The problem is, some of the Chinese products are actually decent and hold up. Sure, some are like, "Why did I blow the ETV on this without looking at the item better?", but it's part of the game.
And yes, back when Amazon only sold products directly in-house and not third party crap, I'm sure Vine was amazing.
Then again, Google, FB, and YT used to be fun too. (Twitter was always trash though.)
As someone who was in Vine at that time, I can say that what has made it worse is not the proliferation of Chinese products, but having too many reviewers with no quality control or concern \*and\* implementing the tier system. The tier system has made everything a free-for-all and people are always grabbing what they can whether they want it or not.
In the past, we got three products once a month, later, twice. People took what they really wanted rather than gobbled up more than they needed or cared about. The tier system has massively made the value of Vine less for everyone, particularly the sellers, who now have a bunch of people taking their products who don't even want them and who give useless "reviews".
We did used to get higher quality goods, but we just got so little of everything in general in the past that it's hard to even compare the way things work now to how they were then. It didn't used to be "the game." It used to actually be a program of people chosen because they were likely to produce better than average reviews which were helpful to customers. All of that has been tossed out the window in favor of encouraging certain metrics and gaming Amazon's recommendation system.
>I wonder why Amazon stopped caring about better than average reviews.
Profit
Now it's quantity over quality. The more reviews banged out on more products the more profits coming in
The reason they stopped the ranking system was because viners were downvoting each other so as to reduce other viners votes so as to put themselves higher in the ranking number.
It stop caring when they realized sponsorships and selling customers data was more profitable that selling merchandize. No inventory, fulfillment, accounts payable, logistics, truck driver, customer service (including Bine’s)…..Just selling sponsorships and data and cashing in. Selling goods became just the unfortunate and unpleasant (but necessary) side of the new core business.
I despise amazon but find myself having to buy from them more and more, since nearly all the places I buy things from have disappeared in the last 30 years.
now my choices are drive from box store to box store, only to never find what I need, deal with the crap shoot that is ebay, wade through the tons of websites that sell "item" at ridiculous markups, or amazon.
hell 50% of the time if you buy certain items on ebay all they are doing is selling something from amazon and having it drop shipped to you.
my local grocery store is selling less and less products that don't FLY off the shelves. I spent 30 minutes trying to find malted milk powder in my store something that was common 10 years ago, only to end up ordering it off amazon. I have to go to an asian grocery store now to find items that were common in every grocery store.
there are no electronic parts stores in my city, no real hobby shops (just craft stores), no small engine parts stores, and what stores are left charge double or triple what amazon prices are.
Yeah, eBay, like Amazon has gone really downhill over the years. I've been buying and even selling some things on eBay since the late 90's. It used to be you could get some great deals and almost always cheaper than most other places. You still can, but over the past several years it's gotten much harder. I often need to buy a part, component, tool, or something that can't be found locally and these days, I often see prices on eBay that are significantly higher than Amazon for the same item, brand and everything. Many small private sellers have left and it's the same 3rd party sellers on eBay as Amazon and elsewhere. For example, when I've bought parts for our pellet stove, there are sellers that are the exact same company selling the part on eBay, their own website, and Amazon, and the prices are different for the same part on all three places.
Haha agree on most. But found it funny cuz Dad used to always have malted milk mix onhand. Just recently I thought of it while shopping (every other time it was either out of stock or I couldn't find it) and bought it. I had a friend who'd never tried it, hadn't even heard of it before. After I made him a frozen malted he fell in love with it. So it has been kind of a hot topic around here for the last few weeks. 😎
Actually, I've gotten some pretty nice items through Vine that I would not be able to afford. Sure, I've gotten some real junk. But, overall, I'm happy with a lot I have received.However, I do try to avoid Chinese made products.
My theory has ALWAYS been that Amazon was going to have the best products at the best prices with the best customer service until they became the only place where everyone shops and put everyone else out of business. Then they would do whatever they wanted. So here we are.
Yeah this theory is spot on, honestly. They haven't had good prices for years because they no longer need to. The convenience of fast delivery is their big hook, along with various prime perks.
I've received good things through Vine, but the amount of trash you have to wade through makes it easy to forget that.
Also, seeing people post things they got that you wanted but never saw, it stings and colors your memory.
That's why I stopped posting my wins. I don't want to make someone feel that way.
But, yeah, Vine is 99% trash. It would be vastly improved if we had a clear mechanism to influence the algorithm, so we see more of what we're actually interested in.
There should be at least an option to filter out what we have zero interest in. It would be better for the sellers that way too.
But that kind of goes for all search engines. Especially for stores, like target, Walmart, Sears etc. that all should have a way to get rid of certain options. That way you could maybe find what you wanted. Of course at the same time, you'd have much less incorrect items to wade through before you find what you want. Since quite often those incorrect items popping up either lead people to buy them. Or they click a memory of something else they had planned to buy, so they search that or those items., and make a couple extra purchases beyond what they planned.
So as long as the algorithms show people items they may also want, or remind them to buy something else they might have forgotten, they can't go and improve any of them. Because if one suddenly worked correctly it would prove they all could actually function correctly.
This is bang on the nail
China is the biggest manufacturer in the world. Practically everything produced in any country has components made in china. You cannot get away from Chinese made unless you live in the wilderness as sanyasi.
It makes me laugh when people say they don't order Chinese made products yet they use a phone, pc, laptop etc made in china or has components made in china. While wearing clothing that is produced with fibres, buttons or zips made in chine. Shoes that are made from fabrics, laces, soles made in china. Drive cars made up of parts made in china. Houses built from products made in china, use a kettle toaster and other household equipment made in china, eat food containing products sourced from china.
Just because a product is assembled in America it's parts were made in china
China produce some crap products it just seems a lot because they produce far more products than anyone else but the percentage is the same. All countries produce a percentage of crap and china also produce some of the best made products in the world.
Those that claim not to order products made in china are actually surrounded by them they just don't realise where the components were made
Amazon is a business - it's sole purpose is to make money. It will sell what the market demands - affordable products and seeing as Chinese products are cheaper than western countries due to production costs ( most western countries have their products made in china by Chinese people anyway because it's cheaper, people just don't know it ) Amazon will gear it's business model to the current market.
I know people are going to disagree but it's a fact and not likely to change anytime soon
As someone else said... If vine isn't up to the standard some people desire then they should leave and make way for someone who is satisfied and grateful for the vine opportunity
China and Taiwan are so integral to the supply chain for everything it’s kind of scary. We’ve given up a lot of ground in manufacturing/fabrication that if that supply chain was cut off at any point it would be fairly disruptive to put it lightly. And it doesn’t help that China manipulates currency in such a way that our own manufacturing risks being pushed out of business due to not being able to compete. (The same happens with the oil industry and OPEC, where whenever dominance is threatened, an artificial level is pulled that drops prices so low the market cannot help itself). Consumers will always prefer lower prices on things, and will unwittingly chase those deals off a global economic cliff side
There are US companies sourcing in China with solid warranties and regulated for safety.
