4 ms·

Vote with your dollars folks. I'm 5 years in to an Amazon boycott and hardly even notice really.

by redleggedfrog 5y ago

ckdarby 5y ago
What are you using that is even close to the same, offers a similar return guarantees and contactless due to covid?
- peer2pay 5y ago
  If you buy quality goods from companies that care about their products and customers you will barely need any return guarantees. If you buy Amazon junk on the other hand...
  - smolyeet 5y ago
    Every company needs a return policy , in fact the best ones are most likely to honor them and for longer periods of time. I'm not going to buy something more expensive if I can't at least return it if I need to
- orangegreen 5y ago
  I've never been an Amazon customer. I like to buy things in store. If I want something that isn't in a store, I will buy it from eBay. eBay also tends to have better prices than Amazon.
- notsureaboutpg 5y ago
  Obviously it's a principled stance so you have to give up some convenience. Every item on Amazon is available somewhere else. Every retail / online shopping experience can be contactless these days. You might have to wait 5 days instead of 2 for a package but that can be okay.
- ShamelessC 5y ago
  At what point did they say they were using or needed a similar product? Anecdotally, the store experience here from Walmart, Target and Best Buy have provided contactless parking lot delivery via app throughout much of the pandemic. Can't speak for Walmart but Best Buy has a price matching policy and the typical corporate return policy which works fine for me but I'm sure has been annoying for many, just like all corporate policies. It's so strange to me how defensive people can be over corporations when people are told about the option of boycotting. Just...keep shopping there? It's fine. You don't have to boycott and a mob isn't going to judge you if you don't. That doesn't mean you have to pretend it's because it's this like inherently impossible thing. It's a capitalist economy and Amazon has won you over. You feel they provide the best options and there aren't any viable alternatives. In my area there are...but it's just Best Buy and WalMart. "Oh boy, really fighting the power by switching from Amazon to Walmart /s" I go to Best Buy. Never been crazy about that either but I still don't know at what point we all decided waiting two days was somehow preferable to driving for 10-15 minutes to grab a new PS4 controller or whatever. Suggesting that it isn't a noble effort to boycott a clearly unethical corporation though just because you don't want to do it honestly just stinks of insecurity over the fact that you buy things from a company that isn't exactly turning out to be ethical. The situation is far more complicated than that and ultimately each of us get to pick our battles day in and day out. You don't have to pick this one - that's fine. You also don't need to defend a massive corporation on the basis of their competitive advantage in order to make yourself feel better about not boycotting. Sometimes the point of boycotting is that the competitive advantage has come at some other cost to society which is deemed to be too severe. Do you not agree that Amazon has crossed some ethical lines lately? Because _that_ is the discussion we should be having. Amazon can, will and certainly already has been known to defend themselves using their vast fortune. Please stop helping them or if you're going to at least go fill out a job application and get paid to do so.
- herbst 5y ago
  I guess you ask for America, but in Europe you get this basically everywhere because it's manifested in our customer protection laws.
  - maccard 5y ago
