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'Amazon Prime is Getting Worse' (fastcompany.com)

Posted by msmash on from the upon-further-reflection dept.

Mark Wilson, writing for FastCompany magazine: That little Prime logo used to mean something. Now it feels like a ruse that lulls shoppers into a false sense of security, until they go to checkout and see a shipping arrival date far later than anticipated. This cuts through the greatest promise of Prime. It's not just the free, two-day shipping. It's that it's so reliable, you never have to think for more than a second about buying something. In this sense, Prime was constructed to be great for the consumer (so efficient) and great for businesses (mindless impulse shopping!). I've been a Prime member myself for over a decade, so I've come to expect that the rush of the holiday season will clog the arteries of Amazon's fulfillment centers and delivery services alike and make shipping less than reliable. But anecdotally, to me and many of the people I know and work with, this year, it feels worse than ever.

It doesn't help that we've seen a slow dilution of Prime itself over time, with the rise of Prime Pantry and Add-on Items. They force you to buy a minimum number of items to get the best deal, adding back the very psychic burden Prime had eliminated from the equation of online shopping in the first place. As a result, it can be hard to find true, two-day Prime items that aren't marked up to insane prices by third-party sellers. But Prime was still Prime. This holiday, I've noticed things that are in stock and labeled "Prime" have nonsensical shipping dates. I'm not alone in experiencing Shipping Shock. Complaints about slow Prime shipping abound across the internet. Quora literally has a thread asking, "Has Amazon slowed down their free shipping speed intentionally?" The "top answer" with 22,000 views is a customer rant about late shipments. Many others chime in to confirm the slowdowns, and offer conspiracy theories as to what could be going on.

134 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Pantry by mccalli · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is there anyone on earth who understands their pantry thing? I mean, I can just go to Sainsbury's and order what I want, I don't have to start working out box sizes and filling them up or what have you.

    1. Re:Pantry by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Their offering in the UK makes even less sense than the one in the US, not least because the UK has fairly decent online ordering from all the major supermarkets.

      Prime delivery is a rip off. Most of the items eligible for Prime just have the extra delivery cost added on to the sale price. Prime Video is okay but doesn't have enough content to justify more than a month or two of subscription. Maybe if you use the Twitch sub and listen to a lot of streaming music it might be worth the rather high cost.

      I just keep waiting and every few months they give me a free trial, which I take up and then cancel. It's kinda nice but the 2 day delivery often turns into a week.

      On the other hand the UK high street is dying and Amazon is sometimes the only way to get stuff you actually want/need.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re: Pantry by rmdingler · · Score: 2

      In the U.S., our local grocers have also developed online ordering, local pickup outside the store, and even grocery delivery for an additional fee.

      Amazon's foray into groceries was a natural business evolution from the book company that wants to sell you everything, but it's going to be less successful than some of their other endeavors. I've tried Prime Pantry several times, and it is not without its merits when restocking non-perishables. It's not necessarily a bad outcome, since it typically works to the disadvantage of consumers when too much of the market is in the hands of a single outfit.

      Peak Amazon is going to continue to lose market share as other companies imitate their successful business model. This will not, however, speed up product delivery during peak shopping times, since the pipeline will clog with Newegg & Walmart boxes just as readily.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    3. Re:Pantry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I kind of do. They charge you for it, but the idea is that you can order a big box of stuff and save people from sending a whole ton of boxes. They probably should reduce your prime fees for using it, but they do offer discounts on the items that they put in the box.

      As for this article. I'd even put my name on this post, just too lazy to sign up. Prime offers more than shipping. It offers movies, free ebooks, complete tv series, catalogs of old tv series, music, and a small library of books that you can check out. People don't even know all of what they have.

      They want a little discount on shipping. They are trying to reduce the number of boxes they send and lower their overhead. I know i'm standing up for a large corporation who could pay its people better. For example, the raise was nice, but for many above that level, it was a slap to them. I get that too, but he did move a bunch of people up to a certain level.

      I have a lot of mixed feelings about them.

    4. Re: Pantry by orlanz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's not just during peak. I think Amazon scales down during non-peak times and performance is almost just as bad.

      I been a Prime customer since the year after it launched. I probably returned an item a year; if that. Today, our ordering has only doubled but we return atleast one package a month; primarily due to delivery issues.

      I think we are on some "bad customer" list because every once in a while the rep says "You return a lot..."; implying that we shouldn't do that. We always respond with, look the notes and figure out who is at fault.

      If we order blue, we shouldn't get red. If we order something gift wrapped, we probably want it before TK... not two weeks after the dinner. No, we aren't going to go to the other neighborhood or even down the street and pick up the bad delivery. No, we are not going to accept a box with a forklift hole in it. No we don't want another brand automatically substituted and billed to us. You credited us because your tracking number became active. Don't recharge me because you didn't get the return in time!

      And all this we find out if we inquire or after delivery. I think Amazon just doesn't care anymore. They are more focused on AWS, warehouse automation, and another HQ.

    5. Re:Pantry by omnichad · · Score: 1

      If they want to lower their overhead, maybe they could stop using my shipping subscription dollars to make movies and TV shows. This is where they're bleeding money and they're really at a point where these could be separate services, but they'd rather reduce the quality of what most of us are actually paying for - a reliable delivery schedule.

    6. Re: Pantry by tysonedwards · · Score: 2

      Even if you pay for shipping, they have no guarantees on when it will leave. I ordered a new motherboard on the 14th with overnight shipping - in stock from Amazon proper, not a third party - and despite multiple calls to check on the status, it remains shipping now. It has been charged, canâ(TM)t be cancelled, but is stuck somewhere in the system awaiting going on someones truck. It is Amazon, not just Prime where the quality is slipping.

      --
      Thirty four characters live here.
    7. Re: Pantry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      +1 insightful.

      Amazon has gotten so big that it doesn't care any more; that's happened to other companies in the past (see: AT&T before the breakup and after recombination). Nobody else is in the same class for (theoretical) product availability. Practically, I've had instances of both failure to ship until it was too late to make the 2-day timing, and simply failure. On one occasion, the 2-day shipment took 2 weeks (admittedly, there were fires and the closest warehouse was closed for at least a week). But their failure to plan for and deal with congestion and point failures in the core retail business doesn't bode well for the long-term usability of the underlying systems (AWS, etc.).

