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I haven't read the article, but as a Swede I am stunned by the title. I shop from Amazon a couple of times per month, with Prime subscription. Delivery is alw

I haven't read the article, but as a Swede I am stunned by the title. I shop from Amazon a couple of times per month, with Prime subscription. Delivery is always insanely fast (within 1-2 days), I always get exactly what I ordered, prices are always lowest compared to all competition, returns are convenient and human-free, and the additional Prime Videos is a nice bonus. I am honeslty worried of local Swedish business, becase they are getting the floor wiped. I haven't had a single issue some other people are mentioning.

lkramer 1y ago
My take is that it's because there is still competition in Sweden to keep them on their toes. Once they have decimated the Swedish high street, like they have in the UK, they will start cutting costs.
- Telaneo 1y ago
  I'm sceptical of Amazon's ability to do this in a country with strong consumer protection laws. If Amazon becomes the default for every online purchase in Sweden, and then enshittify, assuming there aren't other options to fall back on, the pressure will be pretty heavy, while in the US, that pressure basically doesn't exist.
- harvey9 1y ago
  I've had crappy service on UK high streets long before Amazon. A keyboard I got from Tottenham Court Road stopped working within a week so I took it back in person. The shop manager tried to tell me I had to send it to the manufacturer. He backed down when I put the phrase "contractual relationship" into a sentence.
  - octo888 1y ago
    Currys? They're so well-known for immediately and always saying "talk to the manufacturer" it must be in their training manual right at the top
    - harvey9 1y ago
      It was one of the many independent shops on that street. Curiously, the place is lately like a physical version of how Doctorow describes Amazon search results in the article: the same narrow selection of products, repeated at different prices.
  - lkramer 1y ago
    yeah, the UK high street was definitely ripe for the taking. And Amazon with its cheap prices, no-nonsense customer service and return policy was miles better. The point is that it's no longer really the case.
Mistletoe 1y ago
I am in the USA and order lots of stuff from there too and have never once had any of these issues really. I return tons of stuff to them also. Anything you don’t like or need you can just return, as Amazon has the best return policy on Earth. I’m not happy that the world is moving to monoliths like Amazon, but I use what makes life easiest for me and saves me money.
iLoveOncall 1y ago
I have the same experience (in the UK) and I have around 400 orders a year... It's selection bias, people will focus on the one bad experience and ignore the 99% of time where it works as expected.
- jiggunjer 1y ago
  I think selection bias is a bit different, keyword being ignore. Maybe negativity bias.
UberFly 1y ago
The enshitification guy needs to keep his brand alive apparently. 99% of the time Amazon and its delivery people deliver what I ordered on time and if there's ever a problem returns are easy.
sandebert 1y ago
Don't forget that Amazon is somewhat new in Sweden. I think we just haven't entered their enshittification phase here. (Swede too)
- OskarS 1y ago
  And because they’re new, we have plenty of homegrown internet retailers for competition. Personally, I avoid Amazon in favor of the others if at all possible, seems like there’s a really significant risk Amazon is going to wipe them out.
  - sandebert 1y ago
    For me it's problematic though. Sometimes I want some small gadget, and I just can't find it elsewhere. The other day I wanted a female-female connector for network cables and I couldn't find it on my Swedish go-to place for tech stuff, Kjell&Co. Instantly found lots of alternatives on Amazon.
    - Symbiote 1y ago
      https://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_nkw=network+coupler https://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_nkw=network+coupler eBay might have some similar problems as Amazon (fly-by-night retailers from China etc), but at least it doesn't pretend otherwise. Or from Denmark, but delivery is probably expensive. (Within-EU delivery costs is something I'd like to see the EU improve, to allow smaller businesses to compete internationally with Amazon etc.) https://www.computersalg.dk/i/2335209/startech-com-cat5e-rj45-modular-inline-coupler-10-pack-cat5e-coupler-rj45-to-rj45-coupler-10-pack-rj45-couplers-ethernet https://www.computersalg.dk/i/2335209/startech-com-cat5e-rj4...
    - OskarS 1y ago
      Yeah, I do this on occassion as well, but I aleays try the Swedish retailers first, and only go to Amazon when I can’t find whatever I’m looking for. It’s pretty rare I have to go to Amazon. It’s rough, because you know that it will probably be cheaper and delivered faster from Amazon, at the moment it is probably the most consumer friendly place to buy. But you know once the honeymoom is over and all the Swedish retailers are gone, it’s just going to devolve to garbage. Support your non-Amazon retailers!
0xfffafaCrash 1y ago
Strange. I’ve only had really poor experiences with Amazon and Amazon deliveries in Sweden and really good ones in the US. In Sweden the delivery network seems full of other parties that frequently fail to show up at the last minute multiple times in a row. The translations are humorously bad and the selection is small.
thaumasiotes 1y ago
Here in California, Amazon stopped honoring their shipping time "guarantees" years ago. They still say Prime is a two-day guarantee. When you order, they say delivery will take place within two days. Your order will have a scheduled delivery date reflecting that statement. But later they'll quietly update the scheduled delivery date on your order. If you complain that a package hasn't arrived on time, they'll tell you to wait until it does arrive. If you ask for redress for the late delivery, they'll say no. Sometimes you actually need to receive a birthday gift before attending the party, you know. They've also stopped packing their goods in a way that prevents them from being damaged in transit. A book you order from Amazon today will arrive stuffed into a manila envelope that it can barely fit inside. The corners will be damaged.
- b112 1y ago
  I return all goods even slightly damaged, but take a pic, print it, and include a note. I do so l, so that returns can see it arrrived in poor shape, not from it being returned. But... saving 3 cents per package on a box, may be cheaper that an extra return out of 1000? I imagine the original seller doesn't know (when only shipped but not sold by amazon), so too bad for them, and Amazon even removed the return option "box ok but product damaged". So I guess much of the cost is born by others.
- blincoln 1y ago
  Amazon hasn't done a great job of packing for item protection in ~20 years. I honestly don't remember now if they ever did, and I was buying books from them in the late 90s. In my experience, small single items will usually go in padded mailers, which are the most effective option they seem to offer. As soon as the item or shipment is big enough for a box, all they've done for as long as I can remember is add enough packing material to fill any empty space, so that items in the box are less likely to bounce around inside the box, but offering no protection against situations like the box as a whole being dropped onto a hard surface. I stopped ordering hard drives from them about twenty years ago because they refused to pack them safely enough for UPS or FedEx standards.
squigz 1y ago
This is pretty much how it was in NA before they started going to crap. One of my biggest annoyances is the exact same (crappy) product listed 300 times with different brands/names. But hey, at least we still have extravagantly fast delivery times!
28304283409234 1y ago
Read the article. You (Sweden) are in Fase 1: Good to users.

