Leaving Amazon

I used to feel the same, but unless I'm mistaken (which I often am - ask my wife) the 'buy without signing up for a free trial' check box is now more prominent. 

I avoided Amazon for many years, however, it is convenient to use their Fire stick and benefit of speedy delivery for purchases in some instances if pricing is competitive. I have not had any difficulty in returning items and getting refunded. Only when values are higher on returned goods have I had to chase them up. Not sure what the alternative could be for the overall package, bearing in mind I do not purchase any additional films/media other than those provided free.

Orson Carter said

I used to feel the same, but unless I'm mistaken (which I often am - ask my wife) the 'buy without signing up for a free trial' check box is now more prominent. 

Thanks I will look out for that!

indemnity said

I avoided Amazon for many years, however, it is convenient to use their Fire stick and benefit of speedy delivery for purchases in some instances if pricing is competitive. I have not had any difficulty in returning items and getting refunded. Only when values are higher on returned goods have I had to chase them up. Not sure what the alternative could be for the overall package, bearing in mind I do not purchase any additional films/media other than those provided free.

Yeah I think my problem is I'm not sure if there actually is an alternative now...

Malbon said

Anyone else have a problem with this and looking for an alternative?

No. Amazon is the absolute easiest platform to use for online shopping. There are no games*.

Also, just sign up for Prime. It's £9 a month and you get a streaming service and unlimited free next day deliveries (some areas have same day delivery in the UK). And unlimited storage for photos. Early access to discounted products. Exclusive sales events. *there are actually games, but literal games, provided as another free service through Prime.

To me, this is like hearing somebody complaining about finding getting water from a tap increasingly difficult, which I fully understand is a wholly privileged position to be in but I make no apologies. If you're on PP you aren't slugging seven miles to a well every day for water.

As video killed the radio star, Amazon has killed the high street. Now, most, if not all, high street shopping has moved online, and it's become a minefield of scams. Cheap usually means dangerous. I remember years ago, my teenage son bragging about getting a super long iPhone charger for £3 online. At the time, I had a strict rule that the kids weren’t allowed to use their phones in bed, but my son thought he could bend that rule with his new charger. He figured he could stay on his phone all night talking to friends, until one night, the charger he had plugged in under his bed erupted into flames, lighting his bunk bed on fire. Luckily, he was unharmed.

Agree totally with ANDY00

The amount of unregulated tat that comes from China through there is alarming.

If your item can be belivered to an amazon branded locker, and of course you have the ability to easily get to one, then you can still get free deliverly without Prime and without having to bundle up to £35 minimum amount. Most of the time deliveries to lockers end up there next day.

A little trick a lot of people don't seem to know about.

The Portrait Cowboy said

Malbon said

Anyone else have a problem with this and looking for an alternative?

No. Amazon is the absolute easiest platform to use for online shopping. There are no games*.

Also, just sign up for Prime. It's £9 a month and you get a streaming service and unlimited free next day deliveries (some areas have same day delivery in the UK). And unlimited storage for photos. Early access to discounted products. Exclusive sales events. *there are actually games, but literal games, provided as another free service through Prime.

To me, this is like hearing somebody complaining about finding getting water from a tap increasingly difficult, which I fully understand is a wholly privileged position to be in but I make no apologies. If you're on PP you aren't slugging seven miles to a well every day for water.

Well yes but it's about having a choice, not about money.

ANDY00 said

As video killed the radio star, Amazon has killed the high street. Now, most, if not all, high street shopping has moved online, and it's become a minefield of scams. Cheap usually means dangerous. I remember years ago, my teenage son bragging about getting a super long iPhone charger for £3 online. At the time, I had a strict rule that the kids weren’t allowed to use their phones in bed, but my son thought he could bend that rule with his new charger. He figured he could stay on his phone all night talking to friends, until one night, the charger he had plugged in under his bed erupted into flames, lighting his bunk bed on fire. Luckily, he was unharmed.

That's absolutely horrendous, I'm sorry that happened.

Thru the looking glass Photography said

Agree totally with ANDY00

The amount of unregulated tat that comes from China through there is alarming.

Unregulated tat comes from all over the place but yeah China is pretty bad for it.

For me, when shopping on Amazon, I make sure that the seller seems at least half-way legitimate. I tend to ignore sponsored/promoted products (in much the same ways as everyone should ignore sponsored/promoted links/content on all platforms including Google - always scroll past the promoted stuff (even the ones that look legitimate). I also tend to ignore the "top reviews" as these can often be staged/paid for. For me, I look at the number of negative/1-star reviews, and order reviews by recency. These are often far more telling and informative as to what to expect from a customer service point of view. I also look at the ratio of positive reviews. A legitimately good product will have a downward trend of five star to 1 star reviews... if there are more 1-star reviews than 2-star reviews, that's when I start to suspect issues with the product/seller. I also, as a rule, veto/ignore anything on Amazon with fewer than 500 reviews, and anything under an average 4-star review.

