For me any modern service that uses subscription model feels like unnecessary fraudulent scheme. I use bandcamp to buy music, because it's a clear and a straightforward way to do it. Never ever am I going to subscribe to anything, because every day the market comes up with more and more ideas how to mess with you. It's become a really unpleasant experience and it's depressing to see how people simply don't care and just go with everything the marketing guys come up with.
In my country at least Amazon delivery drivers are the only reliable and trustworthy ones, they call when they can't get in the building, they never pretend to deliver something, they never pretend you were not in they deliver fast and reliably, you can get it delivered to lots of stores if you know you wont be in and Amazon customer service actually sorts it out and dispatches replacements fast in the rare cases it does go wrong or and its next day.
Any other delivery service just causes way more stress.
Feel like this article is downplaying which was the real reason because it's definitely only one of the three things listed and we can rule out ethics if you happily used it for decades you didn't suddenly start caring about that out of nowhere.
Looks like Day 2 snuck up on Amazon while they weren't looking.
The retail site is drowning under a wave of off brand no name muck. Even buying a brand name (say, Oxo kitchen tools) gives one no comfort that what arrives wont be a knockoff.
The purchase experience, once world beating, remains excellent, but not especially different from other stores. That leaves delivery, which with Prime is still a differentiator, but then again when it asks me to defer shipping for a few days to save boxes, which I do, I start to wonder why I'm paying for fast shipping only to pick slower shipping when I check out.
As for the TV, it has an uncanny valley feel for me. The documentaries, for example, seem like the kind of low grade filler you get on inflight TV. A few talking heads, voiceovers over still images, etc.
This is one of those times where the shared article isn't very insightful but the topic and discussion that ensues are interesting.
I've had Prime every now and then to watch some shows. I've now stopped using it entirely because I don't want to support the company. Unsubscribing within the Prime Video app was a horrendous experience where I got stuck in a loop. I've also been re-subscribed without my knowledge and the only reason I can find to explain this is that opening the app on my TV and clicking "ok" once re-subscribes me. I have since removed my payment methods from the site.
As an e-commerce platform, it's been going downhill for a long time. Now it just feel like a more expensive Temu/Wish.com. Full of dark patterns, low quality items, and cheating 3rd party resellers.
Interesting how he mentioned prime video, but only because of his dislike of one particular show.
I dumped prime when they added adverts.
Comments mention The Expanse, and they're right. I'm currently watching it, on Blueray. It's not the price I find objectional, it's the adverts.
(I actually went to resubscribe to prime when Clarksons Farm season 3 came out, but there was no option to subscribe on my tv without adverts)
In France you still get free shipping for orders > ā¬35; it's not "next day" but it's extremely rare one would need something so urgently as for 24 hours to make a difference.
In fact nowadays the biggest competitor to Amazon is Aliexpress. Extremely reliable, free shipping for orders > ā¬10, and prices often 50-60% less than on Amazon, for exactly the same products. The only drawbacks are 1/ shipping takes 10 days and 2/ returns are complicated. But for less than half the price it's worth it.
The main problem with Prime is that Amazon tries to justify its super high cost with Amazon Video, which nobody asked for, and nobody wants because of the incredibly low quality of the catalog.
I'm not sure I even understand the strategy. Is it working? Do people actually like Amazon Video Prime and watch it, rather than the myriad other streaming services they're probably also subscribed to? Or is it still an experiment for Amazon?
>Second, for a lot of things you want to order, the manufacturer has its own online store these days and a lot of them are actually well-built, perfectly pleasant to use.
It depends on what you buy but in general, the manufacturer's website will often cost more than Amazon. E.g. In the USA, Apple Watch 46mm GPS+Cellular is currently $429 on amazon.com but $529 on apple.com
Also, manufacturers are often contractually required to have higher prices (i.e. MSRP) than the retailers that sell their products. So getting a discount from Amazon is more realistic than the manufacturer's official website. Another example is buying TurboTax software on Amazon ($55.99) costs less than Intuit's website ($80)
>Third, Amazonās prices arenāt notably cheaper than the alternatives.
Again, it depends on what types of products you're buying. For things like USB cables and rechargeable batteries, Amazon costs less than Best Buy. Buying a Fiskars garden shears cost $10 less at Amazon than Home Depot and Lowe's. What's happening is that those local stores are using price discrimination to upcharge the impatient walk-in customers who need "instant gratification". Home Depot charges $5 more for a toilet plumbing repair kit than Amazon because they know customers are likely making an emergency purchase. Yes, the local stores sometimes have a "match Amazon's price" policy but it's a hassle to hunt down a manager and get an override of the price at the cash register.
