Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
... I never bought anything substantial there. With "substantial" I mean stuff where I would maybe need the guarantee within the next two years after purchase. I doubt I'll ever buy a TV or a laptop (or phone/tablet/computer monitor...) through Amazon ...
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I live in the USA and I am much the same. I'm not going to buy something expensive off of Amazon. And I don't buy from 3rd party sellers there either - unless it is "fulfilled by Amazon" and can be returned for free. I think the most expensive item I have ever bought from Amazon was maybe $125. And that was way over my normal purchases, which tend to be items $50 and under.
Little stuff is great though. Say I need another microSD memory card - it's very convenient to order it at lunchtime and have it arrive at my doorstep at dinnertime. I live about 10 miles away from a huge Amazon fulfillment center, about 20 miles away for another one just as large, and I think (not sure) there may even be a 3rd warehouse in my immediate area. Same day or next day delivery is the norm in my area for items that they have in the local distribution centers - which are the majority of what I order. They even deliver in the middle of the night. I can order something at bedtime and it shows up at 4:00am - it's out there on the porch when I go to retrieve the newspaper from the driveway in the morning. As many bad things as people say about Amazon, I will admit that if you happen to live near one of their large distribution centers, they certainly have their delivery services fine tuned to a science.
Sometimes you feel bad about ordering from Amazon though - delivery speeds so fast just don't feel like they would be good for the environment. But I suppose since there are Amazon delivery vans crawling all over my town all the time it's not like they're using the gasoline just to deliver my little order all by itself. Those vans are probably full of hundreds of orders, and they are well coordinated from the warehouse to run very efficient routes to drive the shortest distances between delivery stops. If you're not near a distribution center, their speeds drop dramatically. I just ordered one of those same microSD cards for my daughter, who lives in Hawaii, and the delivery time for that is estimated at 1-1/2 weeks. Plus, there's usually an unexpected delay at the end in Hawaii. They don't seem to be terribly rushed about anything over there.