- cross-posted to:
- frugal@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- frugal@lemmy.world
- The author canceled their Amazon Prime subscription on a whim and realized they didn’t really need it.
- Leaving Prime meant slower shipping but the author was happy to wait and still found the selection and delivery speed satisfactory.
- Many people love Prime for its fast shipping and convenience, but some readers expressed ambivalence and considered canceling.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/3M27c
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Some of us have been living without an Amazon account since 2007 and we’re still alive. Go figure.
i have reverted to this lifestyle, and i love it. creating the 5-6 accounts for local platforms was a slight hassle, but now i can enjoy the benefits of a “small” company which still cares about what the customer thinks.
Can you please expound on this?
I gave up on Amazon last year. I do without many things which is fine, but there are some things that are more difficult to find without them. I am still doing without as I’d like to figure it out for the long term.
Can you give examples of the vendors that supplant Amazon for you?
Not the person you asked, but generally I just go to the manufacturer website. Amazon is useful for it’s pictures and an aggregate of similar products, but now it’s usually just a catalog of stuff so I know what to look for
Plus then you can be far more certain you are not receiving a Chinese knockoff of your desired product
Home Depot, Staples, B&HPhoto (decent selection of general tech merch, but tons of photo/video)
As much as I dislike it, google shopping helps me find where I can pick things up locally.
There are things that I’ve been unsatisfied with the alternative options, or particular brands that only sell on Amazon, so I use it occasionally. But I don’t have a subscription to prevent the compulsion to use it.
I started boycotting Amazon back in 1999 when they pulled the 1-click patent bullshit. I loved them before that.
In 1999? Brah.
I was an edgy college kid who was raging against software and business process patents. Their 1-click patent started me on a 25 year grudge.
Not a lot of people hold onto such a niche part of their righteous rebellious college years for so long. I love that, and your bar was so high too!
A fellow Great Book of Grudges enthusiast! I too started writing mine early. I have not purchased anything Sony since they put rootkits on their CDs in 2005. Nothing. Fuck Sony. And anything Intuit makes for multiple reasons.
And I am absolutely passing The Great Book on to my kids. They know exactly why we don’t buy certain brands.
What’s this one click patent ?
In 1999 Amazon applied for and was granted a US Patent for One Click Purchase. Before then, everyone had a shopping cart that you had to go into to check out and pay. Amazon realized that a huge percentage of people would add stuff to their cart and then leave without buying anything, either because they decided they didn’t REALLY need that thing or because they found it cheaper somewhere else or whatever. They allowed you to save all your credit card info plus shipping preferences, then just hit “1 Click Purchase.” It was convenient for shoppers because they didn’t have to go through the whole checkout steps or add everything then come back later to check out. They could just hit a button and be done. For Amazon, though, it prevented the dreaded “items left in cart.”
Other sites like Borders and Barnes & Noble, etc also implemented the feature, since it made a lot of money. Amazon filed for a business process patent (I think they also tried it as a software patent??) and forced the entire internet to go back to normal shopping cart purchases. They ended up losing the patent lawsuit in the EU, but that didn’t stop them from enforcing it on US websites. Borders and BN both implemented “2 Click Purchase” to get around it, but the damage was done. In everyone’s minds, Amazon was the place to go for convenience and speed. Amazon made more money, while others started losing money. With that extra money, Amazon was able to move into the “niche” of Walmart, since Walmart hadn’t yet figured out e-commerce. Amazon out-Walmarted Walmart on the web and became the trillion dollar behemoth we have today.
Wow. Thank you for all of this I had no idea. That helps put a lot of amazons growth and lack of competition into perspective.
I barely manage, but I suvive.
deleted by creator
Buying anything on Amazon hardly seems viable anymore. There’s so much counterfeit crap there, and a million low-effort rebrandings of the same stuff you can get on AliExpress for cheaper.
Shop local when you can, and at least shop not-Amazon for the rest.
Shop local when you can
Not sustainable for me, I price it from time to time and local stores are usually, at best, double what Amazon or even Walmart has it for and that’s if the local store even has what I’m looking for to begin with
So my choices are Amazon or Walmart (or similar big name stores) and going to Walmart…yea fuck that it’s a last resort for everything but groceries…
There’s so much counterfeit crap there, and a million low-effort rebrandings of the same stuff you can get on AliExpress for cheaper.
