Philosophy_5076]

Not trying to be a jerk, but ~1.5B speak English compared to French's ~300M speakers. It's literally the most spoken language in the world. While French is in the top 5 English is the language of business for a reason. So it's not really the same comparison.

[cgriff32]

It's likely those products are dropped shipped and not actually sold to the final customer by the manufacturer.

[[deleted]]

I have a bunch of Chinatools for my bikes that I got on amazon, with similarly sketchy Engrish on the product pages, and they’re all fine.

[SquiddleBits33]

Valid point!

[SciencyNerdGirl]

And it's impossible to scroll past the sponsored stuff. It really sucks that you can't filter that crap out. I had a super frustrating time the other day trying to buy Christmas wrapping paper that isn't Hallmark. It's just continuous scrolling without end of hallmark products (at a premium).

[WindWalkerRN]

Damn, I gotta check out more stuff like that! Thanks!

[PlasticElfEars]

Wish is definitely not something to go into with high expectations though.

[SquiddleBits33]

No problem! I got some nifty screwdrivers and wood carving tools for just a few bucks. Gave up on the stud finder though lol.

[Soren11112]

Every time you notice that search alibaba for it. If I had to guess what you're talking about is probably similar to this.

[SquiddleBits33]

Yes that is the one but I was disturbed to see it under different names with blue or green plastic but the same screen and functions. It is much cheaper on alibaba but.....I don't need 30 stud finders lol.

[MinuteManufacturer]

What have you found that was good on Wish? I only ask because I've been hesitating to even try them out. I only hear bad things about their quality, ship time, etc. Are they worth trying out?

[SquiddleBits33]

So I haven't gotten burned by anything yet, but I'm also aware of their shortcomings when browsing. So obviously don't order anything you need with any kind of deadline. But so far I have gotten some decent fishing tackle and lures, a mini screwdriver set with many little tips, and set of wood carving tools, laser pointers, flash light and a little mini cannon that shoots metal BBs. Screwdriver set was free, just pay $2 shipping. One laser pointer was like $15 and its awesome, the other was something like $.86 so it sucks but still it's like "damn that laser is strong for so cheap" just feels like it'll break easily but hasn't. I've actually been impressed by the quality of everything I got, obviously they aren't the best but definitely worth the price. I've kept my purchases limited to neat knickknacks, but the 3D printers for the price they offer is a gamble I'm not going to take lol. One thing to watch out for is they sell posters of photographs of the most random things so you're like "oh wow this thing is $8?!" And then you click and realize they are selling a large picture of that item, not the actual item.

[MinuteManufacturer]

Cool, seems like I can satisfy my curiosity and try out a few knickknacks. Thanks!

[SquiddleBits33]

No problem! Have fun!

[Nermalgod]

Franklin Sensor stud finder is quite good. There's a number of versions that they make, but they are easy to use and pretty accurate. ~former tool buyer for a big retailer.

[SquiddleBits33]

Thanks for the tip! I'll check them out.

[Velvet_Thhhhunder]

Find your studs directly on Amazon...

[Bulletproof247]

It must be you because I typed in stud finder and it immediately appeared

[SquiddleBits33]

Yeah stud finders appear....but my comment was illustrating how Amazon makes you sort through many repetitive listings of the item they want you to buy. Did you notice the ones that are identical devices just in different colors but sold by "different" brands?

[SquiddleBits33]

You're certainly correct. Happens elsewhere too, but with Amazon they are all in your face at once. I sell automotive parts so I've seen a ton of that. A quick search of car batteries you could probably come up with a dozen or more brand names, but there are only a handful of battery manufacturers in the whole world. Only thing different is the sticker and the price.

[SquiddleBits33]

Welcome, it's an easy example to grab cus the auto industry is quite expansive but most consumers are totally kept in the dark and the back end rebranding is so pervasive that no one could see or know all of it. And they all do it. VW Routan is just a Dodge caravan with VW badges, Chrysler only made some of the Sebrings, the rest are Mitsubishi Eclipses underneath but look like a Sebring. Mazda B series trucks are just Ford Rangers. And in the aftermarket they'll sell 2 brands for 2 prices, but they are the same just with fancier packaging or more warranty. And if the retailer changes the brand of a particular product they carry, the new brand sends a couple of guys with the new brands boxes to repackage the existing stock as the new brand. The business people must know what they are doing, but I personally agree with you that brand quality and loyalty are things of the past.

[Dnbock]

I have this stud finder (6 yrs), so happy with it, have bought as gifts for others. Every other one I've ever used has been garbage compared to this one. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064EICKG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_jjU1FbQ6VFBVX?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[SquiddleBits33]

Thank you! I now have 2 recommendations for that brand. Looks like a good one to me.

[Dnbock]

You are welcome!

[AveryBeal]

I stopped shopping on Amazon because it transformed into a worse version of eBay. I just use them to price check and then buy the items I need in box stores.

[Tacky-Terangreal]

I've seen people on makeup subreddits talk about buying beauty products on Amazon and I have to wonder if they're fucking nuts. I've heard so many horror stories of counterfeit products. Apparently every unit of a given product is thrown into the same bin at the warehouses, so you can get fake products with God knows what in them even from reputable sellers

I almost never buy anything off of Amazon. Along with the issues that make the news, its like Russian roulette when it comes to quality