Why do we put up with Amazon?
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- Опубликовано: 21 апр 2021
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The new Amazon ad of a guy rocking his baby to sleep while scrolling through Amazon is quite unsettling, it made me realise just how big a part of your life they want to be.
Right, like spend time with your child. At least wait until your done! Don't let shopping replace your kid.
Link?
Recommend reading: Platform Capitalism by Nick Srniceck
Did you see the 'South Park' Amazon episode?
Every Time I saw that advert i also felt a bit uneasy too
He's a prime example
That's a funny joke
Oh you
I see what you did there 😂
Most online stores have free shipping if your order is above a certain dollar amount. Use that shopping cart they give you and only checkout when you're above the threshold. You'll get free shipping, slow down your impulse buying, and not send a dime to Amazon.
Groovy joke baby
Can we talk about how Linus is donating $20,000 of the money he made off his April Fools OnlyFans gag to Louis Rossman's Right to Repair initiative?
"i simp for right to repair"
Legend.
@Emmit G yes
Maybe
No we can't.
Everytime I hear a Teams notification from this video, I keep thinking it is my boss pinging me on my work laptop
pebis
i love how when you order anything with prime they give you a box like 10x bigger than the product
yup. Once got a box smaller than a pencil case and they shipped that in a tv sized box.
I just think of it as a bonus.
You get free shipping with free box and packaging
order an SD card
. . .
arrives in a box larger than a full-size tower gaming PC 🤣
Also when you select the option to have everything shipped in one box so everything can arrive on the same day when your home. And then just decide to ignore it and ship everything in deferent boxes. Thanks amazon......
I've heard they do it so it can fill up the truck to stop packages from bouncing around. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me (what happens when they're halfway through deliveries for the day and a bunch of them are gone?) but that's what I've been told.
Had a tiny laugh here :D
10:40 - Luke .exe shuts down
10:59 - Luke .exe has restarted after an unexpected error
Yo he didn’t even blink like what the hell! 😂
😂😂😂 he froze for the full 20 seconds
He completely zoned out I think lol
Bro he really did just freeze in place
Maybe he was updating and then restarted on his own after that. :P
I'm with you guys when it comes to buying from Amazon. I do what Luke does, find the item and buy from somewhere else. The only reason I have kept my Prime account is because I stream a lot of Prime content on my TV because I don't have cable TV.
I think having Prime for the video content is the only defensible use of Prime.
I love this conversation. The more I learn about Amazon, the less I like the company. I used prime for years without much thought about the company's business practices or political meddling. For whatever reason, this year I've finally begun to wake up to just how terrible Amazon is (from their anti-competitive practices to their awful track record with employees and all manner of other shady BS). I'm currently in the process of de-Amazoning my life.
Well, on the flip side, they're an American company and not located overseas. Despite their practices, no one has to work for them or is forced to use them. It's just like Walmart. It's convenient, so people will continue to use them.
@@danieldavis3035 It's also just like Apple. They're a despicable company, but yet people continue to buy Iphones and Macs. So this discussion is pretty much pointless.
I feel like charging a fee to act as a fulfillment service, failing to fulfill the item as expected, and then charging you another fee for "return or cancellation" should be an illegal practice. They are the fulfillment service. The onus is on them to ensure that the package makes it to the customer. I feel like that's a potential class action lawsuit against Amazon.
It should be. Kind of like getting charged a late fee by credit card companies when the fault is theirs for not processing it on time even though they received the payment on time. Yes, that actually happened.
You don't know how difficult that really is. I work in the very process that makes that happen and I can tell you from experience, it's not easy. The biggest problem isn't the process itself, it's people. People and their ways of not giving a shit. It's made even worse because amazon has embraced the idea of identity politics where your efforts in work are always undermined by your victim points. People with high victim points but low competence are often put in positions of authority, and let me tell you, it's a trickle down effect. This is mostly the US as far as I can tell but it's a global company.
The problem is actually consumerism and the "two-day" shipping. Amazon workers and drivers cannot stop to pee or take a meal because they get penalized for not getting their quota of packages in on the exact day. It is not in their interest to check if an item is correct before sending it, because that uses time. If your package arrives to you even just one day late (which in most situations, who cares), be mindful that someone probably got fired.
