Amazon

[Hibbyradge]

There was some discussion about Amazon on a thread about something else but I can't find it so I thought I'd start another to discuss its merits or otherwise.

I haven't watched any of the documentary series about the company but I understand that there are folk who buy from them without shopping around first.

I always hunt for the best deals, but often Amazon are cheapest and I have no qualms about using them.

At 1.00pm yesterday, I bought a George Foreman grill. Removable plates, floating hinge the lot. It cost £45, but if anyone can rub my nose in it by finding a cheaper one, the serial number is 24330.

It was due for delivery tomorrow, but it arrived at 10.02am, only 21 hours after I clicked on "confirm". Because I have Prime, delivery was free.

That's a brilliant service.

PS I just checked, the price seems to have risen since yesterday. It's now £59.78. Strange, but I'm delighted. 😁

So, my question is, why are people calling for a boycott of Amazon?

[Since90+2]

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There was some discussion about Amazon on a thread about something else but I can't find it so I thought I'd start another to discuss its merits or otherwise.

I haven't watched any of the documentary series about the company but I understand that there are folk who buy from them without shopping around first.

I always hunt for the best deals, but often Amazon are cheapest and I have no qualms about using them.

At 1.00pm yesterday, I bought a George Foreman grill. Removable plates, floating hinge the lot. It cost £45, but if anyone can rub my nose in it by finding a cheaper one, the serial number is 24330.

It was due for delivery tomorrow, but it arrived at 10.02am, only 21 hours after I clicked on "confirm". Because I have Prime, delivery was free.

That's a brilliant service.

PS I just checked, the price seems to have risen since yesterday. It's now £59.78. Strange, but I'm delighted. 😁

So, my question is, why are people calling for a boycott of Amazon?

Because if we aren't careful it will become eventually become a monopoly.

[Hibbyradge]

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Because if we aren't careful it will become eventually become a monopoly.

Do you not use Amazon for that reason?

[CropleyWasGod]

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Do you not use Amazon for that reason?

That's the main reason I don't use them. So much of my working life has been spent in the "wee guy" environment, which won't be there if we all use Amazon.

[Ozyhibby]

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That's the main reason I don't use them. So much of my working life has been spent in the "wee guy" environment, which won't be there if we all use Amazon.

Lots of ‘wee guys’ are actually selling on Amazon these days.
I agree we need competition for Amazon though and I’m sure there are some pretty big companies looking at how they can do that.
Right now though, Amazon are second to none on service and price.


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[Speedy]

In theory it will kill local business and takes money out of local communities.

People normally have grumbles about tax and working conditions of these big companies too (although I don't know a loy of the details in this case).

For what it is worth, Amazon is used a lot in my house.

[Hibrandenburg]

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There was some discussion about Amazon on a thread about something else but I can't find it so I thought I'd start another to discuss its merits or otherwise.

I haven't watched any of the documentary series about the company but I understand that there are folk who buy from them without shopping around first.

I always hunt for the best deals, but often Amazon are cheapest and I have no qualms about using them.

At 1.00pm yesterday, I bought a George Foreman grill. Removable plates, floating hinge the lot. It cost £45, but if anyone can rub my nose in it by finding a cheaper one, the serial number is 24330.

It was due for delivery tomorrow, but it arrived at 10.02am, only 21 hours after I clicked on "confirm". Because I have Prime, delivery was free.

That's a brilliant service.

PS I just checked, the price seems to have risen since yesterday. It's now £59.78. Strange, but I'm delighted. 😁

So, my question is, why are people calling for a boycott of Amazon?

Think yourself lucky, I also have Prime and ordered a chemistry set for the boy's Christmas on the 18th of November. It was also listed as 1 day delivery but as Christmas is still a few days away I didn't pay much attention. The set was priced at €17.99 which was a good deal as the RRP was around €24. FFW to the 23rd and I'd still hadn't received the package so I had a look at the delivery tracking and noticed that it had been sent out on the 18th and arrived in a collection centre in southern Germany, from there it was sent out to another distribution centre in Bielefeld northern Germany where it's arrival was logged as the 19th of November and it was registered as out for delivery. On the same day my package arrived back at the same collection centre where it started its journey. I called Amazon who told me to wait until Friday the 27th to see if it turned up because it was no longer by them in the system. Friday came and went so I called Amazon again who immediately refunded my money.