Also, for those people who use Chrome on their desktop for shopping on Amazon, I would also wholeheartedly recommend looking at getting a plugin for your browser called 'Keepa' - it serves as an Amazon price tracker. This effectively shows you a graph on every single product over about a year or whatever of what the price for the product you're looking at has been over the last 12 months on Amazon, but also on other websites. That way, when you see a product that says "£50 down from £120" you can see that it spent two weeks at £120 seven months ago and its average price has been £55 over the whole time period. It also shows you how much the product was when it first launched on Amazon, so you can see whether it's gone up or down since initial product release. This really helps me avoid fake deals so I'm not tempted to buy something "as a bargain" that isn't a bargain at all.

Been a member for years, watch prime TV all the time. My account is shared with others within the household so we all get free delivery

For me it's a no brainer

I agree with comments about Amazon killing the high street but the service is excellent in my experience. You can get just about anything though always be aware of caveat emptor. I pay for Prime, get access to next day delivery, music, movies, The Grand Tour, Clarksons Farm, loads of other TV including back catalogues, and now even Premier Football. Sooner or later I imagine there will be more fees charged for some of these services but for now I am happy to take advantage of a relatively small annual fee for all this.

The Portrait Cowboy said

ANDY00 said

As video killed the radio star, Amazon has killed the high street. Now, most, if not all, high street shopping has moved online, and it's become a minefield of scams. Cheap usually means dangerous. I remember years ago, my teenage son bragging about getting a super long iPhone charger for £3 online. At the time, I had a strict rule that the kids weren’t allowed to use their phones in bed, but my son thought he could bend that rule with his new charger. He figured he could stay on his phone all night talking to friends, until one night, the charger he had plugged in under his bed erupted into flames, lighting his bunk bed on fire. Luckily, he was unharmed.

That's absolutely horrendous, I'm sorry that happened.

Thru the looking glass Photography said

Agree totally with ANDY00

The amount of unregulated tat that comes from China through there is alarming.

Unregulated tat comes from all over the place but yeah China is pretty bad for it.

For me, when shopping on Amazon, I make sure that the seller seems at least half-way legitimate. I tend to ignore sponsored/promoted products (in much the same ways as everyone should ignore sponsored/promoted links/content on all platforms including Google - always scroll past the promoted stuff (even the ones that look legitimate). I also tend to ignore the "top reviews" as these can often be staged/paid for. For me, I look at the number of negative/1-star reviews, and order reviews by recency. These are often far more telling and informative as to what to expect from a customer service point of view. I also look at the ratio of positive reviews. A legitimately good product will have a downward trend of five star to 1 star reviews... if there are more 1-star reviews than 2-star reviews, that's when I start to suspect issues with the product/seller. I also, as a rule, veto/ignore anything on Amazon with fewer than 500 reviews, and anything under an average 4-star review.

Also, for those people who use Chrome on their desktop for shopping on Amazon, I would also wholeheartedly recommend looking at getting a plugin for your browser called 'Keepa' - it serves as an Amazon price tracker. This effectively shows you a graph on every single product over about a year or whatever of what the price for the product you're looking at has been over the last 12 months on Amazon, but also on other websites. That way, when you see a product that says "£50 down from £120" you can see that it spent two weeks at £120 seven months ago and its average price has been £55 over the whole time period. It also shows you how much the product was when it first launched on Amazon, so you can see whether it's gone up or down since initial product release. This really helps me avoid fake deals so I'm not tempted to buy something "as a bargain" that isn't a bargain at all.

There are a number of 60 Minutes episodes that prove without a doubt how easy it is for companies operating through platforms like Amazon and Temu to fake safety ratings and add harmful levels of chemicals to products. Our greatest defense used to be the ability to return to a store and speak with the person who sold you something, but those days are long gone. Sometimes, getting a refund—minus the delivery fee—isn’t enough to make up for the damage caused or what you've lost. I really miss the high street.

I recommend world of books: wob.com

Transparency disclaimer they were a client when I was working but huge choice of used books at great prices.

Malbon said

Well yes but it's about having a choice, not about money.

So China has an online trading platform that's very similar to Amazon but is basically unheard of over in the Western world called Alibaba. It's the closest thing they have over there to Amazon and it is huuuuge for them. What is gaining a bit of traction over here is a company called AliExpress, which is a subsidiary of Alibaba. It allows people to buy really cheap shit directly from Chinese suppliers. The products are therefore almost entirely unregulated in their construction and distribution, not to mention a total lack of oversight as to the quality of materials used to construct the products in question. But, it's cheap so people are starting to use it more and more. Because cheap.

Amazon is much more a 'marketplace' now than it used to be. It takes significantly less to have a shop on Amazon than it does to have a shop on a high street, and quite frankly the process is easier still than holding a car boot sale. This means you have to be a touch more diligent in your purchase choices than you used to be, but it does mean that a whole load of totally legitimate sellers can now use the platform to reach a wider audience.

As the largest online sales platform the world has ever known, their security is the absolute best of any online retailer. You can return any item you want for free for a replacement or refund. Getting your money back from Amazon literally couldn't be easier (relative to any other online sales platform).

Online shopping is (or has) killing (or killed) the high street shopping experience. Which in some ways is bad, but honestly not the worst thing in the world - high street prices were often over-inflated to account for the overhead involved in having a shop on a high street, paying bills and staff and security and and and and etc etc etc. Shopping centres and outlet centres are still going strong so if you really do need to try clothes on before you purchase there's still the capacity for you to do so. But, Amazon isn't the cause of this, they're just the best at what they do.