Amazon issues drag down much of the internet Tuesday morning
By DANIEL DEMAY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Updated 1:19 pm, Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Photo: David McNew, Getty Images
Amazon's Amazon Web Services (AWS) was suffering issues Tuesday morning that took out major parts of the internet.
Amazon's Amazon Web Services (AWS) was suffering issues Tuesday morning that took out major parts of the internet.
Photo: David McNew, Getty Images
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Rugs or carpets
These are the six home items you should never buy on Amazon, according to experts.
Found the perfect rug online? Not so fast. “The color of carpets on monitors can be very deceiving,” notes Kerri Pilchik, co-founder of Ridgewood, NJ–based K+K Interior Design. “You need to see it in person and feel the fibers to determine if it will be comfortable underfoot.”
Another downside? “A rug can be a substantial investment and annoying or impossible to return.”
As one online shopper named “Notcolorblind” on Homedecorators.com points out, “If by ‘Charcoal’ they mean brown, and if by ‘jewel tones’ they mean tan, rust and olive, then the description of this rug is right on the money.”
If you must order one online, see if the manufacturer will mail you a small sample first.
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These are the six home items you should never buy on Amazon, according to experts.
Found the perfect rug online? Not so fast. “The color of carpets on monitors can be very deceiving,” notes Kerri Pilchik,
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Photo: Bill Holden/Getty Images/Cultura RF
Suffice it to say, a sofa is something you’ll want to see and sit on in the real physical world before you buy it.
“You should always see a sofa in person before purchasing it,” says Pilchik. “Comfort is key, and it is not possible to know how a sofa feels through a computer screen. Depth, height, fabric, and cushion fill are all difficult to discern from numbers and pictures alone.”
Overstock.com shopper Ayn C. reviewed a sofa bed purchased online, proving the decorator’s point: “Looks nice but so stiff, you can’t sit without a backache.”
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Suffice it to say, a sofa is something you’ll want to see and sit on in the real physical world before you buy it.
“You should always see a sofa in person before purchasing it,” says Pilchik.
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Photo: Morsa Images/Getty Images
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Inside-mount window treatments
“Never buy window treatments online that need to be mounted inside your window trim,” says Pilchik. The reason: “These measurements need to be precise to one-eighth of an inch.” And guess what? Even if you measure perfectly, the online manufacturers you purchase from may not.
A Countrycurtains.com customer learned this the hard way, according to her review: “My husband installed the brackets in my kitchen window and hung the shade. We stepped back to admire my purchase and saw that the right end of the shade was 1/2 inch lower than the left. I was sure my husband had not leveled the brackets, so he pulled out his level and square and proved to me it wasn’t his fault. The shade came from the factory with a 1/2-inch incline. If it weren’t for the fact I had guests arriving in three hours, I’d demand a refund. As it is, I pinned up one side and I’m sick I spent so much money on this product.”
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“Never buy window treatments online that need to be mounted inside your window trim,” says Pilchik. The reason: “These measurements need to be precise to one-eighth of an inch.” And guess what? Even if
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Photo: Phototropic/Getty Images
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Large appliances
What could possibly go wrong with mechanical gadgets like an oven or fridge? Specs may tell you a lot, but you should still give those doors, drawers, and rolling racks a good pull and push.
One Amazon.com reviewer had this to say about an SPT dishwasher: “It’s very cheep feeling inside and out… Opening the door is very hard. It feels like I’m going to break the plastic eventually.”
Plus, don’t forget about the not-so-convenient aspect of hauling away your old appliances. While most brick-and-mortar stores offer this service, if you order online you may be on your own.
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What could possibly go wrong with mechanical gadgets like an oven or fridge? Specs may tell you a lot, but you should still give those doors, drawers, and rolling racks a good pull and push.
One Amazon.com
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Photo: Dougal Waters/Getty Images
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Mattresses
The issue with buying a mattress is that everyone has their preferences: Some like it firm, others want soft. As such, you can’t fully trust the online reviews, unless they’re urging you to head to a physical store.
Check out this reviewer on Reevoo.com: “The concept of selling things over the internet is usually pretty sound,” he says. “However, for something as personal preference as a mattress, without the ability to try before you buy and with no option to return it, it’s a big risk. Perhaps if you know exactly what make and model you want, then by all means. But if not, paying the extra at a traditional bed showroom may just be worth it. For me, I gambled on saving a bit of money and it hasn’t paid off. I am now stuck with a mattress that I hate and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Cue the violin.
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The issue with buying a mattress is that everyone has their preferences: Some like it firm, others want soft. As such, you can’t fully trust the online reviews, unless they’re urging you to head to a
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Photo: Tanya Constantine/Getty Images/Blend Images
Poring over Pinterest boards, you find a paint color you love. Stop! Don’t order gallons just yet. As we mentioned earlier, colors don’t come through on the computer screen, and this is triply true for paint.
“It is amazing how different a color looks online versus on your wall—and that color can look different on every wall,” says Pilchik.
One customer found this out the hard way with Farrow-ball.com‘s “yellowcake” hue: “The color in strong natural light was perfect but in dim light looks a ghastly lime green, which throws off the color scheme of our en suite and bedding.”
So always paint a large swatch on your walls before committing to a big batch of paint. That goes for any paint you buy, especially those found online.
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Poring over Pinterest boards, you find a paint color you love. Stop! Don’t order gallons just yet. As we mentioned earlier, colors don’t come through on the computer screen, and this is triply true for
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Photo: Martin Poole/Getty Images
Amazon issues drag down much of the internet Tuesday morning
Amazon Web Services (AWS) had a problem with its S3 storage service Tuesday morning that broke websites and services across the internet.
As of our first writing, the issue was still impacting many of the image and website hosting and backend services that depend on the S3 web-based service.
By 1 p.m., some of the services dependent on S3 started coming back online, and AWS posted an update that it expected to see more improvement within the hour.
Amazon's status site had earlier reported issues -- "high error rates" -- with its East Coast S3 center and said the company was working to resolve the problems. Initially, even the status dashboard for AWS was not functioning correctly.
"AWS services and customer applications depending on S3 will continue to experience high error rates as we are actively working to remediate the errors in Amazon S3," the company said in a 10:33 a.m. update.
The problems affected sites like Business Insider, Giphy, Quora, filesharing in Slack and image and video hosting at many publishing sites. Some of the Associated Press' services to news outlets were impacted as well.
Amazon's own Alexa service wasn't even working correctly for at least part of the morning, according to reports.
More comedically, the site most of us use to check the status of the internet at any given time -- downdetector.com -- was also down.
Requests for comment were directed to Amazon's AWS status statement.
Last October, much of the internet went down when hackers used a DDoS -- distributed denial of service -- attack to slow or halt access to Twitter, Amazon, Reddit and dozens of other major websites.
Daniel DeMay covers Seattle culture, business and transportation for seattlepi.com. He can be reached at 206-448-8362 or danieldemay@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_DeMay.