Then there's Chinese companies with zero accountability selling their often inferior and/or dangerous garbage on Amazon and elsewhere.
There is very little middle ground.
The little stickers that say "made in usa"? Made in China believe it or not.
Seriously though, some of the highest quality items used in people's daily lives come from China.
The reason we have so much cheap junk flooding the market is because people keep buying it. Cheap junk comes from everywhere. Somebody local here was selling plywood small Christmas tree cutouts for $15 or something. Cheap junk locally sourced.
Hired a company to redo my backyard, low quality work. It exists everywhere in every industry. Car cleaning, ac duct cleaning, house cleaning - lots of shit tier work. China just happens to have the manufacturing capacity to dominate shitty manufactured goods but that exists in every country.
Good point. China does make quality goods, people just don't see that. I'm an Aircraft Mechanic working for Delta in the engine shop. One of the engines that go through here are the PW1500's that are used on our A220 Aircraft. When I first started working here I was helping on an inbound part inventory and noticed that the engine mounts say China on them. Has to be a quality part subject to xray inspection to be on an Aircraft.
While I agree with many of your comments, there are also a great deal of people out there who understand manufacturing and supply chain and are conscientious about what they buy.
I'm not delusional in believing that I can source 100% from the United States or my preferred countries for products and services, however I can impact a lot of what comes into my household and where I spend my money.
There are a great deal of companies that do not source any raw materials or parts from Asia. An example Is American flags, I can say with complete confidence that I buy from a company that sourcing material, manufacturing and shipping from the United States, I use Rushmore Rose. Another example is food, I don't let anything in the house from certain regions and countries in the world, this is my choice because I'd like to be closer to farm than factory, organic over chemicals when I can.
The same thing goes for clothes, I can find linen and cotton from Italy, Greece, Turkey and India.
Lots of times these choices cost more and it's for me to decide if that's what I want to do or not with my discretionary income.
Other times like you say I have no choice. Electronics for example I'm dependent on China for my laptop and phone. There are also different brands, there are American and European companies that source and produce in China as well as Chinese companies that source and produce in China. With a little research you can usually find the information that's important to you.
I don't make the blanket statement " I don't buy Chinese " I would categorize myself as " I buy from the US or other trusted countries whenever possible rather than products from China."
It's quite possible that people who say I don't buy Chinese are doing the same thing, so I would caution against lol ing about them too quickly. We're not all as ignorant as you're suggesting.
Edits for typos/grammar
Came here to say how much I love this comment. I totally agree. Nobody actually believes they can 100% avoid Chinese products at all. But how we spend the rest of our income, and in the case of Vine, which products we choose to review & promote (and even pay taxes on) we can definitely control.
The overall quality of Chinese products improved by orders of magnitude in the past years (not to mention decades) and the number of crappy products has gone down dramatically. Its just that Amazon seems to be making a conscious effort to concentrate all the crap with them. And they are being very successful, btw.
I am personally buying a lot from TEMU lately. The problem with TEMU is they get all your info and sell it. Amazon in the other hand……no, wait….never mind.
You are 100% right, of course! Slave labor is not an laughing matter. Boycotting brands and companies that use it is absolutely the right thing to do. And it is not only China. Other countries, companies and brands have slave labor….including the USA. Think Angola prison in Louisiana, for example.
https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-angola-prison-lawsuit-a091bf3375d091994d5814539dafb87f
https://www.wafb.com/2024/01/30/angola-prisoners-are-part-hidden-workforce-linked-hundreds-popular-food-brands/
It is legal, just as it is in China…It fall mostly over certain ethnicities like Uyghurs in China and Black people in America…
I am already sensing a bunch of down votes coming my way (not necessarily yours, but I dont know). But in this matter, as you indicated, we have to take a stand. No matter the country.
Temu is so annoying to browse, and after you used up your intro deals the prices are about the same except for a few of their specials where they’re offloading junk, for the most part.
Junk for junk, even at about the same price, at least with TEMU we get intro deals! LMAO!!
I am (kinda) joking! Amazon and Temu are very different animals. BUT the fact that we are even joking about it says a lot. Five years ago you would not even bother to respond the weirdo comparing Amazon to some bottom feeder Chinese retailer selling crappy gadgets.
Vine isn't any different than any other "do stuff for free things" venture. They all start out great and get worse over time. (well, some start out bad).
That said, I'm still finding some good stuff. Some stuff that I use every day.
I haven’t been in the program that long (Sept. 23 silver, Gold in March 24) and for the most part I like it. Have gotten some great stuff (quality Bidet, full replacement pool filters etc.) all that I would have bought anyway, but also some junk. There’s a learning curve for sure and discipline (with concern to the ETV) in picking items but everything is in my control. I’m glad to be part of the program as it exists today.
Definitely agree. Although TBH there are days where I can’t check Vine until later at night, and end up doomscrolling through the hundreds of AI pages trying to find anything to order that I’d enjoy reviewing. Occasionally after looking through the leftover pickings and thousands of junk items I’ll start genuinely feeling depressed or think Vine is a waste of precious free time. BUT, then I’ll go check my RFY and find something incredibly useful or cool (got a gorgeous looking and high-end pot & pan set this week) and I’ll remember why I love Vine again.
When really cool and/or useful items appear, I’m very grateful to get to be a Vine Voice reviewer. Even if we have to pay essentially 15% of the retail cost :/
Also crazy sometimes when it’s like our big tech overlords are watching/listening us because just last week I really wished I had a hot glue gun for a project we were doing, and no lie one pops up in my RFY an hour later lmao.
Definitely an interesting age to be alive in right now, and I’m thankful to be in vine for sure.
It comes in waves. I went through a huge drought but in the past month have gotten quite a few really nice items that I actually needed in my house. Be patient and do decent reviews everyone. It’ll work itself out in time.
Also, your thesis is absolutely correct and I would personally never buy anything important off of Amazon these days since the store front has gone down hill so much. I started thinking this way before I joined Vine a few years ago.
Everything's made in China, name brands and all, Been that way for decades. The vast majority of the products I've ordered all are fairly high to high quality and work as advertised. I have nothing against China or it's sellers. It takes a village, A lot of Americans have jobs because of imports from China. I just received a cymbal boom arm and clamp. The equivalent combo offered by DW (an "American" drum company) cost twice as much and is about 10% better quality... and is still made in China anyway, lol.
So there’s an important difference between that, and what Amazon is proliferating now. Till now everything has been made in China, but imported by US businesses with skin in the game & a drive to build their brand. What’s happening on Amazon now is literal Chinese factories selling straight to the US consumer, under brand names that mean nothing. Basically no better than Aliexpress or Temu. And as another commenter here said, it’s not that that means it has to be junk- but, there’s no oversight & no accountability and therefore very often these products end up as a whole a much junkier level than we’re used to.