I keep seeing this over and over, but I order a lot off Amazon and I’ve never had a problem with it. Don’t know if I’m just incredibly lucky or what, but the only times I get counterfeit / cheap Chinese crap is when I order it on purpose.
Ofc, those things I can just get off AliExpress too and sometimes I do when I don’t mind waiting which is the biggest issue with AliExpress, the waiting
I, and probably millions of others, are shopping where the best price/value is and nothing else because we can’t afford not to. I wouldn’t mind shopping locally owned and paying the premium…if I could afford it. Stop pushing for expensive alternatives people can’t afford and push for regulations instead.
Ya simple solution: don’t buy no-name chinesium crap regardless of the storefront and you won’t be disappointed
Search for a desk mounted USB hub. They’re all cheap junk and none are to spec. I looked at well over 200 listings and most were white label.
And if you go to Best Buy, staples, Walmart, target… what is different? I’m actually close to a microcenter and they’re also no different.
Where do you go for a desk mounted USB hub?
Best buy had one that met the USB 3.1 spec
I can’t say that I have ever gotten anything counterfeit from Amazon. What I have been victim to is no name garbage that has 4.5 stars due to thousands of fake reviews. Generally it is stuff that is difficult to research good brands and the review websites often simply redirect back to Amazon. It’s also very little use leaving a bad review because Amazon will remove it. For an example, Louis Rossman bought some fuses on Amazon. The 2A fuse did not blow until 10A was passed through it. That was not a fluke either. He left bad ratings which were removed and those products continue to be sold on Amazon. That is shit easily that can start a fire. If there actually was blow back, the manufacturer would simply stop selling that named version but keep the half a dozen other identical ones up they use to flood the results. So while this may not have ever been an issue for you, it can easily get someone killed. Your conclusion is spot on. We need regulation for this garbage. While Walmart is generally seen as garbage, there is at least someone responsible for purchasing shit to put in the stores and they generally have it tested. That is not the case for Amazon or Walmart’s online marketplace or AliBaba.
And not only are there a lot of crappy products with inflated scores because fake reviews, there are also a lot of good products with low scores because of fake negative reviews but competitors. The reviews are pretty much useless now.
If I see something on Amazon that I want, I just go to the manufacturer’s website and order it directly from them. If they don’t have a site that sells it, then I try other online stores besides Amazon. If they only sell on Amazon, then I decide I just don’t need it.
Except a lot of times it’s cheaper on Amazon, with faster shipping, even without prime. Most recent example I ran into.
$75 direct
$65 Amazon
Cheap items/electronics can be more expensive on Amazon than direct, though.
Amazon:
Direct:
Doubt that site has free shipping tho
It doesn’t, but shipping is $5, still way cheaper.
Also, free shipping only kicks in at $35, so technically this doesn’t either.
I comparison shop almost religiously. Vendor sites are oftentimes more expensive and add shipping on top of that. BB, Walmart, etc. have similar prices but most times it’s actually third party marketplace bullshit using these big name sites as a shittier Amazon.
Prime doesn’t matter so much for me, but 5% on all of my purchases with the Amazon credit card is definitely worth it.
This is the way
damn right
every time i’ve intentionally picked the ASNDSZYY brand i’ve been disappointed in the thing and in myself. now i’d rather just spend up front for something actually good rather than waste time and effort going back and forth returning things
I think people who see countfeit stuff don’t know what they are buying before they go on Amazon and order from Chinese brands. I know what I’m going to buy before I go on Amazon so I never have the issue. I just use it to check prices and buy if it’s a good enough discount.
It’s getting to the point where even searching for specific products is almost pointless. I did a search for a specific phone model recently and the phone showed up as the fifth result after four prompted results and several ads. When it becomes a chore to even track down a very specific thing you want, why would I keep going back?
The only search worse than Amazon is probably Wayfair.
Amazon hardly seems viable anymore. There’s so much counterfeit crap there, and a million low-effort rebrandings of the same stuff you can get on AliExpress for cheaper.
