To say Amazon is getting too much like eBay?

Yes I find that they really push non branded things with odd sounding names. The same items can have different brand names too but it's the same photo.
Some of these cost just as much as branded! I actually ordered a pair Skecher type shoes and they were rubbish so returned them.

@FancyRedRobin the Internet is a giant jumble sale of shite.

Never a truer word was spoken. It's appalling. I used to pride myself on being able to find obscure, crafty suppliers but not anymore. It's the same with the Christmas markets - a sea of identical tat.

I just watched The Shopping Conspiracy on Netflix. Very tempted to cancel my Prime. What a world.

I was about to say this. This is the natural direction of travel for end-stage capitalism, in my view.

I gave up on Amazon ages ago. Far rather buy direct from independent sellers for most stuff. I buy less, but what I buy is much better quality, more durable etc.

ITA - I just wanted to buy genuine HP inkjet cartridge multipack, as my HP printer only works with the brand name. That is another story, which I will address one day when I have the time. I put HP cartridges into Amazon, and about the first 15 packs, that came up were non-branded!

Also, when I'm looking for electronic goods, I don't want refurbished - I want the brand name new!

Half of it is just dross now! Same as with all the clothes websites. If I want to look at M & S or Next or Tu clothes, thats all I want to look at - not 1,000 clothes in that category, because they include about 5 other brands! I'd do a search on another brand, if that was what I wanted. All the websites end up the same!

I have Prime which pays for itself with the free deliveries and more. I tend to order vitamins, toiletries and sometimes gifts. I rarely have a problem and on the rare occasions I do, returning for a refund is done without quibble and sorted very quickly. As an online seller myself I don't understand how people are able to sell rubbish because Amazon is the hardest platform to sell on. What I love most is the next day delivery.

I still use it but not so much. Agree that it is full of crap. Am careful about what I buy and who the seller is.

I use filters absolutely all the time on eBay, and I wish there was a way to set a permanent default filter that wasn't "everywhere".

So as well as size, I filter on location (UK only), brands (where I know what I'm looking for), material (because even if you search for, say, "merino sweater", half the results won't have been anywhere near a sheep) as standard. That does tend to knock out most of the stuff I'm not interested in.

I got scammed on there recently from a site that seemed genuine (and not a product that you'd expect would interest con merchants). Luckily my credit card company was onto it straight away and blocked it.

Can you just buy stuff that's sold by and dispatched by Amazon?

Agree @Game0fCrones , the algorithms are constantly getting what I want to see wrong, pushing me to Temu/Shein/international companies, instead of local ones which I prefer. I've started to hate going online to look at things, because the search results are so wank. It feels like the Internet is a giant jumble sale of shite.

Etsy has been destroyed by the cheap tat masquerading as proper maker stuff, and I don't even go there because I assume that whatever I see there is on sale at 1/10 the price on Temu etc. which I didn't want to shop from in the first place.
And to know that the these vast data centers are being set up, draining the national grid, to essentially keep the lights on in the Internet dustbin going....

I thought it was just me so I'm glad to hear its not but shopping is a depressing activity now whichever way you do it.

I live in the Midlands and it's a wasteland for retail. There's literally nothing anymore, not that it was ever great but you used to be able to go into the smarter towns and find independent, quality shops. That went in about 2020 due to the pandemic.

Ive avoided Ebay for the last six or seven years due to the tat on offer and I'm disappointed that Amazon is going the same way but Ive also noticed it on Etsy too. I dont know what the answer is. We seem to be drowning under a deluge of imported rubbish.

Ive been online clothes shopping recently and when I type in say, women's wool straight leg trousers, all the results are for Temu, Shein, Boohoo and Primark, despite the fact that Ive never shopped there AND I'm in my fifties, so not their demographic.

Why, in the age of cookies and user profiling, am I not getting results from Reiss, Jigsaw, Whistles and Joseph, who I DO shop with?

It's so frustrating.

