Pre-loaded all relatives addresses a few years ago. 30 minutes of shopping for Christmas gifts - assign to addresses - apply gift wrap option and personalized card messages and bada bing! … I 'm done! God bless the internet!
Tell me about it.
I haven’t done much Christmasy stuff this year (call me a Grinch) but I am going nuts using Amazon’s “Marketplace” feature to get used books, DVDs and videotapes. I am on a major movie kick, and I have discovered that with video rentals being $3.50 - $4.00 each, I’m better off in some cases just buying used movies on Amazon.com. (And, a lot of out of print items are available, where in videostores, the selection is vastly limited.) Therefore, I am going a little nuts, ordering stuff. The books and videos are piling up.
The mailman must hate me. I don’t care. It’s been nice. Instead of renting, I’m buying, and the cost is about the same! And I don’t even have to shop around and battle the traffic. It’s been great.
Yeah, I’ve been a regular Amazon.com shopper for about two years now. Love the place.
The only thing that annoys me about them…
-They did not have a game.
-Go to other site, order game.
-Game never arrives.
-Go back to site, look for game once more, still don’t have it.
-Order another game from amazon. This one not nearly as perfect as the first.
-As soon as I finish placing the order, see beneath it “Customers who bought this game also bought ____”
I’m sure you can guess which game they suddenly have.
friedo: I’ll be getting you the scanner. Oh yeah. That’s a low-ticket item!
I’ve considered starting a thread where everyone posts links to their own personal wishlists. It’d be interesting to see if anybody actually received anything on them.
But then I realized that I’d have to post my own wish list, which would reveal to all and sundry what a hopeless geek I am.
Awww, thanks. Now I just gotta find someone sappy enough to shell out a grand for the 20-volume edition of the OED.
Astro, I did the same thing over at www.harryanddavid.com for my family’s Christmas presents. Isn’t it great to have all your shopping done in about 30 minutes without having to shove your way past the crowds in the malls?
Ditto, I did my shopping this year 50-50 online-in person. (usually its more online, but there are some cute local small shops that are perfect for several members of my family, etc.)
However, only two of the seven online gifts were from amazon. All ordered at the same time with 3-4 day delivery estimates. Amazon was the only site that lived up to it. (One of the others had my item backordered but didn’t tell me until I called them asking why my “will ship in 3-4 days” item hadn’t shipped yet!)
Sigh. All ends well though, unlike my nightmare with barnes and noble online.
I did most of my shopping there in September (at 2 am mind you.) It’s such a wonderful feeling going into Thanksgiving with no shopping necessary. Thank you Amazon.
I’d be happy to admit I have the first 175 Choose Your Own Adventure books in mine. Man that took forever to get them in there.
I use Amazon because we don’t have a good bookstore around here, but they pissed me off so badly once that I almost refused to use them again.
Hubby wanted an X-Box game that hadn’t been released yet. For his birthday, I pre-ordered the game. The release date came, and I checked to see if it had been shipped, because I was worried about it arriving on time. It had not. I wrote to customer service, who said that the game had not been released yet.
Hmm, I thought, that’s odd. Particularly since I went to a gaming board and read posts from gamers who were playing it. I wrote back, pointing out that the release date had already passed, and even sent the quotes from gamers. Again, they denied the game had been released. I waited two days, and then wrote again. Their response was basically that they were sorry I was pissed, but they could not sell games before the release date.
So, I went to out local Sam Goody, and bought it, and sent them an e-mail cancelling the order, stating that I had just bought the “un-released” game, and did not particularly appreciate the lies. If their supplier had dropped the ball, and not gotten the game to them on time, that was understandable, but they should just say so. To deny that the game was released by the manufacturer when everyone on god’s green earth but them were selling it stuck me as wrong. They replied and said they were sorry I was dissatisfied, and gave me a $5 gift certificate. I replied that I didn’t want the certificate, I wanted an answer: why did they insist on denying that the game had been released? They again said they were sorry I was dissatisfied, neatly avoiding my question. I never did get an answer from them.
My outrage, however, could not make up for their selection, their recommendation feature, or for the fact that they’re consistently 10% cheaper than other on-line retailers. Combine that with free shipping offers, and I just can’t stay away.
Hubby and I have also sold a lot of used games on Amazon. We usually get about $30 for each X-Box game we sell, and that’s after Amazon’s commission and shipping charges. With a return like that, it’s cheaper than renting and paying the inevitable late fees for forgetting to return it to the store.
I hate amazon.com! I mean, I used to love them, back in the day, but they’ve fallen down on the job.
I recently placed an order around October, didn’t get my stuff till around November. In fact, I had to cancel one movie, because they said it would come around December! So I’m off them. I figure, I can get back to real shopping now.
I see how it’s cool- typing in stuff, getting to see all the selection by an author/band…but the free shipping isn’t worth the weeks and weeks of waiting.
My mum uses them all the time. Their shipping is usually great. They have dropped the ball a couple of times, shipping things after holidays and birthdays and the like, but mostly they’re on target. And the selection is unbeatable.
They found me a secondhand copy of Isaac Asimov’s “The Sensuous Dirty Old Man”!!!
::Swiddles looks left. Swiddles looks right. Swiddles looks at herself in mirror::
And that would differentiate you from the rest of us how? 
I’m all about listening to those little Real Audio clips on a CD. Nothing’s worse then buying a CD and realising you hate all of the songs. Or even most of the songs. With Amazon, you can get a nice little flavor before you commit to the meal.
I’m an amazon.com junkie. I get a thrill when I log in and there’s a message that says, “lainaf, we have recommendations for you”, and they’ll even tell me why they think I’d like those things. They know me so well. They know what I want, they know who my friends are, they know my credit card number. amazon.com is my bestest friend.
Also, I’ve learned how to pick out items that will delay the shipping of an order and put those items in a separate order.
I am normally a big Amazon fan, but it’s getting nerve-racking. X-box ordered a while ago, ordinary shipping will be fine, they said, hasn’t arrived yet.
Two books ordered at the same time. According to Amazon, there is a delay on those and they will ship soon. That’s interesting, because THEY"VE ALREADY ARRIVED.
Has Amazon bought, merged, taken over… CD Now?
I really liked Amazon a few years ago but since they started selling everything from pots to patio furniture they are not as good as they used to be. I remember getting orders in under a week, now I lucky to get everything in a month. Still a good company with a large selection.
I’d like Amazon a lot more if the book I ordered for my nephew’s present would ever get here. Fortunately he’s only four, so I don’t think he’ll notice if he doesn’t get something from me on the day itself.
What I really like about it though, is that it allows me to get rid of some unwanted books I’ve got laying around.