silverbax , 10 months ago

I go out of my way not to buy from Amazon. It’s not some altruistic move - about 3 or 4 years ago I started noticing how little oversight Amazon was placing on the products listed, and you’d be lucky if anything (especially tech) was actually what you’d ordered and not some knockoff or used.

I think I’ve only bought one or two things from Amazon (other than digital books) in that time frame. I always look to buy directly from the vendor, if I can.

What concerns me is that I’ve started noticing more and more companies seem to only sell on Amazon. I see this as a mistake, as it hands over more control to one sales channel. I understand a new company doing this, but companies who are well established should maintain their own sales channel directly with their customers, even if they also sell on Amazon.

Recently I bought items from Wahl, Nike and Anker, directly from them. Wahl has products you can only get from their site. I always feel more comfortable just ordering directly from the company when I can, and I notice some companies seem to get that.

If I order directly from the company, I also get better support. I have an actual order number from the company, and correspondence/confirmation from the company. Special deals work better (the same deals on Amazon sometimes have hiccups).