Am I doing Amazon wrong?

[TSnewbie]

I'm a very irregular Amazon shopper - probably only buy something there 1-2 times a year. A couple of years ago, I would typically buy toys there for Christmas, occasionally books, cleaning products in larger quantities etc. If I put the item I wanted in search, I usually had good offers immediately on the first page.
Now, if I try to look for something, I get pages and pages of weird offers, with shops with '1x2y3z'-type names. Filtering doesn't help much as it won't offer filtering on the name of the producer (like 'Lego' etc). To me, the whole of Amazon has become absolutely useless. My last search was for pokemon toys/cards - I'm looking for official merchandise but I'm getting only items from these weird sounding suppliers. What happened? Am I doing it wrong?

No solution really, but Amazon just seems to be full of rubbish just now. Cheap imports from China that are just useless.. I use to buy regularly from there, but just about to cancel my amazon prime subs 🙃

You are not doing Amazon wrong, they are choosing to allow Chinese companies with unethical work practices to fill the online ‘shelves’ with garbage products and fake reviews.

I only buy ebooks from Amazon these days. I’ve returned to Argos for lots of things as you can get refunds and returns done much more easily.

For Lego I'd choose Lego from the brand list and then choose All Prime under the delivery option as that should mostly be from Amazon, there are sometimes other businesses in that list but often they are uk small businesses

That sounds strange OP, are you using the app or desktop?

I use both and this doesn't happen to me.

I know what you mean, OP! I’ve given up on Amazon unless for specific branded goods. Too much money wasted on cheap utensils, accessories that just break after 2 uses. Fake reviews don’t help.

I’m branching out more into quality goods not made in China or similar. Yes they are more expensive but last and also tend to give you warranty, repairs etc.

It's been like that for at least a couple of years now. Even when you filter, it shows unrelated brands, won't correctly sort by price etc. Like a PP, I've started using Currys, Argos etc more because they're often cheaper and it's easier to find what you're looking for. We also live very close to a retail park and big shopping centre, so can usually pick things up straight away.

Many brands have an Amazon storefront. Here's the Lego one. Here's Pokémon. Look for those if you're finding you see lots of irrelevant results in your general search.

Thanks! How do you find these? They don't show up when I start a search - is there a secret link to all storefronts somewhere?
I know in the past I happened ever so often on the hot wheels storefront - problem there is that they wouldn't have all the models on ever that I knew existed.

Thanks for this tip! Do you have to be a prime member to be able to use this delivery option?

I think the Amazon search facility has always been utterly shit. Amazingly bad for such a big company. Add in that there are a lot more "Chinese" companies selling crap now and it's difficult to find what you want.

Worst is say a 3 day postage and when paid for says 2/3 weeks so it’s being shipped over and I feel that if I wanted cheap crap - I could order it myself for the cheap price and waiting time.

I tend to avoid Amazon - especially how they treated their employees over Covid.

@TSnewbie - you need to be a prime member to use prime delivery but it's a useful tool for filtering. (You can sign up for a free trial of prime and cancel before it starts charging you if you need something very quickly.)

Make sure you’re on Amazon UK

Always read the 1,2 and 3 star reviews less likely to be fake, and give you a good idea if the item is any good, also check the date the review was left, there is a tendency for more negative reviews in 2020/21 around certain goods, than earlier / later dates.

I agree it's much harder to get specific searches compared to eBay, as the categories are a bit woolly on Amazon.

It's a pita now. Much like eBay its now it's full of crap from god knows where. I notice eBay are now offering free selling of clothes, Vinted has clearly given them some competition. Amazon may well find themselves in the same situation soon

Spot on. Better to buy once and cry once, rather than to buy multiple and cry forever.

It is mostly cheap crap from China now, lots of stuff that they sell on Shein/Temu are on Amazon for double the price.

Yeah this is what I do

As I understand it the Chinese market doesn’t really have ‘mid-range’ - things are mostly either luxury or cheap. So if you’re buying something that looks like a reasonable price for an ok quality item, chances are you’re being overcharged for bad quality stuff. The review spam is really bad on Amazon, no quality control on the content whatsoever.

I only buy branded stuff usually, and more importantly I only buy stuff with free delivery and free returns. I love Amazon and use it regularly; it does get easier to filter out the tat and fake crap.

Amazon has become impossible to use. My app is now useless but the website works and recognises me. I dont want to buy cheap shit from China that breaks instantly. I read the 1 and 2 star reviews but generally just give up and not buy whatever it was. Eventually you'll get it in real life where you can tell if its the right size or quality.

Used to be a big fan, prime member, and still use it but am very wary about the quality.

I won't buy anything that takes weeks to ship.

I hardly ever use Amazon nowadays, I remember one year doing my entire Christmas present shopping on Amazon using Prime, but it’s rare I find what I’m looking for on there and if I do it’s always more expensive. It’s definitely not my go to anymore and I haven’t subscribed to prime for a good while.