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Anyone else notice Amazon is starting to kind of suck?

TheGerman

Oberleutnant
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Jan 25, 2010
    10,608
    30,188
    the Westside
    The prices used to be universally the lowest, and not by a little either. Was common to find things 10-20% less on Amazon than anywhere else.

    Their 2 day shipping lately is hit or miss and 2 days now means, 2 days from when it ships. Basically, if its not shipped by Wednesday, I'm not getting it until Monday.

    And now any price they do beat, making me pay sales tax on it usually makes them more expensive, and I avoid paying sales tax anytime I can out of principle.

    Just now, found an item that they BARELY beat everyone else out on, but wait...sales tax now made it almost $20 more than the one from the exact same vendor off ebay with free shipping.

    Why in the fuck would I buy it off Amazon? The only saving grace they have at this point is their customer service; if that ever goes to shit, LOL

    We used to basically have a few boxes arrive from them weekly, now its maybe once a month.
     
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    I've had two orders get screwed up in the past two weeks. One of them they made right by issuing a refund and letting me keep the item. The other still hasn't arrived. This is what the email said:

    "Due to a shipping error by us, a package for your order Blah Blah Blah with the tracking number 1234567890 is being shipped via UPS with tracking number 1234567890."

    While those tracking numbers are fake, the two they sent were identical.

    So basically, "Hey, we effed up your order and sent it to the wrong state. We're trying to fix it, but can't even send you a tracking number that works, or that is different from the tracking number it was initially issued when incorrectly addressed. Hope to see you again soon!"

    :rolleyes:

    They're getting another call from me tomorrow...
     
    They did little more than employ the Walmart strategy to the internet. i.e. Sell at a loss till smaller retailers were pushed out and raised their prices. They even admitted this was their strategy back when they mostly sold books.

    Nothing new... being the lowest price on every product isn't a self sustaining practice.
     
    prices are def not the lowest, some by a large margin, if you shop around a little. and if you don't have prime, they take their sweet ol' time to ship stuff out. i understand without prime i'm subject to the vagaries of the Usps, but still they should be putting what i bought in the mail within a day or two of my purchase.
     
    amazon logistics (amazons shipping service) sucks dong.....i have never gotten an order on time since they switched to them......they are always 1-2 days late.

    i always make it a point to bitch, and have gotten a few orders free.

    honestly i dont care that it takes an extra day or two......i just need an accurate time of when to expect it......if you need 3-4 days, just say so.....but dont tell me you can have it to me in 2 days if you cant do it.


    also the amount of fake products popping up on Amazon are enough to drive me away from buying there......
     
    Yeah I kinda noticed. I purchased a prime item about a month ago. Took like 5 days to arrive. I used a prime membership so i should have seen the benefit.
     
    You guys have it bad.

    I've never had a problem with delivery other than at Christmas when every carrier, especially, UPS sucks.

    This being said, we now have to pay RI sales tax on all orders where applicable. So I don't buy too many expensive items anymore as that was a big incentive. Now there are other places to buy the high $$ stuff.
     
    i keep getting my prime extended. every time i ask for a free month because it’s late by a day or two they cough up a free month.

    it’s the convenience thing for me with them, but i try to support local business as much as i can

    i remember the old days when you could get next day air for a buck or two. i ordered hitch receivers next day as well as a 30 cent item for prime delivery

    they have wised up now.... too bad jet never really made it
     
    One of their major shipping issues is they don't bother to have one driver do a large neighborhood.
    Every day I see anywhere from 3 to 6 Amazon delivery vehicles on my street. I can't understand why they split the deliveries up like that.
    It would take way less time to stay in a small area vs spreading out and then having multiple drivers hit the same streets.
    Dumb shit.
     
    The CS is the only thing that has me coming back to at least look at them when I'm buying something.

    Anytime I've bitched about anything, I've gotten shit for free (and never asked, basically said I'm having a problem and boom, free shit)

    Just in the last year I got a the new Samsung Galaxy tab for like 80$ because they gave me a 75% refund on it when it went MIA in shipping for a few days, and after an Amazon vendor royally fucked up an order and then got caught lying to both me and Amazon, got a set of Peltor COMTACs for free on the vendor's dime because of it.

    But I shop there less and less and even my wife has said just watch, in the next 5-10 years we'll look at Amazon just like we look down on Walmart now.
     
    My prime membership auto-renewed today and they charged tax on top of the $99. Canceled once and may do again soon since I'm not buying much anymore but always search ebay/etc when looking for something and often find better deals elsewhere. I've also noted Amazon prices float around but that can be an advantage if you catch it right. You can often get good deals buy "used" (returns). And 2 day shipping has long been a joke.

    Also probably not going to renew my Brownells free shipping thing since it seems they run a free shipping promotion about every weekend.
     
    I end up using smile.amazon.com and a small portion gets donated to my local charity, Wisconsin Boston Terrier rescue,
    prices are getting to be higher than other websites recently, just depends what your looking for.

