AMAZON - GOODBYE!!

As far as I'm concerned, Amazon are done! I am officially banning them from my supplier list. It's been coming for a while now, but my most recent  purchase has sealed their fate. 

It's not one thing, it's quite a few. In years gone by, I applauded their range of products, their prices and their efficiency in getting the order on your doorstep quickly. Nowadays, it's absolutely terrible.

More and more often I'm finding that their prices are extremely uncompetitive and sometimes (where availability is an issue) they are actually asking for more than RRP!! One of the most recent examples of this was when I went to purchase a decent WebCam. I figured out which was the best one to meet my needs and soon discovered that although it was a very popular camera, no one had stock - except of course, Amazon.

No surprise there huh? But what did surprise me was the fact that they were charging £5 more than the actual manufacturer was asking on their website. I found similar example of this with other products across a range of hobbies that I have interest in.

Then there's the introduction of 3rd Party Resellers on Amazon; it's so easy to be fooled into thinking that you're buying from Amazon when in fact, you're buying from someone else. Someone who might not really give a damn good customer service. As far as I'm concerned, 3rd Party suppliers listing on Amazon should be marked very clearly as such instead of being in disguise.

And then there's the long distance 3rd Party sellers who (again) can give you the impression that you're buying from within your own country, but in fact post from some 5,000 miles away! Yes, you can be careful and discover the origin of the seller, but that's not the experience I want from an online reseller - I want to trust them to look after my interests and not to mislead.

And let's not even talk about some of the useless couriers that they now use 😲

Slow Boat From China

 
And then there's the DISGUSTING WASTE that they're responsible for. I've seen some truly laughable parcels arrive at my home/business. Huge boxes containing tiny items. I'm not even remotely "green" but it still makes me shudder at the ecological damage that Amazon are responsible for.

And then there's all the other underhanded things that Amazon get up to. Well, it's the end for me. I will no longer buy from them. Not at home and not at work.