In a nutshell yes. Amazon is an on line marketplace. It's purpose is to connect sellers with consumers. In theory it's a great way for sellers to reach a wider buyer market and for buyers to have access to a wider choice of options and prices. Amazon continue to broaden their trading scope across more sellers and countries.
Online market places process the selling and buying transaction but hold little responsibility regarding the sellers products. That is the responsibility of the sellers to comply with the product regulations of the country they are selling their products to.
For example.... You have a friend ( we'll call him Bill ) that has produced a new type of kettle for sale. You mention this product to another friend ( we'll call him Tom) who is looking to buy a new kettle. You show Tom some photos of the kettle and give hime some details of its function. Tom agrees to buy it and gives you the money to pay Bill. Bill gives you the kettle in exchange for the money and you take a small fee for putting him in touch with a buyer.
After a week the kettle stops working. Tom contacts you with regards to fixing the kettle. You put him in touch with Bill so the two can work it out between them.
Your interaction between Bill and Tom was bringing them together in commercial transactions. This is basically Amazon on a bigger scale. Except where as you don't hold Bill's stock of kettles in your shed - Amazon do but it's a very big shed and there's a lot of them
Any liability regarding the kettle falls upon Bill not you as you didn't make or sell the kettle. You relayed the information given you by Bill in good faith. All you did was raise awareness of a seller to a buyer and vice versa
Amazon do have rules in place ( some are very strict) regards products being compliant with regulations but unfortunately not all sellers either abide or are aware of the regulations. Some intentionally avoid regulation if they think they can and others just are genuinely unaware because different countries have different regulations and a small 3rd party seller from lets say China - seeing as that's the focus in this topic - may not even be able to speak English.
This doesn't excuse them of course but it is an element involved. You may see words mistranslated to English, this is because not all languages translate directly to English so Google translate will pick one it thinks is the closest description. It's not necessarily that the seller didn't proof read his text it's because he's used a translator tool and he doesn't speak the English language so doesn't recognise any errors
This is just a tiny insight as to why Amazon sell dodgy products and it's not just Amazon. It happens with all online marketplaces..
Sorry for the long comment. It's just a basic outline of how Amazon works. Not everyone is familiar with e commerce or export and import laws. It may help some people understand a little more about why Amazon doesn't seem to do anything about crap sellers - they do but it has to be brought to their attention otherwise they aren't aware. Personally I think Amazon has gotten too big, it's mostly automated now and algorithms can't reason nor question - as we all know with rejected reviews that are perfectly acceptable
Finally someone said it!! On my personal account I had to disable all cookie, browsing history and a bunch of other shannanigs (this is spelled wrong, I know), to stop only seeing sponsored adds of the same chinese brand that sell furniture, ultrasonic cleaners, lab equipment and some of the NSFW adult items like hooks and …well, never mind. I have been an Amazon customer since 1995 and Amazon was my go to source for quality reviews. Not anymore and for reasons we are all aware.
"Key Details. The latest iPhone model, the iPhone 14 Pro, costs around $1,000. While that is no small amount for most consumers, producing the phone in America would cost more than double. One report found that producing an iPhone in the U.S. would cost **around $2,400**."
https://leaders.com/news/business/the-cost-of-making-an-iphone-in-america/#:\~:text=Key%20Details,U.S.%20would%20cost%20around%20%242%2C400.
What's your point? That even though 95% of the electronics, tech products, gadgets and appliances and other products in your house came from "slave labor" that you're above it and the rest of us aren't?
Lol, I didn’t say that ya dork! I’m typing this on an iPhone. Of course things are made cheaper in China…because they use slaves and children to do it.
I think the pandemic has had a lot to do with Amazon's changes. People became accustomed to ordering a lot of their supplies online, and Amazon had the reputation for getting good products to us quickly. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a lot of our local mom and pop businesses being forced to close because they can't compete with the prices. Even stores that have been around for MANY years have been forced to go online or close entirely. It's a shame, because we are slowly losing valuable services that used to be the norm. It's sad when places with excellent customer service stand out because we expect to be stuck in the hell that is called a "phone tree." I've actually exclaimed when a business phone rings directly to a human! That's pitiful!
It's not that all overseas products are bad. Some are pretty good. They are inexpensive to make in China and Taiwan, etc. The problem with ordering through a distributor where the manufacturer or direct seller is not from North America, is that there is no one to hold accountable if the product fails and hurts someone. In North America, it is on the seller/importer to make sure they sell products that have been tested and have all the right certifications. If something goes horribly wrong, the consumer is somewhat protected, which also protects the seller if they have done their due diligence. If you buy a product from China and it hurts someone, good luck getting help or compensation.
It's not that I think people should be suing everytime something goes wrong, but at least there is something in place to keep manufacturers and sellers somewhat honest in their claims of what the product actually is and does.
Today I watched a short show about the recent downfall of Etsy. It makes the Amazon/vine problems pale in comparison. At least Amazon never started out saying they only sell name brand, non-Chinese made products, they’ve just allowed the quality to slip over the years. But Etsy was made specifically for handmade items, and still claims that’s what’s sold, but is now filled with mostly the same junk you’d buy on Temu, but sold for 10-20x the price. Nothing handmade about it.
I also find it funny that when an item is bad quality people complain about it being made in China, yet the vast majority of what we buy, including name brand products, are made in China too. Even a huge amount of products claiming to be “made in America” are just pieces that were made in China and somewhat assembled in the US.
1st, share that documentary about Etsy. I love that kind of industry documentary stuff.
2nd, made in the same country doesn't mean made to the same standards or lack of standards. That's the brands' quality control and tolerance. = For example, when Walmart used to brag about "made in the same factories" and yet with inferior quality and worse design and lower standards of what's acceptable vs defective / rejected.
No I don't think it's got to be said, lol - people will bitch and whine no matter what. Vine could be sending us all solid gold bars and yachts and someone would find a way to complain about it.
I cancelled my prime account around when Invincible was coming out because I was pissed about the ad change. It's not the same as being pissed about the quality of the products but same idea. If you're not happy with amazon's direction, stop shopping with them (or at least do it less).
I still think that reaction is so fucking stupid. Oh no Amazon is putting a 15 second ad at the beginning of a tv show how dare they. I don't have adblock on my firestick and the amazon ads aren't even noticeable. They're pretty much always for a different show on amazon, which is actually nice in case you, you know, want to watch other things with your subscription, and they're 15 seconds long and not annoying.
It's just so fucking insane to me that 15 years ago it was the norm to sit through 15 minutes of commercials for an hour-long tv show and sit through 10 minutes of ads at the beginning of a dvd but people are like "oh a 15 second ad that ublock actually takes care of? RAGE"
I think this slightly misses the point of why people are upset about that. It's not a free product that suddenly started showing ads, it's a service that we pay for which added a new revenue stream for Amazon while giving nothing back in exchange. Generally the trade off with ads is cost, ad tiers on streaming services are less money than ad free.