    8. Re: Pantry by jittles · · Score: 1

      It's not just during peak. I think Amazon scales down during non-peak times and performance is almost just as bad.

      I been a Prime customer since the year after it launched. I probably returned an item a year; if that. Today, our ordering has only doubled but we return atleast one package a month; primarily due to delivery issues.

      I think we are on some "bad customer" list because every once in a while the rep says "You return a lot..."; implying that we shouldn't do that. We always respond with, look the notes and figure out who is at fault.

      If we order blue, we shouldn't get red. If we order something gift wrapped, we probably want it before TK... not two weeks after the dinner. No, we aren't going to go to the other neighborhood or even down the street and pick up the bad delivery. No, we are not going to accept a box with a forklift hole in it. No we don't want another brand automatically substituted and billed to us. You credited us because your tracking number became active. Don't recharge me because you didn't get the return in time!

      And all this we find out if we inquire or after delivery. I think Amazon just doesn't care anymore. They are more focused on AWS, warehouse automation, and another HQ.

      That's almost the exact opposite experience I have with Amazon. Sure, every once and a while things are late. But often times I order something and it comes before they originally indicated. I can get same day delivery on most common items. The times that I have had a problem Amazon refunds me while allowing me to keep the package and has even offered me a gift card in addition to the free item.

    9. Re: Pantry by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      This is not only what you should expect before you sign up for a subscription to a store (that is open to the public), it is also what you deserve for encouraging them to treat you this way.

    10. Re: Pantry by Lord_Byron · · Score: 1

      Why do you assume they haven't complained to Amazon support when the post says, "despite multiple calls to check on the status"?

    11. Re: Pantry by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Funny, I replied to this post earlier today, saw that reply in my post history not long ago, and now it is gone. Slashdot, really? I was willing to overlook the poor editorial abilities of your staff, but censorship? And what I said wasn't even worthy of being censored; I merely said the same thing Lord_Byron, whose post has been allowed to stay, said; with near-identical wording, at that.

      And here I thought people were making shit up talking about their posts being removed.

      SMFH

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    12. Re:Pantry by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

      It's a scam. You already paid for Prime, so why do you need to pay more for this Pantry thing?

    13. Re:Pantry by Salgak1 · · Score: 1

      Instead of Pantry, we use the "Subscribe and Save" program for regular-use items. The problem we've found is that products drop out of "Subscribe and Save" all the time, and, increasingly, items that we subscribed to are inexplicably out-of-stock for the scheduled deliverer. Which kind of destroys the value of a subscription program, , , ,

    14. Re: Pantry by StuartHankins · · Score: 1

      I went back to look at some comments I made earlier today and although they're listed in the "comments" right-hand scrollbar, when I actually click on my comments list, they do not show. Twice also today when posting an anonymous comment and refreshing the page, it was no longer there. These weren't inflammatory, just things that revealed some personal info that I didn't want attributed to myself directly. Something is going on.

    15. Re: Pantry by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Considering that I had been the first to reply... yeah, sure, let's go with that. Fuckwit.

      If I'm posting at 9:36PM, referencing a neighboring post made at 9:00PM, and stating that I had posted something else "earlier today", I probably am not referring to a post made after that.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    16. Re: Pantry by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Evidence.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  2. It's the success by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    UPS, USPS etc can't do the volume anymore.
    Amazon has now 50! planes itself, because of it and still.

    1. Re:It's the success by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 1

      If they can't handle the volume, and it's making money for them, they will increase the volume. Or someone else will get in to handle the money.

    2. Re:It's the success by Dogtanian · · Score: 5, Funny

      Amazon has now 50! planes itself

      Amazon has 3 x 10^64 planes?! That's... rather a lot.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    3. Re:It's the success by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      The biggest problem I've had (and what caused me to cancel my prime) wasn't with UPS/USPS/Fedex but it was their own delivery service. I was getting upwards of 50% of my orders delivered 1-2 days late when they were shipped with "Amazon Logistics".

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    4. Re:It's the success by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      I've been thinking about starting a small business reselling all the unexpected Amazon Logistics packages that they mistakenly drop on my porch instead of random neighbors. All attempts to get Amazon to pick up the packages and deliver them to the right address fail consistently, so I have an ever-growing pile of random crap.

      I can't imagine that they could possibly be saving money, given what a complete disaster their in-house logistics seems to be.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    5. Re: It's the success by Dayze!Confused · · Score: 1

      Yet they allow exclamation points.

      --
      "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." [Thomas Jefferson]
    6. Re:It's the success by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      Quite probably, but they're so damn tempting. :-)

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    7. Re: It's the success by Provocateur · · Score: 1

      The sign for Amazon Logistics finally did arrive from the warehouse, but it was oddly enough duct taped over a narrow corridor...

      --
      WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    8. Re:It's the success by nwf · · Score: 1

      Same here. Every time I seem my packaging going out AMZL, I cringe. They are incredibly inept. Although they did better for this holiday season that I was expecting, given all the errors leading up to it. It was a comedy of errors:

      1. Delivered to a "mail room" at my business, when we don't have one, or to some other fictional destination.
      2. Lost in transit. (Happens once a quarter to me, at least.) Sometimes they show up, which is funny. They typically say "just keep it" since they had already refunded my money.
      3. Damaged, often times because they tossed a heavy item in with a fragile one and didn't put in any padding.
      4. Sent the wrong item or wrong number of items, e.g. a movie set that came with the last movie in the series, but not the other 6.
      5. Arrived several days late. One delivery person said, when asked, "it wouldn't fit in the truck." It was 7 days late "prime".
      6. Trying to deliver a package to a business at 8pm. We are open 24/7 so they just lie and say we weren't open, but that's just poor planning.
      7. I have their vans on camera driving by the building, seeing that they'd have to get out of the van, and keep going. They note that the "business was closed" since they'd have to use the intercom and they likely are already way behind.
      8. Items that never technically shipped, but ended up being delivered. This one confuses me the most.

      Never problems with UPS or USPS, at least.

      --
      I don't know, but it works for me.
    9. Re:It's the success by Dogtanian · · Score: 1
      Pretty sure that the vast majority of people contributing to Slashdot (a geek-oriented site) know what a factorial is, which is partly why the joke works here- not because I'm under the impression it shows me to be a maths genius(!!)

      Now that I think of it, while it's something most people only learn later on, there's really nothing about the concept that couldn't be explained to an average primary school pupil that understood basic multiplication.

