9 Things You Should Never Buy On Amazon 

1) Products from big box. 2) Music streaming from Amazon music. 3) Any product that has a tons of sketchy reviews. 4) IKEA brand household items and furniture. 5) Beauty or skincare. 6) Sunscribe and save products. 7) Clothing and shoes. 8) Covid supplies. 9) Knock off phone and computer chargers.

Omg thanks for citing my story on fake skincare/beauty on Amazon!! Doing the research for that piece fully put me off of buying basically anything skin-related (even, like, soap) from there. You truly never know what you're getting.

After watching this I double checked the moisturizer I bought from Amazon a couple weeks ago, turns out its over 5 years old and was resold through a third party seller. >.< Learned my lesson, and will just take a trip to the store next time.

Seriously, don't buy Kirkland products on Amazon. The sellers are buying Costco returns in bulk and selling it on Amazon for a profit.

Also problematic: supplements. Lots of ripoffs with great labels...

As someone who works at an Amazon sort center: there's a lot of stuff that is sold by Amazon that is a nightmare to process. Stuff gets packaged incorrectly and then spills everywhere. Lots of paint spills, we had a vinegar spill this week, all sorts of drink spills. Kitty litter in particular gets everywhere. I had a tire get stuck at the top of my chute on Friday. Just a tire with a shipping label slapped onto it. There's a lot of stuff that even if it is legitimate, gets utterly destroyed in transit. At this point I'm surprised when something arrives at my door and is completely intact. Please don't buy things that you are concerned about breaking in transit from Amazon. Because it will likely be subjected to a lot of abuse in transit, especially if it's not being sourced close to the shipping address.

Great video! I just watched a Netflix documentary on counterfeit cosmetics and the nasty stuff they put in those, which then gets sold on Amazon. Us consumers definitely need to be more educated about products and this video was great!

The salon I worked at sold a brand of products called Eufora which only sells their items in salon. We would warn clients over and over that the Eufora products in amazon are either counterfeit or expired but they didn’t listen. Then they end up with foul smelling products or chemical burns.

My list of things never to buy on Amazon: Anything I can find in a brick and mortar store or through another online retailer.

It’s honestly such a shame that Amazon (and other large corps) have such a wide reach and audience but chose to do only harmful things to society 😔

I admit I am a very happy Amazon customer - however, I am price/quality savvy and I only buy items that I cannot find in brick shops or on different websites. I am often appalled at how some people seem to be NOT shopping around when looking for an item and not notice that yes, many times they are more expensive on Amazon than somewhere else. I am writing from Europe where, maybe, customers ' approach could be different.

Lesson learned on not buying chargers from Amazon. Got a cheap laptop charger. It was working fine for a month. I left it unattended for a little over an hour and noticed a chemical smell.. the charger plug melted a portion of my home outlet!!! I tried submitting a negative review with pictures for proof and suddenly the charger and brand is no longer searchable on their website 🤔

A word on IKEA - it only works if you live near one. There’s no ikea in my state (Mississippi.) I wanted a Malm dresser and shipping from Ikea was going to be twice as much as the dresser! We ended to going to the one 3 hours away in another state. There’s also sadly no Trader Joe’s in my state, though we did finally get a Costco a couple years ago!

Yes, thank you for mentioning the masssive impact and prevalance of *m*zon Web Services! The near-monopoly on enterprise computation is insane and has a massive influence on the environmental weight of *m*zon as a company.

Also: wet cat food. It was cheaper and faster for me to get cat food delivered via Prime, but my cat started avoiding it every so often. And he's usually crazy about food. Some of the food is expired or kept in poor temperature conditions through Amazon.

Counterfeit DVDs and video game discs have been a big problem too on Amazon and elsewhere. They have only become less problematic due to consumers choosing online streaming and downloading over physical discs in recent years.