    Another site I use is Activejunky.com, unrelated but it does give you cash back.

    Got a little dough back on my AMP machine from Brownells.
     
    I cancelled my prime membership because it seems that half the items wouldn't be prime eligible after they were in the basket, and they regularly fail at the 2 day shipping anymore. I still use Amazon on occasion, but go out of my way to buy somewhere else nowdays.
     
    Now that more stores are doing "free ship to store, that Amazon charges sales tax, and because Amazon is not the low cost leader they were, it can be more convenient to have an item shipped to a store and pick it up- as opposed to buying from Amazon.

    For example, we were recently looking for some difficult to find light bulbs. Home Depot had them listed for ~$11 each, but store inventory was iffy. Amazon wanted ~$20 each. F that noise. I'll order them through HD and have them shipped to our local store for pick up- free.
     
    Ebay has been my first choice for years and more so every time I go look at Amazon.
     
    I’ve also found the search function is kind of garbage as well, unless you know exactly what you are looking for.
     
    The prices used to be universally the lowest, and not by a little either. Was common to find things 10-20% less on Amazon than anywhere else.

    Their 2 day shipping lately is hit or miss and 2 days now means, 2 days from when it ships. Basically, if its not shipped by Wednesday, I'm not getting it until Monday.

    And now any price they do beat, making me pay sales tax on it usually makes them more expensive, and I avoid paying sales tax anytime I can out of principle.

    Just now, found an item that they BARELY beat everyone else out on, but wait...sales tax now made it almost $20 more than the one from the exact same vendor off ebay with free shipping.

    Why in the fuck would I buy it off Amazon? The only saving grace they have at this point is their customer service; if that ever goes to shit, LOL

    We used to basically have a few boxes arrive from them weekly, now its maybe once a month.

    Yeah, they have turned into "retail plus". haven't found any good deals there for at least a year and a half. Really ambivalent towards them now. Bezos' ownership of WaPo and pushing his liberal agenda has really pissed me off.
     
    The wife orders stuff from them all the time (I beleive she’s a Prime member). By the time we get said item, I’ve forgotten why we needed it.
     
    Just like eBay, Amazon has been invaded by Chinese sellers with pure shit products or knock-offs posing as legit items. They clog search results and make it a pain in the ass to find real products and deals. Amazon's prices have steadily risen over the years too, and I quite often find alternatives elsewhere for far cheaper. The main exception to that is very heavy items with free prime shipping, Rock Auto had a set of disks and pads for my truck at a cheaper price and no sales tax, but after the $30 shipping for freight service (a week to get them), it was better to pay $25 more on Amazon and get them faster. The brake hoses and another Motorcraft part for my truck were about 30% cheaper on Rock Auto though, Amazon didn't even beat AutoZone pricing. I've gravitated back to specialty sellers for other product categories rather than Amazon too. Adorama or B&H smoke them on anything electronic or photo related and have better shipping and support as well, and they don't fuck you with taxes if you're not in NY/NJ which are two states you couldn't beat me bad enough to live in.

    And don't forget, Bezos (Amazon founder) also owns the Washington Post who is on a vendetta against anything that most Hide members represent, especially gun ownership.
     
    I'm not a Prime member and I noticed the shipping was getting slower and slower. Then they started collecting state sales tax, that was it for me.
     
    Building up a Ruger MKIII for Steel Challenge. Brownells has mag base pads for $11.01 for a package of two with #3.99 shipping. $25.99 and $5.01 shipping from Amazon.

    Same story with ebay. Used to find good deals, but over time the vendors became businesses and prices became retail...or more. No longer look there for anything.
     
    Resellers with “what the market will bear” attitudes are also a cottage industry on amazon. I have a buddy that does just that. He scours the search queries for high demand items, then takes those items and parses them for what he can find locally and that have a high return on investment. He was telling me about a bunch of cheap butter dishes his wife found a Kohl’s that were around $4. He was able to sell more than a dozen in just a few days for something like $20 each.
     
    Got mine at Publix for $3.99. Keep it in the fridge, buy a new one when empty.
    Butter.jpg
     
    Seems like the OP had the idea already, but I always check eBay after Amazon for a reputable seller so I'm not buying knock-off garbage and i've found I'm buying from eBay more and more recently, warranty considerations aside on applicable items...

    @Redmanss is right though, I haven't seen so much imitation EVERYTHING as when I've been on eBay lately, must've taken a break and missed it creeping up, but my cheapness gives me legendary patience for pennies, so I wade through it all to find my deals.

    Amazon's time will come to pass as others have said here and what a shame, think of all the brick and mortar it has shut down in its wake only to fade out as well, slow, bloated and broken.
     
    We used to use them a lot, now that she's not here I haven't ordered anything. I use the Prime service but the movies and shows are usually crap or on Netflix (and they are charging for more and more content now too) then Netflix is better and I got Hulu for free right now. I'll probably end up cancelling it before it renews.