      Regardless, as the other person noted, the use of a bare exclamation mark in the middle of a sentence like that isn't normal in English. Typically, it would be written in parentheses, like so:-

      Amazon has now 50(!) planes itself, because of it and still.

      Also,

      The joke would be a reasonable joke iff math notation was standardized. But it isn't.

      Technically, isn't "iff" a widely but not universally accepted non-standardism? Or perhaps that was meant to be the joke? :-)

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  3. Amazon needs better management in many areas. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    Examples of insufficient management at Amazon

  4. The "Prime" labeling is what is getting diluted by misnohmer · · Score: 1

    It used to be be "Prime" meant delivered 2 days after ordering. There used to me "free shipping for Prime members" which was free shipping but arrival date longer than 2 days. Today they seem to group everything as "Prime" and hence the dilution of the label "Prime". I wish they had a search tick for "True Prime", or just a checkmark for "ETA 2 days from today".

    Prime benefits as a whole haven't gotten worse, one could argue they expanded them over the tears with Prime video, music, or audible.

    1. Re:The "Prime" labeling is what is getting diluted by DivineKnight · · Score: 1

      About that...Audible's interface for the PC is ancient...

    2. Re:The "Prime" labeling is what is getting diluted by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      In Europe everything is delivered in 2 days no matter the shipping options. Amazon started waiting 2 days before even shipping to make sure non-prime goods only arrive after 3 days. Before then prime was entirely pointless except as a video service.

    3. Re:The "Prime" labeling is what is getting diluted by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      I see things listed for Prime shipping with times of over a month!

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  5. It's not by JustOK · · Score: 3, Funny

    They don't mean two days in a row.

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
    1. Re:It's not by nwf · · Score: 1

      They don't mean two days in a row.

      That's likely true. I ordered a prime item on Thursday. Two day delivery was set for Wednesday.

      --
      I don't know, but it works for me.
  6. Return late packages and complain by post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    If you're tired of talking to their useless teenaged chat and phone staff, you might write a proper letter of complaint. Apparently the address is:
    Jeff Bezos
    Amazon.com
    P.O. Box 81226
    Seattle, WA 98108-1226
    I can't say that it'll do any more good, but I've just cancelled my Prime membership and won't renew after too many failures on their part.
    There should be a class-action suit against them for all their false guarantees.

  7. Other Benefits, but Accusations by crvtec · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, screw /. because I just lost my entire post by switching the format to plain text, so here's a summary:

    Prime has other benefits, but they keep lowering them.

    10+ year Prime member. Been buying since 98 when they sold books. Past 2 months I had packages 'lost' or 'damaged' in transit. Upon the 3rd complaint (I don't regularly complain at all, even when packages are late), they escalated me to a supervisor, at which point I had to explain that all the items that were lost/damaged in transit were the only items in the past few years that I've actually requested 2 day delivery for, and they were supposed to be delivered by *THEIR OWN DELIVERY COMPANY*.

    So, I was close to being banned from Amazon for mistakes they made. They couldn't even replace the product (their own 4k Fire TV Box) because when it wasn't delivered, it was $50 than when I ordered it.

    Mind you, I do roughly 400-700 orders per year with them (business and personal, and only when they are cheaper), as well as send them referrals through my site.

    At my day career, we were (repeatedly) assured by one of their AWS reps that we wouldn't be charged for X services. 2 weeks later, we were billed several K.

    They are really doing a great job of shooting themselves in the foot lately.

    1. Re:Other Benefits, but Accusations by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "Well, screw /. because I just lost my entire post by switching the format to plain text,"

      If you are using anything but the classic view, shame on you, you should know better. If your browser doesn't restore form contents on back navigation, shame on you, you picked a crap browser.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Other Benefits, but Accusations by Megol · · Score: 1

      If you blame the user and not the heap of crap shame on you. Now go away and continue your drinking habits instead of interrupting adults.

    3. Re:Other Benefits, but Accusations by antdude · · Score: 1

      Why should we be forced to crap browsers like Chrome that invades privacy?

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    4. Re:Other Benefits, but Accusations by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If you blame the user and not the heap of crap shame on you.

      The user chose the heap of crap in both cases. You're shaming me for their choices? I don't think you get how this works.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  8. Are we really this spoiled? by Kwirl · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I mean, anyone who gets mad that a package takes 3 days instead of 2 during the busiest shopping period in the western world needs to step back and acknowledge their own role in waiting until the last minute trying to get a 35 cent discount on a 400 dollar talking toy or something. Also, there isn't any company trying to 'compete' with Amazon so where are complaining subscribers going to take their business?

    1. Re:Are we really this spoiled? by Dusanyu · · Score: 1

      We order cat food through Amazon Prime and had been relying on the estimated arrival date being somewhat right. The last order took about a week longer than they said it would, so we had to buy cat food at the local grocery store in the meantime at a higher price. Now we'll adjust our ordering to compensate for an assumed late delivery. But point is, sometimes arrival date does actually matter and based on this and a number of other estimates being off I've lost faith that Prime can deliver on their delivery date promise. Not that I'm surprised, though. They ship a mind boggling number of packages. And I'm surprised they make money at all, given many times I receive a cardboard box with air bubble packaging for something the size of a book.

      oh no you had to pay a tiny bit more to help keep a business in your city.

    2. Re:Are we really this spoiled? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why do you rely on 'just in time' cat food delivery?

      Are you incapable of planning more then a few weeks ahead or are you just terrible pet owners who don't want to be out the price of a few weeks worth of cat food in case mittens snuffs it?

    3. Re:Are we really this spoiled? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Real estate is more extensive than remote warehouse storage. My guess is that they don't have room for more bulk storage at home.

    4. Re:Are we really this spoiled? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      A week's supply of cat food is hardly bulk storage.

      Unless it's a goddam lion.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    5. Re: Are we really this spoiled? by edris90 · · Score: 1

      What you have describe is a race to the bottom, as it's easier to profit by sabotage and dirty tricks then it is to profit honestly. And with everybody after more then they desearve, quality doesn't stand a chance, the competition continues until we're fighting over scraps of scraps.

    6. Re:Are we really this spoiled? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Who said they buy it in weekly sized packaging? To save money you might buy the largest package available, but then you don't have done for 2.

