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@futurebird @nazokiyoubinbou @justafrog @clayote Interesting. I would like to hear more about these experiences. My own returns have been nearly frictionless.

@fivetonsflax @nazokiyoubinbou @justafrog @clayote

So in total I ate about $120 in stuff that didn't arrive as it ought to have.

Further the whole process was very difficult including insisting that I return empty and broken items and pay for postage. None of the local drop boxes being open so having to use a mailing center and pay out of pocket. Simply horrible.

It made dropping them much easier.

And it's been easier than I thought. I've found everything I needed otherwise.

@futurebird @nazokiyoubinbou @justafrog @clayote Suck.

I recently returned one item that was of poor quality, and another that my brother ordered by accident. Each around $100. I just brought them to a UPS store and showed a QR code that Amazon gave me.

I’m guessing the main variable here is the attitude of the seller.

@fivetonsflax @nazokiyoubinbou @justafrog @clayote

Nah. I think it's because I live in the Bronx and Amazon hasn't made enough allowances for dealing with the volume and needs of cities. They have drop boxes but you can't use them. They have drop off sites, but not in my neighborhood which is one of the densest residential districts in the nation.

It's unacceptable.

@fivetonsflax @nazokiyoubinbou @justafrog @clayote

For example they think a "15mile radius" is reasonable to suggest sites for people who like in NYC. It's not. There are 8 million people between me and any point 15 miles away. It's a big deal to travel that far in a city.

Also, I looked at their prices... and they have gotten so high in recent years. Since I dropped them I have so much more money LOL.

@futurebird @fivetonsflax @nazokiyoubinbou @justafrog @clayote Poverty requires I shop harder than I'd like, but I find that Amazon's prices are higher for most items unless I can't find them anywhere else, in which case I don't know if they're higher than they should be or n ot..

@futurebird @servelan @fivetonsflax @nazokiyoubinbou @justafrog @clayote I’ve been actively avoiding Amazon for about ten years. I first realised that they were not the cheap option when I bought some garden furniture 15 years ago. I discovered that the same seller sold the four-seat version for the price I paid them for the two-seat version on Amazon. After that, I started using Amazon just for discovery: find the thing I want to buy there and then find the place I actually buy it from elsewhere. Often, searching for the product name and seller from Amazon will take you to another shop front that charges less because it isn’t giving Amazon a cut.

For book, even Hive, which supports local book sellers, is cheaper.

Niche things that used to be Amazon-only are now often sold through eBay as well (eBay seems to have become more of a generic shop front and less of a second-hand auction site now).

@david_chisnall I do the same.