Why I hate buying on Amazon

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Items on Amazon are more expensive than ebay.
I find the search results on Amazon are full of trash unrelated items.  To use an ebay term they are keyword spamming.
Amazon should as far as possible enforce its item ASIN i.e. if  all these sellers are listing these items as manufacturer glowworm part No. 2000802731  then they should all be under a single ASIN  and there should be an Amazon approved picture of the item and if anyone lists anything different under the ASIN there should be a report button on the search result icon.
Amazon will not let you change the No. of items per page to 200  like ebay,  (or as I would prefer 1000)
Amazon puts "sponsored" items into the search results. Which are out of sync with the prices you are viewing and are often totally unrelated items. 
You cannot force it to give you "list" or "grid" displayed results it seems choose that for itself which one it is going to give you. 
You can only go "next page" forward on the search results to a limited number of pages seemingly 20 in "list" mode or 7 in "grid" mode  So you cannot sometimes get past the keyword spammers.
It will only allow you to go to the next page, you cannot skip ahead a few pages like you can on ebay.
They don't put the page number and next page button at the top of the search results (neither does ebay) you have to scroll to the bottom of the page.
Some search results have no price, when you go into the listing you can usually see they are available from £xxx  that "£xxx" amount should be in the search results page.
There is no advanced search to force it to only search the title of the listing.   

I just searched Amazon for "2000802731"  this is a circuit board for a boiler a very common part.  On Amazon, sellers are listing all other parts for the boilers and describing them accurately in the title with the relevant part numbers and picture but in the listing page they are putting 2000802731 as the part number.   I can imagine they do this with all the highly searched for part numbers for that boiler.   I sorted by "price low to high" and was not allowed to go past page 20,  by page 20 I had not seen a single accurate listing for the part I wanted except a few in the sponsored format and I only reached £48.50 .  Search ebay with that and you will see the difference.   

Amazon tricked me into pressing accept for a trial period of prime even with this, I still order from ebay because ebay is cheaper and better.

Penguin_

If you don't like it, don't shop on it!! Seriously, then you wouldn't have to waste your time posting a pointless rant.

elsien

Is there a question? 

Otherwise you may have been better on the vent bit of the forum. 
Not sure how you can be tricked into setting up prime when if I recall correctly it asks you if you want the trial and you have to actively choose to accept or decline, 

xxxxxxxx

It says nowhere it has to be a question.  The submit button on "new thread" says "post discussion" not "post question" 

It may be pointless to you, penguin, but it is not pointless to other people who wish to know and or discuss the issue(s).

I was tricked, I bought 2 items seperately from Amazon, the first time I avoided the trick, the second time (10 days later), despite reading the page, I clicked on the wrong link thinking I was avoiding it again but suddenly found I had subscribed to prime.  As I recall the wording used was not obvious where to click to avoid the offer. 

A "Campaign for Plain English" equivalent would have had a simple:
Do you wish to sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime?  "YES" or  "NO"  

Using the vent board would defeat the object of discussing here where there are sellers who use Amazon.  Who might be able to advise of anything I have missed or who might with their knowledge contact Amazon and feedback to them about issues affecting their buyers.  Or other buyers who feel the same frustrations.

elsien

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Seems pretty clear to me. 

comeandgo

I love love amazon.  I know what I'm looking for and accept there will be items there that are adverts companies have paid to be included.  I also know what buttons to press to either accept a prime trial or ignore it.  If you do accidentally take the prime trial just go into your account and stop it, there is no trickery involved.

soolin

xxxxxxxx said:

It says nowhere it has to be a question.  The submit button on "new thread" says "post discussion" not "post question" 
It may be pointless to you but it is not pointless to other people who wish to know and or discuss the issue(s).

I was tricked, I bought 2 items seperately from Amazon, the first time I avoided the trick, the second time (10 days later), despite reading the page, I clicked on the wrong link thinking I was avoiding it again but suddenly found I had subscribed to prime.  As I recall the wording used was not obvious where to click to avoid the offer. 

A "Campaign for Plain English" equivalent would have had a simple:
Do you wish to sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime?  "YES" or  "NO"  

Using the vent board would defeat the object of discussing here where there are sellers who use Amazon.  Who might be able to advise of anything I have missed or who might with their knowledge contact Amazon and feedback to them about issues affecting their buyers.

