I stopped using general online marketplaces such as Amazon and similar precisely because I started to get burned by them.
But I still do online shopping if I can't find what I want in a local store -- I just do it directly with the company whose products I want to buy rather than go through a middleman. There are far fewer problems that way, and I know I'm going to get what I ordered. Also, if there is a problem, the company is almost always responsive and will make it right.
If only there were some way the public could collectively organize for their common good and, perhaps, choose a small number of people to represent our interests who could, say, regulate commerce to protect consumers and enforce contracts between parties.
I agree. It’s not just that things sold online often have bad quality or cut corner in some way that you can’t know until you get it. Some have straight up lies in their description - for example clothes sold as 100% organic cotton that actually have some blend of polyester mentioned on the label when you actually get it. Friendly return policies help, although it takes away your time to deal with it so you might as well just shop locally. But then there’s things that are literally hazardous to your health, like cookware that gives you lead poisoning on Amazon (https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/investigat...). There’s no consequence for these large online retailers for any of this, seemingly.
I stopped using general online marketplaces such as Amazon and similar precisely because I started to get burned by them.
But I still do online shopping if I can't find what I want in a local store -- I just do it directly with the company whose products I want to buy rather than go through a middleman. There are far fewer problems that way, and I know I'm going to get what I ordered. Also, if there is a problem, the company is almost always responsive and will make it right.
If only there were some way the public could collectively organize for their common good and, perhaps, choose a small number of people to represent our interests who could, say, regulate commerce to protect consumers and enforce contracts between parties.
I agree. It’s not just that things sold online often have bad quality or cut corner in some way that you can’t know until you get it. Some have straight up lies in their description - for example clothes sold as 100% organic cotton that actually have some blend of polyester mentioned on the label when you actually get it. Friendly return policies help, although it takes away your time to deal with it so you might as well just shop locally. But then there’s things that are literally hazardous to your health, like cookware that gives you lead poisoning on Amazon (https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/investigat...). There’s no consequence for these large online retailers for any of this, seemingly.