That thing you’re buying from Amazon? Just go to the manufacturer’s website and buy it directly.

That works if the manufacturer is reputable, but if I want to buy some obscure gadget from a Chinese company whose name looks like the result of somebody mashing their face on a keyboard, no way in hell am I buying it direct.

Or if it’s a no-name thing like a generic charging cable, just buy it from literally any other generic [category] retailer.

Are those guys really any better than Amazon?

Side note: one nice thing about Amazon is I can have items delivered to a locker at a nearby grocery store, instead of having it sent to my apartment building and hoping the courier delivers it to me and not someone else with a vaguely similar name. Couriers keep delivering other people's packages to me. I even encountered one courier who didn't speak English and couldn't read apartment number signs, and had to basically do his job for him. It's seriously disturbing how bad package delivery is these days. Is there some way to get non-Amazon deliveries sent to some reliable pickup location?