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Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

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Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#461

Post by ROTMetro »

vineyardmike wrote: post #377
satellites wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that price and convenience is at the cost of quality and employee safety. And honestly not even worth it as a consumer even if you don’t care about the ethical issues. I’ve been severely disappointed with the quality of the average item on Amazon over the last few years, to the point that I have stopped using them completely. Even Walmart is better, which is saying a lot.

I haven’t had too many (any?) quality issues with Amazon I’m no shill - I don’t advocate for them since I’ve heard about plenty of quality issues, but I’ve never actually gotten the wrong product or a fake (unless the fake was so good it was equal to original… which is fine?). What is everyone ordering that is subpar? Do people not just buy the same brands they’d buy at Walmart or target? If you buy cheap stuff that…

I ordered a pair music monitoring speakers. Only one came in the box. Amazon wouldn't accept my return because I only returned one speaker, not two. I had to fight them on the weight of the 'two' speakers they shipped me and finally they realized they were hit and that based on weight the package they sent me couldn't have contained two speakers. The amount of time that took locked up a fairly large chunk of my funds for way too long. I will never make a high dollar purchase on Amazon again.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#462

Post by BeetleB »

fnimick wrote: post #448
BeetleB wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just listening to a small business owner yesterday. She paid a $120K down payment on a property, and has set everything up so that the tax benefit of that property is $180K. That's not $180K deduction, but a $180K credit. She'll rent the place out for a meager profit, so doesn't have to pay the rest of the mortgage. Essentially, the taxpayers bought her the house - she got a house + cash out of the deal. Small…

Care to share how you can get a $180k tax credit for buying a house?

Real estate businesses have a ridiculous amount of tax benefits. The terms to look up are:

Cost Segregation

Bonus Depreciation

(There's a third one I can't remember).

She basically utilized all three. The larger the value of the house (over $1M in her case), the greater the benefit.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#463

Post by ROTMetro »

phil21 wrote: post #403
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There warehouses are significantly worse than average in terms of injuries per hour. Per man hour? Amazon is rich and super high volume relatively speaking. I got the impression their warehouses were pretty damn good compared to other warehouses handling consumer goods because the cost of hiccups is so high and they have a huge target on their back.

> I got the impression their warehouses were pretty damn good compared to other warehouses This is the correct impression. Amazon warehouses are almost always a step up in both pay and quality of life vs. the other local employment options. Source: many friends work(ed) the industry. Amazon was seen as trading your autonomy in for a better overall place to work. The memes about their warehouses being the worst in the…

Ex con here, lived in the halfway house. No one, and I mean NO ONE took Amazon warehouse jobs. And that is saying a lot. We took jobs with metrics requiring we pull 60 pieces of cardboard per minute out of garbage and trash from a 75mph conveyor belt over working Amazon. We had to wear kevlar glove 'sharps' protection so the needles in the trash didn't poke us and give us HIV. This was still preferred over Amazon warehouse jobs. Just saying....

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#464

Post by s1artibartfast »

jaywalk wrote: post #407
rideontime wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a customer, I don't care if their overall impact is spread thin, it's my money going to a charity I chose.

Technically it's Amazon's money, not yours. You can't write the donations off on your taxes, for example.

Maybe I'm out of the loop but why not?

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#465

Post by jacooper »

whoopdeepoo wrote: post #454
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #352

I think this is a little short-sighted on Amazon's part. PTA/PTOs were onboarding loyal Amazon customers via Amazon Smile because of the fundraising. In the last PTO I was involved with, Smile accounted for about 2% of our donations ($3000/year = ~$150K in household spending from our school). To put that in perspective, about 90% of our $150K annual fund raise was direct donations from parents and local businesses, A…

Kinda off topic but why do grade school kids need a MacBook air?

[flagged]

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#466

Post by dougmany »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #430
rcme wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like Target stopped supporting schools through Target Red Card in 2016? https://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/6232-tar...

Coincidentally, same year we started homeschooling. Hence my ignorance on the topic.

Wait, you have a PTO for home schooled kids?

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#467

Post by fortituded0002 »

whoopdeepoo wrote: post #454
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #352

I think this is a little short-sighted on Amazon's part. PTA/PTOs were onboarding loyal Amazon customers via Amazon Smile because of the fundraising. In the last PTO I was involved with, Smile accounted for about 2% of our donations ($3000/year = ~$150K in household spending from our school). To put that in perspective, about 90% of our $150K annual fund raise was direct donations from parents and local businesses, A…

Kinda off topic but why do grade school kids need a MacBook air?

Where's the reference to grade school coming from? It wasn't in the original post.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#468

Post by rideontime »

jaywalk wrote: post #407
rideontime wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a customer, I don't care if their overall impact is spread thin, it's my money going to a charity I chose.

Technically it's Amazon's money, not yours. You can't write the donations off on your taxes, for example.

Where did Amazon get the money from?

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#469

Post by bsuvc »

whoopdeepoo wrote: post #454
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #352

I think this is a little short-sighted on Amazon's part. PTA/PTOs were onboarding loyal Amazon customers via Amazon Smile because of the fundraising. In the last PTO I was involved with, Smile accounted for about 2% of our donations ($3000/year = ~$150K in household spending from our school). To put that in perspective, about 90% of our $150K annual fund raise was direct donations from parents and local businesses, A…

Kinda off topic but why do grade school kids need a MacBook air?

Chromebooks seem to be the standard nowadays. At least that is what are issued by the school around here (Midwest US).

My first thought is that if someone can't afford a computer, wouldn't they prefer to have a "lesser" computer and have the remaining difference in cash or necessities?

Maybe the donors are a little out of touch with what their recipients need. I'm sure they are appreciative of the computer, but there could be more impactful use of that money.

Re: Amazon Closing AmazonSmile

#470

Post by Alupis »

rideontime wrote: post #468
jaywalk wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically it's Amazon's money, not yours. You can't write the donations off on your taxes, for example.

Where did Amazon get the money from?

You purchased goods from Amazon - and they promised to send some portion of their profit to some organization of your choosing.

It's firmly Amazon's money at that point. You bought something from them... their choice on how to spend it. They were generous enough to have this program at all, really.

I would recommend finding a decent charity organization that speaks to you and what is important to you - and donate directly. Use services like Charity Navigator (or similar) to find reputable ones that maximize your impact.

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