always read the reviews

[cellio]

I needed a new thumb drive, so I figured I'd just get one from Amazon along with some other stuff I needed. I found a reasonable-looking candidate but looked at the reviews, the first few of which were bad. How can a thumb drive be bad? The first review said it was unreliable (not described further); the second said it came with malware. I looked at a couple other options, and -- same sort of complaints.

Hmm, I said. These are all third-party sellers (different ones, in the few product pages I looked at). Amazon isn't vetting them and never gets its own hands on the products. They're just an aggregator. I would buy a thumb drive from Amazon, but their credibility does not extend to other sellers they happen to host -- I shouldn't trust a thumb drive being sold by "Joe's Anonymous Store" any more than I should trust one I find lying around waiting to spread the malware within. Even if Amazon eventually boots sellers with lots of complaints, that doesn't help me, now.

I had an errand to run today anyway and figured I'd pick one up in person at Best Buy. That's how I found out my local Best Buy isn't there any more. Oops.

I've bought electronics online from NewEgg before and that's always been fine, so I headed there next -- where I saw that the products I was looking at were listed as third-party sellers. I didn't know NewEgg did third-party sellers. I wouldn't have thought to look if not for those Amazon reviews.

I finally ordered from Best Buy online; I figure it's probably really them, and if there's a problem I can, if necessary, go to a (less-local) brick-and-mortar store to deal with it.

Comments

[loosecanon]

for future reference, I avoid PNY, they are unstable. I like sandisk, and I get mine at costco.

[cellio]

I like Sandisk too, and that's what I got.

I should figure out if a Costco membership is worth it for us; it's been a while since I last reviewed it. (We wouldn't be buying meat there unless they've started carrying kosher, and that changes the evaluation.)

[loosecanon]

I use them not for the deals, which are few, but for the availabilities. Their supply lines are more vertical, so when I could not find things during shortages, they had acceptable substitutes for legitimate prices.

Their pharmacies are also very well priced.

With the pandemic, they now deliver, as well, which has been very helpful for my non-driving friends.

[cellio]

Costco delivers? This is important new information -- thank you. (And for the rest, too.)

[sine_nomine]

Yes, sameday.costco.com is the delivery page. You do need a costco account.

Just did a test run for Costco in your city, using Kosher as the keyword and got over 200 items including a wide variety of meats, smoked salmon, salads, and more.

Even living alone, they have things that make my membership worth it.

[loosecanon]

it does cost rather more; there are fees, charges, taxes, and upcharges. But it is a lot less than automotive ownership.

I believe their delivery for same-day is via instacart. (we tip the drivers in cash, because they deliver right to the door)

[goljerp]

Yesterday a cow orker was looking at thumb drives on Amazon, and was almost fooled by "Samdrive", which had its logo look as close to Sandisk as possible...

[rhialto]

If you read research like this, https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=1022 , you trust no flash memory anymore. Add to that that Amazon doesn't keep the products from different vendors apart. If 10 vendors claim to sell product X, and one of them sells fakes instead of the real product, then it doesn't matter from which vendor you buy product X: you can still get a fake one. Total end of trust :-(
Bunnie has more interesting articles about flash memory:
https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=2946
https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3554

[cellio]

Thanks for the links. It's worse than I thought, sigh.

[hlinspjalda]

Mr. Fixer suggests this might be a price-point problem with Amazon ones. We recently got a batch from Amazon at a slightly higher price point because of the shape (they look like stylized housekeys in different colors, with a hole for hanging on a ring), and they've behaved fine. He also gets them at the local Office Depot or Staples from time to time.

I agree about NewEgg; that's really not good. D-:

[cellio]

Yeah, I didn't realize NewEgg was doing that now. Big disappointment. I'll still shop there but now I know I need to be careful to check first.

That makes sense about the price point. I skipped over the "so cheap you wonder what the catch is" ones and was looking at the next tier. I did notice the multi-packs too; those seem handy too, and are getting inexpensive enough to be willing to occasionally give one away ("no it's ok $relative, you keep it! (I know how bad you are about antivirus maintenance)").

[madfilkentist]

Everyone's doing third-party sellers. Last week I looked on the Wal-Mart site for a deck umbrella. The listings were all poorly written and stuffed with keywords, strong signs of a third-party seller of questionable quality.