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The Amazon buttons were arguably wasteful, but kinda cool. I had a few mounted on the back of the cabinet door under my kitchen sink... Out of garbage bags? Pr

The Amazon buttons were arguably wasteful, but kinda cool. I had a few mounted on the back of the cabinet door under my kitchen sink... Out of garbage bags? Press the button. Out of dishwasher tabs? Press another button. Rinse aid? Same.

OJFord 2y ago
They probably resulted in too many returns/complaints over price, I suspect. I use 'subscribe & save', but I necessarily monitor & adjust it, otherwise it is absolutely not '& save'. Or it is, but only relative to the Amazon non-subscription price at that time, from that seller, with absolutely no guarantee it's reasonable. For me it's just a way to get 15% off stuff that isn't too time-sensitive. Running a little low, stock up. Same way people use Costco or similar if there's one convenient I suppose. (Tangential, but would be great if you could subscribe on a price basis: send me two of these with my S&S order if the price is below £12.34 or whatever (and not otherwise).)
- martinald 2y ago
  Yeah I find S&S very odd. You'd think Amazon would know how to do this properly with their logistical and pricing prowess, but the price swings all over the place (sometimes to ludicrous levels) and items are often out of stock/backordered for weeks. It reminds me of Uber's prebook a taxi, which (may have changed), doesn't prebook anything and if there aren't any ubers when you booked you are out of luck.
  - Reason077 2y ago
    I’ve had good luck with subscribe and save in the UK. It seems to take the lowest recent price for each product, so there haven’t been many times I was surprised by a high price - but a lot of times that I was pleased with a low price! The trick is to go in and review the order before it’s due to ship (you get an email reminder) and cancel/substitute/defer any items you don’t need or that are priced too high. Occasionally I’ve also noticed items that are showing out of stock on the product page, but they still managed to find stock for my S&S order.
    - OJFord 2y ago
      I am also in the UK (person who you replied to replied to) - your second paragraph is exactly what I mean. It's fine, it's good, but it's not set it and forget it, it's plan a bigger order, and check it nearer the time. It definitely doesn't 'take the lowest recent price', it doesn't even claim to, it gives you whatever discount (either 0/5 or 5/15 percent depending the product, and less/more than five items respectively) against the exact product listing and exact seller for that listing that you set it up against. I've cancelled/skipped them and ordered the same literal product (maybe a different listing) cheaper as a one-off order on numerous occasions. Nevermind all the ones I have set up that are basically just 'salt' or whatever and I don't care about the brand, the cheapest brand can vary a lot and if you're not careful you can end up subscribed to one that happens to go maliciously expensive.
      - TylerE 2y ago
        For me it's not so much about price, but availability. I have a couple things that I use at both very consistent rates and aren't available locally. It's about not running out without having to consciously think about it.
        nucleardog 2y ago
        Yeah I can’t see myself every subscribing for the discount or something, but it has a lot of value as exactly that. The coffee I like isn’t available anywhere near me. And even if it was, it’s just one more thing to stay on top of because I damn sure don’t want to run out. I go through it consistently enough that I just haven’t had to think about coffee in probably two years. Every once in a while I open my door and some has appeared and that’s exactly when I realize I was running low.
        OJFord 2y ago
        Oh yeah absolutely, but we could also just order them without the subscription for that right. I just notice some items fluctuate in price a lot, or sellers chop and change in having.. not even just the best price but reasonable vs. exploitative. I don't use it for price, at least not wholly, but I do have to pay attention to it if I don't want a surprise ridiculous price. If that makes sense. (Although I just noticed I said in top-level comment that it was just for price, heh. I suppose it's just a mix of things, and I've never really thought much about why I use it. Price can be nice, but definitely convenience too: the prompt to check if I do need more of whatever or can skip it, otherwise I would likely run out and only then order/go out to buy.)
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - Terr_ 2y ago