What do you mean? You don’t want to buy PRAZO USB-C CABLE FOR DATA TRANSFER AND CHARGING, 3M LENGHTH, COMPATIBLE WITH LAPTOP, DESKTOP, IPHONE, ANDROID?
I love these.
EXTRA HIGH QUALITY PREMIUM KNIFE AND FORK AND SPOON CUTLERY EATING SET COMPATIBLE WITH RICE DISHES, ASIAN FOOD, CHIPS, SAUSAGES, CHICKEN, GALAXY S24+, SALAD.
plus i have gotten several obviously used items when it wasn’t even available as used and cost full price.
I got a motherboard once where it was obvious that someone bent the pins then returned it. I had purchased new item though
Every trip to Amazon overwhelms me with choice, then I realize it’s all from Ali, then I close the tab.
I really only buy things from it now if I know what I’m looking for already
Plus their search algorithm, which used to be amazing, now pushes so much crap because the companies pay them to be at the top that the results are horrible now.
Shop local when you can,
So local strangers working to support some local guy’s Maui beach house need our support instead of local strangers working to support some faraway guy’s Maui Beach House?
It’s all local business when their main cost is the employment of locals. Don’t be a snob.
You’re kidding right? Are there actually people thinking they just can’t live without Amazon Prime? Seriously? Fuck even if you HAVE to order something off of Amazon, which you absolutely don’t HAVE to do, you don’t fuckin need prime just for… what… slightly faster shipping?
I cancelled Prime late last year, and haven’t really missed it, either.
Leaving Prime also meant the end of free Amazon Prime Video (you can still rent or buy many movies without it), but I’ve been able to bear it.
While I had Prime, I think there was 1, maybe 2 instances where I wanted to watch something and it was actually included with Prime. Every other time, Amazon Video had the movie, but they wanted an additional fee to watch it, so this was absolutely no loss.
One thing to note: Every time I check out on Amazon, now, they offer me a reduced price 1-week “trial” of Prime, to get the expedited shipping, for like… $5 or so? If you cancel yours, and also see this offer: You can take the offer, submit your order (and get the free 2 day shipping), then once you get the shipping confirmation, go in and cancel the Prime subscription. Since you’ve had it for only a few hours, Amazon actually refunds the price you paid. In effect, you get the shipping benefits for free. We’ll see if they close this loophole, but for now, it works.
If you decline a few times they’ll eventually offer you an entire month of Prime for free. I’ve thus never paid for Prime, ever.
No gain or loss there. Amazon’s logistics are so grabasstic now that delivery lead times are about the same with or without Prime. So I don’t particularly care.
I only buy commodity bullshit on Amazon anymore, and sometimes not even then. If they have it for a good price I might get a pack of crimp connectors or a roll of 3D printer filament or nuts and bolts or something. Otherwise it’s just wall-to-wall Chinese word salad non-brand knockoff shit on there anymore. You may as well just shop on AliExpress since at least they’re honest about hawking tat from Shenzen and it’s cheaper to boot.
You might find this very interesting
He tests crimps and various Amazon electical products.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/B90_SNNbcoU
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
There have been zero times Amazon video has had something I wanna watch
I canceled my prime subscription when it was announced they would be putting ads on prime video. I don’t even use prime video but I cancelled out of principle.
Same. Gonna have to find some way of pirating the shows I ‘purchased’ on prime so that I can still go back to them.
I think that you can still watch them.
If you link your account to Vudu, Google, and Movies Anywhere they should appear on the other platforms I believe?
Oooh, I did not know that!
Same. The shipping was still 2 days or more to my location. No point.
I thought this meant the writer is forgoing Amazon as a service completely.
Cause that would be something worth reading. Not these first world problems ffs
Prime used to mean something. Guaranteed 2 day shipping with no minimum for no extra charge. $5 for next day shipping. Then next day disappeared. Then the 2 day guarantee disappeared. Then delivery times were in the 3-5 day range for most things. Then, in my university town, around the time of students returning to school for terms it would be 1-2 weeks. I’m not paying an ever increasing annual fee for that.
Back then, Amazon was the shit. My GF at the time and I cancelled our Costco membership because shipping was good and selection was better.
Now, Amazon is shit. And now back to buying in-store whenever possible. And got a Costco membership again.
I have a running cart in my Amazon and about once every two weeks I’ll hit the purchase button.
