It is done, Amazon account deletion request sent

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Karellen

I think Amazon makes people lazy.

Spoken like someone who lives relatively near shops where they can buy things in a pinch/hurry. Maybe that's not the case (and I apologize if it's not), but I find that people who have easy/quick/close physical access to most of their needs are often the ones who tend to espouse this attitude.

I have many reasons I use Amazon; none of which have anything to do with being an Amazon lover or apologist (as so many people are quick to label people who don't despise anything and everything about Amazon by default). The two big ones are:

1) When it comes to retail; I am 45 minutes to an hour's drive away from everything except a grocer, a drugstore, and a Dollar General. So considering fuel and auto maintenance, buying stuff online (and I don't buy groceries or drugs online) is more cost effective and a much better use of my time. Lazy? I'll let others quibble over that definition.

2) I've learned the hard way that having your credit card info spread all over stores on the internet (if I wanted to shop around outside of Amazon to find "better" bargains) is a recipe for disaster from a security standpoint. So I consider using Amazon as my primary source of non-perishable online retail goods (retail goods I don't have to drive two hours round-trip to find) to be much more secure. Even if not the most economical.

And no, I would never order tissues from Amazon. So I don't agree that "Amazon makes you lazy." Do I think that people with lazy tendencies might use Amazon in a lazy manner? You bet. But that's a different topic.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

…

2) I've learned the hard way that having your credit card info spread all over stores on the internet (if I wanted to shop around outside of Amazon to find "better" bargains) is a recipe for disaster from a security standpoint. So I consider using Amazon as my primary source of non-perishable online retail goods (retail goods I don't have to drive two hours round-trip to find) to be much more secure. Even if not the most economical.

And no, I would never order tissues from Amazon. So I don't agree that "Amazon makes you lazy." Do I think that people with lazy tendencies might use Amazon in a lazy manner? You bet. But that's a different topic.

2) is very true.

Agree with last paragraph too.

[TheSmitty]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Spoken like someone who lives relatively near shops where they can buy things in a pinch/hurry. Maybe that's not the case (and I apologize if it's not), but I find that people who have easy/quick/close physical access to most of their needs are often the ones who tend to espouse this attitude.

I have many reasons I use Amazon; none of which have anything to do with being an Amazon lover or apologist (as so many people are quick to label people who don't despise anything and everything about Amazon by default). The two big ones are:

1) When it comes to retail; I am 45 minutes to an hour's drive away from everything except a grocer, a drugstore, and a Dollar General. So considering fuel and auto maintenance, buying stuff online (and I don't buy groceries or drugs online) is more cost effective and a much better use of my time. Lazy? I'll let others quibble over that definition.

Yeah, number 1 is a big deal deal for me as well. Even Walmart is a 25-30 minute drive from my house. With Amazon, I get things the very next day and even if order early enough the same day. When someone builds a better mouse trap then people will come. Lazy, no, if it helps then think of the emissions that I am not putting into the air by driving to the store. Amazon trucks where I live are all electric.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Karellen

I think Amazon makes people lazy.

8 years ago when I was visiting family in California, my Uncle ran out of tissues. Here I am thinking he'll just add it to their shopping list (and the supermarket is walking distance to their home). I even offered to go for a walk to purchase them, and other items they needed. Instead he walked over to his Mac, and placed an order with Amazon. The next day the box of tissues arrived by delivery, in an oversized box filled with pellets. Such a waste of manpower and material resources. And I could not understand why tissues were ordered via amazon, but other items on their shopping list just waited until the next shop? Nothing about it made sense to me. (Americans)

It is one of those memories of ridiculous actions that I can never forget.

That's not an American only thing. That's a lazy person thing not matter where they are from.

[JSWolf]

The only way I'd buy something like tissues from Amazon is if I was also ordering something else.

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Spoken like someone who lives relatively near shops where they can buy things in a pinch/hurry. Maybe that's not the case (and I apologize if it's not), but I find that people who have easy/quick/close physical access to most of their needs are often the ones who tend to espouse this attitude.

