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Review: Beware Amazon
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Mr Red Date: 25 Mar 19 - 02:51 AM bugger it up, basically. Anything over £15 coming from outside the EU incurs an import duty. Recent and IMNSHO a rouse to pay for Brexshit. On April 1st (who decided that?) or whenever, a No Deal Brexshit will incur the same penalty. The answer (I learned from experience) is when buying more than one low value item (post free) - buy several times individually, though if on Amazon - watch the price go up. One pair of silly shoes listed at £24 from wish.com (which has a UK address), but the item came direct from China with a declared value of $6. That's the wheeze they can play and increasingly I see it on EBay. I got most of the value the first day I wore them, and the festival season is upon us! |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 24 Mar 19 - 11:23 AM I just bought a brand new boxed preamp/FX unit that started off at about 200 quid for a little over £20... It's already been dispatched for delivery tomorrow - direct from Amazon EU Sa.a.r.L... ..and I don't even have to wait in for it, as it'll be waiting for me at the nearest post office... Playing the Amazon Prime game takes experience to get mostly right... [I wonder how brexit will bugger up this source of great bargains...???] |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Tattie Bogle Date: 24 Mar 19 - 10:52 AM My latest order made 2 days ago: cost £1.40, postage free. BUT estimated arrival date April 20th! Just as well I'm not in a hurry for it: think it's coming from China judging by the name of the seller. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Mr Red Date: 22 Mar 19 - 01:49 PM Amazon TV is very much "each to his own" No MotoGP, No WSBK, No MotoX. No Amazon TV in Rouge Towers. As far as I can see the proliferation of available channels has definitely diluted the genre. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jack Campin Date: 22 Mar 19 - 10:40 AM Meanwhile Bezos wants to stitch up the entire UK food distribution network for his slaver business amid the chaos of Brexit stockpiling: Guardian story Catastrophe capitalism at its worst. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 22 Mar 19 - 08:45 AM Jim - we were cross posting... This is something we remain solidly in agreement on. Shit work conditions and bad employers... Now I've gone from waking up bleary eyed and sluggish, to absolutely seething against the tories again... Not good for my blood pressure... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 22 Mar 19 - 08:39 AM EBarnacle - fair point.. and not the easiest to reconcile remaining a prime member with... One vile billionaire versus a slightly less appalling billionaire.. ..and you don't get that rich by being the nicest guy... I'd hope at least UK Amazon workforce have better conditions and pay, but wouldn't count on it... [I'm the son of a 'lowly' council estate family.. A factory machine operative father, and old folks home cleaner/care worker/arse wiper mother. My dad was a union shop steward - so labour relations politics is ingrained in me; and one of my primary political motivators...] I despair we will never get a Labour Govt in power again... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jim Carroll Date: 22 Mar 19 - 08:36 AM PFR I have used Amazon reluctanly on several occasions despite their poor reputation of how they pay and treat their employees This is SEVERAL YEARS OLD EARLIER LAST YEAR BRITAIN Jim Carroll |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: gillymor Date: 22 Mar 19 - 08:34 AM Good point, EBarnacle, but it's awfully difficult, for me anyway, to find merchants that don't exploit workers but also offer goods at prices I can afford. As one who's benefited from past membership in several unions I believe in people's right to organize and would accept whatever that would mean to the market place but will still opt for the lowest price, in most cases, that can be attained. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: EBarnacle Date: 22 Mar 19 - 08:04 AM Everyone here is talking about Amazon, its products and its relationship with its customers and sellers. They are ignoring its relationship with its employees. There are current lawsuits against Amazon for anti-union activities, including terminating employees for attempting to organize. One of the reasons the Amazon deal fell through is that they refused to allow their employees the freedom to organize. First Amendment, anyone? Bezos may be left leaning but his loyalty is to the buck, not to integrity. His company is just as rapacious as Wal-Mart. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 02:10 PM Jim - that's why I can't help being suspicious.. Anyone can quickly open an Amazon 3rd party shop to sell anything, apparently... Including folks wanting to set up Amazon for a discrediting outrage news story... Just saying... We wouldn't want to take our eyes off the ball, and be hoodwinked into doing trumpists dirty work for them...??? I think unless better informed, I'd remain neutral and refrain from blaming Amazon for spreading & profiting this evil manifesto... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jim Carroll Date: 21 Mar 19 - 01:43 PM "Jim - where exactly did you read about Amazon's response to a seller promoting/profiting on the manifesto of evil..." The above reference is from Vox - the announcement that Amazon had the manifesto on sale appeared on the front page of 'The (English) Times three days after the shooting The Times is a Murdoch bum-wipe but has an important enough reputation to protect not to invent news Don't know anything about Vox Jim |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 01:19 PM Jim - where exactly did you read about Amazon's response to a seller promoting/profiting on the manifesto of evil... What's your source...??? Remember Trump despises the owner of Amazon, and his left leaning newspaper... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jim Carroll Date: 21 Mar 19 - 01:12 PM "What makes you think it doesn't already...???" I have seen no indication that they have so far but have acknowledge that they might have Personally, given the nature of this attack I put this manifesto in the same category as a would child porn - the deliberate killing of a child and its parent in NZ made me feel almost physically ill I would castigate child porn sites - why not this ? If Facebook can delete film clips before they hit the site, I see no reason why Amazon can't do so over a matter of days This is a few days old "Why tech companies failed to keep the New Zealand shooter’s extremism from going viral" Still, interest is growing. In the 2020 presidential primary race, Democratic candidates have vowed to take on Big Tech — Sen. Elizabeth Warren has gone as far as proposing to break up Google, Facebook, and Amazon, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar is expected to make tech reform a banner issue for her campaign. A quick search reveals that while on the one hand The Daily mail castigates the shooting, it publishes far too many verbatim quotes from the killer I thought the extremely dignified and humane statement by the New Zealand Prime Minster who has instantly announced that she will act on gun ownership and declared that she will never mention the name of the killer publicly is the level of response necessary Jim |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 01:05 PM .. let's put it this way.. out of all the shops remaining open on ghost town British high streets, how many do we know aren't surviving by selling dodgy goods under the counter, or pervy services in the back room...??? It's bloody difficult for consumer protection and trading standards to keep track of all that lot... However, Amazon is arguably more effective at policing it's sellers due to automated high tech systems and approx 300 million customers who can report any product or seller we can accuse of being problematic... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 12:44 PM "but I think the site needs to take responsibility for what it markets Jim - What makes you think it doen't already...??? First google stat I found - "There are over 5 million marketplace sellers across all Amazon marketplaces.23 Jan 2019" .. accurate enough for our puposes... Any customer - you, me, anyone, can freely report a dodgy product or seller, and expect a response from Amazon within a reasonable time... 5 million sellers takes some significant effort to police.. can't be the easiest job... Even good sellers complain that Amazon acts too swiftly and harshly against them if a buyer makes a false complaint... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jim Carroll Date: 21 Mar 19 - 12:30 PM "Jim, this would be one of those small vendors I mentioned, NOT the Amazon company itself" I'm sure that's true Stilly, but I think the site needs to take responsibility for what it markets I haven't followed up the story, and if the seller has been dropped, fair enough Facebook is up to its uxters in problems for what is posted on its site, but fair play to them over this atrocity - they were able to block 2000200 posts before they went on line and have removed as many from their site I'm not a great user of the social media but it heartens me no end to see them taking this level of responsibility Jim |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Iains Date: 21 Mar 19 - 11:43 AM As amazon attempted to market copies of the manifesto of the killer who carried out the New Zealand massacre I intend to give them a wide berth in future Jim Carroll Where to strike the balance? https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/03/15/uk-tabloids-facing-moral-brand-safety-questions-over-christchurch-terror-video It is always difficult to strike the right balance between reporting the news and giving publicity to the wrong ideas. UK tabloids have been criticised for publishing footage of the Christchurch mosque terror atrocity, in which 49 people were murdered, on their websites. Despite New Zealand