I'm in the UK and never had an amazon account. Yet, I've still unwittingly bought a few items from them via various seller accounts on ebay UK. The weird thing? Once my order arrives in an amazon box, from an amazon driver - I look up the same item on amazon (to see if I was ripped off). Nope - every single time, I'd get the same item for cheaper than the cheapest amazon price AND free 'ebay' delivery (the same items on amazon never had free delivery on non-prime accounts). It's really strange.

Thank you for this video. You answered questions I’ve had for a while now but had no clear answers for.

So excited when I saw a TFD video drop. I like these "lists" videos!

Brilliant video!! One of my top 5 for 2022 so far

You should do a video about eco-friendly household cleaning brands like Dropps, Blueland, Grove, and Cleancult. They make being eco-friends easy and automated, and in the case of Dropps (for me personally), saves me money with their bulk subscribe and save option :)

I'm moving into my first apartment and this is exactly the vid I needed! Love all your stuff.

I work for a company that sells on Amazon as a third party vendor. Seeing how Amazon runs their business and all the shit they get away with convinced me to never give them another cent of my money. (No judgement to anyone who has to buy from Amazon. I totally get that it is the only option for some people.) ETA after finishing the video - most third party vendors don't set the retail prices on Amazon - Amazon does. Vendors can only "suggest" the retail price. There are exceptions to this (seller central accounts vs vendor central accounts) but overall, Amazon is allowed to sell third party vendor products for whatever they want, while simultaneously forcing that same third party vendor to lower their cost to Amazon or risk their listing being suppressed and not appearing on the website.

The main reason why Amazon is so popular in the U.S. is called "ex-fucking-treme driving distances". I live in Central Europe. In a major city where the local IKEA is served by THREE bus lines financed by the city (IKEA may chip in to have the buses go there, but no the entire cost) with combined frequency of 7-10 minutes. Online shopping IS huge in this country but definitely not in the product categories named in this video. I used to be shocked by "why the hell Americans buy this on the frickin Amazon" before realizing that a decent store may be a three hour drive for them.

I agree, I agree, but I will say that Amazon does warn you when a subscribe & save price changes (at least that has been my experience)

Thanks for these tips. I do make it a practice to check a price on Amazon against the same item on the manufacturer's website or at least some other websites. Comparison shopping should still be a thing!

I really tried to cut all ties with daddy bezos, but there are some hobby supplies I really cannot get in my location, especially 3d printer components.

Another reason to check reviews: some sellers are repurposing successful listings to sell new products. I was looking at a carbon dioxide monitor a couple of days ago and one had lots of positive reviews! "This is a great trigger lock" (with photo of handgun). "Kept my tea hot all day!" Whelp, I don't know about the ship, but we've found Theseus' Amazon storefront ...

The only thing that I have as subscribe and save on Amazon are a 96 pack of rael pimple patches and that’s because I can’t find them anywhere in stores, plus I always run out of patches frequently

At this point, I think I only buy office supplies and a few other nifty little household items from Amazon when it would take me too long to find them near me. And in most cases, it's only stuff that I've gotten direct links and recommendations for because it can be exhausting searching through the reviews. But one other thing I'm adamant about avoiding on Amazon is books because I don't like the power they have in the industry. My order of preference is library, local indie shops, then Barnes & Noble.

We buy so much stuff on there unfortunately so this will be a helpful lesson!

I'm one of those people who kinda has no choice about ordering things online and because I have a PO box and the mail doesn't deliver to my rural ass house Amazon, with its hub locker, is my only choice. In fact I'm going to take this opportunity to rant. Why the hell do so many places refuse to ship to a PO box!? So many of Amazon's competition REFUSE to ship to a PO box and this locks me completely out of ordering from them! Why are we even allowed to pay for a PO box if shipping things to them is "impossible" according to so many websites. It's total bullshit.

Thank you. Informative x

You can research on Amazon, but then go to the actual vendor. Prices might be really similar.

