Amazon.com Review

I've been shopping at Amazon for a long time.  The initial reason I really fell in love with the site, way back when, was because they offered free shipping for orders over 25$.  The second reason I loved it was because you could find anything you were looking for there. However Amazon.com has changed over the years and I am currently shopping their sparingly.

Problem #1: Free Shipping only applies to stuff sold by Amazon.... but 90% of the product I add to my cart turns out to be from other stores.  The truth is, I rarely get free shipping ever anymore.  EVERYTHING is sold by third parties, I don't even know if Amazon actually sells anything now.  So the other day I picked out three board games that were cheaper on Amazon then they were on other sites, yet in the end they added on 17$ of shipping!  Geez!!  Now when I shop there, I don't expect free shipping and only buy if the overall total (price + shipping) is cheaper than other stores.

Problem #2: Multiple listings for the same product.  Sometimes I know what I want but am not 100% sure what the box looks like, yet when you search on Amazon you can come up with 3-4-5 listings for what looks to be the same product.  Turns out they are all sold from different places, what a pain!  Sometimes I'm not sure if the link I choose is the best link or the right link.  I find myself having to look at the seller.  For example, the game I wanted was a Cranium game so I had to scan the links and choose the one sold by Cranium if I wanted to be safe.

On the plus side #1: I always get my stuff.  Even with all these random places selling products, I always get my stuff from Amazon.  I've seen and heard others complain that Amazon is untrustworthy, but I've never had a problem.  Maybe it's because I really examine everything I'm about to purchase. 

On the plus side #2: The still do have everything.  Amazon has furniture, clothes, gifts, games, everything but fresh food!  When I'm looking for a new item for my house, a gift for a friend, or anything else, I often start at amazon.  I don't always end at amazon, sometimes I get the ideas from there and then go find it at a local store to avoid shipping, but at least it's a good place to start!

Problem #3: Having it all means... it's hard to find it at times.  A lot of times if you search for a keyword, you won't always come up with all the matches since not all the products may use that keyword.  So I try to find the category the by browsing and sometimes I'm not always sure what category to go to or where to look.  A lot of times I wish I could open a product and then click "open this category" to see other similar items that might not have the same name.

Overall I still shop at Amazon, and I still use my Credit Card to earn Amazon Gift Cards.  Since they do have everything, often times I can find stuff I couldn't find anywhere else.  I have wishlisted a lot of things like a futon, an over-the-toliet thing-a-magig, and some fun items I like.  Currently I'm saving up my amazon gift cards whenever I get them so that I can buy one of the bigger items that I couldn't find elsewhere.  I've bought at least 20 items from Amazon since I opened my account in 2005, but now that the shipping is NOT really all that free, I will be slowing down on purchases if I can find them elsewhere.