Amazon has become abysmal
Amazon has become abysmal. Unlike many reviewers my complaint isn't so much with the delivery times. It has become with the products they allow to be sold, shady sellers now trying to rip you off on product returns and having to deal with customer service AT ALL. Forget trying to get a Customer Rep that English is not a second language, which I don't take issue in of itself, but when the English sounds like they are talking with a mouth full of marbles or cannot understand what I am saying - it's frustrating. The days of requesting another rep who is in the actual US are gone. There was a time that when you called you could request (instead of being in a hold queue) a call back and you got a call back in a timely manner & you spoke with someone you could actually understand. My understanding is that phasing out US based call center happened within the last year (2025/2026)....and guess what AMAZON it shows. Here's a novel idea Amazon...increase the product standards for your sellers and maybe you won't need as many people calling customer service trying to deal with garbage products. Then maybe instead of hiring 6 cheap overseas call center employees, you could still employ people in the US. The second issue is with Amazon's search bar is complete garbage. There was a time I could search specifically for US made products and that search option no longer exists. You can even try running that terminology in the search bar and it will end up in resulting in a bunch of Chinese garbage. The third issue is Amazon allowing seller's to falsely advertise products or advertise products misleadingly even after you enter searches for things such as "100 percent cotton" "100 percent silk" "100 percent linen." Some of the sellers use a lot of the garbled descriptions to hide that the product you are wanting is not that - so read carefully. Other seller's blatantly lie (almost always the Chinese made goods - which just about everything on Amazon is). I've ordered things that stated clearly 100 percent cotton - only for them to arrive and clearly be made with recycled plastics or spandex etc. How is it there is no penalty for that? Next, I've not been able to put reviews onto Amazon for the better of 6 years. I used to review products all the time and by and large they were positive. In 2020, when the world was going to sht there was a particularly offensive product on the site. I messaged customer service about the product as I thought it violated terms about "violence" - the result- they banned me from leaving reviews. Finally, I understand that many customers may make returns that are plainly attempts to rip off the seller or get a product free. But Amazon's policy to now punish everyone and err on the side of the seller's "honesty" is just plain shady. It especially seems true when the product is a higher end item. I once ordered a compact projector. It arrived within hours. I tried setting it up within an hour of receiving it only to find it was not compatible with my iphone (though it claimed it was). I put in a return the same day it was received. I sent it back the same day it was received. I never ordered another or had prior to it. Somewhere along the way, it was "lost" in a distribution center and Amazon was trying to foist the $200 cost onto me. It took me over a month and numerous call to get a refund. The same happened with an $100 Christmas tree that I returned at Whole Foods (and they refuse to give you a receipt for the drop off). They stuck me with the cost of the item that never got returned but instead was probably stolen by an employee. Now when you return something, they tell you to keep the item for a nominal fee or you are left if you make a full return having a seller say the product "was used" or " damaged " etc - and risk getting stuck with the cost of the product that you returned because it was garbage. I recently returned a product that was supposed to be compatible with Blink hub. It not only didn't work, it damaged the hub. It cost $8 dollars and that seller wanted the product back....it damaged a $50 dollar blink device. Why would you want a product back that damaged my device....and when I dug deeper into the positive reviews, the negative reviews were there all along- it damaged other's devices. Pricing. If you search products often or use the same search term a few times, be aware, sellers will hike product prices. I've seen the same product/seller offered to me at a different price than to my elderly parent. I'm honestly moving away more and more from buying products off Amazon. I tend to use it more when I need to send products to an elderly parent who cannot drive, but when that need is gone, I feel that I'll use Amazon even less. Cannot do much about the quality of products because face it - China makes just about everything and the manufacturing standards are just not there.