    7. Re:Are we really this spoiled? by gmiller123456 · · Score: 1

      I mean, anyone who gets mad that a package takes 3 days instead of 2 during the busiest shopping period in the western world...

      With all do respect, you're an idiot. People are not complaining that shipping takes longer in general. They are complaining that a company is lieing about their delivery times. I dropped Prime a few years ago when 10 out of my last 10 orders arrived late. So I'm a bit surprised that more people are now just catching on.

  9. Re:News?? by infolation · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If slashdot is 'tech news', and the subject is Amazon Prime, then we should really be discussing UX design and Dark Patterns. EG

    Amazon dark patterns force people to fill up their Amazon pantry

    Then when they don't like this, Amazon dark patterns make it more difficult to leave low-rated rather than high-rated reviews

    Then if the user wishes to leave Amazon, the user must navigate a complex, non-intuitive chain of commands that do not start with 'close my account'. This chain changes regularly, to ensure that current 'close your amazon account' instructions found on google do not work for more than a few days. I closed my account in March 2018. At that time, this was the process:

    1. select 'let us help you'...
    2. select 'help'...
    3. select 'need more help'...
    4. select 'contact us'...
    5. choose 'prime or something else'...
    6. dropdown, choose 'update account information'...
    7. dropdown, choose 'close my account'...
    8. user is put into 'chat'...
    As soon as the phrase 'I need to close my amazon account' is typed into the chat input, the user is logged out of chat and must repeat the above (I found this 'bug' was repeatable)

    At that time, I had to find a way to communicate that I wanted to close my account without using the phrase 'close my account' in chat.

  10. Seriously? by dromgodis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Someone crying that they can't spend their hard-earned money fast enough?

    Hope of humanity: Low and declining.

    1. Re:Seriously? by dinfinity · · Score: 1

      First world problem if ever I've seen one.

      Don't get me wrong, fuck Amazon, but a story about how a huge company slowly degrades the quality of some product/service of theirs? I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

    2. Re:Seriously? by dromgodis · · Score: 1

      So perhaps it would be more effective to downmod Amazon by not giving them your money'?

  11. "Prime" by DrXym · · Score: 2

    Amazon's "Prime" is like an express lane in a theme park to skip the queue. Except that so many people have paid for it that it has become its own queue. The sane thing to do would be to stop paying Amazon this money - if you're going to get a shitty service it may as well be for free. Better yet, shop somewhere else where they value the customer experience a little bit more.

    1. Re:"Prime" by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      I did Prime for a few years but, really, the shipping of Amazon has gotten so fast that it really isn't needed anymore.

      I find that the items I purchase on Amazon, for the most part, still have a free two day shipping method even without Prime.

      In the cases where two day shipping isn't available, the items still arrive within a week. Which still beats the pants off of any place else that I order things from.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    2. Re:"Prime" by NJRoadfan · · Score: 1

      Call it the "Prime" effect. All my neighbors have Prime, so the beat up "Amazon Logistics" van is at the complex everyday anyway. Their supply chain has gotten so good that all my "free shipping" orders (I don't have Prime) show up in 2 days instead of the 5-7 day estimate. Intentionally slowing down orders to my area likely costs them money at this point.

  12. Amazon's website sucks by Bruinwar · · Score: 1

    For the most part, Prime seems to be OK, but Amazon's website sucks. The user interface hasn't changed much in 15 years & it was never good. It's impossible to drill down to locate something. The search & filters fail to actually filter. No search within a search. Plus all the non-Amazon sellers that come & go. All that & I still find myself buying crap from them.

    If they ever updated it so that the search filters worked & one could actually locate what they want, most of their customers would lose their minds & complain.

    --
    SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT
    1. Re:Amazon's website sucks by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 1

      It's good enough, I can usually find what I need; Wal-mart, who could be a big competitor, has an abysmal search. Duckduckgo/google will find things easier on the walmart site than walmart's own search engine. I really want wal-mart (or someone else) to get decent to give Amazon some competition.

    2. Re:Amazon's website sucks by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      You have to use both native and Google search to find stuff on most sites, including Amazon. Let's face it, even eBay has this problem, and they have more filterable metadata on products than almost anyone else. I regularly find eBay items with Google instead of the native search. If it happens there, you know if happens everywhere

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Amazon's website sucks by nwf · · Score: 1

      Their search does suck, They include random crap in any search list. I'd believe a lot of that is the fault of their "merchants" but it makes for a poor experience. That leads to the biggest thing I'd like to see, and that is a setting to exclude non-Amazon sellers in all searches. Most merchants that I encounter are selling counterfeit or garbage.

      --
      I don't know, but it works for me.
  13. Consum(er)ism by vikingpower · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is bitching and griping at a high level. You're a member of an affluent, Western society, with an income you can spend online; you can actually spend it on worthless gadgets like IoT ovens with a videocamera inside and an app, or dildos - or on valuable items like books. You'll get those items, worthless or valuable, delivered to your doorstep. Within days. What the fuck are you complaining about ?

    The world is on fire and immersed in ignorance, but hey - dildo delivery delay must be two days, not an hour more.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    1. Re: Consum(er)ism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Absolutely right this is complaining. That's what normal people do when they pay extra for a service but it is not delivered, repeatedly. Or did you forget that Prime is not free?

    2. Re:Consum(er)ism by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Exactly. The next economic recession/depression will start sorting people out.

    3. Re: Consum(er)ism by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      No, normal people just cancel the service and get their money back.

    4. Re:Consum(er)ism by Rob+Lister · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well said. From a historical perspective, we live in fucking utopia. I suppose there's nothing so perfect it can't still be bitched about.

    5. Re:Consum(er)ism by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Why can't anyone make useful IoT stuff? I don't need a camera in the oven, what I need is a microwave with NFC that I can tap my phone against to automatically transfer the timer to my phone's screen.

      Yes I'm that lazy/impatient.

      Even if someone made it they would ruin it by making the app proprietary and privacy-invading. Honestly what is the point of living in the first world if it can't fix your first world problems!??

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re: Consum(er)ism by edris90 · · Score: 1

      You know as a publicly traded company, you aren't their customer. You are their product and they are selling you to the stockholders. That's why Mom and Pop shops care because then you are their customer. Always remember when it comes to publicly traded corporations, you are the blood cow to be tappoed and the stockholders and capital investors are the customers

    7. Re:Consum(er)ism by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Is the complaint that the service being paid for isn't as advertised somehow more or less valid because of the overall affluence of the situation?