@@EpictheEpicest
I work at Amazon I have never heard of this. Do you have a source?
@@jasoncarto No offense, but if you work at Amazon and have never heard of it, you must have only just started or been living under a rock. Lawsuits have been filed; These stories and others like it are all over the place. If you've avoided this kind of treatment, great, hopefully it continues for you. Your supervisors must be decent people. www.businessinsider.com/amazon-drivers-say-peeing-in-bottles-common-despite-company-denials-2021-3
time.com/5629233/amazon-warehouse-employee-treatment-robots/
www.cnbc.com/2020/10/14/amazon-resumes-policy-that-dings-workers-for-taking-too-many-breaks.html
"What does success in this role look like?" I love that. Kind of a spin on asking "what are the expectations of this role". I am totally stealing that for my next interview.
I fear it is or will become a generic question. Heard it many times.
I feel like it would make a really good question for interviewers to ask potential employees.
@@sohaibarif2835 It already is.
It's definitely a good one. I usually phrase it as 'when we sit down 1 year from now to discuss how that first year has been, what would you consider as successful?'. Same thing but with a hint of wanting/expecting regular discussions around improvement as well as a subtle shift in tone from a question about the role to a question about the future as though we already work together. I don't dig the corporate kool-aid vibe of most interview tips or whatever, but it's good to have some good things to use.
Also asking things around 'what are you personally measured on?/what are the goals in the next 12 months for you?' is always great, same with 'what are the goals/outcomes this team works towards'. Lil bit less generic and kinda gets you a bigger picture of how the company and person think and operate as well as showing some interest in that (whether you actually care or not)
Your philosophy of “the CEO isn’t the boss but everyone is his boss” is a great nugget of wisdom. It’s a great mindset that I need to apply to my business.
Amazon cancelled my 3080 order without notifying me at all. Just straight up canceled something that was supposed to be sent out weeks ago.
That sucks. Aren't GPU's even more overpriced than they were before on Amazon anyways?
@@Anas-ux9vi it was actually priced at MSRP. Which I should've known was too good to be true
@@Native8KGamer Man, that just sucks even more.
I've been trying to buy a CPU for two weeks now, from Amazon. It's still not even dispatched, despite showing available stock when I ordered and it's fulfilled by amazon.
Outside sellers do that, highly doubt it was amazon
It's crazy how they're advertising their store so much it basically became a meme yet they simply can't drop their amazon page.
That's corpo power for ya
corpo? its we the people buying from amz
@@mba4677 well there’s no other option here tbh.. here 2 corporations hold 90% of the market in digital electronics (Germany)
@@Kae_S sounds like there’s 10% there you can use
@@EdgarHernandez-xj5mx those 10 % cost almost double from the 90% n being jobless atm , I don’t think I can afford that
@@Kae_S you probably can. it just means an awful lot of sacrifice.
As someone who has worked in an amazon warehouse the pissing in bottles is a bit overblown they actually give you a clear plastic bottle you can piss into when they hire you so it seems to be fair game.
And that is supposed to make it better? I have worked for them before but it was before it got like it is now but I wouldn't go back.
@@wades623 *Sarcasm*
Oh brub on our warehouse, they just gave us a PISSING DESIGNATED CORNER with a bunch of buckets. There were rumours of a piss stealin goblin because those buckets sometimes magically dissapeared and returned empty.
@@wades623 woosh...
Luckily in my country (Finland) we have plenty of alternatives to Amazon... it's only when I can't find a really specific object (mostly an obscure, vintage book) anywhere else (ebay included) that I resort to Amazon... and the closest one atm. is in Germany (and I'm fine with that.)
In Germany Amazon tries to forbid workers from wearing FFP2 masks during a pandemic, because there are labour laws that would grant employees additional breaks from work when wearing those for prolonged periods of time. Just lovely.
Well masks don't even do anything for covid anyway so they're spot on for not wasting money on the extra breaks and shit
@@joeyguitar2056 🤦🏼♂️
Lemon juice is really good for removing plastic and metallic smells in water bottles btw!!!
Not a tip we asked for, but the helpful tip we all need.