lkramer 1y ago

My take is that it's because there is still competition in Sweden to keep them on their toes. Once they have decimated the Swedish high street, like they have in the UK, they will start cutting costs.

Telaneo 1y ago
I'm sceptical of Amazon's ability to do this in a country with strong consumer protection laws. If Amazon becomes the default for every online purchase in Sweden, and then enshittify, assuming there aren't other options to fall back on, the pressure will be pretty heavy, while in the US, that pressure basically doesn't exist.
harvey9 1y ago
I've had crappy service on UK high streets long before Amazon. A keyboard I got from Tottenham Court Road stopped working within a week so I took it back in person. The shop manager tried to tell me I had to send it to the manufacturer. He backed down when I put the phrase "contractual relationship" into a sentence.
- octo888 1y ago
  Currys? They're so well-known for immediately and always saying "talk to the manufacturer" it must be in their training manual right at the top
  - harvey9 1y ago
    It was one of the many independent shops on that street. Curiously, the place is lately like a physical version of how Doctorow describes Amazon search results in the article: the same narrow selection of products, repeated at different prices.
- lkramer 1y ago
  yeah, the UK high street was definitely ripe for the taking. And Amazon with its cheap prices, no-nonsense customer service and return policy was miles better. The point is that it's no longer really the case.

Mistletoe 1y ago

I am in the USA and order lots of stuff from there too and have never once had any of these issues really. I return tons of stuff to them also. Anything you don’t like or need you can just return, as Amazon has the best return policy on Earth. I’m not happy that the world is moving to monoliths like Amazon, but I use what makes life easiest for me and saves me money.

iLoveOncall 1y ago

I have the same experience (in the UK) and I have around 400 orders a year... It's selection bias, people will focus on the one bad experience and ignore the 99% of time where it works as expected.

jiggunjer 1y ago
I think selection bias is a bit different, keyword being ignore. Maybe negativity bias.

