Alternatives to Amazon

[LunarMist]

After Amazon screwed me the fourth time in less than two months on shipments being "undeliverable" I'm trying to figure where to buy some of the smaller electronic/computer items.
Does anybody use the real UPS or real FedEx (not Home) anymore? I don't want free shipping, but reliable shipping where I can pick up a package at the station. Thanks.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm pretty sure the issue is with the delivery company themselves. I've been getting a lot of "undeliverable" stuff lately, from B&H and other places as well. It is true that Amazon is the only one that proactively sends a message (the others just arrive late without notice) unless you actively track the package.

 

[sechs]

Does anybody use the real UPS or real FedEx (not Home) anymore? I don't want free shipping, but reliable shipping where I can pick up a package at the station.

As DD said, the problem isn't with Amazon. They're just trying to get it to you the cheapest/fastest way.

All delivery services are garbage. The business is entirely commoditized. Only high-cost international and express packages get any kind of preferential handling.

If you want to always pick-up your packages (which seems to to defeat the point of a delivery service), I'm pretty sure that UPS, FedEx, and USPS allow you to set that up.

 

[LunarMist]

As DD said, the problem isn't with Amazon. They're just trying to get it to you the cheapest/fastest way.

All delivery services are garbage. The business is entirely commoditized. Only high-cost international and express packages get any kind of preferential handling.

If you want to always pick-up your packages (which seems to to defeat the point of a delivery service), I'm pretty sure that UPS, FedEx, and USPS allow you to set that up.

The problem is that since Amazon shipping sucks, I'm less interested in them for normal products, but for the weird small ones like the voltage source.
I understand that eBay is the haven for all that stuff, but it is 10x worse as there are numerous suppliers.

Meanwhile Amazon keeps recommending women's underwear and I cannot stop it.

 

[sechs]

Meanwhile Amazon keeps recommending women's underwear and I cannot stop it.

Stop looking at women's underwear

 

[LunarMist]

No I don't want to. I select Mens but the brand has Womens dept. also.

Now I'm locked out because my email and password are not good enough. Supposedly they sent me some kind of message, but I cannot access it. F*ck it.

 

[LunarMist]

Now those are not allowing me to leave a review on a product.

"We apologize but Amazon is not accepting reviews on this product from this account. If you would like to contact us about this decision, please email community-help@amazon.com."

 

[Handruin]

I stopped my Amazon prime membership this year. I'm kinda sick of them now and it was long overdue. I just try to find retailers elsewhere whenever I can. That sucks they're playing even more games now with reviews like yours.

 

[LunarMist]

The weird part is that I just bought ethernet cables and have not reviewed that supplier in a long time. That should not be controversial. I'm sure the new AI will make everything even worse.

It is a problem that I have nobody to receive packages and there are a lot of thefts nowadays. With my work and travel schedules I need to know fairly accurately when stuff will arrive. I tend to only buy cheap stuff from the AmZAons, so I usually don't worry about those.

 

[Mercutio]

Amazon is awful for its workers, but it's sort of the same thing with Wal-Mart or any other company big enough to compete. They're all awful. Booksellers are the one place I'll go out of my way to buy from not-Amazon but as a general purpose retailer, it's so often the path of least resistance. I'm pretty annoyed that Prime is no longer two-day delivery, but I really can't complain now that I get about 40% of my orders the same day I make them.

I do buy what I can at Costco, which is highly regarded for how it treats its employees, but sometimes you just need 50lbs of cat litter to show up at your door at 7AM and Amazon is the only game in town for that kind of service.

 

[Handruin]

I've felt very much the same way with large corporate retailers and for me, I was mostly annoyed at recent Prime changes that now reduce offerings and value even more while the price has continued to increase over the years.

Their recent email about adding in advertisements into their video service because it will allow them to create new content is pure B.S. given Amazon's YoY profit growths of 18+% in the hundreds of billions. Not that their video service was that valuable to me, it was just the tipping point of their service losing more value and them passing it off like they are struggling.

My assumption now is since I no longer have prime, I'll also be much less likely to buy crap I probably wouldn't have anyway because there's less incentive. It's not like their 2-day shipping was ever consistent either. The $136/y Amazon membership is tiny to them and likely not a big deal that I stopped being a member, but also I'll be buying a ton less random stuff from them which will be the larger impact.

I do wish Costco was physically closer for me and I would use them. I swore off Walmart 20+ years ago and have not bought a single thing from them (or Sam's club) since then.

 

[Mercutio]

I dropped Netflix last October. I had been continuously subscribed to it since late 1998. I used it for DVDs and very seldom for streaming and I just decided it wasn't valuable enough to keep paying, even though I was very happy to see it grow into what it is now. Amazon has The Expanse, but even then I pirated it rather than watch through its slow app. Video streaming doesn't mean a whole lot to me but the money I'm not giving streaming services is paying for Patreon and Ko-fi for a webcomic (Achewood) and a dozen or so podcasts.

Amazon Music piggybacked on a Prime Account is one of the better overall options in music streaming, since it supports high bit rates and Atmos. Spotify, which has far and away the best streaming app, still doesn't support anything better than middling MP3 bit rates. If Amazon starts monkeying with its music service, that might be a line for me, but photo storage + music + shipping is enough value as it stands.

Amazon is talking about charging for Alexa as well. I use Alexa devices for video calling, as a room to room intercom and to interact with smart home services. I don't know which of those Amazon thinks it can charge for, but it's all as close as the screen on whatever mobile device anyway.

 

[LunarMist]

I looked into the streams last year, but decided it was not worthwhile and less so with the new AMazonian costs or commercials.
The only time I need audios is when driving long distances on vacation or on flights, neither of which are amenable to streaming. I will be driving much less or never on PTO in the future. I would not use Alexas even for free.

The nearby Costco is terrible, if I can even find a place to park. I'd want to wear a full body suit not just a mask.