I only every buy from Amazon if I absolutely can't get an item through any other source. And that's not just because I work for an online store in Switzerland - I think here one of our selling points is "we're not Amazon" :-)

I definitely try to price check amazon and my local stores. Especially when bulk is not an option locally

I buy a lot from Amazon because I have a pain disorder, so trying multiple stores for one item is out, and it’s not worth breaking my body trying to find substitutes that’ll charge $10 for shipping each if I need multiple things

I decided to stop buying from Amazon if I can avoid it, specially from third party sellers. I bought a device and was sent the wrong item. I returned it, and after 3 weeks, I still haven't recieved the refund. I bought a similar device from another seller (I really needed the thing) and they "couldn't find me" even though there was somebody at home at all times. They also didn't contact me to arrange another date, so I cancelled the order. The same thing with the refund, nothing yet.

I admittedly use *m*zon frequently, but after this video, I think I am going to curb what I purchase there, and stick mostly to books and ebooks (I have a Kindle). I self-published on*m*zon, so I'll continue with that, but I'm definitely going to change my habits. I was buying the Japanese Haba Labo skincare, but after this video, I think I will buy it elsewhere, even though I haven't had problems. I've already renewed my Prime Membership for the year, but I don't think I'll renew it again.

One thing I found out is that you can sometimes save money by going directly to the "seller's" website instead of Amazon. I purchased a pair of shoes from a regional shoe store for $17.00 less than purchasing them through Amazon from the same seller. I wanted a duplicate pair to some I already owned and since that particular style was discontinued and was very comfortable for me. I also still got free shipping since the purchase was over $50.00.

I use Amazon as a starting point/search engine for products I'm looking for. Then go buy direct from the business if I find what im looking for.

I should be deterred by a few of these, but as someone who lives in a small town in MS where my product selection is limited to Walmart or a 2 hour round trip to Costco, it's either pay more on Amazon or don't get the product or even a comparable one at all.

I really appreciate the acknowledgments at the beginning. :) I live alone in a remote area, so I wind up shopping a lot more on Amazon than I used to. The closest boxed stores are an hour's drive, and the closest IKEA is 4 hours over in the next state, so it makes some of those products a lot less accessible to me. I have found some Mom and Pop places that fill in the gap, and on occasion I just bite the bullet and make the drive to shop. At the end of the day if I just need one *very particular* item then I find myself on amazon a lot more than I used to.

"...cause I'm a busy bi**h!" got me cracking LOL. THANK YOU FOR EXISTING CHELSIE!!!

Another great video. Thanks !

Living in the Canarian Islands have this as an advantage, Amazon does not delivery here for about 80% of the store. We have great access to European maybe small brands of make up here. And if I see something gun Assos got me cover when I can afford it. 🥰

I haven’t purchased anything from Amazon since mid-March. This is a major accomplishment for me because I used to be the person with a new package almost every day.

I shut off my Amazon Prime and that pretty much ended my Amazon Spree. Best thing I did.

I personally don't like going to stores to sample beauty products, but I subscribe to the fab fit fun box. So I regularly get lots of skincare and other products. Since they're all so nice I can always find something to use, so I'm never out of fancy skincare. I share the box too so I'm not getting too much stuff.

A lot of major retailers offer price matching. As a Target employee, I can vouch that we offer price matching. Of course there are stipulations but in many cases you can buy the exact same product in person at the price being sold on Amazon (or other approved competitors). You just have to ask.

Yay! Thanks for this video! Fraudulent items on Amazon is a huge issue! If I buy from Amazon it’s only bc it’s not available anywhere else, and I always look at the seller to make sure I’m buying direct from the seller and not from a third party. 👏 thanks for the great video, as always!

