Anyone here taking a dislike against Amazon?

Yes I take a big dislike to Amazon. I buy through them occasionally but less and less, I will try everywhere else first or sometimes go without.

They were the beneficiaries of corporatism when they were originally exempted from Sales Tax in the US and more recently their brick and mortar competitors have been forced to shutter or (in the US) burned/looted by political establishment-backed mobs.

Their evilness is obvious to anyone who cares to see it.

They use their monopoly power to drive wages down to the lowest common denominator, create sweatshop conditions and they want to bring labour rights back to the gilded age of the 1850s-1910s before trade unions.

Not surprised lots on here support them almost pridefully.

Often they aren't any cheaper than competitors once you factor in postage. And the quality of the goods can be quite low. I got a Kindle as a gift and it quickly broke. You only lease e-books and Amazon can revoke or delete them.

In the end they are mostly just a mail order service like you had at the turn of the last century. Back in 1900-1940s ordering things such as books through the post was a big craze.

Only the spoiltness of this generation leads to the belief that clicking a button so that someone can send you something in the post is impressive.

growleaves wrote: »

Only the spoiltness of this generation leads to the belief that clicking a button so that someone can send you something in the post is impressive.

But it is impressive, a few clicks and i have everything I want. Amazon makes shopping enjoyable.

can anyone honestly say they are happy to pay more for the same item from the shop down the street than go online for far less??

Depends on the item and how much it costs. If I can find it locally I'm willing to pay more to have it fast and shop locally.
It's not always just the price, sometimes you need advice or no hassle returns, this is why you can accept to pay more.
For stuff like computer components or games, there is no brick and mortar option, and the Irish online shops are quite overpriced. Even so, sometimes I order locally if the extra cost is not too much just to get it faster.

Only started using amazon this year and whilst experience fine, I had to set up vertual UK address to avoid some outrageous delivery charges and to overcome quite absurd rules about were certain products are delivered too.

Also, probably not noticed by many, the Euro/Sterling exchange rate they quote is scandalous.

A final note, if people actually researched pricing on Amazon as opposed to buying elsewhere, they might actually get a shock, notwithstanding delivery and currency charges, there's must cheaper alternatives out there.

DilD wrote: »

I see the reasoning behind 'shop local' 'brick and mortar' etc etc. I even still miss the days of going to rent a film from a store (Damn you Netflix!!) but at the end of the day, you cannot compete with the likes of Amazon on any level. It's easy to say support local independant stores but when it comes to our own money, can anyone honestly say they are happy to pay more for the same item from the shop down the street than go online for far less??

An example I have from today; I pre-ordered a book from Amazon in September, paid £26 for it, it shipped today and during the time from when I ordered to when it dispatached, the price varied, lowest price it hit was £21 so Amazon just refunded me the £5 difference. Tell me a local book shop that will do that for you?

Your logic makes perfect sense.

However I'd just point out that it isn't always far less. Sometimes its far less and sometimes its about the same when you factor in postage.

In general I'm happy to go into Irish bookstores and browse, or order from them without checking Amazon first.

If you can see that the future is being sold out from under you then it makes sense.

In the last few years I perceive that the advertising and customer service of mega-corporations has become a little hostile. There was even an Irish corporation that insulted Irish speakers and then refused to apologise. I read somewhere that these corporations have calculated that they have more need to impress their investors (such as the big investment company Blackrock/Vanguard) than they do their customers.

Add in that they make terrible employers (Amazon rules over an army of factory slaves), and you should think twice about ceding the future to these people just to save a few quid now and then.

"The little guy" is you and me. Resisting ruinous commercial trends is one of the few powers we have.

They are after changing their delivery provider from An Post (who were great) to Fastway (I think) who are not at all great. One parcel about ten days ago was just left on the door step. I don't even know if your man rang the door bell. You can't leave anything outside where I live and expect it go be there 2 minutes later, I don't know what they were thinking. Another day I was on a Zoom call for work and someone is ringing my mobile over and over. I eventually had to excuse myself from the work call and it is some lazy git in a van outside who again hadn't ring the doorbell. "Oh it's John with your Amazon delivery". I nearly decked him. And then another Amazon eejit trying to deliver something on a Sunday evening. No thanks, it's the only day now I get out of the poxy house. And it's really hard to complain because the help centre people don't understand anything that isn't in the UK.

On a point of information: Amazon didn’t buy The Washington Post - Jeff Bezos as an individual bought it. Even though he’s the founder, CEO and President of Amazon (and owns just over 10% of it), it’s not quite the same thing.