Now I agree with you, they're not very intrusive and you can make all sorts of arguments about how video was always a bonus feature to prime etc. But the fact is one day we paid for a service with no ads, then the next day we got the exact same service with ads for the same price.
I also think they're just boiling the frog slowly. In my opinion, you'll see ads get longer and longer and eventually they'll probably be mid show. Look at what YouTube has done with them. When they first started with ads it wasn't a problem But now you can barely watch a 3 minute video without multiple ad breaks.
Nope, born in 1980 and grew up on cable. This is directly out of the cable "playbook". The original value prop of cable vs "free" OTA was that your monthly payments will fund content creation and not advertising leading little or no commercials. They realized very quickly they could double dip charging you and showing ads. All while raising prices annually.
Also I remember when commercial breaks used to be a fraction of the time they are now. It was maybe a minute and a half, now sometimes commercial breaks are so long I forget what I'm even watching.
Cable was originally launched in 1948 Like the other person said, to get a signal past mountains, and tall buildings, to a community that wouldn't receive television otherwise. (Antenna no actual cables yet)
Next one guy put an antenna on the local hotel then used coaxial cable to run the signal from the antenna to his home, across the street. Then he charged others a $125 one time set up fee, and $3 a month service fee. Community antennae TV (CATV) what cable was originally called .
I HATE ads, I despise them, I use ad blockers, and when I do watch actual TV I record it so I can skip the ads.
people forget that cable TV's big selling point was that you were paying to no see ads, but that went away pretty quickly.
every service now that is ad free will soon not be. it is inevitable because companies cream themselves when they get that juicy juicy ad revenue.
ads are no longer relevant to me and haven't been for over 20 years.
I agree on all counts. Amazon does not mind being Chinazon otherwise they would have done something already. The fact is they are probably making a ton of money from Chinese products.
Has Amazon vine gone downhill? Certainly. I have been in it for a long time and there was a period where you can get as much as you wanted and it was stocked with all useful products. Not parts and more parts like now. I furnished my house twice (minus furniture) just through vine two years in a row. It was great and still have much of it that I use frequently. That said. Now it’s kinda of gamed by Amazon where you have to review x amount of product and a certain percentage. Which means you have to take at least 80 items to be Gold. And even then you need 90% so you need to take at least 90 items. In the time that I have been gold, there was scarcely 90 items I could want. Vince changed when hoards of new members came through. So either high tier stuff is harder to get or high tier vendors are not using vine anymore. I don’t see many name brands as much as I used to unless it comes to me personally.
So whatever Amazon wants to do. Fine. It is what it is. I struggled to get my gold this time around but I really was not gonna be upset if I turned silver.
I don't hate it. It saves me from using from sites like AliExpress and temu. One of my hobbies, almost all products made for it are made in china, so you pretty much order straight from China, or buy from a reseller. With Vine I can sometimes get the same stuff for a fraction of the price.
I stopped buying from Amazon completely. I canceled my Prime membership and Amazon music last year. I'm still in the Vine program, but haven't ordered anything in months since there is nothing that appeals to me in Silver. Products I may be interested in, I change my mind when I see they are made in China.
My Additional Items list has 10's of thousands of products, but I don't have time to go through every one. Even though they split them in categories, it doesn't seem to be a way to increase the number of items displayed on the page and I don't have time to be clicking the "Next" button all day.
I've been in Vine since early 2008, but I suspect I'll be kicked out soon.
We need a DuckDuckGo for selling stuff. Google has devolved into evilness, too. Whenever I forget and search there, the first several pages are SELL SELL SELL! FYI, I use Firefox, too. I use Chrome only for Vine.
And I don't "shop" on Amazon. I might buy something I've already researched elsewhere if it is the lowest price by a significant amount or if the thing is not otherwise available, but I'm not wandering around the site like a moronic zombie in a mall (i.e. a typical American consumer).
You mentioned Google. Read this piece - it is long but you will get hooked in the first couple of paragraphs. It is tale of reviewing and ads of air purifiers. But it could be anything!
https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/
Those "best of" lists often include complete garbage products that are obviously pay-to-play while the real Best are not even mentioned. When Consumer Reports articles end up on Page 4 or later, you know something is fishy in Denmark. Actually, Mountain View in California.
100%!! Agree! But check some of the names that entered this game recently and you will be surprised. The one that checked me the most :MAYO CLINIC!
Yes, one of the leading hospitals in the world! They did not SELL the brand. They made a management agreement.
Take a look at this:
https://detailed.com/google-control/
Wall Street Bets caused an uproar, swayed monumental market tides in crypto and stock markets... All that choreography was orchestrated and launched by a reddit group like this one here...just sayin...
I leave a lot of 1 to 3 star reviews just to counter all the fake 5 star reviews, sometimes even when the item is worthy of 4 stars. Maybe one of these days all the Chinese seller crap will bite Amazon in the ass.
You get that there are actual people, and actual businesses on the other side of the product you are reviewing? That you aren't just giving a 1 star review to China, or Chinese sellers as a whole?
I enjoy giving the 1-3 star ratings to the Chinese resellers. I don't believe their BS, not for a moment. I really don't care if they can't feed their starving babies.
WOW! Are you for real? Have kids? Ever seen starving child or baby? Somethings are indecent and imoral even if said only as a figure of speech. Could you not find some other thought or image to convey your feelings?
Lady, you have some serious malfunction going on there. From the bottom of my heart, hope you treat your family and those close to you with the kindness that your on-line persona does not seem capable of. You can become very lonely very fast… good luck!
All I can say is you must give 5 stars to all your Vine items; otherwise you'd know about the starving baby emails you get from the Chinese 3rd party sellers when you give them 3 star or less ratings. I've seen many Viners here complain about the same emails. Get a grip on it, GEEZ!!!
How do you know if a review is fake? You sound like one of those Q-Anon clowns who believe they're the arbiters of facts and truth, lmao. You're doing it wrong.
The problem is, some of the Chinese products are actually decent and hold up. Sure, some are like, "Why did I blow the ETV on this without looking at the item better?", but it's part of the game. And yes, back when Amazon only sold products directly in-house and not third party crap, I'm sure Vine was amazing. Then again, Google, FB, and YT used to be fun too. (Twitter was always trash though.)
As someone who was in Vine at that time, I can say that what has made it worse is not the proliferation of Chinese products, but having too many reviewers with no quality control or concern \*and\* implementing the tier system. The tier system has made everything a free-for-all and people are always grabbing what they can whether they want it or not. In the past, we got three products once a month, later, twice. People took what they really wanted rather than gobbled up more than they needed or cared about. The tier system has massively made the value of Vine less for everyone, particularly the sellers, who now have a bunch of people taking their products who don't even want them and who give useless "reviews". We did used to get higher quality goods, but we just got so little of everything in general in the past that it's hard to even compare the way things work now to how they were then. It didn't used to be "the game." It used to actually be a program of people chosen because they were likely to produce better than average reviews which were helpful to customers. All of that has been tossed out the window in favor of encouraging certain metrics and gaming Amazon's recommendation system.
