nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Anyone here taking a dislike against Amazon?

jetsonx

Let's face it Amazon are great.

Their selection is great. Their customer service is great (not that you'll ever need it). Their prices can be competitive.

But there is a problem. Amazon seem to want to dominate e-commerce across most consumer product categories. They have become a giant industrial cash sucking vacuum of ecommerce. This cannot be good or fair to other retaillers. The platform that is the internet, in theory at least, should be the most equitable marketplace ever invented. But that's not happening.

Is there anyone else here who now takes a ABA (anyone but Amazon) approach when buying on the internet?

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

ExMachina1000

Cordell wrote: »

The fact it turned into some sort of ebay - a marketplace with too much dropshipping from China.

Much of the billions in revenue is being pumped into development of Amazon's other businesses. Things like AI computing and development of a chain of satellites to provide internet services to name a couple are being funded by people buying underpants and lamp covers from the marketplace.

Amazon is still in its early days

pgj2015

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Haven't used them yet, but did use Parcel Motel and they damaged one of the items. It's been nearly 3 weeks since they said that it wasn't packaged properly and get onto the seller, even though they provided a picture showing it managed to get from the UK to Antrim in tact, and the damage was caused from there to my place.

So using a third party is no longer something I'm willing to do.

I never used parcel motel but have used parcel wizard loads of times in the last few years. only once did they lose something but they found it again. PW charge 3.85 per item.

Potential-Monke

Jesus, I wish I Googled around, PM is €8!

pgj2015

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Jesus, I wish I Googled around, PM is €8!

was it a big package? I have never paid more than 3.85 but if the package was big it is more I think.

Potential-Monke

pgj2015 wrote: »

was it a big package? I have never paid more than 3.85 but if the package was big it is more I think.

Crap, sorry, I remembered I had them delivered to home. €8 per item for home delivery. Just so annoyed at them that they try to blame the seller when they provided photographic evidence of them causing the damage.

freshpopcorn

I placed my first Amazon order tonight.
It costed €31 with the irish retailer it would have been €50.
Last week I bought something with the same Irish retailer it cost €23 and would have been. €12 on Amazon.

smurfjed

Where I live, we have Amazon same day delivery, next day delivery and even groceries. Just perfect for Covid isolation.

timetogo1

Just off a chat with a rep myself for support on a OnePlus phone. The phone is faulty (2 months old). The chat took 50 mins for the rep to tell me to contact OnePlus for a repair. That's not the kind of service I'd have had in the past.
Not a huge deal. I'll contact OnePlus and if they give me any runaround at all I'll be back on to Amazon.

Squeeonline

Note: living in austria at the moment and using amazon.de. I tend to try to avoid amazon where reasonable. Not everything is available in stores, and where it is, it is often with a crazy markup (usb cables for example).

My last couple of orders, I went to the brands website, managed to get a 10% discount after a newsletter sign up, and still had free shipping.

Amazon has the convenience of having my address and payment details, one click ordering etc, but it was a small price to pay to not give Bazos more money.

pgj2015

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Crap, sorry, I remembered I had them delivered to home. €8 per item for home delivery. Just so annoyed at them that they try to blame the seller when they provided photographic evidence of them causing the damage.

PW use DPD to deliver items to my door.

GLaDOS

In the present circumstances I'm trying to support Irish retailers as much as possible.

In general, I don't use amazon enough to justify prime, and the delivery charges to Ireland without it can be quite off putting.

SB71

nope, a great company to shop with, never had any isues at all with them.

antimatterx

I ordered a book on Saturday night, it's with me now. Say what you want about Amazon, but where else could you get this service?

SB71

antimatterx wrote: »

I ordered a book on Saturday night, it's with me now. Say what you want about Amazon, but where else could you get this service?

agreed the service is flawless, i do try support irish retailers but sometimes they are 50% dearer so you cant justify paying that much more.

sekond

I try to support local business, but when you factor in the price differences and customer service from local retailers, it often isn't worth the hassle.