Why not just use citric acid?
Edit: Yes, I know citric acid is in lemon juice, what I meant was citric acid powder, commonly used in detergents.
The Amazon workers peeing in bottles thank you for the amazing tip.
@@Crlarl because lemon juice is citric acid and most people have RealLemon in their fridge. Citric acid would work as well. Any food safe acid that will strip the passivation layer from the stainless steel is going to do the job.
The true Linus Tech(?) Tips are always in the comments
that reminds me of the shop I found for bike parts in France ( LeCyclo) and they provide a consumer help for free ( answering question, directting you to cheaper alternatives, making sure your parts fits together), and even having a fidelity system that actually makes them cheaper than Amazon.
some online shops really deserve the love.
There are three reasons why I shop almost exclusively on Amazon and it has nothing to do with price. In fact a lot of the time Amazon is more expensive.
Reason one is financial security. I placed my bank information with Amazon six years ago. That was the last time my debit card information was transmitted across the Internet. Paypal was a decade ago. I feel every time a person sends those numbers to a retailer there's an element of financial risk.
Reason two is the return policy. About a month ago I bought a toaster and it lasted precisely one slice of toast. I put it back in it's box, took it over to my local Amazon distribution store and it was returned. No interrogation, and no inspection. I was in and out in under two minutes.
Reason three is centralized tracking. Enough said.
I haven't been in a department or specialty store since before the beginning of the pandemic. Like it or not Amazon is here to stay. They won. As far as labor conditions are concerned yes, Amazon is shitty. And so is Walmart and all the other price driven corporations. Until the people of this country stop voting against their own interests and embrace unionized labor and demand decent working practices and conditions I have no sympathy with them.
I work at Amazon doing vendor returns, so likely the department where your bottles are. For some reason they just let it pile up to a crazy amount before they bring people over to process it. It's not a department that is staffed everyday. Night shift doesn't even work that department. Like there have been times where the information sheet on the cart will say that it was due to go out weeks, even months prior to us even starting on it.
Luke is %100 right. The competition has gotten better with their pricing and if you aren't a compulsive buyer, you can just pay shipping or be patient with other online retailers and get a better deal than with Amazon. So, just google the product you want to buy and hit on the shopping tab. You might even find a second hand product at a great price in good conditions, but don't count on it because people seem to be stupid and think all they own is a collectors item or something. So, if you don't care about amazon music or amazon streaming service, you can get away without using Amazon.
Just bought a gaming laptop that I obviously wanted to get here ASAP, and Amazon's estimated arrival date was the 28th for the free shipping!! I bought it through Best Buy instead, SAME PRICE, free shipping and it came the 23rd!! I ordered on the 20th by the way. I was shocked.
I try my best to avoid Amazon at all costs. I think Luke put it in the best way, “Vote with your Wallet.”
Doesn't work with large businesses that have monopolies. It's a nice thought.
@@James_Bee Amazon's not a monopoly though...
Yep, don't buy from companies dumb enough to sell their stuff on Amazon.
@@mavfan1 you mean like LMG?
Same. I go to the vendor sites as often as possible
1:40 He does the same thing I do; having to work in retail, you can get familiar with SKU's and the specific details of an item.
You should team up with other floatplane merch stores and set up multple warehouses (one in the us and one in europe to start with) so you can offer more comptitie shipping options.
Reason I use Amazon for LTT stuff is that its a lot cheaper to deliver to the UK because of all the shipping and taxes.
Wait, you don't pay the import taxes via amazon? So what did it cost to ship some LTT product to you? Because on every order I did, I have to pay lots of import cost (20% of total or something)
@@Martinspire You pay some but it’s much less than buying directly. also shipping is about 2 times cheaper
Wait do you order over amazon.uk or amazon.ca? Because saving import taxes was my first thought when Linus showed that amazon has ltt water bottles.
Good damn import taxes, every youtuber ships his merch from America or canada, Wich seemingly are the only two countries whiteout great import rules for Europe, i can order from Japan, France, China, Australia and Taiwan, whiteout paying more than a few bucks in taxes, but nooo as soon as it comes from America i suddenly have to pay 15€ import taxes for my 20€ T-shirt.
