I think I might cancel. I’m not watching ads and I’m not going to pay the extra $3/mo to opt out. I don’t know if I’d end up paying more than the subscription cost in shipping though…

  • netburnr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    11 months ago

    Most people want the question free returns, that’s really the thing keeping amazon afloat compared to say eBay or aliexpress. Sure you can get the stuff directly from China in most cases, but you have to wait for a month for it to arrive and hope you don’t need to return it.

    As for local stores, they always cost more because of the cost of doing business, which is why Amazon is cheaper and faster to deliver.

    All that said, as long as you can wait a few days, there is no need to pay for Prime, you can still get all the stuff shipped for free if you just wait until you have 45 bucks of stuff to buy.

    • Darkassassin07@lemmy.caEnglish
      51·
      11 months ago

      Sure, but the question free returns are a big part of why no (well, very few) decent brands can be found on Amazon anymore.

      Anyone with actually good products doesn’t have the profit margins to be forced into accepting obviously unacceptable returns. (eg customer returns item they clearly broke, gets full refund, retailer is stuck with it). They also have good enough products that they don’t have to put up with Amazon to reach the masses, they can sell anywhere else.

    • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.comEnglish
      45·
      11 months ago

      You’re speaking like there literally aren’t any online retailers in the US, is that really accurate? And question free returns are literally the law here…

      • Darkassassin07@lemmy.caEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        Question free returns as in even if you’re clearly in the wrong; purchased an item, throughly destroyed it, returned for a full refund. The seller gets to shut up and eat that cost because amazon already gave the customer their money back and isn’t interested in hearing your claim as a seller.

        This is why you can only find random ass bramd names you’ve never heard of throughout 99% of Amazon. Seller’s refuse to be treated this way. (or at least anyone with anything actually worth purchasing)

        • netburnr@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          11 months ago

          Yup. I tried selling on Amazon and ended up back on ebay because perfectly working stuff was being returned and I had to eat the cost of shipping both ways.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Of course there are thousands upon thousands.

        question free returns are literally the law here…

        Which is a privilege that I hope you appreciate. America would never do something as reasonable tbh

      • netburnr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        There are some others, bhphoto being a good one, but many of the online retailers do not have free shipping and many also have return fees. That’s where Amazon saw a way to steal customers away.