I have many reasons I use Amazon; none of which have anything to do with being an Amazon lover or apologist (as so many people are quick to label people who don't despise anything and everything about Amazon by default). The two big ones are:

1) When it comes to retail; I am 45 minutes to an hour's drive away from everything except a grocer, a drugstore, and a Dollar General. So considering fuel and auto maintenance, buying stuff online (and I don't buy groceries or drugs online) is more cost effective and a much better use of my time. Lazy? I'll let others quibble over that definition.

2) I've learned the hard way that having your credit card info spread all over stores on the internet (if I wanted to shop around outside of Amazon to find "better" bargains) is a recipe for disaster from a security standpoint. So I consider using Amazon as my primary source of non-perishable online retail goods (retail goods I don't have to drive two hours round-trip to find) to be much more secure. Even if not the most economical.

And no, I would never order tissues from Amazon. So I don't agree that "Amazon makes you lazy." Do I think that people with lazy tendencies might use Amazon in a lazy manner? You bet. But that's a different topic.

Just out of interest - and I am not saying you are right or wrong in using Amazon (as I said everyones situation is different) - what did you do before Amazon existed/ became so popular?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Graham44

Just out of interest - and I am not saying you are right or wrong in using Amazon (as I said everyones situation is different) - what did you do before Amazon existed/ became so popular?

Here
We used to have a much bigger variety of shops. The Malls and City are now dominated by clothing chains. The high rents in the Malls mean less variety. All the ordinary Hardware shops gone and only the out of town big international chains with more expensive and sometimes poorer quality than Amazon. Still some local owned builder's merchants. Fewer toy shops, bookstores, specialist shops. Retail food etc dominated by 5 chains (2 are local, one UK and two German with now many UK products). There are products that simply no-one stocks now.

The retail landscape is dramatically different than 25 years ago when Amazon was mainly paper books.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Graham44

Just out of interest - and I am not saying you are right or wrong in using Amazon (as I said everyones situation is different) - what did you do before Amazon existed/ became so popular?

Besides suffering without, and wasting a lot of gas and time, you mean?

And yes. I've been a customer of Amazon's since all they sold was physical books.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Spoken like someone who lives relatively near shops where they can buy things in a pinch/hurry. Maybe that's not the case (and I apologize if it's not), but I find that people who have easy/quick/close physical access to most of their needs are often the ones who tend to espouse this attitude.

I have many reasons I use Amazon; none of which have anything to do with being an Amazon lover or apologist (as so many people are quick to label people who don't despise anything and everything about Amazon by default). The two big ones are:

1) When it comes to retail; I am 45 minutes to an hour's drive away from everything except a grocer, a drugstore, and a Dollar General. So considering fuel and auto maintenance, buying stuff online (and I don't buy groceries or drugs online) is more cost effective and a much better use of my time. Lazy? I'll let others quibble over that definition.

2) I've learned the hard way that having your credit card info spread all over stores on the internet (if I wanted to shop around outside of Amazon to find "better" bargains) is a recipe for disaster from a security standpoint. So I consider using Amazon as my primary source of non-perishable online retail goods (retail goods I don't have to drive two hours round-trip to find) to be much more secure. Even if not the most economical.

And no, I would never order tissues from Amazon. So I don't agree that "Amazon makes you lazy." Do I think that people with lazy tendencies might use Amazon in a lazy manner? You bet. But that's a different topic.

The choice isn't physical retail vs. Amazon. There's alternative online retailers too. Obviously use your head about where you're going to give your CC info but there's plenty of equally trustworthy alternatives to use and many support things like Paypal to make giving out card details safer. I would argue that perhaps Amazon has made you lazy even just from a mail order online perspective. How often have you honestly checked alternatives? Even just big obvious ones like Walmart.com? Personally I know I was pretty bad about it too, so no judgement just food for thought.

