4 ms·

Ask HN: What do you hate about Amazon?

2 points by revorad 16y ago

What would it take for you to switch from Amazon to another online bookseller? What do you hate most about it?

withoutasound 16y ago
To be perfectly blunt, the 'social' aspects of Amazon drive me up the wall. I really don't care what other people bought or thought.
- revorad 16y ago
  Ok, but that's something which you can ignore. Is there anything lacking or annoying in the book buying process itself?
  - withoutasound 16y ago
    I shouldn't have to ignore anything. I'm there to buy books and cases of Cafe Bustelo, not to see what others are doing with their money or what others think of the coffee I'm buying. The fact that there are reviews of 'five star' packages of diapers on Amazon is a little disturbing. (Edited for spelling.)
mariuskempe 16y ago
The interface. It's too cluttered.
- revorad 16y ago
  How does that affect your buying process? Does it get in the way of looking for what you need?
  - mariuskempe 16y ago
    Currently, I decide what items I want to buy by gathering information from any number of sources, then only go to amazon once I've decided, to buy - because I trust them and because their prices are generally good. What I'd like to do, though, is to actually browse Amazon to, you know, find products to buy! But it's just so little fun.
smoody 16y ago
as a sign of how great the service is, IMHO, the only thing that annoys me is that I have to click on the password field whenever I have to log in. it looks like they've been testing a way to get the focus to the password field with a single tab, but it comes and goes. honestly, amazon rocks. same day delivery if i need it, all-i-can-eat two day delivery for $80 per year, amazing customer service w/easy returns, rock solid security (i haven't changed my password since i created my account back in 1997 or so and haven't had one problem), nice discounts on books, etc. amazon deserves some sort of award in my opinion.
davidw 16y ago
If someone else did 'international' better than Amazon, I'd probably give it a whirl. If I lived in the US, I'd probably consider using Powell's just because they're awesome.
- revorad 16y ago
  Do you mean international shipping or just availability of books on Amazon's non-US sites?
  - davidw 16y ago
    I mean that Amazon has this sort of weird separation between sites; that, for instance, amazon.de isn't even available in English; that their European presence is spotty. Ideally, I would sign in to 'amazon.com' and be able to browse in whatever language I want, and shop for books written in whatever language I'm interested in, and get them shipped to me from the nearest/cheapest/fastest/whatever location. Like a lot of US companies, I get the feeling that they don't fully "get" Europe in some ways.
    - revorad 16y ago
      That's a really good way of thinking about the interface. I reckon Amazon doesn't do it because of lots of region-specific complications and business needs.
kgutteridge 16y ago
Main motivation for using Amazon is the Kindle eco system, being able to read on laptop, iPad + Kindle is something I use a lot If there was the ability to rent technical ebooks for a short period this is something I would definitely move for, which is the same as basically being motivated by the price of ebooks
hga 16y ago
I'm not sure what it would take me to switch, but the thing I hate moar about it is its absolutely horrible search engine. I can't imagine how much business they lose from people who are less persistent or experienced at searching than I am ... then again, Google could be saving them a lot of that business (when all else fails, I use Google and it generally finds what I'm looking for (in Amazon.com)). There's really no excuse for this.

2 points by revorad 16y ago

What would it take for you to switch from Amazon to another online bookseller? What do you hate most about it?

To be perfectly blunt, the 'social' aspects of Amazon drive me up the wall. I really don't care what other people bought or thought.

revorad 16y ago
Ok, but that's something which you can ignore. Is there anything lacking or annoying in the book buying process itself?
- withoutasound 16y ago
  I shouldn't have to ignore anything. I'm there to buy books and cases of Cafe Bustelo, not to see what others are doing with their money or what others think of the coffee I'm buying. The fact that there are reviews of 'five star' packages of diapers on Amazon is a little disturbing. (Edited for spelling.)

mariuskempe 16y ago

The interface. It's too cluttered.

revorad 16y ago
How does that affect your buying process? Does it get in the way of looking for what you need?
- mariuskempe 16y ago
  Currently, I decide what items I want to buy by gathering information from any number of sources, then only go to amazon once I've decided, to buy - because I trust them and because their prices are generally good. What I'd like to do, though, is to actually browse Amazon to, you know, find products to buy! But it's just so little fun.

smoody 16y ago

as a sign of how great the service is, IMHO, the only thing that annoys me is that I have to click on the password field whenever I have to log in. it looks like they've been testing a way to get the focus to the password field with a single tab, but it comes and goes. honestly, amazon rocks. same day delivery if i need it, all-i-can-eat two day delivery for $80 per year, amazing customer service w/easy returns, rock solid security (i haven't changed my password since i created my account back in 1997 or so and haven't had one problem), nice discounts on books, etc. amazon deserves some sort of award in my opinion.

davidw 16y ago

If someone else did 'international' better than Amazon, I'd probably give it a whirl. If I lived in the US, I'd probably consider using Powell's just because they're awesome.

revorad 16y ago
Do you mean international shipping or just availability of books on Amazon's non-US sites?
- davidw 16y ago
  I mean that Amazon has this sort of weird separation between sites; that, for instance, amazon.de isn't even available in English; that their European presence is spotty. Ideally, I would sign in to 'amazon.com' and be able to browse in whatever language I want, and shop for books written in whatever language I'm interested in, and get them shipped to me from the nearest/cheapest/fastest/whatever location. Like a lot of US companies, I get the feeling that they don't fully "get" Europe in some ways.
  - revorad 16y ago
    That's a really good way of thinking about the interface. I reckon Amazon doesn't do it because of lots of region-specific complications and business needs.

kgutteridge 16y ago

Main motivation for using Amazon is the Kindle eco system, being able to read on laptop, iPad + Kindle is something I use a lot If there was the ability to rent technical ebooks for a short period this is something I would definitely move for, which is the same as basically being motivated by the price of ebooks

hga 16y ago

I'm not sure what it would take me to switch, but the thing I hate moar about it is its absolutely horrible search engine. I can't imagine how much business they lose from people who are less persistent or experienced at searching than I am ... then again, Google could be saving them a lot of that business (when all else fails, I use Google and it generally finds what I'm looking for (in Amazon.com)). There's really no excuse for this.