police urging the public not to share the "extremely distressing" first-person footage taken by the gunman, who livestreamed his attack on Facebook, The Mail, The Sun and The Mirror all ran excerpts online. The Mirror claimed it ran no ads with the content. Since this morning, all three publishers have removed the videos. Social giants YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit were also playing catchup to delete footage and accounts related to the shooter. BuzzFeed reports that Mail Online hosted an edited version of the shooter’s video, showing him wielding a gun as he entered a mosque - the footage cut before fire was opened. It also hosted and enabled the download of the attacker’s 84-page hate speech manifesto as a PDF. These have since been removed from the site. At the time of publication, it was continuing to use a still image of the shooter entering the mosque. I will continue to peruse the online tabloids referred to. I do not agree with a lot of the Guardian editorials either, but I still read them(while holding my nose!) |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 11:23 AM Stilly - in this world of crazies and conspiracists... I wouldn't even be that surprised if the vendor was covertly 'associated' with the Times et al... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Mar 19 - 11:17 AM As amazon attempted to market copies of the manifesto of the killer who carried out the New Zealand massacre I intend to give them a wide berth in future Jim Carroll Jim, this would be one of those small vendors I mentioned, NOT the Amazon company itself. And the seller probably got his ass kicked out of Amazon. I did a search just now and found an 8chan shirt suggesting "Mercy and Forgiveness" (Isn't that a mixed message from that group!) and a couple of American gun-rights groups offerings. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 11:05 AM ..and now I've had enough mugs of strong black tea and am a bit more awake.. instead of "engaged in a vindictive war" I would better express it as... Trump and right wing cronies "waging a vindictive war against" the man, his newpaper, and business empire/fortune... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 09:28 AM .. and let's not forget Trump and supporters, and allied right wing media, are engaged in a vindictive war with the man who owns Amazon.. and interestingly/coincedently enough, the newspaper he also owns... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 10:23 AM Jim - where's the evidence of that...??? All I can find are refernces to an accusation made by the Times. But to read that article it looks like I neeed to create an account with that tory bumrag.. which I refuse to do on principle... [the principle that i can't be arsed...] If this manifesto is on sale at Amazon I'd be amazed if it was being sold directly by them. More likely a nasty 3rd party seller, which should rightfully be reported to Amazon asap for banning and account suspension... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: gillymor Date: 21 Mar 19 - 10:12 AM You can have my Amazon Prime account when you pry it out of my cold dead hands, if only for the deals I get on used and remaindered books that I couldn't find elsewhere, at least not at an affordable price. I enjoy going into the marketplace having coffee and interacting with folks but I don't enjoy the big loud box stores like WalMart, Target and Best Buy and Amazon makes trips to those places unnecessary. Also I live in a town that no longer has a music store to speak of and have to travel 40 miles north to a Guitar Center if I want to shop in the 3D. In my numerous purchases from Amazon I've never felt like I've gotten a bad deal, if they don't have the most attractive offering I buy elsewhere on the web. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 10:04 AM ... or UK...????? |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 09:49 AM Jon - I am mostly in accord with your very level headed view on this... We have no choice but to leave it to First world Governments/Presidents to indulge in punative trade sanctions against poorer developing regions... Me and the mrs would only hurt an even worse off family on the other side of the world, by boycoting their produce... Just so we could make a show to our liberal peers of our self rightious indigation against tyrannical political leaders, or 'sinister' global corporations... Maybe we should boycot everything made in the USA...??? |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jon Freeman Date: 21 Mar 19 - 09:24 AM (personally wouldn't pay for) |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jon Freeman Date: 21 Mar 19 - 09:23 AM I don't know, pfr. We don't have Sky tv and, personally (not that I buy one - I just look at the dad's daily copies of the "i" and the local EDP) pay for any Murdoch press or for that matter, the Express or Mail.. Shopping for goods is another matter though and there are other factors. A small local town with limited shops, parking further away from the shops than my mother would walk without a lot of pain and struggling (and of course the cost of parking) and the say 30 mile each way trip into the city centre not being that feasible for any of us. On line shopping in itself really is a godsend here. Of course that still leaves the question of Amazon but the reality is that we are going to compare prices and the ability get a large number of our purchases from just one place with just one (ok 3, we each have our own) rather than shopping different places, entering card details each time is convenient, etc. Perhaps on my "highest principles", you could rate me as "could do better" but the realities work out otherwise... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 21 Mar 19 - 09:03 AM ...as I said yesterday... A lot of us are not well off enough to afford the luxury of boycotting amazon on principle... Consumerist boycots are such a sanctimonious middle class form of protest...??? |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: GUEST,JHW Date: 21 Mar 19 - 06:55 AM I've never used Amazon as there seems no way of making a one off purchase. They demand I leave them all my details at the mercy of a password. Thanks for the extra warning. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: GUEST,Modette Date: 21 Mar 19 - 06:47 AM Read James Bloodworth's 'Hired' and you'll never again use Amazon. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jim Carroll Date: 21 Mar 19 - 06:28 AM As amazon attempted to market copies of the manifesto of the killer who carried out the New Zealand massacre I intend to give them a wide berth in future Jim Carroll |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Iains Date: 21 Mar 19 - 06:07 AM High streets are shrinking, Amazon becomes larger. Good choices, good prices, armchair shopping. This is the future! No time wasted traveling to shops, no fuel wasted. The range of goods on offer is phenomenal. If video killed the radio star then amazon trashed the high streets, ably assisted by business rates. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: GUEST,matt milton Date: 21 Mar 19 - 05:40 AM Both Thomann and dv247.com are online retailers that offer no-quibbles 30 days returns: i.e. an item doesn't have to be faulty for you to return it, you might just simply decide you don't like it. Both of them provide a lot of very cheap but often good quality Chinese-made instruments. If I were going to buy a uke and probably start there. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Mar 19 - 09:42 PM Amazon may appear to be a monolithic seller, but it in fact opens the marketplace to lots and lots of smaller sellers, and I would hazard a guess that it is the individuals who are raising prices when they detect interest. I suggest looking at the actual seller's name and ratings and other items for sale. And you can report unethical sellers. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jos Date: 20 Mar 19 - 04:31 PM It can be worth making an offer on ebay items, it is up to the seller and some aim high not expecting to get the price they ask. Some will only countenance a small reduction but recently I offered £31 for an item listed at £50 and it was accepted straight away. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 20 Mar 19 - 03:53 PM Yeah.. me & the mrs - as progressive as we like to try to be, unfortunatley we're not well off enough to afford the luxury of boycotting amazon on principle... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jon Freeman Date: 20 Mar 19 - 03:43 PM On that, pfr, I can ponder the size and power of Amazon... But in practice, we use it and have had very few problems. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 20 Mar 19 - 03:34 PM Jon - fair do's.. no problem.. just some folks here have a deep set ideological/moral revulsion regarding Amazon, and some just can't come to terms with a world post the discovery of electricity... Actually I'm surprised they aint been in here yet having a right proper protest... maybe the've not woke up from afternoon naps and lit their oil lamps and candles yet...????? |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jon Freeman Date: 20 Mar 19 - 03:21 PM Sure pfr. I'm not trying to suggest others should not be interested. It's just a service in the price that the 3 in this household have no interest in. Most media use here is what's on tv and (even though this part gets more limited) I am equipped to record 4 simultaneous free to air satellite programs and share that and cds throughout the house via mythtv and DLNA. And Youtube use. Most common media purchase here would most likely be say an opera dvd or blu ray for Christmas. It's just the way different households work out. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 20 Mar 19 - 03:06 PM oh yes, and Kindle.. Mrs punkfolkrocker looks forward to the start of every month and the choice of free Prime books... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 20 Mar 19 - 03:05 PM "The media part is just a menace to us, none of us are interested" Well me and the mrs are very interested - so that's two massively different opinions... Excellent variety of streaming movies and TV shows in decent HD quality... and I can listen all over the house as long as I like every day to all kinds of diverse genres of music... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jon Freeman Date: 20 Mar 19 - 02:33 PM The media part is just a menace to us, none of us are interested and the prompts you can get asking you to try are annoying. Useful to me with Prime is that I can share my mother's Prime on my account so we can split the fee 2 ways. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: GUEST,Some bloke Date: 20 Mar 19 - 02:23 PM Meanwhile, Amazon has been the most amazing aid to shopping for us, for most people I know and I suspect for the millions who use them for the ease, efficiency and pre sales reviews, not to mention £79 a year getting you next day delivery, a video library next only to Netflix and a surprisingly good selection of streaming music, not to mention books at member only prices etc etc Guitar strings, picks, cleaning gear, most of my pa gear. Buying instruments on line from anywhere is Russian Roulette but if it isn’t as described etc, Amazon returns are simple. Download a returns number, take the item sans box if you wish to the collections place (10 mins away for me) and hand it in letting them scan the return code. Next day, money back in account. Beware them? Before long, it’ll be the only place you can buy your foil hats. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Mr Red Date: 20 Mar 19 - 02:21 PM I have seen Amazon prices go up because I didn't buy the first time. I didn't buy the second. Their algorithms should learn that some buyers get annoyed when they are taken for a mug. If the price is controlled by the buyers willingness to buy now, I can wait. EBay sometimes have a "Make an Offer" button. Tried it once, didn't work. I wasn't greedy, tried about 5% off. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Jon Freeman Date: 20 Mar 19 - 02:15 PM I've definitely seen fake reviews. Series of glowing ones way to good to be true. I think these often involved free samples given away by sellers and had been under the impression that Amazon had at least made some effort to curtail these. As for reading reviews in general, I try to make a point of going through the negative ones. Some can be nonsensical eg. "item arrived late" or "wrong item supplied" but I do like to try work out where people have had a genuine problem with an item before making a purchase. |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 20 Mar 19 - 02:14 PM I'll mention that nearly all my purchases are direct from Amazon Prime. I tend to avoid 3rd party sellers unless the shop is well known, or the product so cheap, like cheaper than pound shop prices, I don't worry if it's 'problematic'... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: punkfolkrocker Date: 20 Mar 19 - 02:09 PM Not boasting, just presenting reality of keeping a watch on Amazon prices.. I've bought sets of CAD & Lewitt mics at bonkers low prices off Amazon... They must have been aware their system was doing this, but are making so much profit they don't care...??? I took advantage too much for my own sensible requirements, so stopped looking for mics. Just out of interest - today's prices for CAD & Lewitt look 'normal'... Though searching under "Musical Instruments & DJ" for CAD is now inexplicably showing a variety of sex toys and bondage products from page 6 onwards...??? Put on your reading glasses if you think you are ordering what looks like a mic on page 7.... |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: Tattie Bogle Date: 20 Mar 19 - 02:03 PM My biggest worry is about buying fakes which may be either useless, or worse still, dangerous, e.g. phone or laptop batteries. I don't necessarily go for the cheapest ("you get what you pay for" as they say). I read numerous reviews, although I know there can be fake reviews. My first mobile phone replacement battery was described as "genuine" - which it may have been, but definitely not new - probably salvaged from a traded in phone: came wrapped in a small piece of bubble wrap, no original packaging or instructions. It worked only marginally better than the one I was replacing and died after 6 months. The next one I bought was a Chinese replica: paid a bit more: works well, doesn't overheat. Lap-top battery: got one that was twice as much as the cheapest available, but had excellent reviews, and half the price of one from the computer manufacturer. And it was good: arrived already charged, lasted longer per charge than the original, doesn't overheat either. But now, after 3 years of use, getting towards the short charge scenario, so looking again for one as good as that one was (but can't find same again.) |
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Subject: RE: Review: Beware Amazon From: keberoxu Date: 20 Mar 19 - 01:55 PM by ugly music, leeneia, you mean the Muzak piped into the air in the shop? |
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