June 25, 201511 yr Just had an odd thing happen to me with Amazon. I ordered 64GB of DDR4 memory for my office computer I'm building. $600 it cost me. I subscribe to Amazon Prime and they were a day later with the delivery. I complained to them because I planned on receiving it a certain day and made appropriate plans. The next day I received an email saying they refunded me $300 for "GOODWILL" and being a loyal customer. Nothing like getting a $300 discount! Made my computer build that much less expensive.
June 25, 201511 yr Wow! That's insanely awesome. My wife has had similar experiences with them and their customer service. I know that not everyone likes them, but I really can't find anything negative to say about them. Never had a customer service issue that wasn't resolved above and beyond my expectations.
June 25, 201511 yr Wow! That's insanely awesome. My wife has had similar experiences with them and their customer service. I know that not everyone likes them, but I really can't find anything negative to say about them. Never had a customer service issue that wasn't resolved above and beyond my expectations. I had an issue with not one but two orders being delayed beyond the 2 days. This affected xmas gifts. Making it worse is they were shown as "out for delivery" for two straight days before xmas and they never got to my house. Amazon agreed to a discount on each order, but then only credited it on one of the 2 orders. I called them on it and they said that one per customer was the policy. I know they record the calls and asked them to listen to what was said, and got an apology and a credit. I was a bit disappointed first that they missed their window (which was UPS's fault, not theirs, but they should have gotten a penalty from UPS for each package), and then didn't do what they promised. Not awful but not great. Amazon used to be the best prices, but now we often see prices at or above retail as they squeezed out lower volume sellers. They are now taking advantage of a monopoly position. I try actively to purchase from smaller players like Newegg, B&H, Provantage, Buy.com, and a few others that often have almost the same prices. I figure if they can change the same at a much lower margin I should support them. Because when they go away, Amazon prices will only rise further. Competition is the secret to free enterprise, and Amazon is all about being the only game in town.
June 25, 201511 yr I agree with everything you just said and frequently buy from newegg as well as b&h when relevant and possible. There are still plenty of things I like from amazon (mostly books on kindle), but spreading the love to the other guys is good. Competition breeds innovation. Without it, it'd be easy for leaders to rest on their laurels.
June 25, 201511 yr I used to buy almost everything from Amazon. Then, when they started charging tax, I started buying more from NewEgg. That was great because with ShopRunner, I got the same two day shipping, and paid no taxes. Now, I spread it around pretty evenly between NewEgg, Amazon, SuperBiiz, Provantage. I only buy hard drives when they are really cheap from B&H because it takes forever to get to me. That being said, I still managed to spend $9,483.77 with Amazon last year and they still have top notch customer service!
June 25, 201511 yr B&H often has expedited 2 day shipping on specials. And don't charge sales tax to me like Amazon. Being an east coaster, shipping not much of an issue for me.
June 25, 201511 yr Amazon's free international shipping on many products (once you hit $130 in your cart) has me using them exclusively now.
June 25, 201511 yr Amazon's free international shipping on many products (once you hit $130 in your cart) has me using them exclusively now. They are smart. Now they can put overseas suppliers out of business too!
June 25, 201511 yr I used to shop there all the time until they started charging AZ sales tax. Now I mainly shop newegg and ebay for computer parts.
June 25, 201511 yr My usual computer goto's are: ncix.com canadacomputers.com newegg.ca Usually in that order too. Try to buy from Canadian retailers when I can.
June 25, 201511 yr Author I pretty much get charged sales tax where ever I shop. Since Newegg.com has a warehouse right in Edison, NJ - about an hour away I can usually go pick things up there. I walked around their warehouse there and I was salivating!
June 25, 201511 yr I love the convenience of shopping at Amazon, but their changes to force me to visit their website for order status really really annoys me. Tracking emails no longer have tracking numbers... They force you to go to the website for that. Order confirmations no longer have an actual list of what I ordered. This is annoying for two reasons 1) I keep order confirmations in my inbox until I have received the complete order. I tend to do projects where I might place 10-15 orders in a week, many at amazon. With no list of what's in the order I can lose track of what has not shown up yet. So I have to go to the website and do a lot of clicking to figure out what hasn't shown up. 2) I often re-order something months or years later. I usually search my email archives to find the exact model and where I found it. Amazon has now removed themselves from these search results and I have to do all of my research/shopping from scratch, which is probably good for me and bad for Amazon because they may not be the best place to buy it again. I can only assume that these changes are a marketing decision to drive more clicks to their website in the hopes that people make impulse buys while there are there... It's probably effective but it degrades the user experience and I personally respond negatively when I notice "predatory" marketing tactics. There, I feel better after unloading that
June 25, 201511 yr Author I love the convenience of shopping at Amazon, but their changes to force me to visit their website for order status really really annoys me. Tracking emails no longer have tracking numbers... They force you to go to the website for that. Order confirmations no longer have an actual list of what I ordered. This is annoying for two reasons 1) I keep order confirmations in my inbox until I have received the complete order. I tend to do projects where I might place 10-15 orders in a week, many at amazon. With no list of what's in the order I can lose track of what has not shown up yet. So I have to go to the website and do a lot of clicking to figure out what hasn't shown up. 2) I often re-order something months or years later. I usually search my email archives to find the exact model and where I found it. Amazon has now removed themselves from these search results and I have to do all of my research/shopping from scratch, which is probably good for me and bad for Amazon because they may not be the best place to buy it again. I can only assume that these changes are a marketing decision to drive more clicks to their website in the hopes that people make impulse buys while there are there... It's probably effective but it degrades the user experience and I personally respond negatively when I notice "predatory" marketing tactics. There, I feel better after unloading that I usually never rely on email messages for history. I always go to the vendors site. If you want to review what you previously purchased you can view back I think 7 years or so. And click on the product you bought to view it again, weather it is available or not. I also believe you can archive and/or export invoices into Excel or a spreadsheet if you really want to be accurate with everything and isolate projects. They will always try to manipulate the customer some how to buy more. Just because I bought some razor blades for my shaver, I now see advertisements for razors and shaving cream all over. Kind of does drive me nuts. All that technology and they think spamming me with more advertisements is going to make me buy more shaving blades and shaving cream then I need? Cookies are dangerous.
June 25, 201511 yr Cookies are dangerous. I bought a gift for my sister-in-law once on amazon ... To this day I get recommendations and ads that are targeted towards mothers Never made that mistake again
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.