Not Aviation - Amazon rant

[Shepherd]

In order of appearance in my world:
1. Free movies that I had in my "watch list" suddenly cost money. They were in my watch list because I love to watch old 1950's schlock Sci-fi movies, and they were free. Not any more.
2. I bought a 2 bay external hard case for $31.50. Not on sale, not Prime Day, ordinary day, ordinary price. I really liked it, so I went to buy a second case. It is now $82.50. Same case. More than $50.00 more.
3. Did you get the note? No more arbitration. If you have a problem, you need to get a lawyer and sue them.

Anybody not see any of this coming?

 

[Jim K]

In order of appearance in my world:
1. Free movies that I had in my "watch list" suddenly cost money. They were in my watch list because I love to watch old 1950's schlock Sci-fi movies, and they were free. Not any more.
2. I bought a 2 bay external hard case for $31.50. Not on sale, not Prime Day, ordinary day, ordinary price. I really liked it, so I went to buy a second case. It is now $82.50. Same case. More than $50.00 more.
3. Did you get the note? No more arbitration. If you have a problem, you need to get a lawyer and sue them.

Anybody not see any of this coming?

Hey- Jeff has bills to pay. Going to space and getting divorced are not cheap!

He's got all us frogs in the pot... time to start turning up the heat.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

Start looking for alternatives…

And fed thinks this inflation is not a problem.

 

[Timbeck2]

Side note:

Jeff is living in the house that the Beverly Hillbillies lived in.

 

[kyleb]

I needed 2 TNC connectors in a hurry. Could have driven to Aircraft Spruce last Saturday to get them, but that’s a 100 mile, 2 hour round trip. Checked Amazon and they promised Sunday delivery. Of course, by Sunday afternoon, they had retrenched to a Tuesday delivery. So they over promised and effectively stole business from a competitor, then reneged on the promise after the fact.

I could make a strong case that this is anti-competitive…

 

[DaleB]

I needed 2 TNC connectors in a hurry. Could have driven to Aircraft Spruce last Saturday to get them, but that’s a 100 mile, 2 hour round trip. Checked Amazon and they promised Sunday delivery. Of course, by Sunday afternoon, they had retrenched to a Tuesday delivery. So they over promised and effectively stole business from a competitor, then reneged on the promise after the fact.

I could make a strong case that this is anti-competitive…

When they do that with my orders, I cancel them. Screw them, I'll find it somewhere else. Someone at Amazon is tracking that metric -- "Delayed orders canceled".

 

[Larry in TN]

In order of appearance in my world:
1. Free movies that I had in my "watch list" suddenly cost money. They were in my watch list because I love to watch old 1950's schlock Sci-fi movies, and they were free. Not any more.

That happens with all of the streaming services. Their rights to stream a movie or series is contractual and has an expiration date. Sometimes it is renewed with different terms and others they lose the right entirely. Shows and movies are moving in and out of the free with Prime tier all the time. The only way to lock something in is to buy the streaming rights which you can do on Amazon, Vudu, and others. With services like Netflix, some shows just go away with no guarantee that they'll be back.

 

[Crashnburn]

I found a book on Amazon that I wanted and it was $60, total. After I got it, I found it for &20 on Barnes and Noble. I went to return the book and told them where it was less. They gave my money back and let me keep the book. It pays to shop around.

 

[FormerHangie]

In order of appearance in my world:
1. Free movies that I had in my "watch list" suddenly cost money. They were in my watch list because I love to watch old 1950's schlock Sci-fi movies, and they were free. Not any more.
2. I bought a 2 bay external hard case for $31.50. Not on sale, not Prime Day, ordinary day, ordinary price. I really liked it, so I went to buy a second case. It is now $82.50. Same case. More than $50.00 more.
3. Did you get the note? No more arbitration. If you have a problem, you need to get a lawyer and sue them.

Anybody not see any of this coming?

As I keep telling the three Amazon loving people in our household, if you keep buying everything from Amazon, eventually you will have to buy everything from Amazon.

 

[SoonerAviator]

As I keep telling the three Amazon loving people in our household, if you keep buying everything from Amazon, eventually you will have to buy everything from Amazon.

Keep in mind that a lot of Amazon is smaller vendors/companies doing business on the Amazon marketplace. So, while Amazon may be the distributor, it's not entirely wiping out the little guy.