TFD does it again ! A video that balances practicality and ethics

It was Amazon's bad delivery statuses that finally drove me to stop using them as much as possible (with exception to a Christmas gift last year). They can mark things delivered, even if it hasn't been, and they have it on their website that they do this (you have to dig through your account to find their return policy info). They mention to wait two business days before contacting support. I bought a scarf and hat combo for my mom's birthday and it was set to be delivered on her birthday...but wasn't. I checked around the side of the house, though as I lived in a townhouse, I figured that would be impractical and the item was small enough to fit in the mailbox. Waited my two days and called them and they gave me a store credit. I bought the item again...all for the first one to show up a few days later. I ended up keeping the second one for myself as payment for them stupidly marking an item delivered when it absolutely had not been. I don't see the purpose in that except to inflate their fast shipping status. About 8 months later, I ordered a self jump-starter battery pack (serious note, everyone should get one of these and I don't care if you use Amazon to do so. For around $100 for most vehicles, it can save you from being stranded, especially if people are rude and don't want to even talk to you when you ask for help, like what happened with me). But the battery was marked delivered and wasn't in front of the apartment. This one may have been stolen (they didn't knock when the delivery was made because of Covid precautions many delivery services had in place meant not touching anyone'a house. Which...other people have already touched all over the package anyways, might as well knock on the damn door or wear gloves 🙄). I didn't get the notice of the delivery until about 40 minutes after the stated delivery time. But I couldn't be sure it had been stolen given my other experience. Also, the seller just so happened to then be out of stock despite me keeping an eye on the seller's page and continuing to read reviews, which raised some red flags. When I asked for a refund for not getting my item, Amazon said I'd filed too many claims and denied it. The claim with the scarf was the only one I've filed in the 10 plus years I've been using Amazon. I read them the riot act. I let them know the only reason I filed that first claim was because of their bullshit early delivery status. Had they given me the correct tracking and expectation, that claim would've never been filed. And I brought up the suspicious timing of the seller being out of stock with no warning of low inventory. Guess they didn't want to fight me anymore as Amazon gave me a proper refund, not store credit. After all this (oh, and an instance of being duped with a pair of earbuds with glowing reviews that were actually garbage), I've not bought anything for myself from them since.

Absolutely love my Amazon Music subscription. I think I've encountered less than 10 songs that are behind a paywall. Also, I listen to it through my phone and sometimes our smart tv. What other ways are ppl listening to their music?

Yay! Thanks for publishing such a helpful video! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Also, people don’t seem to utilize their product’s warranties. I use Apple warranty to replace lighting and charging cords and blocks.

Why... why would you buy a *turkey* from Amazon?

This has definitely been on my mind! I use Subscribe and Save to get the essentials (for me, it's stevia sweetened soda) that I cannot get while overseas. I make a note when my S&S is about to charge me so that I can see if something jumped in price, and I skip it. But when I was working full-time, I absolutely deprioritized checking and how much I was auto-piloting just adding household staples. Now I'm considering not having Prime at all. Even with a language barrier where I'm at, I look forward to exploring and finding what I actually will use in stores. In the states, I'm not sure how I would have broken that habit. Thank you for drawing attention to this need to be informed while online shopping.

Thanks

I personally use the Subscribe and Save feature for household items. I hate going in a store to purchase these because I get tempted on buying other unnecessary things. Plus, I have all of my items there to come every 3-6 months. It limits my time using the website/app too. Also, maybe it's only in Seattle, but Amazon stopped their free returns to their stores: Whole Foods, Amazon Go (RIP), Amazon 4-Stars (RIP), Amazon Fresh.

I love your shirt and your glasses!

This is a great video! I will say though that for college students with student prime, Amazon music is only $0.99 per month, which honestly does save a lot of money compared to Hulu+Spotify student deal. But it’s only for college students as far as I know.

I wish I see your video earlier! I purchased some brow pencil on Amazon and it gave my skin a terrible allergic reaction. I should have never done that. Thank you for sharing your advice to your audience!

Also cheap chargers and batteries on Amazon are often flammable and will catch fire.

Good video. The cart - iconic.