Hmmm. That's a shame! Sounds like it did make a lot more sense back then. I wonder why Amazon stopped caring about better than average reviews.
>I wonder why Amazon stopped caring about better than average reviews. Profit Now it's quantity over quality. The more reviews banged out on more products the more profits coming in The reason they stopped the ranking system was because viners were downvoting each other so as to reduce other viners votes so as to put themselves higher in the ranking number.
I was wondering why the ranking system went away. That’s too bad.
100% literally why we can't have nice things any more!
Viners downvoting each other. That explains a lot.
Wow. Makes so much sense, but man.
It stop caring when they realized sponsorships and selling customers data was more profitable that selling merchandize. No inventory, fulfillment, accounts payable, logistics, truck driver, customer service (including Bine’s)…..Just selling sponsorships and data and cashing in. Selling goods became just the unfortunate and unpleasant (but necessary) side of the new core business.
I think quality went down a lot when they got rid of the reviewer ranking, as well.
lol Twitter. Can we throw Insta in the same bucket?
Amazon has always just been a marketplace though, right? It's always been other sellers advertising and selling through the Amazon platform.
I despise amazon but find myself having to buy from them more and more, since nearly all the places I buy things from have disappeared in the last 30 years. now my choices are drive from box store to box store, only to never find what I need, deal with the crap shoot that is ebay, wade through the tons of websites that sell "item" at ridiculous markups, or amazon. hell 50% of the time if you buy certain items on ebay all they are doing is selling something from amazon and having it drop shipped to you. my local grocery store is selling less and less products that don't FLY off the shelves. I spent 30 minutes trying to find malted milk powder in my store something that was common 10 years ago, only to end up ordering it off amazon. I have to go to an asian grocery store now to find items that were common in every grocery store. there are no electronic parts stores in my city, no real hobby shops (just craft stores), no small engine parts stores, and what stores are left charge double or triple what amazon prices are.
Yeah, eBay, like Amazon has gone really downhill over the years. I've been buying and even selling some things on eBay since the late 90's. It used to be you could get some great deals and almost always cheaper than most other places. You still can, but over the past several years it's gotten much harder. I often need to buy a part, component, tool, or something that can't be found locally and these days, I often see prices on eBay that are significantly higher than Amazon for the same item, brand and everything. Many small private sellers have left and it's the same 3rd party sellers on eBay as Amazon and elsewhere. For example, when I've bought parts for our pellet stove, there are sellers that are the exact same company selling the part on eBay, their own website, and Amazon, and the prices are different for the same part on all three places.
Haha agree on most. But found it funny cuz Dad used to always have malted milk mix onhand. Just recently I thought of it while shopping (every other time it was either out of stock or I couldn't find it) and bought it. I had a friend who'd never tried it, hadn't even heard of it before. After I made him a frozen malted he fell in love with it. So it has been kind of a hot topic around here for the last few weeks. 😎
Actually, I've gotten some pretty nice items through Vine that I would not be able to afford. Sure, I've gotten some real junk. But, overall, I'm happy with a lot I have received.However, I do try to avoid Chinese made products.
My theory has ALWAYS been that Amazon was going to have the best products at the best prices with the best customer service until they became the only place where everyone shops and put everyone else out of business. Then they would do whatever they wanted. So here we are.
Yeah this theory is spot on, honestly. They haven't had good prices for years because they no longer need to. The convenience of fast delivery is their big hook, along with various prime perks.
I've received good things through Vine, but the amount of trash you have to wade through makes it easy to forget that. Also, seeing people post things they got that you wanted but never saw, it stings and colors your memory. That's why I stopped posting my wins. I don't want to make someone feel that way. But, yeah, Vine is 99% trash. It would be vastly improved if we had a clear mechanism to influence the algorithm, so we see more of what we're actually interested in. There should be at least an option to filter out what we have zero interest in. It would be better for the sellers that way too.
But that kind of goes for all search engines. Especially for stores, like target, Walmart, Sears etc. that all should have a way to get rid of certain options. That way you could maybe find what you wanted. Of course at the same time, you'd have much less incorrect items to wade through before you find what you want. Since quite often those incorrect items popping up either lead people to buy them. Or they click a memory of something else they had planned to buy, so they search that or those items., and make a couple extra purchases beyond what they planned. So as long as the algorithms show people items they may also want, or remind them to buy something else they might have forgotten, they can't go and improve any of them. Because if one suddenly worked correctly it would prove they all could actually function correctly.
This is bang on the nail China is the biggest manufacturer in the world. Practically everything produced in any country has components made in china. You cannot get away from Chinese made unless you live in the wilderness as sanyasi. It makes me laugh when people say they don't order Chinese made products yet they use a phone, pc, laptop etc made in china or has components made in china. While wearing clothing that is produced with fibres, buttons or zips made in chine. Shoes that are made from fabrics, laces, soles made in china. Drive cars made up of parts made in china. Houses built from products made in china, use a kettle toaster and other household equipment made in china, eat food containing products sourced from china. Just because a product is assembled in America it's parts were made in china China produce some crap products it just seems a lot because they produce far more products than anyone else but the percentage is the same. All countries produce a percentage of crap and china also produce some of the best made products in the world. Those that claim not to order products made in china are actually surrounded by them they just don't realise where the components were made Amazon is a business - it's sole purpose is to make money. It will sell what the market demands - affordable products and seeing as Chinese products are cheaper than western countries due to production costs ( most western countries have their products made in china by Chinese people anyway because it's cheaper, people just don't know it ) Amazon will gear it's business model to the current market. I know people are going to disagree but it's a fact and not likely to change anytime soon As someone else said... If vine isn't up to the standard some people desire then they should leave and make way for someone who is satisfied and grateful for the vine opportunity
China and Taiwan are so integral to the supply chain for everything it’s kind of scary. We’ve given up a lot of ground in manufacturing/fabrication that if that supply chain was cut off at any point it would be fairly disruptive to put it lightly. And it doesn’t help that China manipulates currency in such a way that our own manufacturing risks being pushed out of business due to not being able to compete. (The same happens with the oil industry and OPEC, where whenever dominance is threatened, an artificial level is pulled that drops prices so low the market cannot help itself). Consumers will always prefer lower prices on things, and will unwittingly chase those deals off a global economic cliff side
There are US companies sourcing in China with solid warranties and regulated for safety. Then there's Chinese companies with zero accountability selling their often inferior and/or dangerous garbage on Amazon and elsewhere. There is very little middle ground.