 

[airdale]

In order of appearance in my world:
1. Free movies that I had in my "watch list" suddenly cost money. They were in my watch list because I love to watch old 1950's schlock Sci-fi movies, and they were free. Not any more.
2. I bought a 2 bay external hard case for $31.50. Not on sale, not Prime Day, ordinary day, ordinary price. I really liked it, so I went to buy a second case. It is now $82.50. Same case. More than $50.00 more.
3. Did you get the note? No more arbitration. If you have a problem, you need to get a lawyer and sue them.

Anybody not see any of this coming?

I don't understand. Is someone forcing you to buy from them? If not, what are you crying about? They're a business, you're a customer. If that is not an acceptable situation, go elsewhere. Sheesh ...

 

[tawood]

About 2 years ago, I started price comparing Amazon with EBay. eBay was almost always considerably cheaper. I no longer price compare anything…I just do all my ordering from eBay.

 

[Shepherd]

I don't understand. Is someone forcing you to buy from them? If not, what are you crying about? They're a business, you're a customer. If that is not an acceptable situation, go elsewhere. Sheesh ...

I'll type slowly, so you can follow.
You go to the grocery store.
The employee in the aisle says, "Hi! Would you like to try these for free?"
You say "Sure!" and he loads the items in your cart.
You wander around, picking up more items and when you get to the checkout, you find the items now cost $8.00 each.
Sure, you can take them out, but that's not the point, is it?

 

[Daleandee]

You go to the grocery store.
The employee in the aisle says, "Hi! Would you like to try these for free?"
You say "Sure!" and he loads the items in your cart.
You wander around, picking up more items and when you get to the checkout, you find the items now cost $8.00 each.

The fly in the ointment with this scenario is that if you gave me free food in the grocery store I'd likely have it gone before I got to the register.

I do get your point and it would send me elsewhere. I agree with another poster that looking around online will often find a much better price. The secrect with Amazon is that they have so many people convinced they have the best price and fastest shipping available that many will plow ahead and not ever know the difference. As the Captain and Toni Tennille used to sing, "You'd better shop around!" (Maybe this belongs in the "memories" thread).

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

That happens with all of the streaming services. Their rights to stream a movie or series is contractual and has an expiration date.

And no chance they noticed 'this guy likes these genre of movie; let's just see if he's willing to pay for them' (now that we've learned from his data what he likes.)

 

[Sluggo63]

Keep in mind that a lot of Amazon is smaller vendors/companies doing business on the Amazon marketplace. So, while Amazon may be the distributor, it's not entirely wiping out the little guy.

Not true at all. We all know that Amazon is data driven more than anything else. Here's what they do... they know what their top sellers are. When they see items from 3rd party sellers that are selling well, they then turn around and produce the same item, but "Amazon" brand it and put it at the top of their searches for slightly cheaper and call it "Amazon Best Buy" thereby cutting out the little guy.

Amazon is ruthless.

Edit: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-marketplace-third-party-seller-faustian-pact

"But Hayne thinks Amazon is “more difficult” than eBay, because “you are competing with sellers and Amazon”. 'If we find a nice product that starts selling well, you can bet that within six months Amazon will start selling it and undercut us.'"

 

[mondtster]

About 2 years ago, I started price comparing Amazon with EBay. eBay was almost always considerably cheaper. I no longer price compare anything…I just do all my ordering from eBay.

Years ago, Amazon used to be cheaper and have faster shipping than eBay. I noticed the same thing though, eBay almost always beats Amazon on pricing for the same item these days.

 

[JGoodish]

Amazon has really gone off a cliff with respect to customer service and the product they offer. They used to be so good at delivering on their commitments and if they didn’t, making it right, that they were hard to beat for ease of doing business. Some of the things I’ve noticed over the past 1.5 years:

1. “Prime” shipping will often list the standard 2 days when an item is added to your cart, but in reality it could be a week or more before you actually receive the item. Amazon’s actual response: we mean 2 days from when we decide to ship it.
2. It used to be that anything “sold by” or “ships from” Amazon could be returned within the 30 day return period. That is no longer the case; items are now marked with their return eligibility, but you have to carefully look for it. Some items are not returnable at all, and if you miss that and it’s “preparing” to ship, you can’t cancel the order and you’re stuck with it.
3. While prices were always subject to minor fluctuations on Amazon, it seems that such fluctuations are more frequent and substantial than in the past. On occasion, mundane items I’ve ordered (such as toothpaste) will triple or quadruple in price to an outrageous amount, or simply go unavailable altogether. This makes it difficult to rely on Amazon as a source.