All fair and above board you might think, however I then had a look to see if I could reorder the chemistry set. A quick search found only one seller and that was the same one that I'd placed my original order with, the only difference was that instead of being priced at €17.99 the set now cost €79.99 with €8.85 post and package. You don't have to be a genius to work out what had happened, the dealer had obviously realised he could get much more for the chemistry set and had recalled the package.

As I always do when I get shoddy service I wrote a review and explained the reasoning why the review was bad. Today I received a mail from Amazon explaining that they won't publish the review because of "words of profanity" used in the review. The word they singled out was "shoddy".

[Jack]

I was concerned they didn't look after their staff but during this crisis they seem to have been very good from what I've heard.

It disgusts me that they avoid paying taxes - look at what our employees pay in taxes is about as crap an excuse as there is for not contributing fairly to the society they are in.

Having said that my wife has prime and of course I use it. I go there first get a price then try and beat it elsewhere.

At the moment I'm more 'never buy from China direct'. Nothing Trumpish. They just make it as impractical as they can to return stuff, even its not as advertised or smashed to bits. The Chinese are also a different size to us so no clothes. My wife bought bras from China. They didn't fit despite them being her size. They wanted photos of them not fitting before they would consider an exchange with her arranging postage etc.!

[Scouse Hibee]

Amazon is convenience shopping andI am currently finding it very useful.

[Ozyhibby]

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I was concerned they didn't look after their staff but during this crisis they seem to have been very good from what I've heard.

It disgusts me that they avoid paying taxes - look at what our employees pay in taxes is about as crap an excuse as there is for not contributing fairly to the society they are in.

Having said that my wife has prime and of course I use it. I go there first get a price then try and beat it elsewhere.

At the moment I'm more 'never buy from China direct'. Nothing Trumpish. They just make it as impractical as they can to return stuff, even its not as advertised or smashed to bits. The Chinese are also a different size to us so no clothes. My wife bought bras from China. They didn't fit despite them being her size. They wanted photos of them not fitting before they would consider an exchange with her arranging postage etc.!

Although they minimise their tax, as most companies do, they give all the benefits of that to the consumer. They don’t pay out any dividends to the owners and reinvest everything back into the business of improving the company, which benefits their customers.


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[Dalianwanda]

Living out in a rural area Amazon is great for those hard to find things. It’s also generally cheaper. Saying that there is a facebook page called shop in Ireland which has amazing stuff on it from artists, designers and most other things you can think of. Prices are great and your getting something straight from the person who made it. So far i’ve bought art, earrings, bird table, crystals and beanies.

So i think I’m getting the balance right.

[Peevemor]

Is there not a British alternative to Amazon?

In France there's Cdiscount, a French set-up, who do the same thing and have been outselling Amazon since 2013.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cdiscount

[AFKA5814_Hibs]

People will use Amazon for 2 main reasons. Price and availability. If you can get something cheaper and next day, it's a no brainer.

[Moulin Yarns]

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Lots of ‘wee guys’ are actually selling on Amazon these days.
I agree we need competition for Amazon though and I’m sure there are some pretty big companies looking at how they can do that.
Right now though, Amazon are second to none on service and price.


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On that, I beg to differ. On the delivery side I have had so many things that have been delivered to the wrong address. They use some app linked to google maps which has a point on a map and they deliver to that location, regardless of the actual address. It might be easy in a street with sequential numbers but not in a rural location where every address is a house name.

We regularly had Amazon deliveries to a house with a very different name to ours which is a quarter of a mile away. The solution is to go into your profile and edit your location. For the past 6 months, at least, neighbours 150m away have been getting their Amzon parcels delivered to me.

The drivers use the location point on their app and not common sense.

[CropleyWasGod]

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Lots of ‘wee guys’ are actually selling on Amazon these days.
I agree we need competition for Amazon though and I’m sure there are some pretty big companies looking at how they can do that.
Right now though, Amazon are second to none on service and price.


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These guys have their margins screwed,though, which means they have to do huge volumes to make any decent money. Conversely, the non-Amazon traders can make better profits just by competing on price.

There's definitely a place, as you say, for an alternative. Something a bit more ethically sound...a farmers market of the internet.😁

[CropleyWasGod]

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I was concerned they didn't look after their staff but during this crisis they seem to have been very good from what I've heard.

It disgusts me that they avoid paying taxes - look at what our employees pay in taxes is about as crap an excuse as there is for not contributing fairly to the society they are in.

Having said that my wife has prime and of course I use it. I go there first get a price then try and beat it elsewhere.