Just not worth it anymore.
I’ll go further, I stopped using Amazon entirely and I don’t miss it.
The junky shopping experience is especially clear once you leave and come back.
I only ever order books from amazon anymore, and usually only when I get a gift card or a product isn’t for sale elsewhere.
The prices aren’t even that good anymore.
if you want to try an Amazon alternative of books, try ThrifBooks, they have new books as well as used ones
Most of the books I buy are reference books, that site actually has a decent stock, thanks!
There’s a great website called geizhals.de which gives you a price comparison for a lot of different online stores for each product and there are almost always multiple stores that sell it cheaper than Amazon.
Do you know an English version or alternative?
Unfortunately not
Don’t you have a local one where you live? Here, we have two good large (non English) comparison sites that everyone knows about.
Not that I know of, that’s why I was asking.
I thought those existed everywhere.
The more you know.
They probably do, but I don’t know about them.
The junky shopping experience is especially clear once you leave and come back.
I mean, the junky shopping experience isn’t unique to Amazon. You could find it in Walmart and TJ Maxx and any number of other low-income retailers a decade ago.
But that’s largely a result of the pivot to Planned Obsolescence as a universal standard for consumer products. Things are junk because if they don’t degrade in quality you won’t be inclined to buy new ones. Your shoddy kitchen appliances break after a couple of years. Your electronics die just in time for a new release. Your IKEA furniture can’t be disassembled without destroying the particle board its made from, so you need something new every time you change residences. Everything from your AC unit to your car radio to your dishwasher is designed to fail inside ten years, because that’s how business gets you back in line to shop.
The prices aren’t even that good anymore.
Greedflation, baby. Everyone’s got to justify their existence with steadily increasing profits.
How nice for you. you must live near a metropolis and have much time on your hands and not living with something impacting your ability to leave the house. You must have multiple sources for products are already in your area because in many parts of the world amazon is supplying many things that are not sold even at local brick and mortars. And many people who live in disabilities/injuries/disease to not be able to go very far without passing out while they receive home treatment.
Jesus, they were just saying that they themselves don’t miss it, not that no one should ever use it, no need for all the snarky sarcasm.
I will remind you the title of the post ‘it’s surprisingly easy to live’ - no. It isn’t. Representation matters. when people start speaking their experiences for application: Other experiences should count too. You don’t silence me just on unapproval or ‘not shared experiences’ alone. Stop the ableism.
I agree with you that those with disabilities and those in isolated areas rely on it, but you didn’t reply to the post - you replied to that comment. I’m not being ableist, but pointing out that you replied to a person who was just stating that they themselves can live without it. The person you replied to wasn’t being ableist either.
don’t tell me what to do. That’s all.
I never gave you a directive, just pointed out that there is no need for the snarky sarcasm.
The crap people write nowadays.
It’s surprisingly easy to live without any subscription. I don’t have any. If you’re tech savvy you can either block most ads that subscriptions give you, or bypass the service entirely and get free premium or just dl videos/music etc.
And as the services get worse there’s little incentive to actually keep a subscription. Netflix is becoming pretty dogshit for example.
I dropped Scamazon Slime a long time ago when I figured out they were not meeting their 2 day shipping promise. I really have never missed it.
I hate Amazon for a variety of reasons, but I can’t you seriously after you said scamazon slime.
I can’t you either.
Twinklebreeze.
I can both of you.
The can is the seriously we along the way
I’ll beach you all off
Ooo, yes please
I accidentally the whole of you both…
they were not meeting their 2 day shipping promise
Oh. That’s like visiting Canada for a bit, where ‘prime’ usually feels like a week.
I’ve been living without it my whole life so I guess it’s possible
Dude… We’re trying to live without Amazon and this guy is just giving up prime??? What a martyr…
Lmao it’s surprisingly easy to live without AMAZON.
Eh. I live in the middle of nowhere. It’s fucking awesome cat litter comes delivered cheaper than the store 40 miles away.
I can’t imagine being such a simpleton that this is a revalation worthy of a write up
I’ve never had prime. Whenever I look at Amazon now it’s basically a local AliExpress with loads of cheaply made Chinese stuff. Amazon is not cheap anymore either. eBay is always cheaper.