    The tax sucks, then when it came to prices a lot of times I could find it cheaper elsewhere. There are things I can only find there or find cheap there, but I don't need the Prime service for that. You have to order a lot there and get good prices to make it worth it unless you really like the other Prime features.

    What it is, is they got a LOT of business and a LOT of people signed up so they've reduced their services, made 'em shittier. They're doing that balancing act of shitty as possible content vs. number of subscribers. They've been better in the past.

    If you don't have Prime, I'd suggest against it unless you use it for a lot of stuff already. If you don't have to pay tax still, it may be a good deal yet. If you want it for the TV, get Netflix or Hulu IMO/E.
     
    I use Amazon to read user/buyer reviews then buy the shit somewhere else.

    Last week I bought a pair of Red Wing Iron Ranger boots. I got them at the local Red Wing store, where they ordered them for me in two different sizes to try. If I ended up not liking them they would return the boots to the warehouse with no cost to me at all. In the end, I paid a little over $350 which is exactly what I would have paid to Amazon (including sales tax) and didn't need to go through the hassle of returning a pair that did not fit.
     
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    You think Amazon sucks now wait until they own everything and can suck even more because their response will be "Tough shit where are you going to go?"

    Looking forward to its implosion and the opening of opportunity to others.
     
    I use Amazon to read user/buyer reviews then buy the shit somewhere else.

    Last week I bought a pair of Red Wing Iron Ranger boots. I got them at the local Red Wing store, where they ordered them for me in two different sizes to try. If I ended up not liking them they would return the boots to the warehouse with no cost to me at all. In the end, I paid a little over $350 which is exactly what I would have paid to Amazon (including sales tax) and didn't need to go through the hassle of returning a pair that did not fit.
    the problem is, you cant even trust the reviews anymore......Amazon has a history of deleting "negative" reviews........and many of the reviews now are paid for.....or the reviewers "got the item for free in exchange for a review"......

    read through a bunch of reviews on a popular product.....many of the reviews are damn near identical

    the reviews on Hillary clintons book come to mind.......read through them, they are all the same.......every review refers to the book as "poignant" .....ive never heard a single person use that word in real life......but ever review on that book contains "poignant" half a dozen times......as though they were all written by the same person
     
    They have been getting progressively worse, year after year for the last 10 years in my opinion. Still less of a headache than dealing with idiots at local stores tho.
     
    Use Honey to find the best deal on Amazon. Often times you can find the same product for the same price but one ships w/ sales tax and one does not. Honey helps you find those and other lower prices. It's not perfect but it works fairly well.
     
    Use Honey to find the best deal on Amazon. Often times you can find the same product for the same price but one ships w/ sales tax and one does not. Honey helps you find those and other lower prices. It's not perfect but it works fairly well.

    Oh you don't claim to the IRS what items you purchased out of state that you owe sales tax on at the end of the year? :)
     
    Huh, I find them faster all the time. Now getting about half my stuff in less than 24 hours.

    Pricing still seems good, but there are a few people who run stores there only to scoop up other product listings and sell them higher. Still gotta do your research, but I buy:
    90% from Amazon
    5% eBay
    And the rest split among Midway, Brownells, various forum equipment exchanges and a very few things from local stores.
     
    I use Amazon to read user/buyer reviews then buy the shit somewhere else.

    Last week I bought a pair of Red Wing Iron Ranger boots. I got them at the local Red Wing store, where they ordered them for me in two different sizes to try. If I ended up not liking them they would return the boots to the warehouse with no cost to me at all. In the end, I paid a little over $350 which is exactly what I would have paid to Amazon (including sales tax) and didn't need to go through the hassle of returning a pair that did not fit.

    Wholeheartedly agreed, I do the same with the reviews.
    edit: In response to mcameron's post above about reviews, agreed about them getting worse/positives less accurate. I don't put as much faith in the positive reviews. I look at the negative ones, try to figure out which ones are legitimate and see what people's valid criticisms are of a product. If there are enough criticisms that appear to be valid, I'll skip on the product altogether. If there isn't much criticism, or the negative reviews look like BS, I'll price check and usually buy somewhere else.

    Why in the hell would I want to support Jeff Bezos AND pay above retail/more than other vendors on the web, or local bricks and mortar are charging ? Nothing very compelling about the idea of me spending my money to support ole' Jeffe.
     
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    I look at the 2-4 Star reviews. I generally discount anything at 5 stars as a shill and anything with 1 star as someone with an axe to grind.
     
    I'm not a Prime member and I noticed the shipping was getting slower and slower. Then they started collecting state sales tax, that was it for me.

    Same here. And one outta every three packages got tours of Seattle or Key West before they made it to me in Colorado.
     
    I have had better luck getting issues resolve thru ebay than thru amazon. So now I hesitate to use amazon.