A year and a half ago, they blamed COVID, but now these things have apparently become standard business practice for them.

In my opinion, the biggest thing Amazon has going for it now is the large product catalog. I’ve used Walmart.com for a couple recent orders, as most things (even from third-party sellers) can be returned to a Walmart store and the prices can be as good or better than Amazon. My recent transactions with third-party sellers went well, and my live chat with a customer service rep to resolve an account issue also went well, but Walmart’s website, product selection, and volume of reviews don’t match that of Amazon (though perhaps there are fewer fake reviews). Walmart also does not offer a streaming service perk, but we rarely use Prime Video from Amazon.

 

[cowman]

If there's no compelling reason to buy it elsewhere(price, needing it today, perishable items, clothes) I'm inclined to just use amazon. I pay my money, they ship the thing and they're pretty reliable about it. That's as good as I generally get from anywhere and I can find stuff on it that I just can't get locally.

 

[Jumpmaster]

Amazon’s business model is the envy of the world. With its proprietary dynamic pricing algorithms, it can change pricing in a millisecond based on demand. Home delivery of everything from auto parts to food to entertainment to now pharmacy items.Talk about one stop shopping and convenience. However, all of that comes at a cost and Amazon is now off-loading that cost onto its customers every way possible. I have price checked an item on Amazon, gone elsewhere on the internet for the same purpose and come back to Amazon only to find the price had gone up, sometimes substantially. I am to the point where I tend to shop more locally when possible. And while I like my UPS delivery person, I really don’t want to see him daily. If I could just get my wife under control

 

[Salty]

I got the parts to fix my septic tank lift station to my front patio in less than 10 hours from time of order for less than it would have cost locally, and I would have had to drive around for two hours to get it. Really is amazing. It’s a shame they are so evil (they truly are), but if you live outside the city, it’s pretty awesome.

 

[wsuffa]

Several times now, Amazon shipped me products listed and new but that the box had obviously been open and the product used. One was covered by dirt. These were sold-and-shipped by Amazon. They went back and I got the products locally: it was a couple of bucks more, but at least I knew it's condition.

 

[kyleb]

A year and a half ago, they blamed COVID, but now these things have apparently become standard business practice for them.

To be fair, a lot of supply chains are under pressure right now. "My" business has two primary product lines. We were very concerned two weeks ago that a raw material shortage was going to shut us down for several weeks on our main product line. That would have been a $50M loss at the top line. We pulled that one out of the fire and now the supply chain (at least for that particular raw material) seems to be OK going forward, but our secondary product that is probably 25% of our business is now facing a similar shortage which may shut us down on that product in about a month.

Add to that the labor shortages that are hamstringing almost all industries, and I get that things can be delayed. But Amazon needs to recognize that their delivery time has increased and admit that on the front end, rather than taking orders with next day (or whatever) delivery, then reneging on that promise after they secure the order.

 

[SoonerAviator]

Not true at all. We all know that Amazon is data driven more than anything else. Here's what they do... they know what their top sellers are. When they see items from 3rd party sellers that are selling well, they then turn around and produce the same item, but "Amazon" brand it and put it at the top of their searches for slightly cheaper and call it "Amazon Best Buy" thereby cutting out the little guy.

Amazon is ruthless.

Edit: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-marketplace-third-party-seller-faustian-pact

"But Hayne thinks Amazon is “more difficult” than eBay, because “you are competing with sellers and Amazon”. 'If we find a nice product that starts selling well, you can bet that within six months Amazon will start selling it and undercut us.'"

I'm not saying that Amazon is without fault, or that they don't have an almost monopoly-like position in the market. I'm just saying that there are 3rd party sellers which adds to their product catalog, many of which I may never be able to find via various web search engines. Every major online retailer has their search/pricing algorithms, so I don't view them as any more evil in that regard than their major competitors. I try to shop local when it comes to a lot of stuff, but for random odds/ends I usually let Amazon handle the logistics of getting it to me rather than search for hours trying to save a few bucks. Convenience is sometimes a double-edged sword.