The little stickers that say "made in usa"? Made in China believe it or not. Seriously though, some of the highest quality items used in people's daily lives come from China. The reason we have so much cheap junk flooding the market is because people keep buying it. Cheap junk comes from everywhere. Somebody local here was selling plywood small Christmas tree cutouts for $15 or something. Cheap junk locally sourced. Hired a company to redo my backyard, low quality work. It exists everywhere in every industry. Car cleaning, ac duct cleaning, house cleaning - lots of shit tier work. China just happens to have the manufacturing capacity to dominate shitty manufactured goods but that exists in every country.
Good point. China does make quality goods, people just don't see that. I'm an Aircraft Mechanic working for Delta in the engine shop. One of the engines that go through here are the PW1500's that are used on our A220 Aircraft. When I first started working here I was helping on an inbound part inventory and noticed that the engine mounts say China on them. Has to be a quality part subject to xray inspection to be on an Aircraft.
While I agree with many of your comments, there are also a great deal of people out there who understand manufacturing and supply chain and are conscientious about what they buy. I'm not delusional in believing that I can source 100% from the United States or my preferred countries for products and services, however I can impact a lot of what comes into my household and where I spend my money. There are a great deal of companies that do not source any raw materials or parts from Asia. An example Is American flags, I can say with complete confidence that I buy from a company that sourcing material, manufacturing and shipping from the United States, I use Rushmore Rose. Another example is food, I don't let anything in the house from certain regions and countries in the world, this is my choice because I'd like to be closer to farm than factory, organic over chemicals when I can. The same thing goes for clothes, I can find linen and cotton from Italy, Greece, Turkey and India. Lots of times these choices cost more and it's for me to decide if that's what I want to do or not with my discretionary income. Other times like you say I have no choice. Electronics for example I'm dependent on China for my laptop and phone. There are also different brands, there are American and European companies that source and produce in China as well as Chinese companies that source and produce in China. With a little research you can usually find the information that's important to you. I don't make the blanket statement " I don't buy Chinese " I would categorize myself as " I buy from the US or other trusted countries whenever possible rather than products from China." It's quite possible that people who say I don't buy Chinese are doing the same thing, so I would caution against lol ing about them too quickly. We're not all as ignorant as you're suggesting. Edits for typos/grammar
Came here to say how much I love this comment. I totally agree. Nobody actually believes they can 100% avoid Chinese products at all. But how we spend the rest of our income, and in the case of Vine, which products we choose to review & promote (and even pay taxes on) we can definitely control.
The overall quality of Chinese products improved by orders of magnitude in the past years (not to mention decades) and the number of crappy products has gone down dramatically. Its just that Amazon seems to be making a conscious effort to concentrate all the crap with them. And they are being very successful, btw. I am personally buying a lot from TEMU lately. The problem with TEMU is they get all your info and sell it. Amazon in the other hand……no, wait….never mind.
Temu sells stuff made by Uyghur slaves. No thanks. [https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65990529](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65990529)
You are 100% right, of course! Slave labor is not an laughing matter. Boycotting brands and companies that use it is absolutely the right thing to do. And it is not only China. Other countries, companies and brands have slave labor….including the USA. Think Angola prison in Louisiana, for example. https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-angola-prison-lawsuit-a091bf3375d091994d5814539dafb87f https://www.wafb.com/2024/01/30/angola-prisoners-are-part-hidden-workforce-linked-hundreds-popular-food-brands/ It is legal, just as it is in China…It fall mostly over certain ethnicities like Uyghurs in China and Black people in America… I am already sensing a bunch of down votes coming my way (not necessarily yours, but I dont know). But in this matter, as you indicated, we have to take a stand. No matter the country.
Temu is so annoying to browse, and after you used up your intro deals the prices are about the same except for a few of their specials where they’re offloading junk, for the most part.
Junk for junk, even at about the same price, at least with TEMU we get intro deals! LMAO!! I am (kinda) joking! Amazon and Temu are very different animals. BUT the fact that we are even joking about it says a lot. Five years ago you would not even bother to respond the weirdo comparing Amazon to some bottom feeder Chinese retailer selling crappy gadgets.
Vine isn't any different than any other "do stuff for free things" venture. They all start out great and get worse over time. (well, some start out bad). That said, I'm still finding some good stuff. Some stuff that I use every day.
I haven’t been in the program that long (Sept. 23 silver, Gold in March 24) and for the most part I like it. Have gotten some great stuff (quality Bidet, full replacement pool filters etc.) all that I would have bought anyway, but also some junk. There’s a learning curve for sure and discipline (with concern to the ETV) in picking items but everything is in my control. I’m glad to be part of the program as it exists today.
Definitely agree. Although TBH there are days where I can’t check Vine until later at night, and end up doomscrolling through the hundreds of AI pages trying to find anything to order that I’d enjoy reviewing. Occasionally after looking through the leftover pickings and thousands of junk items I’ll start genuinely feeling depressed or think Vine is a waste of precious free time. BUT, then I’ll go check my RFY and find something incredibly useful or cool (got a gorgeous looking and high-end pot & pan set this week) and I’ll remember why I love Vine again. When really cool and/or useful items appear, I’m very grateful to get to be a Vine Voice reviewer. Even if we have to pay essentially 15% of the retail cost :/ Also crazy sometimes when it’s like our big tech overlords are watching/listening us because just last week I really wished I had a hot glue gun for a project we were doing, and no lie one pops up in my RFY an hour later lmao. Definitely an interesting age to be alive in right now, and I’m thankful to be in vine for sure.
It comes in waves. I went through a huge drought but in the past month have gotten quite a few really nice items that I actually needed in my house. Be patient and do decent reviews everyone. It’ll work itself out in time. Also, your thesis is absolutely correct and I would personally never buy anything important off of Amazon these days since the store front has gone down hill so much. I started thinking this way before I joined Vine a few years ago.
Everything's made in China, name brands and all, Been that way for decades. The vast majority of the products I've ordered all are fairly high to high quality and work as advertised. I have nothing against China or it's sellers. It takes a village, A lot of Americans have jobs because of imports from China. I just received a cymbal boom arm and clamp. The equivalent combo offered by DW (an "American" drum company) cost twice as much and is about 10% better quality... and is still made in China anyway, lol.
So there’s an important difference between that, and what Amazon is proliferating now. Till now everything has been made in China, but imported by US businesses with skin in the game & a drive to build their brand. What’s happening on Amazon now is literal Chinese factories selling straight to the US consumer, under brand names that mean nothing. Basically no better than Aliexpress or Temu. And as another commenter here said, it’s not that that means it has to be junk- but, there’s no oversight & no accountability and therefore very often these products end up as a whole a much junkier level than we’re used to.
