On Tue, 15 Nov 2016 08:43:03 -0800, robobass wrote:
This may be less of a problem in the USA, but I live in Germany, where
there is no Harbor Freight, McMaster, or MSC, so I am especially reliant
on Ebay (which is actually pretty good at picking up the slack) and
Amazon. Amazon is so poor at describing their wares, however, that I
find it ludicrous. I need a wide aluminum dustpan for the shop, for
example. The choices on Amazon give me neither the size, nor a way to
contact the seller to ask. They offer to forward my question to other
customers. WTF? I've even been queried on products I've ordered but
didn't yet arrive. "What is the volume of that spray bottle?" Are you
freakin' kidding me? Shouldn't something like that be in the
description? And, how much faith should you have in another customers'
answer? I think I will answer: 25 liters. Moving out of shop stuff, I
wanted to buy a shoulder travel bag. There are never photos of
accessories like this on a person or even a dummy, so even with some
basic dimensions, you can't get a good idea of what you are buying.
Ebay, on the other hand, has been my salvation, I like Klingspor
sandpaper, for example. Even though it is made here, if you call them,
they will refer you to a seller in your area. If the seller doesn't
stock what you want, then tough luck. Now there are Ebay sellers out
there who will provide me with the products I want, and at a good price!
And this goes for anything from rubber gloves to carbide endmills.
I don't understand Amazon's reasoning for this practice, but it is
certainly a strategy. It's nice that they deliver so fast and take back
what you don't want, but why ship you stuff that you wouldn't have
ordered in the first place had they described it properly? And, why
forgo the sales on products I didn't order because I didn't have enough
information?
Sounds like a business opportunity. Start with things that Amazon does a
particularly poor job of selling, and go from there.
--
Tim Wescott
Control systems, embedded software and circuit design
I'm looking for work! See my website if you're interested
http://www.wescottdesign.com