My last two orders (over a year ago at this point) took 9 and 11 days to get to me. These were two-day ground shipments, and the products were in stock and fulfilled by Amazon. They simply let them sit for a week, and then shipped the slowest method possible.
This is obviously a ploy for me to sign up for Prime. I'll simply shop elsewhere. Amazon's prices are basically retail at this point, anyways. They used to have lots of deals, but I rarely see that on items I shop for these days.
That's the thing - you're not an Amazon customer if you don't subscribe to Prime. You're the merchant's customer, you just happen to be shopping through Amazon's site.
You're the affiliate sites customer. You're the vendors customer. You're the VISA/Mastercard's customer. You're the gateway/merchant account providers customer.
People need to learn to accept that you simply aren't Amazon's customer unless you buy direct from them, in very much the same way you aren't eBay's customer.
Second: Using their store makes you their customer. If I go into a store and buy a product, giving them my credit card number to purchase merchandise they advertised, that store can't claim that I'm not really their customer, that they're just a distribution platform for the manufacturer, and that they're not responsible for the counterfeit they just sold me.
Second: The courts strongly disagree with you. You are drawing a thin line between marketplace and vendor. As far as the courts are concerned, they are not the same thing, and you absolutely do not have the exact same protections you would in purchasing directly.
No, he's probably still the customer. Amazon still sells things itself (that's what "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com" means). Amazon Marketplace is just part or Amazon.com.
The biggest benefit so far? I am generally ordering less stuff overall. I felt like I had to order x amount of stuff to make my prime membership "worth it", but it was never "worth it". It just resulted in me spending more money with Amazon, even if I had better alternatives around me.
And I also use a fair bit of Walmart and Best Buy ordering now. Both do ship to store as well, though Walmart's is annoyingly lackluster because in-store pickup closes early in the day.
Yeah because WalMart is just a bastion of ethics. Why not support local businesses? I guess you have to ask what you goal is in quitting Amazon - if it's "sticking it to the man", buying stuff from WalMart is probably even worse, ethically.
It has nothing to do with sticking it to anyone. Amazon doesn't have the same value proposition as it once did. I realized I was using it just to use it, among other reasons.
But that's not what anyone means by local.
In addition Amazon has become why I stopped shopping at eBay. Unreliable products from China or outright fakes. Ironically I go to eBay now when I want some genuine tool or part as I can get it used from a US liquidator. Combine that with that I don't really care about Prime videos or "Prime exclusive offers" (which are really fake discounted Chinese goods for the most part)
Amazon just seems to enjoy screwing with anyone who doesn't have Prime, and has done it for years. It's never gotten a lot of coverage because of the pervasiveness of Prime: Anyone reading this comment probably never knew this, because they already had Prime.