[TheSmitty]

[QUOTE=salamanderjuice;4494657]The choice isn't physical retail vs. Amazon. There's alternative online retailers too .... How often have you honestly checked alternatives? Even just big obvious ones like Walmart.com? Personally I know I was pretty bad about it too, so no judgement just food for thought.[/QUOT

True, I have ordered things from Walmart and Target online stores. And in a couple of days I get what I order. Hard to beat the "order this morning, get it in the afternoon or tomorrow." that I usually experience with Amazon. Would be great if the other retailers could deliver that fast without an additional cost.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

The choice isn't physical retail vs. Amazon. There's alternative online retailers too. Obviously use your head about where you're going to give your CC info but there's plenty of equally trustworthy alternatives to use and many support things like Paypal to make giving out card details safer. I would argue that perhaps Amazon has made you lazy even just from a mail order online perspective. How often have you honestly checked alternatives? Even just big obvious ones like Walmart.com? Personally I know I was pretty bad about it too, so no judgement just food for thought.

I am utterly unwilling at this time to add to the number of online sites that have my credit card/personal info on file. That's not me being lazy. That's me not willing to take any new risks at this point. I've done it in the past:

I've learned the hard way that having your credit card info spread all over stores on the internet is a recipe for disaster from a security standpoint.

and I was rewarded with needing to get a new credit card about every 3-5 months or so (and these were not fly-by-night online retailers). I've gone for about 3.5 years now without the hassle of having to report credit card fraud (and all it entails). So I'm going to keep on doing what I know works.

When I feel dissatisfied in any way with the service(s) I receive from Amazon, perhaps then I will consider switching to a new online retailer. But until then: if it ain't broke, I'm not looking to fix anything.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by Graham44

what did you do before Amazon existed/ became so popular?

I generally spent a lot more money on things than I do now.

Before I had the choice of 27 different brands of some cable I needed, I had to go to BestBuy and pay whatever they wanted for it, if they had it in stock. Later, I moved close to a MicroCenter, so I had another choice for those sorts of things.

Now, I can find exactly the thing I want (although Amazon does have a terrible search at times for such specifics), have it shipped to me for free, and still pay less than at any brick-and-mortar (without even accounting for my time or fuel costs). For technology, NewEgg was the king because of their awesome search, but now that they have a marketplace and have been sold to new owners, they aren't nearly as good as before.

[Sirtel]

Here you can pay local online retailers with a bank transfer, which is more or less instantaneous. No need to give out your credit/debit card details to all and sundry.

I mostly buy my stuff from local retailers, both online and physical. Delivery is usually next day. The stuff for my cats I order from Zooplus.de in Germany, where it's cheaper. I've been an Amazon customer since 1997, but 99% of my purchases there have been books. Even so, I'm not going to delete my account with them. I'll probably just buy less.

[Graham44]

Some interesting points. I can see lots used to shop at other retailers but have moved to Amazon because of cost and convenience.

But surely there in lies the danger - and don't get me wrong I am just as guilty of this - what happens when we all rely on Amazon too much, to the detriment of their rivals, who then go out of business, Amazon has the monopoly and then start to jack up their prices?

Now maybe this won't happen completely, Amazon has been around a while now and they have driven a lot of businesses out of business but they still have plenty of rivals as well. But if it did then we could be in real trouble (it's happened to a degree in the UK, Amazon have destroyed the high street bookstores here, very few left compared to pre-Amazon)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I am utterly unwilling at this time to add to the number of online sites that have my credit card/personal info on file. That's not me being lazy. That's me not willing to take any new risks at this point. I've done it in the past:



and I was rewarded with needing to get a new credit card about every 3-5 months or so (and these were not fly-by-night online retailers). I've gone for about 3.5 years now without the hassle of having to report credit card fraud (and all it entails). So I'm going to keep on doing what I know works.

When I feel dissatisfied in any way with the service(s) I receive from Amazon, perhaps then I will consider switching to a new online retailer. But until then: if it ain't broke, I'm not looking to fix anything.

When an online shop allows PayPal, I use it. Some shops do allow me to opt out of saving my credit card details. So again I opt out.