    Returns are a nightmare in practice. I ordered a jacket from the manufacturers website and had to return it because it was stained on arrival. Unfortunately for me, their courier of choice is on the wrong side of town for me, and only has one drop off office open between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday. This was also over the Christmas period, so when I returned it I was asked to pay customs charges (thanks brexit), and it took the guts of a month from the initial order to refund. You don't know in advance whether you're going to have that sort of experience with a manufacturer, or whrther it will be easy, but with Amazon they accept returns at a post office and you send it to your own country which skiets all the issues above.
    - herbst 5y ago
      Within the EU (and some attached countries) you can return anything you bought online within 14 days directly to where you bought it from and get your full money back. No questions asked. In Switzerland I can give any returns just to the postal guy that comes by everyday anyway. Couldn't be more comfortable than that. I rarely have to return anything tho
      - maccard 5y ago
        > you can return anything you bought online within 14 days directly to where you bought it from and get your full money back. No questions asked. The ease of the process of doing that varies mightily with sellers. > In Switzerland I can give any returns just to the postal guy that comes by everyday anyway. That is definitely not the case in either the UK (pre brexit even) or Ireland. You need to drop the package off, and depending on the seller their preferred return method may be on the opposite side of the city to you, or they might let you drop off at a supermarket.
- redleggedfrog 5y ago
  Sorry, not being cheeky, but: https://www.google.com/search?q=alternatives+to+amazon https://www.google.com/search?q=alternatives+to+amazon I don't need a lot of things, and I just buy local, or for tech, sometimes Newegg, or again, a local outfit. Hit up Costco once a month, too. At first it was a conscious choice not to use Amazon, but later it just kind of doesn't matter anymore. If they didn't exist, it wouldn't matter to me.
Workaccount2 5y ago
I just cancelled my prime this year after 15 years. I'm surprised this hasn't become a more visible trend. Amazon has no shortage of shitty practices, but it seems very few people actually care.
- nceqs3 5y ago
  It's almost as if low prices and fast shipping are what people care about.
- relax88 5y ago
  I don’t think people should have to care. They are customers. They want to buy things and have them delivered for a good price. Why is the consumer or shareholder being asked to solve a legislative problem? Buying consumer goods shouldn’t be a political statement. It’s just ignoring the actual problem of insufficient legal protections for workers. If Amazon can orchestrate a scheme in which they subcontract deliveries to absolve themselves of the responsibility for employee health and safety, that is a legal issue, not a “I gusss I shouldn’t order dental floss off Amazon” problem.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    Political action is difficult, and takes a long time to have an effect. I can't do anything about the situation in the USA anyway. I can boycott Amazon immediately, with only a small effort. I encourage you to do both.
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    If I owned a hypothetical number of actual slaves that allowed me to give you a great bargain on cotton, no matter what political action you take while you use me as your sole supplier of cotton, it will not be effective. All of the alternative sources of cotton will gradually go bankrupt or convert to my model, and I'll use the money you send me to shut you down politically.
mistrial9 5y ago
"Support your local bookstore" -Calif Reader
matz1 5y ago
Vote with dollars goes both ways, I too vote with my dollar by buying from Amazon.