 

[Joe_B1]

I use camel camel camel to track price history on Amazon. They're prices fluctuate like the wind in minutes. And prime has gone into the toilet 2 day delivery is total B.S. W used to buy a lot of stuff from them but now, not so much.

 

[bluesideup]

Anybody not see any of this coming?

He is going to have to make up for the ride somehow?
Never use them, or FaceCrap, as little as I can of Giggle and none of the other POC / Social trash that exist out there. They are for lazy and and for people that want to be celebrities like I Hollywally which I even despise more. We've gone soft and stupid, go to your local store, swap meets... and support your city and neighborhood.

 

[JGoodish]

To be fair, a lot of supply chains are under pressure right now.

I understand the supply chain and labor pressures, but everyone is feeling those, not just Amazon (presumably). When items are marked as in stock and “delivers [in 2 days],” that’s what I expect to happen. I’m also not sure how supply chain factors into some items no longer being eligible for returns.

I will also say that the attitude of Amazon’s customer service seems to have changed from my experience in years past. They used to be apologetic and accommodating to a fault, but now they appear to hide behind “policy” when you express dissatisfaction with the service they provide.

The supply chain and labor issues are somewhat frightening, especially when global industry is still dealing with disruptive public policy decisions. I drive by car dealers with lots 3/4 empty and wonder how these folks can stay in business.

 

[wrbix]

Some people here report returning items to Amazon for various reasons, some people here complain of receiving items from Amazon that are not NIB. Hmmmm.
Sounds like a national trend of utilizing a liberal return policy, then complaining about it.

 

[bflynn]

Keep in mind that a lot of Amazon is smaller vendors/companies doing business on the Amazon marketplace. So, while Amazon may be the distributor, it's not entirely wiping out the little guy.

Correct, it's just letting the little guy sell cheap garbage from overseas. Be very selective on what you buy from there.

 

[Ted]

We buy a lot from Amazon, especially me. Their app can't be beat, and they do have a very liberal return policy. Which, by the way, has benefitted me quite a bit. We often times look for Warehouse deals. Yeah, a lot of stuff does come damaged. They've always made it right, and often times for smaller items we don't even have to return them.

Are they always the cheapest? No, and a lot of times they're noticeably more expensive. Shop around.

 

[tspear]

I have started using the Capital One shopping plugin on my desktop. When you search for stuff on Amazon, Best buy, Walmart... it gives you the price comparison on all the other sites.

Works great and saves me looking.

Tim

Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk

 

[Juliet Hotel]

You go to the grocery store.
The employee in the aisle says, "Hi! Would you like to try these for free?"
You say "Sure!" and he loads the items in your cart.
You wander around, picking up more items and when you get to the checkout, you find the items now cost $8.00 each.
Sure, you can take them out, but that's not the point, is it?

The point is they changed their mind.
How many days weeks or months were you wandering around this hypothetical grocery store before you made it to the cash register.

When it comes to television media and movies, things like copyright ownership comes into play. Someone owns the copyright to that work and they may have decided they don't want amazon to include that work in any free to all or free to prime content programs. If that's the case, how is that amazon's fault? Did you think a watch list was a binding contract of some sort that allowed you access in perpetuity?

 

[Joe_B1]

I recently complained about inaccurate website descriptions and 5 day prime deliveries. The next day I got an email with the"new" terms of service.

 

[Lindberg]

I'll type slowly, so you can follow.
You go to the grocery store.
The employee in the aisle says, "Hi! Would you like to try these for free?"
You say "Sure!" and he loads the items in your cart.
You wander around, picking up more items and when you get to the checkout, you find the items now cost $8.00 each.
Sure, you can take them out, but that's not the point, is it?

More like you wander around with them in your cart until days later when the sale is over. The price on the shelf is an offer. You haven't accepted when you put the item in your cart.

With the movies, they're no longer free because Amazon's deal with the rights holder ran out. But now different movies are free.

 

[Lindberg]

3. Did you get the note? No more arbitration. If you have a problem, you need to get a lawyer and sue them.

Arbitration is general considered to be less consumer friendly. Small-claims court, sufficient for any of my Amazon purchases, is super easy.