I'm disappointed on Chelsea's lack of research about shopping for Ikea products online. Ikea charges outrageous shipping for small low cost items. For example their shipping for a set of bedsheets is akin to the cost of shipping heavy furniture. Often the shipping is more than the price of the item itself! I have talked to Ikea about this over their customer service line and their answer makes so little sense I can't even remember that they said. Go ahead and ask for yourself if you are curious. Therefore, I only buy Ikea items in-store but there is only one Ikea in my state and it is quite a distance to drive, so I go very seldom. I have looked at what people try to sell these items for on Amazon/eBay and what I've noticed is that it's about the same as what you would pay on Ikea's website if you look at the total price with shipping. Maybe some sellers offer the buyer a bit of a break, I don't know. Many people don't live near an Ikea so these sellers are offering options. Why is TFD hating on honest people trying to make a living? Yes, if selling harmful products or fake products is wrong, but that is casting aspersions on a lot of legitimate sellers.

My main problem with every buying food or cosmetics off of Amazon is that they were clearly stored improperly. I have several food allergies and if I want a candy bar as a treat, Amazon is one of the few ways I can get one. But I've gotten stuff that has obviously melted and re-melted a few times, even when I ordered in winter so it didn't have a problem between the warehouse and me.

I only buy from Amazon when a certain app gives me gift cards after saving up enough points. Someone I know worked for them here in the UK. They set unachievable targets to stowe items away. They have hand sets which have alarms on them. Obnoxious noise when you haven't found a space on the shelves after just a few seconds seconds stowe away the item. The aisles were not all lit with working lights. The supervisor would threaten to fire you for not keeping up and they do fire you eventually. Your colleagues are therefore in competition for stowe space...so if they see with a space on the shelf they selfishly take your space (because they themselves have high anxiety). All this making their staff have mental and physical health issues. This is just stowing. It's tough for pickers and delivery drivers. There was a documentary all about in the UK if you are interested to learn about it

I bought a perfume from Amazon. I have been using that same perfume for years and couldn't find anywhere else. It had lots of 5 star reviews and it said it was "Shipped from/Sold by Amazon", so I thought since amazon is selling it surely they must have vetted their suppliers. But no, once it arrived and I opened it I could very easily tell it was a counterfeit. And again, this wasn't from a third party seller, it said this was sold by Amazon themselves. The item is not eligible for returns/refunds so I have no option but to keep it. On top of that they deleted my one star review where I talk about the item being a counterfeit, so basically you can't trust reviews either... learned my lesson, cancelled my prime subscription and never buying from them again.

Great tips! I was surprised by a lot of them.

I'm a huge fan of earning more money, and I think everyone should have a side hustle. Side hustling can allow you to earn that little bit of extra money that can help you achieve your financial goals faster - whether it's paying off student loans or saving for retirement.

i’ve considered ordering masks but i’m just too scared of counterfeits or mislabeled items. reviews are mixed bags and i’d rather just wait longer and pay more for legit ones. it’s frustrating but worth it.

I tried to leave a review for a collagen powder I ordered that I believe to be counterfeit for many reasons. But my review got deleted for trying to question whether the product was real or not..

I nearly bought Ikea from Amazon. It was a higher price. However, it was available and could be delivered. I waited for two months for what I wanted to become available on Ikea and even then delivery was not available. I ended up placing my order and then driving three hours each way to pick the order up.

Thanks for posting this! Also a side note. Paying for Prime shipping or not and occasionally paying the $5-8 fee for 2 day shipping is rarely worth it. I canceled Prime about 3 years ago, just didn't order enough stuff to make it worthwhile, especially with persistent annual price hikes. I conducted a small experiment the past year. Out of the maybe 15 items I ordered on Amazon in that one year, I have never paid the 2 day shipping fee (usually $7.95) and still got my product the day it was guaranteed for 2 day. Only one item came the the day free shipping had "predicted" (ordered on a Monday and it arrived Friday) so I saved myself $8 by clicking free shipping and *still* getting it in 2 days. 🤷‍♀️😉

Don’t buy apple products either! I used to work at an apple store and we would see so many counterfeit iPads come in that were purchased from amazon

So true about the beauty products. I've had 2 skincare orders that arrived with no seal and a very obvious fingerdip in the middle instead of a smooth even surface. Clearly someone is sampling and contaminating orders! I got refunded for both and have never bought skincare products from Amazon ever since. I just buy directly from the company to ensure a more high quality experience and higher likelihood of actually getting a new and sealed product. Also, I once ordered a box of tea and it literally arrived with the box flattened as if someone stepped on it. Horrible!

