what I hate about Amazon
Okay, so if you've used Amazon lately you've probably seen that feature where you can pay a large sum of money for one year's worth of 3 day shipping for all your orders. Needless to say, it's one of those features that Amazon probably makes a good chunk of money on because people either don't use it enough that it was worth it for the consumer or the consumer just ends up buying a bunch of stuff from Amazon to make it worth it for them; either way Amazon's strategy wins if people participate in this.
I only bring it up because over the years I've smelled something rotten with them. I originally started using Amazon in the late 90s, mainly for purchasing movies. Back then, the only places to buy DVDs in a very consumer conscious way was to go to all the retailers that'd sell them, like Suncoast, Sam Goody, Tower Records, Fred Meyer, etc, and the stuff (especially by today's standards) was really expensive. That's why when Amazon was starting up and their stuff was ubercheap did it really appeal to me to buy my DVDs through them, especially since they had that "Super Saver Shipping" (you know? that free shipping on all purchases $25 and more). I was especially turned onto the idea that there was an Amazon warehouse just outside Seattle (still considered Seattle as far as they were concerned), so it was extra special for me since Super Saver Shipping packages usually shipped either the same day or the next day, and since they were being shipped from Seattle I had all my packages in two days from my order (WITH FREE SHIPPING!).
Though, I've noticed a trend over the years. For instance, one of the stipulations of Super Saver Shipping is that it can take up to several days to ship, thus Amazon has arbitrarily decided to ship all Super Saver Shipping packages on the last possible day to ship them. I'm kind of pissed off by this, 'cause I think they should ship ASAP and just let the postage rates/methods determine how long it takes something to get where it's going. But I'm more forgiving of this than I am the next thing that pisses me off, which is...
I've also noticed over the years that my Super Saver Shipping packages have stopped shipping from Seattle, and instead have come from places far far away like Kentucky, Texas, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Indiana, but never ever ever from Seattle... except once. It was back when BioShock first came out. I had tried the demo the day before the game came out, and I was like "I gotta buy that game ASAP", but the game was in limited supply, game stores were only selling to those that pre-ordered. I had it shipped by Amazon for 1 day shipping and then ♫ ta-da ♫ it ships from Seattle o_O ... yeah.
So I guess what I'm trying to assert is that Amazon is strategically using their various warehouses around the nation to further delay peoples' packages as a way to lure them into higher shipping costs. By paying higher shipping costs, the items will ship from nearby warehouses, but by choosing Super Saver Shipping then not only will they take their time to ship orders, they'll also ship them from far away warehouses to further lure people into paying more for shipping costs. Then comes in that one large fee one could pay to get a year's worth of 3 day shipping, and like I said before, Amazon either profits from that by people not using it enough for it to be worth it, or then they end up buying more from Amazon to make it worth it; either way Amazon pulled a number on ya.
This really pisses me off... but then again, I'm a big consumer whore, what can you do? I just dumped a bunch of my coinage in the CoinStar and nulled the CoinStar percentage fee by choosing to get an Amazon gift card instead, so I guess I'm suck with them whether I like it or not.
I only bring it up because over the years I've smelled something rotten with them. I originally started using Amazon in the late 90s, mainly for purchasing movies. Back then, the only places to buy DVDs in a very consumer conscious way was to go to all the retailers that'd sell them, like Suncoast, Sam Goody, Tower Records, Fred Meyer, etc, and the stuff (especially by today's standards) was really expensive. That's why when Amazon was starting up and their stuff was ubercheap did it really appeal to me to buy my DVDs through them, especially since they had that "Super Saver Shipping" (you know? that free shipping on all purchases $25 and more). I was especially turned onto the idea that there was an Amazon warehouse just outside Seattle (still considered Seattle as far as they were concerned), so it was extra special for me since Super Saver Shipping packages usually shipped either the same day or the next day, and since they were being shipped from Seattle I had all my packages in two days from my order (WITH FREE SHIPPING!).
Though, I've noticed a trend over the years. For instance, one of the stipulations of Super Saver Shipping is that it can take up to several days to ship, thus Amazon has arbitrarily decided to ship all Super Saver Shipping packages on the last possible day to ship them. I'm kind of pissed off by this, 'cause I think they should ship ASAP and just let the postage rates/methods determine how long it takes something to get where it's going. But I'm more forgiving of this than I am the next thing that pisses me off, which is...
I've also noticed over the years that my Super Saver Shipping packages have stopped shipping from Seattle, and instead have come from places far far away like Kentucky, Texas, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Indiana, but never ever ever from Seattle... except once. It was back when BioShock first came out. I had tried the demo the day before the game came out, and I was like "I gotta buy that game ASAP", but the game was in limited supply, game stores were only selling to those that pre-ordered. I had it shipped by Amazon for 1 day shipping and then ♫ ta-da ♫ it ships from Seattle o_O ... yeah.
So I guess what I'm trying to assert is that Amazon is strategically using their various warehouses around the nation to further delay peoples' packages as a way to lure them into higher shipping costs. By paying higher shipping costs, the items will ship from nearby warehouses, but by choosing Super Saver Shipping then not only will they take their time to ship orders, they'll also ship them from far away warehouses to further lure people into paying more for shipping costs. Then comes in that one large fee one could pay to get a year's worth of 3 day shipping, and like I said before, Amazon either profits from that by people not using it enough for it to be worth it, or then they end up buying more from Amazon to make it worth it; either way Amazon pulled a number on ya.
This really pisses me off... but then again, I'm a big consumer whore, what can you do? I just dumped a bunch of my coinage in the CoinStar and nulled the CoinStar percentage fee by choosing to get an Amazon gift card instead, so I guess I'm suck with them whether I like it or not.