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Why Do We Trust Amazon?

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Re: Why Do We Trust Amazon?

#21

Post by jlgreco »

jtreminio wrote: post #16
manaskarekar wrote: post #15

1. I know I'm getting a reasonable price. 2. With Prime I know when I'm getting my stuff and I know it will be fast. 3. I don't have to be afraid of getting screwed over, even by third party merchants through amazon. 4. Their no hassle return policy. 5. Their going out of the way to make it right. 6. Multiple ways of getting customer service. One of the best experiences you can have today. As opposed to, Netflix, for…

For the record, the one time I was forced to contact Netflix for support was when my brand new Roku was not connecting to my account. The Netflix rep I spoke with was very patient, and helped me solve the issue, which turned out to be with my Roku, not Netflix. Other than that, I have never needed to call, email or otherwise contact Netflix at all, which I think is a great thing in and of itself!

The first time I had to contact Netflix support was actually while I was attempting to give them my money and sign up. For some reason their systems were rejecting all new signups and their customer support was in complete disarray. Took me 45 minutes on the phone (44 minutes and 30 seconds on hold) to confirm I wasn't the only person having a problem.

With that experience in mind, I am not terribly surprised other people have had issues.

Re: Why Do We Trust Amazon?

#22

Post by akurilin »

Amazon AutoRip is another nice touch. Every music CD I've ever purchased with them over the years is not available to me in the cloud as if I had purchased the MP3s as well.

Now if only we could do the same with Kindle.

Re: Why Do We Trust Amazon?

#23

Post by Samuel_Michon »

notatoad wrote: post #5

I think people still trust amazon because they are an easy to understand company: at it's core, amazon is a business that sells things for a profit. Everybody can understand how they make their money.

"amazon is a business that sells things for a profit."

Their financial reports sure don't support that theory. Apart from making very little profit as a company [1], they sell many products at a loss [2].

[1] http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/29/amazon-calendar-q4-2012-e...

[2] http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/technology/2012/10/amazon-...

Re: Why Do We Trust Amazon?

#24

Post by GhotiFish »

paulhauggis wrote: post #3

As a seller, you shouldn't. They don't have any support beyond automated email bots. Unlike Ebay, they also sell the same items alongside your listings, which means they can and will use your sales data to find out which items are profitable (and put you out of business). I sold on Amazon for 5 years and saw Amazon slowly cut me out of every market I was in..until they finally banned my account and would now allow me…

Out of curiosity, what grounds did they provide to ban your account?

If they had marginalized you, they wouldn't need to ban you.

Re: Why Do We Trust Amazon?

#25

Post by stevewilhelm »

I trust Amazon's Web Services division because they "eat their own dog food."

I also have to give a shout out to Jeff Barr, AWS's Chief Evangelist. He has always made it clear what AWS could and couldn't do and strives to understand what AWS customers really need.

Re: Why Do We Trust Amazon?

#26

Post by robryan »

secabeen wrote: post #11
jrockway wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Amazon does a pretty good job vetting merchants. While they aren't as good as Amazon at sending me things, they generally do a pretty good job. The only thing I dislike is how often the spam me with things like "Is everything ok? If there are problems please contact us immediately!" I know why they do this (unhappy customers = no longer able to accept Amazon payments), but it doesn't mean I have to like it. N…

They're also good at vetting buyers. As a merchant, I appreciate the fact that even when the most skeezy-feeling buyers are legitimate. You can get screwed by the customer service requirements, but at least you see fewer customers with fake credit cards and the like. The spam you'd describing is an attempt to get you to rate them. I've sold many things, and the rating rate is less than 10%, so you need to sell a lot…

And even if you do get chargebacks as long as the reason given is fraud amazon will cover them.

Re: Why Do We Trust Amazon?

#27

Post by robryan »

paulhauggis wrote: post #3

As a seller, you shouldn't. They don't have any support beyond automated email bots. Unlike Ebay, they also sell the same items alongside your listings, which means they can and will use your sales data to find out which items are profitable (and put you out of business). I sold on Amazon for 5 years and saw Amazon slowly cut me out of every market I was in..until they finally banned my account and would now allow me…

As a seller I have been relative happy with the support. Granted they will usually follow their rules down to the letter which won't usually favor you as a seller.

The responses I have got though have often felt like someone actually took the time to understand the question.

Re: Why Do We Trust Amazon?

#29

Post by enjo »

Amazon is such an enigma to me. There are things about Amazon I really hate. The silly patents. The absolutely non-stop ad-retargeting. The often intrusive marketing emails.

Yet if you asked, I'd rate them as my absolutely favorite online company.

There is something extremely compelling about their brand. When my wife signed us up for prime, I actually became an even bigger fan (and I paid for the privilege!).

At the end of the day prime has been the thing that has made me into a internet-first consumer. I know I'll get it in two days, and it turns out that is soon enough for just about everything.

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