      If the complaint were that degradations in prime service were a human rights violation or something the fact that the situation is vastly better than most of history would be relevant. In this case it's merely that Amazon either can't hack their attempts at further scaling out or is in the 'switch' phase of 'bait and switch', which a complaint purely relative to what prime service used to be; not some grand historical arc.

    8. Re: Consum(er)ism by jemmyw · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I lived in the US for a short while, and I've lived in other affluent countries. In all those places people have way too much stuff, but Americans have more shit they don't use than anyone else. Who knows why. And it's imperative that it turns up as quickly as humanly possible so they can use it once and then consign it to live forever in a kitchen cupboard.

    9. Re:Consum(er)ism by n3r0.m4dski11z · · Score: 1

      everyones luxuries are individual. I don't know anyone who has no vice or luxury spending.

      Live in the moment. Sure consumerism is disgusting, but it will be far worse in future! And the world isn't on fire, its just america. We can turn our heads away from them and let them learn their lesson in time.

      --
      -
    10. Re: Consum(er)ism by Megol · · Score: 1

      God damn you are stupid. Can you function in society with such a severe disconnect?

    11. Re: Consum(er)ism by nwf · · Score: 1

      No, normal people just cancel the service and get their money back.

      Maybe, but check around. Most people like to express their outrage and virtue signal their way to a brighter tomorrow.

      --
      I don't know, but it works for me.
    12. Re: Consum(er)ism by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      Exacto Mundo. Nothing to add here. /thread

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    13. Re: Consum(er)ism by edris90 · · Score: 1

      Can you function outside Society with such a severe crippling dependence? I'm not stupid you. I'm just of an alternative order of operations in life. I have what I want. And I'm generally happy even when other people don't do like I think they should do. There's more than one way to successfully be satisfied in life.

  14. Obligatory NGOML by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Everything is getting worse. Take Shelbyville. Did I tell you about that time I went there...

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  15. Bezos laughs on his trilliion dollar money pile by xack · · Score: 1

    Merry Christmas to me suckers.

  16. if you want it fast, Try Main street by Dusanyu · · Score: 2

    All this worry about fast delivery confuses me. how many of thees items can be bought at a Physical location in your city. Mail order is something that takes time if your in a rush go to a store. even better go to a Store that is locally owned. Granted you may pay a bit more but you in the long run are helping your community.

    1. Re:if you want it fast, Try Main street by Rob+Lister · · Score: 3, Insightful

      how many of thees items can be bought at a Physical location in your city.

      For me, some of them but not many. Just finding a store that sells a particular brand item can be more trouble than it's worth. At the same price? Almost never. Brick and Mortars have to cover the cost of Brick and Mortar.

      Granted you may pay a bit more but you in the long run are helping your community.

      Best Buy and Walmart are only marginally 'my community'. And no more than Amazon, really. The odds of a Mom and Pop having what I'm looking for is pretty low. And at less than twice the price? Absolute zero.

    2. Re:if you want it fast, Try Main street by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 1

      How many things can you buy locally? Well, we have a Dollar General, and that's about all. No, that IS all. (There is a Wal-Mart, but it's still a drive, and the stuff I buy on Amazon is not available at that city locally owned or not.) So it would actually take more time (arrange for day-off, plan route, drive 200+ miles, etc) to get the stuff that you can't get at that Wal-mart at a "real" store. And you'll pay a LOT more than $99/year shipping! Not everybody is in a large city.

    3. Re:if you want it fast, Try Main street by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 1

      Then ask, do you really need to buy that thing, and that particular brand? Just stop buying so much pointless shit in the first place. If you have so much stuff you want to buy that you can't get within walking/driving/bus/train distance, then that says to me you probably don't need two thirds of that crap.

      --
      Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
    4. Re:if you want it fast, Try Main street by Megol · · Score: 1

      To a first approximation: nothing. Some things could be bought with higher prices and worse quality, most things offered online can't be bought locally at all. That includes the dildos and IoT ovens some idiot drooled about above.

      Not all Amazon customers live in large cities.

    5. Re:if you want it fast, Try Main street by Rob+Lister · · Score: 1

      Then ask, do you really need to buy that thing, and that particular brand?

      Yes.

  17. Re:News?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Is this really news?"
    Do you work for Amazon? Of course it's news. When prime came out, and when most people signed up for it, guaranteed two day shipping was the hook. Now you are lucky to get Prime orders in 3 days. Was this the bait and switch plan all along? Is Amazon doing anything about this? The public wants to know.

  18. And search is so gamified it's useless. by Myself · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Prime has become worse than useless, and it's impossible to find what I want in the search anymore. It's dominated by endless clones of the same item with scarcely-distinguishable gibberish all-caps "names" that all white-label the same FBA and import products.

    I've taken to shopping at eBay, which oddly enough, seems to have a more reliable experience and better dispute resolution. I've never had eBay threaten me when I open several disputes within a short time span, because they can look at my transaction history.

    eBay has their own issues (shopping cart keeps getting slower, and slower, and slower...) but at least the rest of their offering is improving. They actually added a "group similar items" feature to combat the clones that're clogging Amazon.

    Thanks for the reminder. I need to cancel Prime.

    1. Re:And search is so gamified it's useless. by Solandri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I really think this is Amazon's biggest weakness. If some competing online shopping site comes around with a more effective search, I'd switch. It's why I still buy most of my computer components from Newegg instead of Amazon. Newegg's search works, and helps you easily eliminate products you're not looking for. (You just have to make sure to set Newegg as the seller to filter out all the crap reseller offerings.)

    2. Re:And search is so gamified it's useless. by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      (You just have to make sure to set Newegg as the seller to filter out all the crap reseller offerings.)

      Ain't that the truth!

      I recently ordered some OTA equipment and one of the items was a nice looking outdoor rated coax cable with rubber boots on the ends. Unfortunately, I didn't pay close enough attention to the seller of this particular piece and realized, too late, that it was being shipped from China!

      No big deal, I ended up not needing the cable anyway and completed the project.

      Weeks later, I get the package with the cable and..... it turned out to not even be what I ordered!

      Whatever, it was a $10 cable.... how that makes sense to ship from China... I will never know...