At the moment I'm more 'never buy from China direct'. Nothing Trumpish. They just make it as impractical as they can to return stuff, even its not as advertised or smashed to bits. The Chinese are also a different size to us so no clothes. My wife bought bras from China. They didn't fit despite them being her size. They wanted photos of them not fitting before they would consider an exchange with her arranging postage etc.!

At the risk of hijacking the thread, the tax thing isn't really their fault. That's down to those who make the laws.

[Keith_M]

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There was some discussion about Amazon on a thread about something else but I can't find it so I thought I'd start another to discuss its merits or otherwise.

I haven't watched any of the documentary series about the company but I understand that there are folk who buy from them without shopping around first.

I always hunt for the best deals, but often Amazon are cheapest and I have no qualms about using them.

At 1.00pm yesterday, I bought a George Foreman grill. Removable plates, floating hinge the lot. It cost £45, but if anyone can rub my nose in it by finding a cheaper one, the serial number is 24330.

It was due for delivery tomorrow, but it arrived at 10.02am, only 21 hours after I clicked on "confirm". Because I have Prime, delivery was free.

That's a brilliant service.

PS I just checked, the price seems to have risen since yesterday. It's now £59.78. Strange, but I'm delighted. 😁

So, my question is, why are people calling for a boycott of Amazon?

Lots of reasons posted on here...

https://www.hibs.net/showthread.php?...k-Friday-Deals!!!!

[Just_Jimmy]

need something, pick up my phone, find it and buy it, usually with free next day delivery, all within 5 mins.

because I live in a city (I imagine Edinburgh will be the same?) I've even had things same day!

can't beat that without going out to a shop.

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[Colr]

Have to be careful with Amazon and not just assume they are the cheapest.

There’s some terrible price gouging on there and one trick is obscenely high postage charges which appear ‘below the line’.

I also got hit with custom charges when an item arrived from abroad.

[Santa Cruz]

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Think yourself lucky, I also have Prime and ordered a chemistry set for the boy's Christmas on the 18th of November. It was also listed as 1 day delivery but as Christmas is still a few days away I didn't pay much attention. The set was priced at €17.99 which was a good deal as the RRP was around €24. FFW to the 23rd and I'd still hadn't received the package so I had a look at the delivery tracking and noticed that it had been sent out on the 18th and arrived in a collection centre in southern Germany, from there it was sent out to another distribution centre in Bielefeld northern Germany where it's arrival was logged as the 19th of November and it was registered as out for delivery. On the same day my package arrived back at the same collection centre where it started its journey. I called Amazon who told me to wait until Friday the 27th to see if it turned up because it was no longer by them in the system. Friday came and went so I called Amazon again who immediately refunded my money.

All fair and above board you might think, however I then had a look to see if I could reorder the chemistry set. A quick search found only one seller and that was the same one that I'd placed my original order with, the only difference was that instead of being priced at €17.99 the set now cost €79.99 with €8.85 post and package. You don't have to be a genius to work out what had happened, the dealer had obviously realised he could get much more for the chemistry set and had recalled the package.

As I always do when I get shoddy service I wrote a review and explained the reasoning why the review was bad. Today I received a mail from Amazon explaining that they won't publish the review because of "words of profanity" used in the review. The word they singled out was "shoddy".

I had something similar happen to me on Ebay once. No idea if the same advertising/listing fee's apply to Amazon sellers, but in my case when I went back to purchase my item and noticed it had changed to a ridiculous price way over the RRP, I contacted the seller and asked how this could be justified. The explanation I got was the original item had sold out and they didn't want to remove the listing as they were a business and would be charged again for creating a new listing when they received more stock. So they advertise it at such an inflated price because they know nobody will purchase it, to avoid further charges.

[green&left]

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There was some discussion about Amazon on a thread about something else but I can't find it so I thought I'd start another to discuss its merits or otherwise.

I haven't watched any of the documentary series about the company but I understand that there are folk who buy from them without shopping around first.

I always hunt for the best deals, but often Amazon are cheapest and I have no qualms about using them.

At 1.00pm yesterday, I bought a George Foreman grill. Removable plates, floating hinge the lot. It cost £45, but if anyone can rub my nose in it by finding a cheaper one, the serial number is 24330.

It was due for delivery tomorrow, but it arrived at 10.02am, only 21 hours after I clicked on "confirm". Because I have Prime, delivery was free.

That's a brilliant service.

PS I just checked, the price seems to have risen since yesterday. It's now £59.78. Strange, but I'm delighted. 😁

So, my question is, why are people calling for a boycott of Amazon?