Where Amazon often costs more (often 2x because of shipping) is commodity household items like toothpaste and Windex glass cleaner. A local Walmart will have cheaper prices on those.
Lastly, I recently went through my 200+ accounts in my password manager to migrate my email address and the lesson I've learned is to avoid creating new accounts at more ecommerce websites. It's not worth it. Maybe I'll make an exception for Shopify in the future because a lot of sellers have consolidated there but I'm going to hold out as long as I can.
I really like having my orders history in one website instead of scattered across Newegg, ZipZoomFly, BHPhotoVideo, etc, etc.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Cellular-Smartwatch-Aluminium-A...
I've cancelled and resubscribed a few times. I do the same with Netflix, Apple TV, and a few others. Account hopping is a good way to save money. I don't have a lot of time so I don't want to have a lot of active subscriptions I'm under-using.
I don't think I order enough stuff via them to make the "free" deliveries really valuable to me (it varies from month to month). But I like the convenience of having just one place to order stuff.
Amazon Prime's video offerings are limited but they have a few nice things. I liked the Bosch series. I didn't mind the rings of power thing though it was a bit long winded. I guess if you are a Tolkien nerd, it might be a bit offensive to deal with all the creative liberties the plot takes.
They also have some alright movies; including some recent block busters. And there are some older classics.
The UI and search are a bit garbage indeed. They do a poor job of exposing the content they actually have. Unless you actively hunt for stuff, you could be missing out.
Also, I should mention I watch Amazon Prime via Firefox, which is really effective at blocking the ads they are now injecting. If they "break" that, I'd be more likely to cancel.
Same here, I live in the UK and I will not renew my membership. I have about 1.5 T worth of photos store for "free" on Amazon Photos and it was an absolute pain to reclaim possession of those files but, now that I am nearly done, I think it is time to spend locally and stop funnelling money to big tech for a false sense of convenience.
Prime never made sense to me in Sweden because I've been getting packages within 1-2 work days for years already. And I prefer having them delivered to a drop off station like a bluetooth controlled locker, or a pick-up point in a local store.
Our system here has worked for many years and I much prefer it over people leaving packages at my doorstep.
Figuratively, some of Mr. Bezos's famed Two Pizza Teams seem to be throwing their pizza crust ends at The Customer's Chair.
(Incidentally, I think that line should let me skip the hiring screen Leadership Principles made-up anecdote STAR recital. :)
I make a lot of personal decisions on-principle, but Amazon is too essential for me to boycott it.
I also tolerate a number of practical non-customer-focused qualities of the company, of late, because of remaining utility.
Overall, I like that I have use of Amazon, even though in some ways it's not as good as it used to be, and there are obvious ways it could improve customer focus but doesn't seem like it's going to.
Though, I did cancel Amazon Prime awhile ago. The final nudge was that Prime Video seemed to be getting conspicuously customer-hostile, though I'd come to consider Prime Video to be part of the value for which I was paying. Also, Amazon no longer seemed to be taking 2-day shipping as seriously as they used to.
A side effect of canceling Prime is that I recently stopped using my Amazon credit card. Since I'm no longer getting 5% rewards at Amazon and WFM, my non-Amazon 2% cash rewards card is close enough. The last nudge was Chase switching to eight-unhyphenated-digits SMS 2FA, every time I checked my statement. It was a tiniest little customer-unfocused thing, but it annoyed me enough in the moment, on top of ongoing mixed feelings, to energize me to go to the trouble of switching.
Another side effect of canceling Prime is that I've been buying a lot less there, because I wait for $35+ orders, to get the free slow shipping, with the effect that I often end up buying the items elsewhere or not at all.
(Incidentally, Walmart.com had a chance tonight, to get more of my business, since I hate-hate-hate that Amazon commingles product with questionable third-party sellers. But Walmart.com's product search was was no longer filtering by "Retailer" like it used to, which led me to Web search and learn of a potential problem with their supply chain integrity in general, and I really didn't want to be spraying third-party-sourced counterfeit/returned/shoplifted Flonase up my nose.)