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  19. Don't shop their by prefec2 · · Score: 1

    Amazon behaves like the world is the USA ignoring local laws, they do not pay their workers properly, fight unions, works council and other worker representation in their company, they pressure delivery services and personnel, they pressure cities to commit to their needs and pay subsidies. Really, do not shop there. Shop somewhere else.

  20. Re: Don't shop there by prefec2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    s/their/there

    I hate auto correct. Its inventor should go to hello. Also why is there no edit button /.?

  21. Anecdotally by Dan+East · · Score: 1

    Anecdotally, it has been the same for me as it has been for years. Shipping was timely right up through Christmas. The fact that Prime has been "diluted" to offer even more things to its members is, anecdotally speaking, a good thing. Using your terminology, a "concentration" of Prime that removes features, like music streaming or unlimited picture storage, would be a good thing then to you? Anecdotally of course.

    Maybe you're using and relying on Prime more, and thus you are more sensitive to any and every hiccup you see and that gets you all worked up?

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  22. Re:News?? by Rob+Lister · · Score: 3, Informative

    You certainly went around your ass to get to your elbow.

    To close your account, go to Your Account from the top drop down on the main page:
    Select 'Prime'
    Select 'End Membership and Benefits' from the list on the left.
    Confirm

    No chat, no hassle.

  23. Western problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I feel pretty bad for you, they have you have suffered needlessly in your two-three date wait for your online purchaced goods.

    Just a thought, but you could try supporting your local ecomomy by purchacing that item in an actual store which employs people in your area. As an added benefit, you don't need to wait 3 days.. just pick it up.
    Lot's of stores will let you buy something online and collect it in the shop.
    Maybe it would be better to get out of the house once in a while?

    1. Re:Western problems by pablo_max · · Score: 1

      I normally try to buy local. When the price is reasonably close, I will, but when the net is 30% less, then I do buy online. Very often I find the Amazon price to be much higher than in other online shops or even my local stores.

  24. Prime is unsustainable by kurkosdr · · Score: 1

    Amazon Prime is unsustainable. If you think your Prime subscription (which also includes content services) or the little extra you pay at checkout to have Prime next-day shipping (or even two-day shipping) covers the cost of that shipping, you are deluding yourself. This was a case of Amazon "dumping" the service to grab market share. Up until now we knew about product dumping, Prime was the first case of shipping service dumping.

  25. Re:News?? by bn-7bc · · Score: 1

    Well personaly (due to 2 day/next day dilivery not beeing avalable in Norway) i sigmed up for preme doy to the grand toursnd now with the twitch perks I’m vary happy. I understand that people signing up to g n day dilivery get annoyed when ut is dripped but as somone else alkready pointed out, if you are unsatisfied with the current service provided py prime, just cancel and find a better competitor.

  26. Re:News?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    the parent poster was talking about closing an amazon account, not ending prime membership. I just checked and the way you have to do it now is almost the same as the parent posters method. It is-
    > select 'let us help you'...
    > select 'help'...
    > select 'need more help'...
    > select 'contact us'...
    > choose 'prime and more'...
    > select section 'tell us more about your issue'
    > choose dropdown 'select issue > update account information'
    > choose dropdown 'select issue details > close my account'
    > message: How would you like to contact us?
    - options:
    - 'email' button is greyed out and non-functional
    - 'chat' button has text 'recommended' underneath

  27. Re:Prime is idiotic from an consumer economics pov by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    "prime is bad for the consumer if they have it."

    What?

    "usb keyboard - amazon showed me the deals for prime only deals so add $99 to the cost,"

    Amazon does NOT stop showing you non-prime items if you have prime.

    "The book, marked up +$12 over a competitor store, also non amazon sale."

    So what? They are in business to make money and they've figured out that enough people will buy it at an elevated price point that it's more profitable for them to set that price.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  28. Works fine for me by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Informative

    My wife bought a few of the kid's Christmas presents and they showed up on time. Last-minute I bought a heating pad for my mom that showed up right on time, and that was on Saturday. Beyond that my wife likes the shows on Prime Video, and I've been watching Mr Robot and Endeavor.

    Last year I ordered a set of knives (that apparently you can ONLY find on Amazon for some weird reason) for Christmas but used the cheapo shipping to get a few Amazon gift cards. They all showed up well before Christmas.

    I'm sure there have been problems but I haven't seen any.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    1. Re: Works fine for me by J-1000 · · Score: 1

      How are the horror stories any less anecdotal?

  29. its a scam by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    amazon prime is a "pig in a poke" and there is no shortage of suckers to buy in to it

    it is sort of a racket, its like a long line at the grocery store but the store manager is accepting payola to get cuts in line at the cashier, i only use amazon as a last resort if i cant find what i want elsewhere, and since walmart has a much bigger brick & mortar presence and their own fleet of 18 wheelers it just makes walmart better at shipping in terms of both faster & free shipping, and walmart made their website better for shopping too

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  30. Re:News?? by Dogtanian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thanks for the links; haven't had time to do any more than skim them at present, but it does remind me of a comment I read recently that I felt just put its finger on Amazon's recent direction:-

    " Amazon is not the same company they were 10 years ago. You can feel the skeeviness is creeping in."

    --
    "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  31. Re:News?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Hello Jeff, some people don't want to have inactive accounts lying about all over the web. I understand that you will keep the data anyway and probably continue to track me and merge that with the closed account, but let's at least be clear that there will be no more external accesses to the account data, mkay?

  32. The cads.... by Biogoly · · Score: 1

    It's almost like Amazon used a loss leader program like Prime to lure you in only to slowly and incrementally turn the tables on you! Those bastards!

  33. Re:News?? by grumbel · · Score: 2

    I don't really see how that "fill up the box" with Pantry is a dark pattern, that's just a result of how they handle shipping and you can save $5.99 by filling the box instead of ordering twice. It's not really much different than the "Spend X more to get free shipping" when you don't have Prime. I'd much rather have that shipping price information made explicitly visible than having it only shown at checkout like in some other shops. And yes, it does gamify things, but as long as shipping is paid by the box, that's hard to avoid.

    The different units are annoying when comparing items, but that might not be a dark pattern, but a result of how they collect that data. I have never seen an online shop that made compare different items easy, it's always a lot of clicking and back and forth.

    When it comes to dark pattern at Amazon I am more annoyed by how they don't allow you to filter Pantry items out of your search, when you don't even have Prime and can't make use of it. It just deliberately clutters up search with garbage. The way they handle discounts is also rather scummy, as the discount price is often the normal one and stays forever, the higher price is just there to make it look cheaper. Having "Promoted" items show up in search is also no fun.