Cos they will decimate high streets, will soon have a monopoly on not just e-commerce but retail as a whole, their owner is a c*** and the working conditions are appalling. Other than then nothing - great bunch of lads I guess.

[Killiehibbie]

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On that, I beg to differ. On the delivery side I have had so many things that have been delivered to the wrong address. They use some app linked to google maps which has a point on a map and they deliver to that location, regardless of the actual address. It might be easy in a street with sequential numbers but not in a rural location where every address is a house name.

We regularly had Amazon deliveries to a house with a very different name to ours which is a quarter of a mile away. The solution is to go into your profile and edit your location. For the past 6 months, at least, neighbours 150m away have been getting their Amzon parcels delivered to me.

The drivers use the location point on their app and not common sense.

I could fill a few pages with tales of sat nav followers leaving parcels in derelict barns, behind hedges, under feeding troughs and beside just about every farm machine imaginable because they couldn't look any further than their master said was the destination

[Hibrandenburg]

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I had something similar happen to me on Ebay once. No idea if the same advertising/listing fee's apply to Amazon sellers, but in my case when I went back to purchase my item and noticed it had changed to a ridiculous price way over the RRP, I contacted the seller and asked how this could be justified. The explanation I got was the original item had sold out and they didn't want to remove the listing as they were a business and would be charged again for creating a new listing when they received more stock. So they advertise it at such an inflated price because they know nobody will purchase it, to avoid further charges.

That makes sense, pretty ****ty for the customers.

[Moulin Yarns]

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I could fill a few pages with tales of sat nav followers leaving parcels in derelict barns, behind hedges, under feeding troughs and beside just about every farm machine imaginable because they couldn't look any further than their master said was the destination

, 😂🙄👍

[Northernhibee]

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Amazon is convenience shopping andI am currently finding it very useful.

When they pay so little tax and if there's a truth to the reported working conditions of some workers, when do we have the debate of the cost of convenience being so much greater than the benefit?

Not having a go at you on using Amazon - I do admittedly enjoy the Audible service as I spend a fair bit of time on the road - but don't use them for anything else. Just an interesting topic of debate.

[superfurryhibby]

Amazon and tax avoidance mean I buy nothing from them. Cheap has hidden costs. Wait until the impact of Covid really kicks in. When us plebs all start having income tax rises. I wonder if folk will still be as tolerant of the whole corporate tax avoiding scam then?

[Scouse Hibee]

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Amazon and tax avoidance mean I buy nothing from them. Cheap has hidden costs. Wait until the impact of Covid really kicks in. When us plebs all start having income tax rises. I wonder if folk will still be as tolerant of the whole corporate tax avoiding scam then?

Don’t really get the tax avoidance gripe, surely the gripe should be with the system that allows it.

[Keith_M]

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Don’t really get the tax avoidance gripe, surely the gripe should be with the system that allows it.

I manage to hate the people that don't close the loopholes and those that take full advantage of them.

There's also the issue that when one tax loophole is closed, they're willing to spend tens of millions in legal fees to have that challenged & overturned or new loopholes found.

We've also seen recent examples of when countries were trying to clamp down on these mega tax chats, they were threatened by the US Government with sanctions and trade restrictions.

[superfurryhibby]

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Don’t really get the tax avoidance gripe, surely the gripe should be with the system that allows it.

Well on a personal level I have lived with governments I don’t support for the whole of my adult life. It’s a lot easier to change my personal spending habits, which I am more or less in full control of.

Given England’s preference for right of centre government, what else can one do?

However, I do live in hope that those with most to gain, and I mean 95% of the population, will arise like lions from their slumber and refuse to accept the huge increases in taxation when we all have to pay for covid.

Maybe then people will realise that Amazon and the other tax avoiders are taking the piss

[Hibrandenburg]

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I manage to hate the people that don't close the loopholes and those that take full advantage of them.

There's also the issue that when one tax loophole is closed, they're willing to spend tens of millions in legal fees to have that challenged & overturned or new loopholes found.

We've also seen recent examples of when countries were trying to clamp down on these mega tax chats, they were threatened by the US Government with sanctions and trade restrictions.

I see it slightly differently. If there's a loophole there and you can take advantage of it then why not? I might not agree with the loophole but I'm damn sure I'm going to take advantage of it whilst I can. It's up to the government to ensure the loopholes aren't there. Tax avoidance is completely legitimate where as tax evasion can land you in prison. If it's not illegal then it's legal.