Ordered something from an Irish (admittedly, Irish branch of multinational) retailer recently. Had originally wanted to do click and collect in a vague sense of supporting my local store, but apparently they aren't offering that (which you don't know until you get to check out - it's all over the website as an option). Got a text message today to confirm that the delivery will be today. An hour later got an email to say "it's arriving today, but half of things you ordered have been cancelled, and won't be sent". And those were the ones I actually wanted, the ones that are actually being delivered are the ones I added to bulk up the order to get free delivery. I'm tempted to return everything.

I've never had that happen with Amazon.

Cordell

harr wrote: »

Just something that happened to me this week , loads of media telling everyone to order off
Irish stores .
I ordered a child’s toy , hand made wooden toy from a .ie website even had support small Irish businesses on website. Ordered something and when it arrived it had a big sticker hand made in Devon U.K and it was shipped from U.K. .. it turns out the company here in Ireland just order from this other company in U.K. with a fairly big mark up in price.

There are plenty of .ie stores with no actual presence in Ireland, not even registered as a business here. And there are some that have stores in Ireland but ship some online orders from the UK (Argos and Currys).

topper75

strawdog wrote: »

Yep fair they named one after them considering must take a rainforest for all the packaging they create. Our shared bins are always overflowing with cardboard now when I go to put something in them

Cardboard packaging made from pulped exotic hardwoods?

The posh cnuts! :mad:

suicide_circus

I'd make a plea to all of you to do your damnedest to buy as many Christmas presents as possible from local retailers this year.

ancapailldorcha

I use it mainly for tea and Kindle books. I don't like buying stuff where it can be avoided. Even my Kindle is nearly a decade old at this stage. While I find the kind of consumerism of today quite depressing I'm inclined to think that high street retail outside the high end of the market is in terminal decline. There are plenty of sh*t retailers in my hometown so it's not entirely a bad thing.

topper75

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

Last Monday I decided to order an album from an Irish retailer on Discogs rather than give Amazon the business. Partly because of guilt trip hectoring from a neckbeard acquaintance who it turns out is friendly with the seller.

Paid for the item straight after the order.
Heard nothing until Friday evening when I got an “item unavailable - cancelled by seller” notification. There was a half-hearted message “sorry man, I sold the LP on Ebay last week and forgot to update the listing on Discogs”

Flakey b*stard.

Ordered it from Amazon yesterday and it’s shipped already.

I hope you destroyed him in the review. Because that is the beauty of discogs. Integrity of sellers is immediately visible. I use it a lot but oddly never bought from an Irish sellers. Most experiences have been great, apart from two lazy spoofer Greeks!

Amazon are stiff enough for vinyl. I only use as a last resort.

AnniePowwa

suicide_circus wrote: »

I'd make a plea to all of you to do your damnedest to buy as many Christmas presents as possible from local retailers this year.

[Deleted User]

topper75 wrote: »

I hope you destroyed him in the review. Because that is the beauty of discogs. Integrity of sellers is immediately visible. I use it a lot but oddly never bought from an Irish sellers. Most experiences have been great, apart from two lazy spoofer Greeks!

Amazon are stiff enough for vinyl. I only use as a last resort.

I rarely use Irish sellers on Discogs. The previous one took three weeks to ship the item after several prompts. He didn’t even have the courtesy to leave feedback.

I have sold items on Discogs, Ebay & Amazon over the years. 2 Irish buyers in 15 years! My policy is to only ship via registered post within 24 hours of receiving payment. I also give buyers feedback as soon as they paid and give them appropriate updates. Communication is key.

Agree, Amazon can be dear enough for vinyl - Norman Records or Townsend Music tend to be better priced usually.

Feisar

suicide_circus wrote: »

I'd make a plea to all of you to do your damnedest to buy as many Christmas presents as possible from local retailers this year.

I'm doing my level best to. My mother has even stipulated that any presents for the grankids have to be from local business.

theguzman

I buy from Amazon because they have customer service unlike the rip-off merchants in Ireland. The chickens are coming home to roost for Irish businesses this Christmas and rightly so in how they treat their customers here.

Eleven Benevolent Elephants

According to the app a delivery I have coming to my home is "to be delivered by 8".

