SOT: An Amazon trick

[Another John]

Slightly off-topic, but: I buy a lot of my tools on Amazon.

This week I bought another external hard disk for backup purposes -- LaCie Rugged -- got 3 or 4 now.

In Amazon's "often bought with this item" was the item "USB 3 cable - ?4.99".

Funny I thought -- all my previous ones came with the necessary cable(s). No mention of a cable in the details though ... so I thought what the hell "it's only a fiver", and ordered one. (Forgetting, in the excitement of buying something, that I have plenty of bloody cables here in my cables drawer!)

So it arrived, and sure enough it had two USB cables right there in the box -- of course it had: why would anyone sell a disk *without* a cable?

So then I thought: No wonder a cable is "often bought with this item": there's plenty of mugs about, as I've just proved.

So then I thought: all that Amazon have to do is lie about it for (say) a week, and then the lie becomes unvarnished truth.

Hmph.

John

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

It isn't only Amazon, almost anything bought on the web seems to involve difficulties that essentially rely on the fact that people that obtain goods and services with the click of a mouse, are not going to go to a lot of trouble to persue a claim.

Had trouble with 3 in Ireland, a defective instruction on PAYG data cards webpage meant that anyone topping up a card on the internet was ripped off, with a few K of data being supplied instead of 1 to 3G

A known problem, one they knew about for three years!

Amazon are fraudsters, I was ripped off for a Kindle, bought in Argos, no word of adverts, but it was just adds everywhere when I tried it. Amazon tried it on for £10-00 to remove the adds.

Their scam when checking out is quite subtle too, click the mouse in the most obvious spot and you have signed up to prime.

Then there is the dissection of the order to see which of the "free" deliveries were actually charged for.

At that point if it's multiple items, I usually can't be bothered and use Ebay. At least the postage is clearly marked.

It's very convenient these little errors, they are common with every supplier in every sector, my most recent being yesterday with a finace related service.

There is one overriding factor that they all have in common though, the vendor in control of the site/ business always benefits from the "error".

AB

[Richard]

I very sincerely hope that you get stitched up every time. You certainly don't give a toss about staff in the bricks and mortar businesses.

[Brian Gaff]

There is another one on a similar theme. A back up drive and also commonly bought with this one was a usb extension cable. A friend did as you did then read in the destructions for the drive, a longer cable for this drive is not recommended. I assume this might be because of loss or corruption of data, or maybe its the supply drop. Brian

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

You are very wrong. I cannot for the life of me understand how a DIY group manages to attract you flipping idiots, you give all the impressions of being able to read, but somehow nothing sinks in.

Some of the "DIY" projects completed by some of the morons here must be a total joke, I wouldn't trust a lot of the people that post here with one of those kiddies rubber hammers.

Actually I do give a damn. I always shop locally where possible and go out of my way to find the outlets that provide that bit of service that gives the edge over "box shifters". Electronic outlets were never successful, so unless One lived near Edgeware road, mail order was always the only option.

We are at a point where the experienced retailer is dying off, and DIY in particular is suffering.

As the retailers are going, local revenues are plummeting also.

You get what you pay for!

One up to B&Q really, I am not totally enamoured by their operation, but they do seem to have a small proportion of staff that take an interest in the product range.

The other side of the coin is Screwfix & Toolstation where they are obviously geared for a kind of semi professional select and collect approach, they should be faster than Senators outlets, sadly I am always stuck behind some tosser that seems to want an in depth training session in the use of a 20mm conduit socket. Probably the only purchase too!

AB

[alan_m]

The reason so many people shop on the Net is because of the shitty service they often get from the bricks and mortar businesses especially when it comes to up-selling of extended warranties or in-store credit cards.

[alan_m]

With larger items local outlets are often only a middle man with an on-line account ordering your goods that get delivered straight from the manufacturer.

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

Retail staff do not seem to be well paid, so if anyone is in it for the money or a route to the top, they are going to have problems.

The one plus point about a walk in establishment though is the fact that if the service is truly pathetic, you can terminate a purchase at almost any point and walk out. The last time I did this was at Starbucks in a North Wales branch. Some sales girl was employed to do a job [sell coffee], that was well beyond her abilities, so I left her to it and went to the garage opposite.

I can well imagine that many taking a keen interest in what they were selling might not be seen as an asset though, simply because a store in a popular area is going to need a continual flow of customers to cover overheads.

A bit like PPI, In store credit cards and warranties are a pointless rip off on virtually every occasion. The people buying these would probably have difficulty ordering online anyway due to a brain cell shortage [The Brexit syndrome].

AB

[michael adams]

Another satisfied customer, by the looks of things.

michael adams

...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Some also, when experiencing a financial downturn, seem to cut the service they offer. Hence speeding up their demise.

[tabbypurr]

A lot of bricks & mortar selling needs to shift to online. A large amount has done so, more will. Most of us have no trouble working out why. And most of us know what the downsides are.

[charles]

In article ,

a new Screwfix brnach near here has a large sign : "Staff are no longer able to give advice on the use of purchases." Perhaps someone got bad advice & sued them?

[charles]

Screwfix, were originally a mail order company, although you could call at their Yeovil premises - I did once. Having been taken over, they then went in for sales counters all over the place - and are still opening them. 2 new ones within range here. The point about counter sales is that you don't have to wait in for a delivery. Fine, if you've nothing better to do, but useless if you're out all day.

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

I can well imagine someone attaching the blame to an assistant when things go wrong.

I tend to think that the more likely scenario was a shopful of customers waiting while the staff gave some plonker an in depth lesson in the bleeding obvious. People are less patient these days.

AB

[The Natural Philosopher]

Rather the opposite. if you are out all day and cannot receive packages.

[Theo]

I think you're in agreement. DIY is one of those things where premises are useful - either you need to pop down to pick a to finish the job, or you're in the trade and turn up at 7am to grab all the bits you need for that day's jobs.

I can't see that going completely online, unless anyone will do same-day delivery. Similarly for car parts - where a garage can get a part in a couple of hours if they find they need one. To do that you need local premises, and you might as well stick a trade counter at the front.

I can see it diverging: trade counters for those who know what they're doing and what they want, with fewer large sheds where you can wander round feeling the products.

Theo

[alan_m]

That is changing with many manufactures making promotional youtube type videos and with many instructional videos on-line. You don't nrrd to feel the product.

[ARW]

Quite the opposite of the Hyco water filter and two water boilers I was given to install on Friday.

Take note of part no 2 of the installation guide that is in brackets.

[Fredxx]

Poundland are selling those cables for £1 so I'd be tempted to return it!

Feedback can be left too.

[dennis]

As long as you remember how many takes they did to get it right.