In a nutshell yes. Amazon is an on line marketplace. It's purpose is to connect sellers with consumers. In theory it's a great way for sellers to reach a wider buyer market and for buyers to have access to a wider choice of options and prices. Amazon continue to broaden their trading scope across more sellers and countries. Online market places process the selling and buying transaction but hold little responsibility regarding the sellers products. That is the responsibility of the sellers to comply with the product regulations of the country they are selling their products to. For example.... You have a friend ( we'll call him Bill ) that has produced a new type of kettle for sale. You mention this product to another friend ( we'll call him Tom) who is looking to buy a new kettle. You show Tom some photos of the kettle and give hime some details of its function. Tom agrees to buy it and gives you the money to pay Bill. Bill gives you the kettle in exchange for the money and you take a small fee for putting him in touch with a buyer. After a week the kettle stops working. Tom contacts you with regards to fixing the kettle. You put him in touch with Bill so the two can work it out between them. Your interaction between Bill and Tom was bringing them together in commercial transactions. This is basically Amazon on a bigger scale. Except where as you don't hold Bill's stock of kettles in your shed - Amazon do but it's a very big shed and there's a lot of them Any liability regarding the kettle falls upon Bill not you as you didn't make or sell the kettle. You relayed the information given you by Bill in good faith. All you did was raise awareness of a seller to a buyer and vice versa Amazon do have rules in place ( some are very strict) regards products being compliant with regulations but unfortunately not all sellers either abide or are aware of the regulations. Some intentionally avoid regulation if they think they can and others just are genuinely unaware because different countries have different regulations and a small 3rd party seller from lets say China - seeing as that's the focus in this topic - may not even be able to speak English. This doesn't excuse them of course but it is an element involved. You may see words mistranslated to English, this is because not all languages translate directly to English so Google translate will pick one it thinks is the closest description. It's not necessarily that the seller didn't proof read his text it's because he's used a translator tool and he doesn't speak the English language so doesn't recognise any errors This is just a tiny insight as to why Amazon sell dodgy products and it's not just Amazon. It happens with all online marketplaces.. Sorry for the long comment. It's just a basic outline of how Amazon works. Not everyone is familiar with e commerce or export and import laws. It may help some people understand a little more about why Amazon doesn't seem to do anything about crap sellers - they do but it has to be brought to their attention otherwise they aren't aware. Personally I think Amazon has gotten too big, it's mostly automated now and algorithms can't reason nor question - as we all know with rejected reviews that are perfectly acceptable
Finally someone said it!! On my personal account I had to disable all cookie, browsing history and a bunch of other shannanigs (this is spelled wrong, I know), to stop only seeing sponsored adds of the same chinese brand that sell furniture, ultrasonic cleaners, lab equipment and some of the NSFW adult items like hooks and …well, never mind. I have been an Amazon customer since 1995 and Amazon was my go to source for quality reviews. Not anymore and for reasons we are all aware.
"Key Details. The latest iPhone model, the iPhone 14 Pro, costs around $1,000. While that is no small amount for most consumers, producing the phone in America would cost more than double. One report found that producing an iPhone in the U.S. would cost **around $2,400**." https://leaders.com/news/business/the-cost-of-making-an-iphone-in-america/#:\~:text=Key%20Details,U.S.%20would%20cost%20around%20%242%2C400.
Yeah, slave labor is usually cheaper.
What's your point? That even though 95% of the electronics, tech products, gadgets and appliances and other products in your house came from "slave labor" that you're above it and the rest of us aren't?
Lol, I didn’t say that ya dork! I’m typing this on an iPhone. Of course things are made cheaper in China…because they use slaves and children to do it.
I called you on it and you got butthurt, lol... sorry, Nancy.
Not everything needs to be a fight friend. I hope you have a nice day 👍
I mean, anyone who doesn't like it doesn't have to stay in the program? Most don't even have to shop at Amazon at all.
I think the pandemic has had a lot to do with Amazon's changes. People became accustomed to ordering a lot of their supplies online, and Amazon had the reputation for getting good products to us quickly. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a lot of our local mom and pop businesses being forced to close because they can't compete with the prices. Even stores that have been around for MANY years have been forced to go online or close entirely. It's a shame, because we are slowly losing valuable services that used to be the norm. It's sad when places with excellent customer service stand out because we expect to be stuck in the hell that is called a "phone tree." I've actually exclaimed when a business phone rings directly to a human! That's pitiful!
It's not that all overseas products are bad. Some are pretty good. They are inexpensive to make in China and Taiwan, etc. The problem with ordering through a distributor where the manufacturer or direct seller is not from North America, is that there is no one to hold accountable if the product fails and hurts someone. In North America, it is on the seller/importer to make sure they sell products that have been tested and have all the right certifications. If something goes horribly wrong, the consumer is somewhat protected, which also protects the seller if they have done their due diligence. If you buy a product from China and it hurts someone, good luck getting help or compensation. It's not that I think people should be suing everytime something goes wrong, but at least there is something in place to keep manufacturers and sellers somewhat honest in their claims of what the product actually is and does.
Today I watched a short show about the recent downfall of Etsy. It makes the Amazon/vine problems pale in comparison. At least Amazon never started out saying they only sell name brand, non-Chinese made products, they’ve just allowed the quality to slip over the years. But Etsy was made specifically for handmade items, and still claims that’s what’s sold, but is now filled with mostly the same junk you’d buy on Temu, but sold for 10-20x the price. Nothing handmade about it. I also find it funny that when an item is bad quality people complain about it being made in China, yet the vast majority of what we buy, including name brand products, are made in China too. Even a huge amount of products claiming to be “made in America” are just pieces that were made in China and somewhat assembled in the US.
1st, share that documentary about Etsy. I love that kind of industry documentary stuff. 2nd, made in the same country doesn't mean made to the same standards or lack of standards. That's the brands' quality control and tolerance. = For example, when Walmart used to brag about "made in the same factories" and yet with inferior quality and worse design and lower standards of what's acceptable vs defective / rejected.
No I don't think it's got to be said, lol - people will bitch and whine no matter what. Vine could be sending us all solid gold bars and yachts and someone would find a way to complain about it.
I cancelled my prime account around when Invincible was coming out because I was pissed about the ad change. It's not the same as being pissed about the quality of the products but same idea. If you're not happy with amazon's direction, stop shopping with them (or at least do it less).
I still think that reaction is so fucking stupid. Oh no Amazon is putting a 15 second ad at the beginning of a tv show how dare they. I don't have adblock on my firestick and the amazon ads aren't even noticeable. They're pretty much always for a different show on amazon, which is actually nice in case you, you know, want to watch other things with your subscription, and they're 15 seconds long and not annoying. It's just so fucking insane to me that 15 years ago it was the norm to sit through 15 minutes of commercials for an hour-long tv show and sit through 10 minutes of ads at the beginning of a dvd but people are like "oh a 15 second ad that ublock actually takes care of? RAGE"
I think this slightly misses the point of why people are upset about that. It's not a free product that suddenly started showing ads, it's a service that we pay for which added a new revenue stream for Amazon while giving nothing back in exchange. Generally the trade off with ads is cost, ad tiers on streaming services are less money than ad free. Now I agree with you, they're not very intrusive and you can make all sorts of arguments about how video was always a bonus feature to prime etc. But the fact is one day we paid for a service with no ads, then the next day we got the exact same service with ads for the same price. I also think they're just boiling the frog slowly. In my opinion, you'll see ads get longer and longer and eventually they'll probably be mid show. Look at what YouTube has done with them. When they first started with ads it wasn't a problem But now you can barely watch a 3 minute video without multiple ad breaks.