It says "delivery by e-packet".

Will this come by Amazon's own couriers, DPD or An Post?

It's small (about the size of a cassette tape box) so it will fit in the post box mounted to the wall. If I'm not home will they stick it in the box or will I have to sign for it?

Gregor Samsa

Eleven Benevolent Elephants wrote: »

According to the app a delivery I have coming to my home is "to be delivered by 8".

It says "delivery by e-packet".

Will this come by Amazon's own couriers, DPD or An Post?

It's small (about the size of a cassette tape box) so it will fit in the post box mounted to the wall. If I'm not home will they stick it in the box or will I have to sign for it?

Is it coming from China? I think e-packet is a postal standard that was agreed between China and the US, and then expanded out to other countries, that defines certain requirements (in terms of package size and value) that means shipments are cheaper and arrive faster. It also allows for free returns.

Who delivers it depends. I think Amazon only delivers using their own couriers in Dublin. I'm in the west of Ireland and most of the Amazon stuff I get comes via An Post (and I have Amazon Prime). One or two things came from a guy in an unmarked white van, and I wasn't the one who answered the door, so I didn't see the uniform - so I'm not sure who delivered them. My brother in Dublin says he gets a mixture of DPD, An Post and what he assumes to be Amazon's own delivery team. I'm guessing here, but I suspect who delivers it it depends on what shipping options you chose, where it's coming from and what Amazon calculate as the best rate for them. I would say they have dynamically optimised that down to the individual package level. Obviously this only applies to stuff that's "fulfilled by Amazon". If it's fulfilled by a third party, they get to decide who they ship it with.

If it's small enough to put though the letterbox or into a mail box, they will do that. I haven't had to sign for a delivery all this year. If it's not the regular post man that delivers letters dropping it off, the delivery person will likely scan it before they drop it, but they don't need you present to do that.

[Deleted User]

harr wrote: »

Nothing stopping Irish shops selling products through Amazon, I use a few and it just me being lazy stopping me ordering on the shops Irish website.
For me Amazon is just handy , prime members have free delivery which often makes the price cheaper.
For example I was ordering a camera part last week €45 both on Amazon and in Irish shops but Irish shops were charging me a tenner for delivery. Better a tenner in my pocket than an post ..

The irony when An Post deliver your package.

Fuascailteoir

SB71 wrote: »

agreed the service is flawless, i do try support irish retailers but sometimes they are 50% dearer so you cant justify paying that much more.

I am missing three items in the past week. Must be a container or two gone awol as there are lots in the same boat.

Eleven Benevolent Elephants

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Is it coming from China? I think e-packet is a postal standard that was agreed between China and the US, and then expanded out to other countries, that defines certain requirements (in terms of package size and value) that means shipments are cheaper and arrive faster. It also allows for free returns.

Who delivers it depends. I think Amazon only delivers using their own couriers in Dublin. I'm in the west of Ireland and most of the Amazon stuff I get comes via An Post (and I have Amazon Prime). One or two things came from a guy in an unmarked white van, and I wasn't the one who answered the door, so I didn't see the uniform - so I'm not sure who delivered them. My brother in Dublin says he gets a mixture of DPD, An Post and what he assumes to be Amazon's own delivery team. I'm guessing here, but I suspect who delivers it it depends on what shipping options you chose, where it's coming from and what Amazon calculate as the best rate for them. I would say they have dynamically optimised that down to the individual package level. Obviously this only applies to stuff that's "fulfilled by Amazon". If it's fulfilled by a third party, they get to decide who they ship it with.

If it's small enough to put though the letterbox or into a mail box, they will do that. I haven't had to sign for a delivery all this year. If it's not the regular post man that delivers letters dropping it off, the delivery person will likely scan it before they drop it, but they don't need you present to do that.

God Amazon are great.
You'd never get that from "shop local".

6034073

nofools

theguzman wrote: »

I buy from Amazon because they have customer service unlike the rip-off merchants in Ireland. The chickens are coming home to roost for Irish businesses this Christmas and rightly so in how they treat their customers here.

They will come to roost for us all with that kind of short sightedness.