Amazon Advice

It used to be that if you searched for a particular brand or product on Amazon, that's what would come up. Now you get sponsored links followed by pages of brands with names like "QERNTOO". Amazon essentially transferred the responsibility for vetting brands to the US patent and trade office. The resellers, drop shippers, and scammers create dumb unique brand names to get the paperwork through the USPTO quickly whenever they have a brand fall apart or get caught scamming.

You can get stuff quickly through Amazon, but it really isn't worth it anymore. Often you can get products right from the website of actual brands for the same price. You might not get 2 day shipping, but that's almost never necessary. If you live somewhere where the 2 day shipping actually gets to you in 2 days, you live close enough to a brick and mortar store where you can get whatever you need even faster.

Cancel Prime

Add 'Personal Blocklist' to your browser, block Amazon from search results (although 'Google Hit Hider' for Greasemonkey works better)

Amazon hasn't managed to get any of my orders to me in fewer than 3 days for over a year. I just put together some computer parts using PCPartsPicker, and Amazon wasn't the cheapest option on anything. There's no advantage to using them anymore. They treat their employees like shit, they treat their suppliers like shit, and they force anyone selling through Amazon Marketplace to agree to some seriously fucked up shit.

I didltched amazon for multiple reasons.

The horrible working conditions of the people that actually package and ship the products I purchased, the anti-competitive nature of their platform, and the insane amount of shit that you find combined with the impossibility of searching or browsing their website for any product whatsoever.

I still have to use it for work because it's the only one that our corporate overseers have approved and I fucking hate it.

It's impossible to have any amount of ethics and shop online any more.

It's also very fucking difficult to shop in person and have ethics.

It's nearly impossible to have ethics and exist in America.

Fuck

Cancel it and see how it goes. You won't miss it, especially when you look at the price to sign back up.

I've started buying more stuff from eBay. eBay can also be a total mess, but depending on what you're buying the sellers are usually quick to ship.

I found myself using Amazon less and less for shipping, so when Prime Video started injecting ads, I canceled and haven't looked back.

My solution is that I buy my products in stores, now. I hate it, but that's what it's come to. The Amazon deals are not what they once were, so there's barely a difference in cost. Plus, with so much garbage just flooding Amazon's search results, it admittedly helps to be able to see a product before choosing to buy it.

I do everything I can to avoid Amazon, for exactly this reason. I don't want to be one of those people in the 1800s wearing slave-picked and processed cotton (which, living in the US, I basically am, but every little step back upwards helps I guess).

I've worked in shipping for a couple months and I can only say this: People should order way less stuff online or make sure they are using an ethical shipping company (if they even exist).

the industry prays on young people (often minorities) who have trouble getting other jobs. they almost exclusively hire people with short term contracts (because your body can't take the work for more than a few months). I've been part of a union for a long time and I know a lot about work safety. These companies teach people nothing and they can only meet their deadlines if people actively break their backs twisting around, doing unsafe lifts and generally working to fast.

I get that shipping is sometimes necessary, but it can only be as fast and cheap as it is, because poor people pay with their bodies.

I got rid of Amazon Prime and I don’t miss it. I only really signed up for the faster shipping. But then they started raising their prices and I started questioning why I even pay for this. I never pay for faster shipping on other sites. Pair that with the sketchy or poor quality products and bad practices and the decision was a no-brainer for me.

I unsubscribed from Prime over a year ago. Just like you, the only reason I subscribed was for the fast and free shipping. Without Prime, if you place an order over $35, it’s free shipping. It’s not as fast as it was but honestly the fast shipping wasn’t as fast as it used to be either.

The instant gratification technology has afforded us is something I think we should ponder. Are we not being manipulated to pay increasingly higher fees just to get something in our hands a day or two sooner? I know local businesses often don’t carry what we can get online, if they exist at all (RIP RadioShack), but some places like Target can have things available for pickup in a day or two. I’m all for getting off ours asses and contributing a few pennies to our local economies. Nothing against Amazon workers, but I rather keep even big box stores that are operating locally open and employing people in my community.

Also, now without Prime, I’m finding better deals from other sources across the web - especially eBay for things like used books.

I avoid Amazon whenever possible. I'd rather pay a little more and support a small online business, or better yet find what I need locally.

I just finally decided to ditch them this month, so not a ton of experience yet. I ran to Best Buy last night for the first time in years as opposed to ordering what I needed off Amazon. I miss the ease and all but I still feel like I’m making a good choice. There is no perfect company but fuck Amazon.

I ditched Amazon because I worked for them for almost two years and saw how they treat people. They care about nothing other than making as much money as they can and spending as little as possible to do it. They work people to the bone because it’s cheaper to have them quit and just hire someone else than it is to keep ‘em around and have ‘em eventually ask for a raise.

Just shop AliExpress. It's the same garbage that is sold on Amazon, but without Amazon's large markup.

Because of everything Amazon does and is I've completely stopped using Amazon a few years back and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

Most small businesses have an online store and a very convenient ordering process. Hell, most even ship the next day. I go out of my way to try and find smaller businesses (who often have to charge for shipping) to order from, but if you just want to avoid Amazon, you can find larger outlets that don't have shipping costs either.

If you need some weird stuff that you can't seem to find anywhere but Amazon, try eBay.

And you won't miss next day delivery very long, I can promise you that. You'll even get to know a completely new joy: "Oh shit, I totally forgot I had ordered that!"

stopped using Amazon years ago, i try to shop local/used and go to dept stores for everything else. reasoning is cuz it was the right thing for the economy and my wallet. Amazon destroys local businesses worldwide and pays international workers a slave wage

I have not ditched Amazon because of their return policy. I will order my thing and evaluate it when it arrives... if it's subpar I'll return it and try a different option.

I most recently did this with a replacement projector, it took two failures to find one that worked but 150 CAD for a 1080p projector is too good a deal to pass up.

I feel like there's a multitude of reasons on my part, but Louis Rossmann put a nail in it with this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y83BS_mK9GE

Havent ordered anything for about 4 or 5 Years I dont miss it at all Most of the smaller Shops are online and are pretty reliable and quick with shipment and if anything went wrong they are usually pretty helpfull with everything

I dropped Amazon like ... I dunno, 15 years ago? I just couldn't stand them. Stuff that I have to buy online, I try to get from their original manufacturers or a trusted reseller (like, I dunno, if I was trying to buy a baby thermometer, I might get it from a reputable drug store, that kind of thing).

For stuff that I absolutely can't find a match for, I'll put it in my cart and just leave it there. A lot of times, I'll find that I don't actually need that item, it was either seen impulse buy or I can get something similar elsewhere. Eventually, once every year or two, my basket fills up over the limit that gets me free shipping. I'll still wait, but eventually I'll buy the whatever they are. But it means that I'm buying from Amazon like once every year or two, and it's stuff that I've researched and waited on.

I never had prime. The rare times where Amazon is the only reasonable source for something, I either don't need fast shipping or just pay for it.

I consider the cost for prime worth it for shipping alone, like you I never use the other prime services (With the exception of that prime gaming freebie stuff)

The best shipping speed from a different online store is usually overnight, but you'll be paying for it, last time I tried it was almost $60 for one order. Already half of the yearly prime fee and prime you might be able to even get something the same day.

Without Amazon I would just be feeding another evil (Big box stores like Walmart). I could shop at locally owned stores, but their "premium" prices would just end up adding up to over the prime fee anyway and far less selection.

I've never really had a problem with fakes on Amazon, idk know if that's just pure luck or what, but when I get cheap Chinese crap I know because I ordered the cheap Chinese crap on purpose.