Keep the List Videos coming!

I bought an item of clothing all of once from *m*z*n and it was for a costume/cosplay. I had to buy something with a much hizer size marker than what I am used to, and I didn't even bother to replace the second option I got. When I went to UPS to try to return it, the person behind the counter said it would cost more to ship than the price of the dress.

Maybe I am not a very refined music listener, but sometimes I play the free Amazon Music on my phone and use my home stereo speakers via Bluetooth connection, without any other Amozon device.

I only shop things like I can't find in my country like some books

So what's the tool to check review scores?

Never buy any kind of furniture from Amazon. I bought 2 chairs from them and the first one broke even though it was rated to hold up 1000 lbs. I couldn't get it welded back together because it was too big to fit in the car to take somewhere to get welded. The next one came disassembled and didn't have any screws with it. The hardware store didn't have the right kind. And I would have had to do some drilling. I ended up shipping it back.

I work there and agree with all of this

Bought a laptop charger from Amazon and it broke after three days. Definitely learned my lesson and just buy the proper chargers when I need them.

Sadly for the last point, Apple has already stopped shipping chargers with their devices. Certainly this will cause many of us Amazon shoppers to pick up anything which fits.

Man the bots are absolutely swarming this vid. It messed up how RU-vid apparently can't counter these spam bots.

Leena Norms, get her on the pod pls, made a great video on how to break or or distance yourself from all that Amazon owns.

Unfortunately as a computer and anime/manga nerd it's Amazon or nothing for a lot of PC parts and books/collections unless you want to pay absurd amounts of money over MSRP for either the product or S&H. Still I try to avoid them.

It's been a year since i bought anything from Amazon, I don't know the future but it's gonna have to be something really special that I can find anywhere for me to buy on Amazon, also don't have any smart products in my house, I like my house to be dumb. I'm shopping more local now and giving priority to things made in my country or other European countries, I'm not rich, far from it, but I'm buying more consciously and minimal.

For those of you shopping for seeds this spring, Baker Creek sells them for less than Amazon, are certified non-GMO, and ship for free. If you order $10 worth of seeds they will even send you a free seed packet of something random. I got California Poppies with my order yesterday. There are now way better options than Amazon for your shopping needs.

I am not sure if New York, you have shopped there, but here in my hometown, I started seeing people selling products like Shampoo, toothpaste, and other similar products in Yard Sales, it is kind of unsettling.

TIME TO LEARN!!

I wanna add a little thing about the clothes, as someone who is plus sized and can't always get the clothing I need from other retailers I do tend to buy hoodies from Amazon as they are usually the right size and in my price range. Not all of us have the luxury of being able to afford clothing from other retailers especially when plus sized. I also tend to buy compression socks as once again I can get them at a reasonable price and have to have them. They also are either not sold at the local stores or are double or triple the price on Amazon. I have to pick and choose where I buy higher quality clothing and choose to spend the money saved on things like better quality pants and underwear. Do I wish I didn't have too pick and choose? Yes, but I do. The reality of living in a more rural or small town area means sometimes Amazon is literally our only option as other places don't always deliver out here. Though I do agree with the rest of the list.

I’m a prime member and the Amazon prime music comes free for me.

Also avoid purchasing video game console products. I tried to buy a PS4 controller and ended up with a counterfeit. Luckily I was able to return it, but it was mega BS.

So what should we be buying from Amazon? Just wondering.

Yeah, I’ve been having issues with Amazon this year and I decided I’m going to just end my prime and go through the actual retailer from now on.

If small online businesses could add military post box addresses to their state drop down list, it would be wonderful and I'd order wayyyy less off Amazon!

Being from New Zealand, shipping costs don't make Amazon a convenient option. However, most of the cheaper things can be found on aliexpress for significantly cheaper.