  34. Utter bullshit, AC, utter bullshit. by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

    "Most of the time a letter you sent me ends up in someone elseâ(TM)s box."

  35. Headline not at all consistent with our experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Everything that we have ordered in last month and that was available via Prime has come in advertised two days. A couple of dozen orders. Heck, I ordered an AVR Sat night (22nd) at 10pm and had it Monday (24th) at 2pm. NO problems at all, despite Black Friday and Christmas. Oh yeah, we live in a small town too, so not a big city Amazon is focusing on.

  36. "Uncle Tom"? by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

    What a racist remark.

  37. Estimated delivery day by SylviaCaras · · Score: 1

    My experience also is that 2 day becomes a week. I thought it was UPS/USPS. I've once complained/commented, using Chat. Lengthy, but satisfactory. I've several times returned defective products without hassle. I've lowered my expectations! Prices/recommendations also range widely. I now spend more time 'shopping' online, checking prices + shipping costs at several sites. Amazon usually gets the sale.

  38. Re: Prime isn't so bad by edris90 · · Score: 1

    It sounds like you don't deserve to have your cookies. You just want it. But taking a shortcut. That's the difference between needs and wants .it doesn't matter if you don't get what you want. With A good attitude you can be just as happy. you literally die if you don't get what you need.

  39. "But I want it now." by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

    Oh, grow up.

    1. Re:"But I want it now." by Red_Chaos1 · · Score: 1

      I love how the other two comments are right, but voted to negative to be hidden, while chucklenuts here has a 2.

      Sorry "Fly Swatter" people pay for Prime. They pay to have their stuff sooner. They don't have to "grow up" because they have. Paying to expedite things is part of that being an adult. Not getting what you paid for gives you the right to complain, and it doesn't make you immature.

    2. Re:"But I want it now." by Kevin108 · · Score: 1

      Prime customers are grown up. "I want it now, and I'm willing to pay extra for it."

      --

      It's a perfect time for being wasted.
      A perfect time to watch the stars.
      - Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
  40. Re: Don't shop there by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Also why is there no edit button /.?

    Because there is a preview button, which is better for everyone else, if not for you.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  41. It's like fishing. by hey! · · Score: 1

    And you're the fish. First they hook you, then they play you.

    If you keep preferring Prime even as they back off on the initial promise of convenience, then they still have wiggle room to play you.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  42. Prime member for years by tannhaus · · Score: 1

    I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing this happening. Not only do my packages arrive late at times, but I thought I was crazy: I look at "free 2 day shipping" and see a date that's often 4 days away. Free 2 day shipping rarely means 2 day shipping anymore.

  43. When Everybody is special... by drewsup · · Score: 1

    NOBODY is special.
    The amount prime members is so great now , its become the low bar.

  44. One factor: tornado damage in Baltimore by boustrophedon · · Score: 1

    A tornado knocked down an Amazon warehouse wall on November 2, killing two contractors. There was no tornado warning from the weather service.

    Two weeks later, the Washington Post reported on Amazon Prime delays in the region. Limited Prime Now service resumed about a week before Christmas.

  45. Re:Prime is idiotic from an consumer economics pov by dryeo · · Score: 1

    Lots of homeless people around here are couch surfing, living in their vehicles and such rather then living on the street. Rents are expensive and hard to find.

    --
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
  46. getting worse from some time now by Espectr0 · · Score: 1

    turns out that according to amazon they have never promised two day shipping when you order something. what they do is promise free two business days shipping counting from the time the item ships. an amazon rep in twitter said that to me and it actually made be think of cancelling the service.

    price hikes and the actual lose of benefits such as 20% off game preorders are going to make me think twice.

    what i would like is just a prime shipping ONLY plan for something like 50 bucks a year.

    --
    Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
  47. Re:News?? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

    Do you work for Amazon? Of course it's news. When prime came out, and when most people signed up for it, guaranteed two day shipping was the hook. Now you are lucky to get Prime orders in 3 days. Was this the bait and switch plan all along? Is Amazon doing anything about this? The public wants to know.

    Funny, anecdotally, this is the opposite of my experience. I almost always get things in two days, and lately, I've been getting a lot of free one-day deliveries, with some of them even arriving on a Sunday.

    My suspicion is that the quality of service varies widely based on which distribution center is the primary center for your geographical area and on how far away you are from that distribution center.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  48. My experience by mapkinase · · Score: 2

    My motto is: never subscribe to anything if there is an alternative way, so I always pick the Free Shipping option (usually arrives in 1-2 weeks).

    Half of the time a very expected thing happens: it arrives significantly earlier.

    The reason for that is that the delivery times for Free Shipping are artificially exaggerated to cover potential delays further than required by business.

    Nobody is going to store your items longer than necessary because as Quentin Tarantino said: "This ain't storage for Amazon items"

    Ditch Prime. Use free shipping when offered, use cheapest shipping always.

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    1. Re:My experience by houghi · · Score: 1

      From what I understood earlier, I would not get thing much faster with Prime (I am in Europe) and would not get it cheaper.
      There is a minimal delivery fee of around 30 EUR. After that delivery is free for many things.

      What Prime is for is that you will start order more, because you have Prime already. Instead of waiting that I have 30 EUR to buy, people will start ordering things that are cheaper, more often and that will entice them to use it for other things they never would have bought,

      In no way will the customer make money when a company offers some sort of discount. It is their calculation and you can bet they will make more from it, no matter how you say "But look at my calculations", because all you see is the prices on their website, not what their profits are. So a real comparison is not possible.

      I just do not use Prime. At this moment I have sevreal items worth 28 EUR in my basket. When I need something else I will ordewr it. If it is something I absolutely need, I will look elsewhere.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:My experience by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      'no matter how you say "But look at my calculations", because all you see is the prices on their website, not what their profits are. So a real comparison is not possible.'

      Their profit is economically irrelevant to me. What matter is the value I derive from what I purchase with respect to the prices I paid.

      It is completely plausible that both the seller and the buyer are benefiting from the transaction. That's how capitalism works.

    3. Re:My experience by radarskiy · · Score: 1

      "Ditch Prime. Use free shipping when offered, use cheapest shipping always."

      I have Prime. I take the delayed shipping option if I'm not in a big hurry and they offer $1 credit for digital purchases that I was going to buy anyway.