The more I use the Amazon, the sketchier it feels. I was misguided and spent the last year buying way too many niche things and was invited into their Amazon Vine program. I got a tax bill I can't actually afford but opted to put it on my credit card rather than a loan situation because I don't trust our institutions now that DOGE is pillaging IRS data.
Edit: Right, done being discouraged from feeling like an equal participant on a gamified karma platform run by startup jerks.
I have been buying direct from manufacturers for a few years now.
Sure I donāt get it in 1 day. The common carriers are a hit or miss (FedEx straight up doesnāt deliver on weekends).
Sure, I may pay more. Iāll tank the cost if itās a quality item.
Sure, shipping isnāt āfreeā and return shipping may have a cost. But as I have learned, free shipping and returns is usually built into the cost when most people may not use it.
I went through all my US based SAAS subscriptions yesterday and only found EU replacements for some of them. But I will continue to do so for the coming years.
I was also saving money for a family trip to the US in the coming years, but my kids now want to go to Australia instead as they hate everything about the current administrationās rhetoric.
I only keep it (Prime) for Amazon Prime Video really - there are some videos in the catalogue that I enjoy watching again, and new stuff is generally good.
It's not about 1-day delivery for me, or anything else. And Ā£9.90 will not make any effect on my month expenses, not as much as the energy impact on my household, which doubled in one year.
I've decided not to worry anymore about privacy/security/ethics/politics-related problems with stuff I use. For me, it's just not worth the time and emotional stress anymore.
My most important criteria is: What does my social circle use.
About once a year I try to cancel all subscriptions, and then resubscribe to those that I miss.
My Prime subscription lapsed due to my card expiring before updating it, and I can't say I've been missing it much. I miss some content from Prime Video, sure, but knowing I'm not supporting the Bezoian empire as a consumer makes up for it.
> The search-results page is a battle of tooth and claw among low-rent importers. Also itās just really freaking ugly
Yes, the search result page is truly horrendous. It shows many results, while most of them are not actually available.
So Amazon Prime never really made sense here as it really didn't do anything for shipping, but you could watch the Fallout show. Amazon it self, the e-commerce site, is sadly determined to destroy itself.
Stuff isn't cheaper on Amazon, shipping is expensive as hell, delivery times is in weeks, not day, and the risk of getting scammed is up with about something like 800%. Much easier to just order from a local store, pay a little extra for the item, but less for shipping, and be sure that you get what you order.
Also Amazon search has been broke for a decade.
An upside of the latest political turmoil is that itās shown me how apathetic Iāve become over the last 10-15 years. Having seen tech-bro after tech-bro bend the knee recently, itās prompted me to take more responsibility in my choices and stop giving money to cowards.
Shipping times for vast majority of orders I've placed with Amazon in the past two - three years without an Amazon Prime subscription vary between 2 - 3 days. I don't need Amazon photos/music/video/audible, so there's really little value on that subscription tax for me.
The only real downside is that I can't put in a $0.50 order without a shipping fee, I need a $25 minimum order for free shipping.
European here: rationally it may make no sense at all, but my gut feelings made me ditch Amazon Prime and replace a Kindle reader with a Kobo in February.
We need to force companies to be ethical and sustainable. Evil companies hurts everyone except a few who become extremely rich. A first step would be regulating markets where there are less then 5 competitors. A common strategy now is to remove the competition rather then having a better product.
> I think the pressures of 21st-century capitalism have put every large company into a place where they really canāt afford to be ethical or the financial sector will rip them to shreds then replace the CEO someone who will maximize shareholder return at all costs
Common take but the author makes it interesting (Tim Bray was an L8 distinguished engineer at Amazon who, IIRC, contributed to the XML spec).
I canceled my Prime and Subscribe and Save in 2023. I still order from Amazon from time to time, but they are a merchant of last resort for me now.
This was a timely reminder for me to cancel it too, for pretty much all the same reasons. But also primarily because the content on Prime Video is like the clearance bucket in a closing down Blockbusters and then they had the brass neck to put adverts in something I'm already paying for.
I recently discovered buying DVDs at flea markets again. Most of the time a fraction of what would I pay to rent a movie on Prime. And itās a different feeling to have something physical in your hand.
Iāve canceled Amazon Prime free trials a couple times. Never noticed any difference in shipping speed with Prime so paying for it never made sense. Perhaps it varies by location (Iām not in a major center).