This is going to sound rude however I phrase it - but you missed the Prime sign up even though it is clear, on another thread you made an offer on ebay not having any idea that it was binding. Buying online can be tricky and it really pays to read and understand what you are doing before you open any accounts and start using them. There are a lot of good things about buying online- but perhaps stepping back a bit and taking your time might be a good idea in the future. At the moment you have managed to stumble into problems on two high profile sites, it could be so much worse if you fall for any of the really dodgy sites- the ones that advertise on social media for instance and which are rife at this time of year. 

Petriix

You make some valid points. The Amazon search can be a poor experience. The Ebay search is also problematic for different reasons: minimal product 'ratings', inaccurate price shown when options are available etc. 

You just have to learn to work with the system. Sometimes a Google search is a better way to find the correct items on Amazon. Setting a minimum price can help filter out the spam. The 'related items' or 'people who bought this also viewed' sections are quite useful; don't just rely on the search. 

When you do find the correct item, consider going directly to the seller's own website. It's often cheaper. 

xxxxxxxx

Soolin, 
I won't take that as being rude, I have had nothing but polite responses from you on MSE .  And I appreciate the sentiment with which you wrote it.   However, MSE does have a problem with toxic posters such as the first reply I received on this thread.  I only mention this here because you brought up the topic. I was going to ignore that aspect of Penguin's reply and only reply to the points that were made, which is what I did.  I have been meaning to point out on the feedback board about the toxicity which is and always has existed on MSE forums.  Not that I think it will do any good because nothing has changed here in the last 20 years so why would anything change now just because I put my 2p in on the subject?

Anyway:
Ebay:
You saw my screen captures from ebay "make offer"  and it shows I was not warned of any binding agreement.  Yes, I could have taken 4 hours to find and read through 20 - 50 pages of T&Cs   but we have trade descriptions act and Trading Standards in the UK which means at the point of sale your commitments should be made clear to you.    enough said on that.  

Amazon Free trial:
Your screen capture shows that you have previously subscribed to prime.  The screen I was given was as a customer who has never had prime.  I now know (from your screen capture) that I will not likely see the same screen again using my account.  It  was a page of promotional spiel and even though I am pretty savvy and thought I was clicking on the refuse, having refused before on the exact same page 10 days earlier, and I admit, I was rushing a little bit,  I found myself signed up. Trust me when I say, if that can happen to me, then it can happen to a large portion of consumers.    For me it was not a problem, I just took advantage of it for that one order and read the FAQs to find that I could set a cancellation reminder (something that was not made clear at the outset). but for other people the way amazon did this would lead to a lot of people being duped and charged after the month was up. That is why they do it, to make money off of less aware people.

  

soolin

Anyway:
Ebay:
You saw my screen captures from ebay "make offer"  and it shows I was not warned of any binding agreement.  Yes, I could have taken 4 hours to find and read through 20 - 50 pages of T&Cs   but we have trade descriptions act and Trading Standards in the UK which means at the point of sale your commitments should be made clear to you.    enough said on that.  

In fairness to you I suppose as someone who buys and sells either online or face to face I am more used to the concept of agreeing a contract/price . If I go to an antique shop and see an ornament I like at £20 and offer seller £15- the moment he accepts my offer and shakes my hand I have bought it- even if I later notice that I perhaps missed a chip or something else- the contract at that point was still formed at point seller accepted my offer. 

If you ever watch the daytime TV antique type programmes it often crops up on there, a novice buyer or celeb will offer a price, seller accepts and then a few minutes later buyer or celebrity changes their mind- and the expert has to point out to them that it is too late- they bought it, even if at that point no money has changed hand. 

Going off topic a bit I have also had the opposite, where buyers believe the contract is formed between us at the point they make an offer- and it's only the price that is up for negotiation. On more than one occasion I have received an offer- but before i can even consider it the item has sold to someone else. The person making the offer has been quite upset as they felt that they had somehow blocked the item by making an offer- and until such time I accepted or refused the item was theirs and no one else should be able to counter offer or buy it. 

jon81uk

No one is forcing you to shop with Amazon.