    > You'd think Amazon would know how to do this properly with their logistical and pricing prowess I imagine they prioritized the short-term profits of a just-in-time middleman.
  - TheCleric 2y ago
    Yeah I subscribe and save to melatonin gummies and I got an email in May saying they’ve “paused” my subscription until October because they’re afraid that the gummies will melt during shipment. Like how is that not a predictable problem? Summer is hot.
    - jamiek88 2y ago
      I don’t understand this comment. It IS a predictable problem. And they predicted it, and did something about it. If you live in a super hot location you can’t always get stuff shipped year round. I’d prefer that to dealing with the return and refund process.
      - TheCleric 2y ago
        Because the point of a subscription is to receive it on a schedule. If you can’t fulfill that subscription, don’t offer it.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
        toast0 2y ago
        Sending you a 6 month supply in October and April would seem to work?
        TheCleric 2y ago
        Yeah I would have been fine with that.
        kevinmchugh 2y ago
        They've paused offering it while they can't fulfill it?
      - OJFord 2y ago
        I suppose GP's argument is they know the schedule & frequency of the subscription, so if they predicted it further out then it could have been a notification 'we've moved your subscription two months early, because we're not going to be able to send it until October after that' instead. Which.. yeah, would be cool, but I do think it's a level of analysis everyone who uses S&S is aware does not happen.
  - jemmyw 2y ago
    I used Uber's schedule thing recently and I was really worried about it because it sat unfilled for a week, but they assigned a driver a week before. I'd use it again. I'm pretty far outside the normal Uber area (which is why I booked so far in advance) so the driver has to travel 1.5 hrs without a fare to pick me up, but they told me it works out pretty even in the end.
    - throwaway7ahgb 2y ago
      You have to be very careful with Uber schedules. They do NOT guarantee a pickup time like a normal private car. There are many stories stating that the driver never shows up, or shows up 15 minutes early and leaves charging you with a no-show fee.
      - jemmyw 2y ago
        They were late but it showed me that in the app and it showed their position, so once I know they're on the way it's all good
  - malfist 2y ago
    Lyft's pre-book is even worse. They do assign you a driver when you pre-book, but then you're beholden on that driver to still be driving when your booking time arrives. I pre-booked a ride to get to the airport at 4AM, figuring prebooking is the best way to make sure I had availability. Driver accepted it at 9PM, was not awake at 4AM. The Lyft app made me call support to cancel the pre-book and get an on demand ride. I couldn't cancel even though my driver wasn't active.
gertlex 2y ago
For anyone wondering, these were called the Dash buttons. I have a few from ~2016 that I was playing with a couple months ago. You have to block them from connecting to amazon servers... I got them working and started but didn't finish tying them into a local flask server.
- stavros 2y ago
  They're cool if you have them, but nowadays there are Zigbee buttons for $5 that work much better.
Reason077 2y ago
> “Out of garbage bags? Press the button. Out of dishwasher tabs? Press another button.” Seems kind of redundant when you can just “hey Alexa, order garbage bags”.
- grogenaut 2y ago
  this was before alexa and probbably one reason why they discontinued them.
  - vunderba 2y ago
    Uhhh.... no? They both came out approximately at the same time, 2014-2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Dash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Dash
    - Izkata 2y ago
      That's when the Echo device came out, was it able to order products from release? Scrolling through functionality on wikipedia [0] almost makes it sound as though it doesn't even do that now. There's just a reference to a 2019 meeting about people not using it to order products. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa
    - grogenaut 2y ago
      Dash came out well before alexa and several years iirc before alexa ordering. Why do I know? I did on dash reviews a few months before dash went live (hardware was in warehouses waiting to ship). 8 months later I moved to a different team and 6 months after that my old team all left what they were doing and started building ordering via alexa.
anamexis 2y ago
I got a Kraft mac & cheese one as a joke and had it on my desk at work. Every now and then someone would walk past and press it. Went straight to the local food bank.