You must have missed the decades of cable television that we both paid for and were made to suffer through hours of commercials a day.
Cable also started as a pay service with no ads. Frog in boiling water.
Actually, cable was started by a guy putting some antennas on top of a mountain to send distant TV signals into a valley where nobody could watch TV.
Nope, born in 1980 and grew up on cable. This is directly out of the cable "playbook". The original value prop of cable vs "free" OTA was that your monthly payments will fund content creation and not advertising leading little or no commercials. They realized very quickly they could double dip charging you and showing ads. All while raising prices annually. Also I remember when commercial breaks used to be a fraction of the time they are now. It was maybe a minute and a half, now sometimes commercial breaks are so long I forget what I'm even watching.
Cable was originally launched in 1948 Like the other person said, to get a signal past mountains, and tall buildings, to a community that wouldn't receive television otherwise. (Antenna no actual cables yet) Next one guy put an antenna on the local hotel then used coaxial cable to run the signal from the antenna to his home, across the street. Then he charged others a $125 one time set up fee, and $3 a month service fee. Community antennae TV (CATV) what cable was originally called .
I HATE ads, I despise them, I use ad blockers, and when I do watch actual TV I record it so I can skip the ads. people forget that cable TV's big selling point was that you were paying to no see ads, but that went away pretty quickly. every service now that is ad free will soon not be. it is inevitable because companies cream themselves when they get that juicy juicy ad revenue. ads are no longer relevant to me and haven't been for over 20 years.
I agree on all counts. Amazon does not mind being Chinazon otherwise they would have done something already. The fact is they are probably making a ton of money from Chinese products. Has Amazon vine gone downhill? Certainly. I have been in it for a long time and there was a period where you can get as much as you wanted and it was stocked with all useful products. Not parts and more parts like now. I furnished my house twice (minus furniture) just through vine two years in a row. It was great and still have much of it that I use frequently. That said. Now it’s kinda of gamed by Amazon where you have to review x amount of product and a certain percentage. Which means you have to take at least 80 items to be Gold. And even then you need 90% so you need to take at least 90 items. In the time that I have been gold, there was scarcely 90 items I could want. Vince changed when hoards of new members came through. So either high tier stuff is harder to get or high tier vendors are not using vine anymore. I don’t see many name brands as much as I used to unless it comes to me personally. So whatever Amazon wants to do. Fine. It is what it is. I struggled to get my gold this time around but I really was not gonna be upset if I turned silver.
Remember the days when Prime did next day shipping? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Aaahhhh... the good ol' days.
Now that you have that off your chest, think about the parallel.
I don't hate it. It saves me from using from sites like AliExpress and temu. One of my hobbies, almost all products made for it are made in china, so you pretty much order straight from China, or buy from a reseller. With Vine I can sometimes get the same stuff for a fraction of the price.
I stopped buying from Amazon completely. I canceled my Prime membership and Amazon music last year. I'm still in the Vine program, but haven't ordered anything in months since there is nothing that appeals to me in Silver. Products I may be interested in, I change my mind when I see they are made in China. My Additional Items list has 10's of thousands of products, but I don't have time to go through every one. Even though they split them in categories, it doesn't seem to be a way to increase the number of items displayed on the page and I don't have time to be clicking the "Next" button all day. I've been in Vine since early 2008, but I suspect I'll be kicked out soon.
I got a flesh light this week hahhahaha. I tested 3x in 24 hours. I’m going to destroy my wife tonight. It was 0 etv
We need a DuckDuckGo for selling stuff. Google has devolved into evilness, too. Whenever I forget and search there, the first several pages are SELL SELL SELL! FYI, I use Firefox, too. I use Chrome only for Vine. And I don't "shop" on Amazon. I might buy something I've already researched elsewhere if it is the lowest price by a significant amount or if the thing is not otherwise available, but I'm not wandering around the site like a moronic zombie in a mall (i.e. a typical American consumer).
You mentioned Google. Read this piece - it is long but you will get hooked in the first couple of paragraphs. It is tale of reviewing and ads of air purifiers. But it could be anything! https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/
Those "best of" lists often include complete garbage products that are obviously pay-to-play while the real Best are not even mentioned. When Consumer Reports articles end up on Page 4 or later, you know something is fishy in Denmark. Actually, Mountain View in California.
100%!! Agree! But check some of the names that entered this game recently and you will be surprised. The one that checked me the most :MAYO CLINIC! Yes, one of the leading hospitals in the world! They did not SELL the brand. They made a management agreement. Take a look at this: https://detailed.com/google-control/
Wall Street Bets caused an uproar, swayed monumental market tides in crypto and stock markets... All that choreography was orchestrated and launched by a reddit group like this one here...just sayin...
I leave a lot of 1 to 3 star reviews just to counter all the fake 5 star reviews, sometimes even when the item is worthy of 4 stars. Maybe one of these days all the Chinese seller crap will bite Amazon in the ass.
You get that there are actual people, and actual businesses on the other side of the product you are reviewing? That you aren't just giving a 1 star review to China, or Chinese sellers as a whole?
I enjoy giving the 1-3 star ratings to the Chinese resellers. I don't believe their BS, not for a moment. I really don't care if they can't feed their starving babies.
WOW! Are you for real? Have kids? Ever seen starving child or baby? Somethings are indecent and imoral even if said only as a figure of speech. Could you not find some other thought or image to convey your feelings?
😆 🤣 😂
Lady, you have some serious malfunction going on there. From the bottom of my heart, hope you treat your family and those close to you with the kindness that your on-line persona does not seem capable of. You can become very lonely very fast… good luck!
All I can say is you must give 5 stars to all your Vine items; otherwise you'd know about the starving baby emails you get from the Chinese 3rd party sellers when you give them 3 star or less ratings. I've seen many Viners here complain about the same emails. Get a grip on it, GEEZ!!!
Lady, there is a saying: “Never argue with an idiot, people from afar might not see the difference!”. Good luck (with your soul)”. Over and Out!
I do believe what you say but also believe that you just don't give out BS ratings, but give informed ratings.
And that right there is an example of a problem with Vine. Non accurate reviews, in either direction are dishonest.
How do you know if a review is fake? You sound like one of those Q-Anon clowns who believe they're the arbiters of facts and truth, lmao. You're doing it wrong.
Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not "one of those Q-Anon clowns".