Amazon Just Isn’t Okay.
It started with my toothbrush.
After many years with my rechargeable electric toothbrush, it finally started to die. So I ordered a new toothbrush from Amazon. When the toothbrush arrived, it had a red light on it that wasn’t shown in the picture. So I called Amazon customer service.
“You can return it,” said the not-as-helpful-as-usual customer service rep.
“I need a toothbrush,” I said. “I just want to know what the red light does.”
“I don’t have that information,” said the rep. I hung up, no wiser, and gave up on figuring out why there was a red light on the toothbrush. Later, though, I looked at reviews from other buyers: Not as pictured; This isn’t the toothbrush I ordered; Cheap replica! they said.
I was a little concerned. But for a decade, I’d been buying everything I owned – from diapers and toys to food and electronics – on Amazon. So I just kept on buying.
But I noticed a disturbing trend. I ordered products that I’d ordered before, and they arrived looking … well, just not the same. Then I looked at reviews for the things I’d ordered – even things with thousands of positive reviews – and discovered that, in the past year or two, things weren’t as high quality as they’d been before.
And things weren’t showing up as advertised. I bought a therapy ball and an eye patch for my dad, who’d had eye surgery. But I never got the eye patch, even after repeated emails and calls. I bought dog food in pouches and some pouches had the “real” brand name, while other pouches looked like they’d been made on my home computer.
And buying replacement items, where I could compare quality, was even worse. I bought a shirt that I’d loved in blue, so I got it in purple – but it fell apart after only two washes. I bought a second pair of fleece shorts that I’d loved and they showed up with a huge hole on the seam. I re-bought a set of flashlights that had once felt sturdy and metallic in my hand, and now they felt light and flimsy.
My dog’s “bully bones” used to be thick and lasted for weeks; now they are thin and gone in mere minutes. I got a case of potato chips that were so stale, they were inedible – even though the expiration date said they were fine for another nine months!
Meanwhile, the prices have gone up. And customer service has gone down. Whereas I used to get representatives that would say, “You can send it back!” – now they say, “We can offer you a $5 gift card for your trouble.”
So I started looking at Amazon reviews with much more care. I filtered reviews by “Most Recent” rather than “Top Reviews” (which is the default).
And what I found is that many, many products are being negatively reviewed, especially in the past year – even products that were once infallible. Things are breaking or falling apart almost immediately after they’re received. Or they don’t work at all.
One woman compared the pillowcase she bought ten years ago to the one she re-bought this year – and you can see the difference in thickness in her simple photo.
My “genuine Canon” printer ink is not “genuine” anymore – but the refilled ink canisters are still being sold as genuine.
Amazon just isn’t okay anymore. Prices are up, and customer service is down. And quality is nonexistent.
So things have changed. I won’t buy anything on Amazon now unless I absolutely can’t get it anywhere else.
And I can get everything somewhere else.