On a related note, during the same week I achieved an Amazon milestone: 14 parts ordered, 4 were defective out of the box and 4 did not meet the specifications in the product description (making them unusable for my project out of the box). 14 parts ordered, 8 were bad. Over a 50% 'failure rate' (failure = not usable for the required task as new products out of the box, or parts not usable as the design intended them to be used). Before placing my orders I did a ton of research and learned the following: Cam-locks are supposed to all match a manufacturing spec but in reality they might not. Ordering all the cam-locks from one manufacturer increases the chance everything fits (especially on sizes smaller than 1.5")New fuel transfer hoses can have two major issues out of the box, bleeding black rubbery goo into fuel or shedding tiny crumbly rubber pieces into fuel The project taught me a lot more than that, but the above two issues are the main 'ordering new stuff from Amazon' lessons. I had read all the product reviews. I had used FAKESPOT extensively to compare products before selecting what seemed like the best products. And yet still I had over a 50% failure rate out of the box on what was ordered. It has left me contemplating the expense of shipping unusable bricks, across the ocean, across the nation, back and forth. It would be easy to confuse that with a political expression, it's not intended as such. I'm just a consumer that had to work 2x as hard because over half the products didn't work. I'm left contemplating Amazon versus Sears. And Amazon now versus Amazon when it first started selling products. Try inserting a more than 50% product failure rate into various points of the corporate timelines and image how it would impact the companies. Could Amazon have launched with a 50% + failure rate on shipped products and been successful? Could Sears? Does the frog in a cold pan metaphor/joke help explain the acceptance of shoddy products and high return rates?