      I can claw back over 1/2 of the cost of Prime that way, and I still get all of the non-shipping benefits and I can still have the two-day shipping when I want it.

  49. don't forget the counterfeits by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    There are enormous amounts of counterfeit items being sold as Prime items. It's supposed to stop that. They're supposed to be checking them out. It's just a low/no effort lie. I can't wait until the FTC drops the hammer on them for their many monopoly violations involving Prime's integration at other sites.

    1. Re:don't forget the counterfeits by bongey · · Score: 1

      Amazon isn't doing crap about counterfeits. I contacted them two times and talked to at least 6-8 reps about fake footmaster leveling casters.These are fake and they are still there https://www.amazon.com/Happybu... .

    2. Re:don't forget the counterfeits by Kevin108 · · Score: 1

      lol @ relying on government to solve your problems. There's no money for politicians in cracking down on Amazon. Letting the market sort this out is the only realistic option. Vote with your wallet.

      --

      It's a perfect time for being wasted.
      A perfect time to watch the stars.
      - Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
  50. Re:Prime is idiotic from an consumer economics pov by rtb61 · · Score: 2

    Just like Amazon monitors, controls and manipulates it employees, so it does the same to customers. So they launched prime and did all the thing they 'KNEW' customers wanted. Now that they have you signed up on prime and paying, they will start taking stuff away, until the cost of losing customers of prime exceeds the cost savings achieved by cutting back prime. They will not stop there but continue to push that boundary, how cheap and crappy can they make the service, whilst charging more and more for the service, infinite greed, infinite profits, seriously, that's all it is.

    Many people will wake up and simply stop dealing with Amazon if they can buy the product elsewhere, they continual yoyo, of raising prices, reducing price, increasing services, reducing services, will piss people off and they will simply get of the bullshit ride. Amazon is truly an awful company, just really, really shitty management, pretty much becoming psychopath incorporated.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  51. Re:News?? by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

    Same here. My experience with Amazon's shipping in Northern Virginia is fine. I needed to get a last-minute present and Amazon Prime was promising to get it to me by December 24. When it didn't show up in the regular mail, I thought I was finally experiencing what people have been complaining about, but on a whim I checked my front porch later, and there it was.

    I certainly believe the stories people are telling, but I haven't experienced the problems myself.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  52. Re:Don't shop there by Kevin108 · · Score: 1

    Amazon behaves like the world is the USA ignoring local laws, they do not pay their workers properly, fight unions, works council and other worker representation in their company, they pressure delivery services and personnel, they pressure cities to commit to their needs and pay subsidies. Really, do not shop there. Shop somewhere else.

    Keeping prices low by keeping overhead low through cheap labor and telling useless unions to fuck off sounds like good business.

    For a person with no marketable skill, some money is better than no money. We're at a point where unskilled workers can either work for cheap or replaced by automation.

    Leveraging demands on the USPS, which is an incredible failure for an organization that functions as a national monopoly, sounds like the average taxpayer getting more for their money than they might otherwise.

    --

    It's a perfect time for being wasted.
    A perfect time to watch the stars.
    - Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
  53. Amazon is now a mature company by mattmarlowe · · Score: 1

    Bezo's created Amazon and did a good job for the first 20 years of creating a customer first culture, but he always had to fight investors and a general business climate that said he should avoid pushing profits into new infrastructure and and return them to shareholders.

    It's obvious that he was wounded with the failure of the fire phone, and Amazon's retreat from everything android.

    Alexa and buying Whole Foods are the only real advancements of the last few years.

    Everywhere else, you can see that Amazon is becoming a normal business. They sort of have to. When they had fewer richer customers, they could justify great customer service. Now, they serve everyone in every country and their rate of future growth isn't assured. The financial people have been put in charge.

    You can see this with the destruction of Amazon Fresh. That service used to partner with many local fresh produce/fish/meat vendors, including restaurants. Now, it is restricted to almost exclusively Whole Foods. Prime Now has somewhat taken its place, but the fees there are higher and the selection is still limited. I'm not sure it makes sense to get groceries from Amazon anymore.

  54. \o/ by easyTree · · Score: 1

    "They force you to buy a minimum number of items to get the best deal, adding back the very psychic burden Prime had eliminated from the equation of online shopping in the first place"

    Not to worry, Prime+ will be along soon to open a new stratum of convenience and price efficiency.

    --
    Requiem for the American Dream
  55. Re:Prime is idiotic from an consumer economics pov by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    If you have Prime, they show you they Prime version even if it is more expensive. I think they have some text in a small font that tells you it is cheaper from other sellers, but it is easy to miss if you aren't careful.

    So be careful. I'm not only careful about that, but I have the camelcamelcamel addon that puts Amazon's own price history for the item into every Amazon page. If the price takes a hike for the holidays, I know about it and I can look somewhere else.

    In general, once I identify an item for sale on pretty much any site, I google for the product by name, part number, etc. and see if I can find it cheaper somewhere else. Often I look for a cheaper alternative. For example I needed a 1" heater hose splice connector, they don't carry that kind of size in your local hardware store. So I tracked down the Gates catalog for hoses and hose-related fittings, and found the Gates PN. But I wound up finding an Aluminum part on eBay for less money than the FRP part. All to save four bucks. But hey, four bucks is four bucks. If it were in a more convenient location, I probably would have looked around for a flow sensor, I probably could have got a whole one of those for about the same kind of money. But what if my cheapass flow sensor leaks?

    Anyway, I know, cool story bro. But the fact is that if you've got internet access, there's no good excuse for not doing this kind of research. It is tedious to do on a handheld, but very easy on a real computer, and possible in either case.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  56. Re:News?? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

    The only problems I've had have involved the actual delivery people being borderline incompetent — getting other people's packages, getting packages delivered to a porch that is clearly under construction (no steps leading up to it) where it sat out in the elements for two weeks before I noticed it was there, etc.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  57. Amazon wins by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    Most of us wouldn't pay for two-day shipping if we had to add extra money to each order. But as a subscription, we pay about the same amount of money over the course of a year.

    If you had paid for two day shipping on a specific order, and it didn't arrive in two days, you get your upcharge fee back. But since it's a subscription, all you get is a note saying "we're sorry."

    Amazon wins.

  58. So by BitztreamNotARealNam · · Score: 1

    How's life in the hypocrite lane?