I live on the other side of the pond and frankly I've never understood the appeal of services like this. I get almost everything I need in my local supermarket. And there are supermarkets at every corner of the city. On my way back from work, I can step into the supermarket, pick what I need, do a self-checkout and leave. Adds a total of only 10 minutes to how much time I'd have spent if I was coming straight to home. I think everyone around me does the same. So whenever I read an article about these services and the comments on HN, it leaves me very curious why local supermarkets don't work for them. Is prime somehow better than going to your local supermarket? Why? I'd like to be enlightened.
I know some people may not be in a position to walk down to the local supermarket and that's fair. An online service is life-saver then. But is the proportion of this demographic so large that offers like using prime becomes the default way of shopping? It must be because no doubt it is so popular. I'd just like to understand why.
I am based in europe and i am disgusted by the current us politics, i have sold all my US stocks (it's a large number) for the one i didn't loose too much to come back to EU based stocks....
I am reviewing all my spending to keep the bare necessary to don't go to the us, it's nothing compared to the greater thing but it makes me feel better and sleep at night
> Second, for a lot of things you want to order, the manufacturer has its own online store these days and a lot of them are actually well-built, perfectly pleasant to use.
Which in my experience are ALL a combination of:
- More expensive,
- Very long shipping times,
- Paid shipping which removes the benefit of the lower price in the rare event they do exist,
- Abysmal customer guarantees and return policies.
I think the rest of the article is good but frankly there just isn't a real alternative to Amazon.
I wonder if I'm an outlier here, or if buying from Amazon depends on where you live. I doubt I have ordered more than 10 items _ever_ from Amazon, going back 14 years (the last time I ordered something from Amazon was a travel pillow, in 2023, that you could only buy there).
It's not like I don't buy things online, but I struggle to think of something I can't get somewhere else, be it computer accessories (any other online shop or directly from the retaler) or books (order it at a local book shop or buy from the publisher), which are actually the only physical items I order online.
The shopping experience on Amazon is meh, so I can't imagine that anyone enjoys using it for every day items, like groceries.
I dropped Amazon a long time ago when: 1) free two-day delivery no longer came in two days 2) I ended up with two counterfeit Vince shirts. They were honestly well-made but the fabric and some stitching was wrong. 3) when there was an eclipse (not the most recent one but the one where Trump was watching it without protection) some people were blinded by using counterfeit eye protection bought from Amazon
Itās safer to buy direct than going through Amazon.
Bray says he doesn't think amazon is any more objectionable than is mandated by capitalism. Perhaps he's right. But their participation in the genocide in Gaza should be objectionable by any definition. It's clear that Israel would not have been able to completely destroy Gaza and kill probably [1] 100,000s of people without the cloud tools provided by Amazon (and Google and Microsoft) [2]
[1] Numbers you've heard like 40,000, reflect only the absolute minimum number of people killed directly by Israel, and not those killed indirectly (running out of insulin, starving, etc). https://data.techforpalestine.org/updates/gaza-ministry-casu...
[2]
- https://www.972mag.com/cloud-israeli-army-gaza-amazon-google...
- https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/5/12/how-us-big-tech...
> I think the pressures of 21st-century capitalism have put every large company into a place where they really canāt afford to be ethical or the financial sector will rip them to shreds then replace the CEO someone who will maximize shareholder return at all costs, without any of that amateurish āethicsā stuff.
Insightful observation.
Cancelled it too.
Prime in Germany is excellent - just suuuuuper-reliable. Iād actually like to use it a lot less, but:
1) My experience of shopping in either our small town or the major city nearby is that finding anything remotely out of the mainstream (eg hobby supplies, food ingredients that arenāt routine for a supermarket) is really difficult (like, hours can be spent scouring individual shops) and simple items are often priced much higher than the online cost (especially tech).
2) Failing the local option, shopping via third-party websites is often really frustrating, due to a combination of bad UX, individual signups per website, and high postage costs (ā¬4.99 seems to be the minimum for even very small items, and ā¬7+ is not at all uncommon).
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If you want to challenge Amazon, we need innovation:
- if local shops all used a single stock-taking system that also allowed live location-aware item searches, it would be a game changer. Imagine searching for an item you want and knowing, for sure, there was one in stock in a local shop, and the price. (My belief is many people would love to shop locally if it wasnāt such a PITA.)
- if online shops would collaborate on a system allowing a single user account to be used to buy items across multiple stores, it would massively lessen the friction. If they could also figure out a way to compete somewhat on the cost of shipping, that would also help.