Vote with your dollars folks. I'm 5 years in to an Amazon boycott and hardly even notice really.

ckdarby 5y ago

What are you using that is even close to the same, offers a similar return guarantees and contactless due to covid?

peer2pay 5y ago
If you buy quality goods from companies that care about their products and customers you will barely need any return guarantees. If you buy Amazon junk on the other hand...
- smolyeet 5y ago
  Every company needs a return policy , in fact the best ones are most likely to honor them and for longer periods of time. I'm not going to buy something more expensive if I can't at least return it if I need to
orangegreen 5y ago
I've never been an Amazon customer. I like to buy things in store. If I want something that isn't in a store, I will buy it from eBay. eBay also tends to have better prices than Amazon.
notsureaboutpg 5y ago
Obviously it's a principled stance so you have to give up some convenience. Every item on Amazon is available somewhere else. Every retail / online shopping experience can be contactless these days. You might have to wait 5 days instead of 2 for a package but that can be okay.
ShamelessC 5y ago
At what point did they say they were using or needed a similar product? Anecdotally, the store experience here from Walmart, Target and Best Buy have provided contactless parking lot delivery via app throughout much of the pandemic. Can't speak for Walmart but Best Buy has a price matching policy and the typical corporate return policy which works fine for me but I'm sure has been annoying for many, just like all corporate policies. It's so strange to me how defensive people can be over corporations when people are told about the option of boycotting. Just...keep shopping there? It's fine. You don't have to boycott and a mob isn't going to judge you if you don't. That doesn't mean you have to pretend it's because it's this like inherently impossible thing. It's a capitalist economy and Amazon has won you over. You feel they provide the best options and there aren't any viable alternatives. In my area there are...but it's just Best Buy and WalMart. "Oh boy, really fighting the power by switching from Amazon to Walmart /s" I go to Best Buy. Never been crazy about that either but I still don't know at what point we all decided waiting two days was somehow preferable to driving for 10-15 minutes to grab a new PS4 controller or whatever. Suggesting that it isn't a noble effort to boycott a clearly unethical corporation though just because you don't want to do it honestly just stinks of insecurity over the fact that you buy things from a company that isn't exactly turning out to be ethical. The situation is far more complicated than that and ultimately each of us get to pick our battles day in and day out. You don't have to pick this one - that's fine. You also don't need to defend a massive corporation on the basis of their competitive advantage in order to make yourself feel better about not boycotting. Sometimes the point of boycotting is that the competitive advantage has come at some other cost to society which is deemed to be too severe. Do you not agree that Amazon has crossed some ethical lines lately? Because _that_ is the discussion we should be having. Amazon can, will and certainly already has been known to defend themselves using their vast fortune. Please stop helping them or if you're going to at least go fill out a job application and get paid to do so.
herbst 5y ago
I guess you ask for America, but in Europe you get this basically everywhere because it's manifested in our customer protection laws.
- maccard 5y ago
  Returns are a nightmare in practice. I ordered a jacket from the manufacturers website and had to return it because it was stained on arrival. Unfortunately for me, their courier of choice is on the wrong side of town for me, and only has one drop off office open between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday. This was also over the Christmas period, so when I returned it I was asked to pay customs charges (thanks brexit), and it took the guts of a month from the initial order to refund. You don't know in advance whether you're going to have that sort of experience with a manufacturer, or whrther it will be easy, but with Amazon they accept returns at a post office and you send it to your own country which skiets all the issues above.
  - herbst 5y ago
    Within the EU (and some attached countries) you can return anything you bought online within 14 days directly to where you bought it from and get your full money back. No questions asked. In Switzerland I can give any returns just to the postal guy that comes by everyday anyway. Couldn't be more comfortable than that. I rarely have to return anything tho
    - maccard 5y ago
      > you can return anything you bought online within 14 days directly to where you bought it from and get your full money back. No questions asked. The ease of the process of doing that varies mightily with sellers. > In Switzerland I can give any returns just to the postal guy that comes by everyday anyway. That is definitely not the case in either the UK (pre brexit even) or Ireland. You need to drop the package off, and depending on the seller their preferred return method may be on the opposite side of the city to you, or they might let you drop off at a supermarket.
redleggedfrog 5y ago
Sorry, not being cheeky, but: https://www.google.com/search?q=alternatives+to+amazon https://www.google.com/search?q=alternatives+to+amazon I don't need a lot of things, and I just buy local, or for tech, sometimes Newegg, or again, a local outfit. Hit up Costco once a month, too. At first it was a conscious choice not to use Amazon, but later it just kind of doesn't matter anymore. If they didn't exist, it wouldn't matter to me.

Workaccount2 5y ago

I just cancelled my prime this year after 15 years. I'm surprised this hasn't become a more visible trend. Amazon has no shortage of shitty practices, but it seems very few people actually care.

nceqs3 5y ago
It's almost as if low prices and fast shipping are what people care about.
relax88 5y ago
I don’t think people should have to care. They are customers. They want to buy things and have them delivered for a good price. Why is the consumer or shareholder being asked to solve a legislative problem? Buying consumer goods shouldn’t be a political statement. It’s just ignoring the actual problem of insufficient legal protections for workers. If Amazon can orchestrate a scheme in which they subcontract deliveries to absolve themselves of the responsibility for employee health and safety, that is a legal issue, not a “I gusss I shouldn’t order dental floss off Amazon” problem.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  Political action is difficult, and takes a long time to have an effect. I can't do anything about the situation in the USA anyway. I can boycott Amazon immediately, with only a small effort. I encourage you to do both.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  If I owned a hypothetical number of actual slaves that allowed me to give you a great bargain on cotton, no matter what political action you take while you use me as your sole supplier of cotton, it will not be effective. All of the alternative sources of cotton will gradually go bankrupt or convert to my model, and I'll use the money you send me to shut you down politically.

mistrial9 5y ago

"Support your local bookstore" -Calif Reader

matz1 5y ago

Vote with dollars goes both ways, I too vote with my dollar by buying from Amazon.