OJFord 2y ago

They probably resulted in too many returns/complaints over price, I suspect. I use 'subscribe & save', but I necessarily monitor & adjust it, otherwise it is absolutely not '& save'. Or it is, but only relative to the Amazon non-subscription price at that time, from that seller, with absolutely no guarantee it's reasonable. For me it's just a way to get 15% off stuff that isn't too time-sensitive. Running a little low, stock up. Same way people use Costco or similar if there's one convenient I suppose. (Tangential, but would be great if you could subscribe on a price basis: send me two of these with my S&S order if the price is below £12.34 or whatever (and not otherwise).)

martinald 2y ago
Yeah I find S&S very odd. You'd think Amazon would know how to do this properly with their logistical and pricing prowess, but the price swings all over the place (sometimes to ludicrous levels) and items are often out of stock/backordered for weeks. It reminds me of Uber's prebook a taxi, which (may have changed), doesn't prebook anything and if there aren't any ubers when you booked you are out of luck.
- Reason077 2y ago
  I’ve had good luck with subscribe and save in the UK. It seems to take the lowest recent price for each product, so there haven’t been many times I was surprised by a high price - but a lot of times that I was pleased with a low price! The trick is to go in and review the order before it’s due to ship (you get an email reminder) and cancel/substitute/defer any items you don’t need or that are priced too high. Occasionally I’ve also noticed items that are showing out of stock on the product page, but they still managed to find stock for my S&S order.
  - OJFord 2y ago
    I am also in the UK (person who you replied to replied to) - your second paragraph is exactly what I mean. It's fine, it's good, but it's not set it and forget it, it's plan a bigger order, and check it nearer the time. It definitely doesn't 'take the lowest recent price', it doesn't even claim to, it gives you whatever discount (either 0/5 or 5/15 percent depending the product, and less/more than five items respectively) against the exact product listing and exact seller for that listing that you set it up against. I've cancelled/skipped them and ordered the same literal product (maybe a different listing) cheaper as a one-off order on numerous occasions. Nevermind all the ones I have set up that are basically just 'salt' or whatever and I don't care about the brand, the cheapest brand can vary a lot and if you're not careful you can end up subscribed to one that happens to go maliciously expensive.
    - TylerE 2y ago
      For me it's not so much about price, but availability. I have a couple things that I use at both very consistent rates and aren't available locally. It's about not running out without having to consciously think about it.
      - nucleardog 2y ago
        Yeah I can’t see myself every subscribing for the discount or something, but it has a lot of value as exactly that. The coffee I like isn’t available anywhere near me. And even if it was, it’s just one more thing to stay on top of because I damn sure don’t want to run out. I go through it consistently enough that I just haven’t had to think about coffee in probably two years. Every once in a while I open my door and some has appeared and that’s exactly when I realize I was running low.
      - OJFord 2y ago
        Oh yeah absolutely, but we could also just order them without the subscription for that right. I just notice some items fluctuate in price a lot, or sellers chop and change in having.. not even just the best price but reasonable vs. exploitative. I don't use it for price, at least not wholly, but I do have to pay attention to it if I don't want a surprise ridiculous price. If that makes sense. (Although I just noticed I said in top-level comment that it was just for price, heh. I suppose it's just a mix of things, and I've never really thought much about why I use it. Price can be nice, but definitely convenience too: the prompt to check if I do need more of whatever or can skip it, otherwise I would likely run out and only then order/go out to buy.)
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- Terr_ 2y ago
  > You'd think Amazon would know how to do this properly with their logistical and pricing prowess I imagine they prioritized the short-term profits of a just-in-time middleman.
- TheCleric 2y ago
  Yeah I subscribe and save to melatonin gummies and I got an email in May saying they’ve “paused” my subscription until October because they’re afraid that the gummies will melt during shipment. Like how is that not a predictable problem? Summer is hot.
  - jamiek88 2y ago
    I don’t understand this comment. It IS a predictable problem. And they predicted it, and did something about it. If you live in a super hot location you can’t always get stuff shipped year round. I’d prefer that to dealing with the return and refund process.
    - TheCleric 2y ago
      Because the point of a subscription is to receive it on a schedule. If you can’t fulfill that subscription, don’t offer it.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - toast0 2y ago
        Sending you a 6 month supply in October and April would seem to work?
        TheCleric 2y ago
        Yeah I would have been fine with that.
      - kevinmchugh 2y ago
        They've paused offering it while they can't fulfill it?
    - OJFord 2y ago
      I suppose GP's argument is they know the schedule & frequency of the subscription, so if they predicted it further out then it could have been a notification 'we've moved your subscription two months early, because we're not going to be able to send it until October after that' instead. Which.. yeah, would be cool, but I do think it's a level of analysis everyone who uses S&S is aware does not happen.
- jemmyw 2y ago
  I used Uber's schedule thing recently and I was really worried about it because it sat unfilled for a week, but they assigned a driver a week before. I'd use it again. I'm pretty far outside the normal Uber area (which is why I booked so far in advance) so the driver has to travel 1.5 hrs without a fare to pick me up, but they told me it works out pretty even in the end.
  - throwaway7ahgb 2y ago
    You have to be very careful with Uber schedules. They do NOT guarantee a pickup time like a normal private car. There are many stories stating that the driver never shows up, or shows up 15 minutes early and leaves charging you with a no-show fee.
    - jemmyw 2y ago
      They were late but it showed me that in the app and it showed their position, so once I know they're on the way it's all good
- malfist 2y ago
  Lyft's pre-book is even worse. They do assign you a driver when you pre-book, but then you're beholden on that driver to still be driving when your booking time arrives. I pre-booked a ride to get to the airport at 4AM, figuring prebooking is the best way to make sure I had availability. Driver accepted it at 9PM, was not awake at 4AM. The Lyft app made me call support to cancel the pre-book and get an on demand ride. I couldn't cancel even though my driver wasn't active.

gertlex 2y ago

For anyone wondering, these were called the Dash buttons. I have a few from ~2016 that I was playing with a couple months ago. You have to block them from connecting to amazon servers... I got them working and started but didn't finish tying them into a local flask server.

stavros 2y ago
They're cool if you have them, but nowadays there are Zigbee buttons for $5 that work much better.

Reason077 2y ago

> “Out of garbage bags? Press the button. Out of dishwasher tabs? Press another button.” Seems kind of redundant when you can just “hey Alexa, order garbage bags”.

grogenaut 2y ago
this was before alexa and probbably one reason why they discontinued them.
- vunderba 2y ago
  Uhhh.... no? They both came out approximately at the same time, 2014-2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Dash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Dash
  - Izkata 2y ago
    That's when the Echo device came out, was it able to order products from release? Scrolling through functionality on wikipedia [0] almost makes it sound as though it doesn't even do that now. There's just a reference to a 2019 meeting about people not using it to order products. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa
  - grogenaut 2y ago
    Dash came out well before alexa and several years iirc before alexa ordering. Why do I know? I did on dash reviews a few months before dash went live (hardware was in warehouses waiting to ship). 8 months later I moved to a different team and 6 months after that my old team all left what they were doing and started building ordering via alexa.

anamexis 2y ago

I got a Kraft mac & cheese one as a joke and had it on my desk at work. Every now and then someone would walk past and press it. Went straight to the local food bank.