Why did you chose Amazon for your ebooks

[jbcohen]

Rather than Apple,Kobo or another ebook store? My primary reason is simple: Amazon's business strategy is to under cut their competition's prices on most things, a behavior that I want to encourage.

[krazy4katz]

I thought Amazon had the best chance of still being in the ebook business 10 years later and, at the time that the first kindle came out, they had the broadest selection of ebooks.

[darryl]

I was favourably disposed towards Amazon long before EBooks. I was buying paper books from them when it was cheaper for me to import them from the US to Australia than buy them locally. But Amazon has rarely got it wrong since, and even on those rare occasions has been quick to correct the situation and reverse the error.

Amazon is probably one of the most customer focussed companies around. Not out of altruism or because they are some sort of corporate saint, but because they recognnise that it is good business They have excellent prices, superb customer service, a wider variety of titles and an excellent and convenient delivery platform. They provide access to a whole new market of so-called Indie authors, many of whom would not otherwise be published, and at excellent prices. They have introduced the legacy publishers to what is arguably the first competition they have ever faced, and have thereby prevented ebooks being suppressed in the interests of preserving the print book business.

As a buyer and reader of ebooks, what is not to like about Amazon? I would prefer that they did not have the walled-garden approach, but don't think that this is a realistic expectation. That business model simply seems to be too successful to abandon. Arguably, Sony's actions in abandoning this model, laudable as they were, substantially contributed to the later downfall of their e-reading business. And Apple certainly shows no signs of abandoning this model. Instead, one might say, Apple's garden wall is topped with razor wire and guard posts.

[Penforhire]

Good selection, I buy many other things from them, and their hardware makes the transaction painless (other than cost). I started with the Sony store years ago but I switched to Amazon with my first Kindle.

[JimmyH]

I am new at this ereader game, but as others have mentioned, I've been a happy customer of amazon for many moons. What is the old saying ? "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door ....... I think amazon has done that better mousetrap thing.

[mr_nihilism]

If it's unavailable from Kobo I'll buy from Amazon.

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by darryl

What darryl said

Ditto to everything. Amazon keeps my business because they earn it every day.

ETA - As of tonight they have stopped earning it. New website is annoying enough to make me stop using it.

[Anthem]

You know... my relationship with Amazon is a bit haphazard. I like a lot of what they do. But I do feel a bit annoyed by their ubiquity. Or what feels like ubiquity. I find myself frequently purchasing something from ANYONE else simply to purchase it from someone who is NOT Amazon.

I'm weird like that. There is nothing rational about it. At all.

[pghaworth]

I have to say that tonight I am annoyed with Amazon - genuinely annoyed. I get that their thing is selling, that's their job, and they are good at it. They get my money 9 times out of 10. When they don't' get it, it's only because the item can't be found on Amazon or can be found elsewhere for less.

Now they have this new thing with the website - it shows whenever you click for your account, when you pull up your order page, and when you click your cart - everywhere you go that is important to me - they shove my previously purchased items in your face to "Buy It Now" and much like their very STUPID recommendations, they are items I didn't like, don't want, and won't be buying again. I don't' want this junk in my face every time I need to do something and I don't want to see items I'll never buy again, even if I did want to see the stuff. I don't have time to help them be smarter with their recs, either.

Sorry. Really needed to vent about this and they just got an eye/ear-full by email, too. I am going to consciously go elsewhere as much as possible now.

[jeffyen]

Their level of support is just amazing after all these years. So last week I had a PW2 that has lines on it. I take a picture of the screen, imgur it, contacted support, she looks at the pic, agrees to exchange it, and in 1 day has a refurbished set sent out before I even send back the older one!

[darryl]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

Ditto to everything. Amazon keeps my business because they earn it every day.

ETA - As of tonight they have stopped earning it. New website is annoying enough to make me stop using it.

I haven't visited their site today, so have not had the opportunity to be annoyed. If it is annoying to enough people Amazon will likely change it, hopefully before too much damage is done.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

Now they have this new thing with the website ...and much like their very STUPID recommendations, they are items I didn't like, don't want, and won't be buying again. I don't' want this junk in my face every time I need to do something.....

er... it is very easy to

a) sign out of your amazon account & untick remember me
b) flush your browser & cookie caches.

that will quickly put a stop to any and all recent activity /personalised recommendations...

just sign in when & only when you want to pay - job done.

I , and I suspect msot folks, shjust
1) go to a bookmark to load site.
2) type what I want into the amazon search bar
3) never bother to scroll through the rest of the stuff on the page.

oh & use a decent browser + adlbloker combo to turn off superfluous flashing, dancing arrtractors

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by cybmole

er... it is very easy to

a) sign out of your amazon account & untick remember me
b) flush your browser & cookie caches.

that will quickly put a stop to any and all recent activity /personalised recommendations...

just sign in when & only when you want to pay - job done.

I , and I suspect msot folks, shjust
1) go to a bookmark to load site.
2) type what I want into the amazon search bar
3) never bother to scroll through the rest of the stuff on the page.

oh & use a decent browser + adlbloker combo to turn off superfluous flashing, dancing arrtractors

Thanks. I already do all of your suggestions. This is something new they implemented in the last two days. I have all images blocked, but you can't block text (I have all text set to black), and these are sliders, buttons, etc. in the cart, on the orders page (multiple places now), and when selecting "my acount" area at the top of the page. Really miserable.

Shopping without pics is interesting.

[cybmole]

I am not seeing all that stuff.
I launch chrome, go to (auto sign in ) bookmark, go to my cart where I have one item left from a while back....
I see one annoying ad for amex which I need to block, but no other hassles, unless I scroll way down the page, beyond stuff saved for later,,,, then I get customers who bought stuff in your basket also bought.... and finally your recently viewed items and recommendations.

maybe you are on some experimental lsit & I am not, or maybe my (UK) site is better behaved than your ( what country? ) one ?

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by cybmole

I am not seeing all that stuff.
I launch chrome, go to (auto sign in ) bookmark, go to my cart where I have one item left from a while back....
I see one annoying ad for amex which I need to block, but no other hassles, unless I scroll way down the page, beyond stuff saved for later,,,, then I get customers who bought stuff in your basket also bought.... and finally your recently viewed items and recommendations.

maybe you are on some experimental lsit & I am not, or maybe my (UK) site is better behaved than your ( what country? ) one ?

I use FF, rather than Chrome, and I'm in the US. Amazon is a US company and they are rolling out nightly changes to our site. Not sure if they intend to roll them out world-wide - for your sake, I hope not. Some of the changes are one or two nights only as they try things and others are sticking - like these unfortunate changes. I have the entire site blocked now for images, etc., but these items that are annoying are also text and therefore unblockable at present.

It's a bad thing for Amazon because the more I can browse without having the feeling that they're shoving things I don't want down my throat, the more likely I am to buy something I need. Right now, with the site the way it is, I never want to go back.