 

[airdale]

I'll type slowly, so you can follow.
You go to the grocery store.
The employee in the aisle says, "Hi! Would you like to try these for free?"
You say "Sure!" and he loads the items in your cart.
You wander around, picking up more items and when you get to the checkout, you find the items now cost $8.00 each.
Sure, you can take them out, but that's not the point, is it?

So you don't go back to that store. Problem solved.

 

[Shepherd]

The point is they changed their mind.
How many days weeks or months were you wandering around this hypothetical grocery store before you made it to the cash register.

When it comes to television media and movies, things like copyright ownership comes into play. Someone owns the copyright to that work and they may have decided they don't want amazon to include that work in any free to all or free to prime content programs. If that's the case, how is that amazon's fault? Did you think a watch list was a binding contract of some sort that allowed you access in perpetuity?

Same day. Using my Prime account, I put 7 1950's era sci-fi movies in my watch list about 10:00 AM. They were all free. When my brother arrived at noon, I pulled up the movie queue they ware all $1.99 to $6.99.

So, are you a paid apologist for Amazon?

 

[airdale]

I really don't understand all the angst and hate that seems to be accruing to Amazon lately. The big picture is a man with a vision and an understanding of the fact that if none of your ideas are failures you are not trying hard enough. This, together with a refusal to dance to the quarterly earnings forecast tune played by "Wall Street analysts" who have never managed even a one-car parade, is what build the company.

Do they make mistakes? Sure? Everyone does. Do they take advantage of third party sellers? Probably, though the jury is out on that one. As a small business mentor I tell my clients that Amazon is an ideal channel for products that will never have enough sales to be noticed by Amazon's product development group. Don't say you weren't warned.

Dynamic pricing? It will probably be found to be a self-defeating idea if it drives customers away. We'll see; it's just another experiment. The fact that a price you remember is no longer available begs the questions: Why did you wait to buy? Why don't you just shop elsewhere for that item?

Gouging, especially by third parties? It goes on all the time and detecting it is only a problem for a potential buyer who doesn't click "Shopping" after a Google search for the product.

Missed delivery promises? Sure, especially under pandemic pressure. Actually, last year sometime they announced that they were prioritizing delivery speed on some classes of products while reducing it on less-critical items. IMO that's pretty responsible behavior. But if you don't like the delivery times, shop elsewhere.

 

[brcase]

A while back I was wondering how Amazon can do next day or even same day shipping on so many items and such a low cost. It then occurred to me that the magic of amazon is they have made it to critical Mass (Critical Data?) and are very efficiently using that data. Often the item you ordered has shipped before you even order it. By looking at the data they know that on average they will need 100 of item X in two weeks, So instead of air freighting those items when they are ordered, they just load 100 items onto a truck one or two weeks in advance, before they are even ordered, and are shipped using the cheapest method available (probably truck). If they happen to sell more than 100 items for that day, then the software changes it from next day delivery to two day delivery as the best available and your item will be on the next truck.

reading the posts above I also wonder if they also manipulate pricing the same way, if they ended up with a surplus of item X in Boise, the price may go down temporarily to so they don't have to warehouse the excess items that are on the truck.
Of course this is why you see Amazon Distribution centers popping up everywhere because they would rather warehouse it for a day or two than reduce the price on it,

Brian

 

[airdale]

... So, are you a paid apologist for Amazon?

Ad hominem attacks indicate that the attacker has nothing of substance to contribute to the discussion. I'll ask again: If you're being so badly treated, why don’t you just go elsewhere?

... reading the posts above I also wonder if they also manipulate pricing the same way, if they ended up with a surplus of item X in Boise, the price may go down temporarily to so they don't have to warehouse the excess items that are on the truck.
Of course this is why you see Amazon Distribution centers popping up everywhere because they would rather warehouse it for a day or two than reduce the price on it.

The strength of the company is that it is constantly experimenting. For surplus products, IIRC that discounter woot.com is an Amazon company as is product promoter dpreview.com. Probably a number of other outlets and tactics too.

IMO they are also constantly experimenting with personnel and labor policies, too. Parts of that don't seem to be going so well, but (IMO again) they will eventually get it right.