UberFly 1y ago

The enshitification guy needs to keep his brand alive apparently. 99% of the time Amazon and its delivery people deliver what I ordered on time and if there's ever a problem returns are easy.

sandebert 1y ago

Don't forget that Amazon is somewhat new in Sweden. I think we just haven't entered their enshittification phase here. (Swede too)

OskarS 1y ago
And because they’re new, we have plenty of homegrown internet retailers for competition. Personally, I avoid Amazon in favor of the others if at all possible, seems like there’s a really significant risk Amazon is going to wipe them out.
- sandebert 1y ago
  For me it's problematic though. Sometimes I want some small gadget, and I just can't find it elsewhere. The other day I wanted a female-female connector for network cables and I couldn't find it on my Swedish go-to place for tech stuff, Kjell&Co. Instantly found lots of alternatives on Amazon.
  - Symbiote 1y ago
    https://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_nkw=network+coupler https://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_nkw=network+coupler eBay might have some similar problems as Amazon (fly-by-night retailers from China etc), but at least it doesn't pretend otherwise. Or from Denmark, but delivery is probably expensive. (Within-EU delivery costs is something I'd like to see the EU improve, to allow smaller businesses to compete internationally with Amazon etc.) https://www.computersalg.dk/i/2335209/startech-com-cat5e-rj45-modular-inline-coupler-10-pack-cat5e-coupler-rj45-to-rj45-coupler-10-pack-rj45-couplers-ethernet https://www.computersalg.dk/i/2335209/startech-com-cat5e-rj4...
  - OskarS 1y ago
    Yeah, I do this on occassion as well, but I aleays try the Swedish retailers first, and only go to Amazon when I can’t find whatever I’m looking for. It’s pretty rare I have to go to Amazon. It’s rough, because you know that it will probably be cheaper and delivered faster from Amazon, at the moment it is probably the most consumer friendly place to buy. But you know once the honeymoom is over and all the Swedish retailers are gone, it’s just going to devolve to garbage. Support your non-Amazon retailers!

0xfffafaCrash 1y ago

Strange. I’ve only had really poor experiences with Amazon and Amazon deliveries in Sweden and really good ones in the US. In Sweden the delivery network seems full of other parties that frequently fail to show up at the last minute multiple times in a row. The translations are humorously bad and the selection is small.

thaumasiotes 1y ago

Here in California, Amazon stopped honoring their shipping time "guarantees" years ago. They still say Prime is a two-day guarantee. When you order, they say delivery will take place within two days. Your order will have a scheduled delivery date reflecting that statement. But later they'll quietly update the scheduled delivery date on your order. If you complain that a package hasn't arrived on time, they'll tell you to wait until it does arrive. If you ask for redress for the late delivery, they'll say no. Sometimes you actually need to receive a birthday gift before attending the party, you know. They've also stopped packing their goods in a way that prevents them from being damaged in transit. A book you order from Amazon today will arrive stuffed into a manila envelope that it can barely fit inside. The corners will be damaged.

b112 1y ago
I return all goods even slightly damaged, but take a pic, print it, and include a note. I do so l, so that returns can see it arrrived in poor shape, not from it being returned. But... saving 3 cents per package on a box, may be cheaper that an extra return out of 1000? I imagine the original seller doesn't know (when only shipped but not sold by amazon), so too bad for them, and Amazon even removed the return option "box ok but product damaged". So I guess much of the cost is born by others.
blincoln 1y ago
Amazon hasn't done a great job of packing for item protection in ~20 years. I honestly don't remember now if they ever did, and I was buying books from them in the late 90s. In my experience, small single items will usually go in padded mailers, which are the most effective option they seem to offer. As soon as the item or shipment is big enough for a box, all they've done for as long as I can remember is add enough packing material to fill any empty space, so that items in the box are less likely to bounce around inside the box, but offering no protection against situations like the box as a whole being dropped onto a hard surface. I stopped ordering hard drives from them about twenty years ago because they refused to pack them safely enough for UPS or FedEx standards.

squigz 1y ago

This is pretty much how it was in NA before they started going to crap. One of my biggest annoyances is the exact same (crappy) product listed 300 times with different brands/names. But hey, at least we still have extravagantly fast delivery times!

28304283409234 1y ago

Read the article. You (Sweden) are in Fase 1: Good to users.