What's your Amazon experience?

[lordkenmore]

>I buy local whenever possible, but since I live in a tiny village with no Target/Walmart-type department store

I have wonder how much value there is buying local if it's at a big box store. Admittedly, they hire people locally, which helps the local people...but such stores often don't pay enough so the workers will have a lot of money to put back into the local economy. Most money presumably leaves the area. Some stores, of course, are better than others--some pay better than others.

Meanwhile, Amazon at least does offer the possibility of buying from individuals or small businesses that sell through Amazon. Of course, the money will likely leave the area (but then someone local might be selling to people across the country, too), and, of course, Amazon gets a certain cut.

 

[mrboilwash]

Like anybody else I buy a lot of things over the internet, but can gladly report there is no Amazon experience at all until now.
Why should I support another greedy company that avoids to pay taxes where profits are made, treats their employees bad, collects my data and so on?
I think they even refused to carry gay books at some time in the past. Not sure if this kind of discrimination is still going on.

Not saying I`ll never buy from Amazon because I`m always looking for a good price, but so far have always found a good alternative on an Ebay Shop or an independent online shop or sometimes even in a local retail store.
Shopping around isn`t that much of a hassle for me, it`s a lot of fun if it`s done right.
Besides that I`m not a huge fan of excessive consumerism myself I don`t understand how people could even get too lazy to compare prices and help making Amazon grow so fast.
[this post was last edited: 12/2/2019-05:20]

 

[Ultramatic]

I love it.

 

 

I've been a prime member for many years. By in large I have been happy with their service. Sometimes I've had issues with wrong orders, poor quality items but they have responded satisfactorily. Online shopping saves me a lot of time, gas and parking. They always bring my items to my door, if I am not home, they leave it with my neighbor.

 

[vacerator]

Yes, some Amazon itmes have

recently had price increases. Maybe it is temporary because they had lower price black Friday sales. We'll have to see. However, when we bought a new bbq grill from them back in early June, they put in on sale for $50 less later the seame the day we orfered it, and they refunded us the difference. My neighbor said they will also do it after it is delivered. If not, tell them you will be returning it.

 

[washerboy]

I love em!!

I shop Amazon quite a bit. I use them for personal purchasing as well as items needed to operate my office. What I like best; since my children and grandchildren are now 17 hours away on the east coast, I can shop and have the items shipped to their home at no extra cost. For something like 3-5 dollars they even provide a gift bag. I learned the lesson the hard way Christmas before last; using the postal service to ship Christmas gifts cost a small fortune. So far (knock on wood) I've never had any problems.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Amazon is fine...

... until your account is hacked... then it is more hassle than it is worth to try to fix the bloody problem.

I had an account, UK based, and it worked fine for a number of years. Then, a couple of years ago, I started receiving reviews for products I had never purchased.

I complained to Amazon via their online form, who cleared all the false reviews, and they discovered that somehow the UK Amazon had become muddled with US Amazon. But it kept happening. Then, my password kept changing. I changed it to something else, somebody changed it again. I removed all bank card details.

A day or two after this - a real shock. An email from Amazon saying they had successfully changed my email address. I hadn't done so. And the email was changed to something else entirely.

I phoned Amazon... and got put through to the Philippines! (what, no European operations, how odd) I asked for the account to be closed, she said it would take 24hrs. I asked for a confirmation email... and the silly besom sent it to the dodgy email address!

The dodgy activity was still occurring a day later. I called Amazon again... this time in the Caribbean! I insisted the account be closed immediately. I was told it would be, and then be archived in their system.

I really don't trust Amazon. I think their systems are geared towards the corporation (faceless, useless 'customer service') and the customer protection isn't what it could or should be. I am left wondering if a disgruntled employee has been fiddling about in the databases. And that dodgy email address seems to have been partly lifted from an American telephone directory.

Apparently this type of account theft has been done to other folk too.

I avoid Amazon like the plague.