The customer service is shit now as well, it used to be good. I have been going round in circles with them and no one can resolve my issue, it's not possible to escalate and I have to start again every time.

It's black Friday today and I had a load of stuff in my basket for Christmas - almost all of it has gone UP in price! So much for Black Friday.

YABU, eBay is much better, easier to search, pricing is better, there are more products that are actually from real UK sellers, and you can filter new or secondhand (generally) by using "buy it now" or "auction" at the top of the page. Amazon is appalling and has been since around 2012, and is getting worse each year, but I think you've perhaps got little recent experience with eBay and I would encourage you to try it again.

I've stopped using Amazon as much, I must have had at least 6 items not delivered this year and getting a refund isn't simple.

This is true and actually made me appreciate the labour intensive 'curation' of mumsnet!

Yes, our town centre is so bad now. It was in decline and now in the last few years it’s awful. So grotty. So I still mainly shop online. I try going into town but there’s no good shops

For people in towns with crap shop choice, the internet is brilliant. Our town was going downhill for decades. We lost our M&S in the 90s and that started the rot along with out of town supermarkets and warehouse retailers like B&Q, Argos, Dunelm, Pets at Home, etc. We really struggled back in the noughties to renovate and kit out our new house as all the smaller/independent shops had gone. Now we've the internet, we've got a lot more options and choice.

I can see why some people who've enjoyed vibrant town centres until more recently blame the internet - they were lucky to have kept smaller/independents for longer. But out in the regions it was out of town retail parks, and huge supermarkets/chain stores that killed the local shopping experience a couple of decades ago. Now, ironically, they're in turn being killed by the internet.

I find the same with the internet in general. It’s just the same few websites that are pushed the whole time. All of which are shit. It’s just shopping, AI answers, Reddit and the that’s it.

It's useful to buy from official stores if you have prime, I won't buy branded unless it's from an official store.

I just select Prime and only buy branded for most things. For electronic accessories I only buy Belkin or Anker if I don't want to pay Apple prices

Must say I havn't really noticed it but I suppose it depends on what you are buying. I don't buy clothes on Amazon at all. I do buy stationery, books, electronics etc., and seldom have a problem. I do, though, always filter by "Prime" so that I presume gets rid of a lot of amateur/dodgy sellers who won't use the "fulfilled by Amazon" system, and of course gives quick and free delivery.

The few times I've bought something that didn't work, damaged or poor quality, I've just sent back for a refund, no drama, money back in bank account within a few days, or even same day, depending on method of return.

My last few purchases are a reconditioned laptop, cheap inkjet cartridges, rexel staples, a fax roll (!), bluetooth dongle, 6 way switched extension lead, landline telephone with earphone jack, and a reconditioned iphone 12. Happy with all of them. All via Prime. Well, tell a lie, there was a very slight problem with the laptop in that one of the keys was sticky, but seller promptly posted me a new keyboard and emailed a link to a video showing how to swap it. Happy days. I'd have struggled to find any of that in our depressing High Street (laughably called as it's nothing but money laundering shops) nor the out of town supermarkets.

There is so much rubbish on Amazon. I only get things via prime so at least it can be returned without hassle.
I also generally only buy name brand things on Amazon. For example, I like Yorkshire Tea Biscuit Brew. It's not sold anywhere in my small town. I have boxes of 4 on my subscribe and save and it works out much cheaper and saves me going into a larger supermarket. I buy a lot of branded dry goods like that.

I buy Geox school shoes for dd because her feet have stopped growing so I know exactly what size she'll be and style she likes.

Books, obviously.

Ds likes branded joggers but needs men's large and tall. They are sold on Adidas's website but are always out of stock. I can usually find them on Amazon and at a discount.

You just have to filter heavily to get rid of the no brand junk.

I am disorganised, so Prime is good, for me. I tend to buy the same things, from the retailers own stores, and I can get delivered the next day through prime. When I’d otherwise have to wait 2-3 days for other sites. Also last minute stuff.