Its at the point that i even thought about getting in contact with lmg to build up a distribution in europe xD
@@Ocastia Depends on the country, but most of EU country doesn't apply tax on package worth less than 25-30€, also a lot of air mail is not open by custom so you pay nothing (just avoid transporter, you will always pay taxes (which is normal) and fee from the transporter that are often more expensive than the vat)
"Amazon search is fantastic!"
Do we live in parallel universes, Luke? Like seriously, what??
No, he does have a good point. I usually shop for things on Amazon because there are a massive range of products available in addition to more consumer reviews. But then when it comes to ordering the product, I do an additional search to find were else I could find the product. For instance, I order most of my tech direct from the manufacture or through Best Buy.
@@gibby3350 ...and Best Buy is in any shape or form ethically, environmentally or qualitatively better than Amazon?
@@RetiredRhetoricalWarhorse They haven't yet had to apologize that their employees are overworked to the point of peeing in bottles. Also, why does it have to be those three things? What if you just want things to be cheaper and fairer priced so you're willing to support competition in the market place. No matter how good a company is for the consumer, they're better when other companies are competing for said consumer.
@@MN-jw7mm I think you've gone with the first headline you've read and nothing else because that ain't what happened... at all.
I can agree with the second half of your post though.
Newegg search is 1000x's better than Amazon search. I am amazed how bad Amazon search is given the size of their company.
@LMG Clips - I had a book of my own on Amazon and found it being sold as used, yet my sales status through my publisher showed that I had 0 sales at the time. I found out that some publishers try to make the book look popular by posting it as "used" but it is actually a posting for new. I wasn't happy with my publisher when I found this out, because I felt that it was deceptive. It also made me question if my book was being sold without me receiving royalties.
Got prime while I was a student 5years ago. Stopped being a student 4years ago but aslong as I don't cancel it I still only pay £35 a year instead of £70 🤣
na man, its only active for 3 years or so, after that you can renew your student plan
Shhhhh not so loud
I did that for a while. Eventually it just changed to the full price a few years after I graduated. Enjoy it as long as it gets overlooked
Ah right. That may still be a thing, because they never once asked me for recertification after the first sign-up as student. Let's see how that works out after the "watching really expensive Zoom meetings" part of my life is over. (EDIT: Amazon also doesn't care that I have a Amazon Business account to the same door WHILE being a student - which is the truth but looks weird at first glance).
Meanwhile, Spotify needed to do a re-certification of Student status every single year. Which takes literally 2 minutes, but still...
I have been Amazon-free for almost two years. Purchased 1 Christmas present in a pinch... Target (I am from the land of Target) and local stores has been more than enough for me.
Target is SO much more expensive than anywhere else.
@@infinitematches9053 I have tracked my purchased and compared equivalent products and yes some items are more expensive but marginally. Further, not confronted with so many options means I am making informed decisions and saving money by purchasing in the basis of need not marketed to... if that makes sense?
I like buying in store myself. I find it so much nicer than waiting for a package.
@@spaghettiupseti9990 not really. Pay for Target is pretty crap compared to Amazon and honestly they do some of the same things people cry about Amazon does. It's odd.
De-Amazoning was really tough to get used to, when i loved in the UK i never used it at first but then my film streaming site lovefilm got bought by amazon, so i started using amazon video, soon i realised my Prime sub also gave me free shipping and thats when it started, EVERYTHING was amazon and life was just so convenient, broken cable? Amazon, headphones? Amazon, playstation stuff? Amazon. then i moved to Sweden where they didn't have Amazon and everything is like an hours drive and delivery is to a warehouse not your address but you get used to it, now Amazon is in Sweden i still dont use it, i know the stores i need for everything and like Luke says the "smaller" stores are grateful for the business.
I like the idea of small businesses. But in practice, they usually has worse return policies, limited stocks and variety, and if their service is bad you have no recourse. All this for a higher price and less convenience
You should order a book from Honest Abe and see if you receive an order to send one to them haha
Haha, that'd be a great experiment ;D
Then return it.
He just described drop shipping without using the term drop shipping.
"Drop shipping is a form of retail business wherein the seller accepts customer orders but does not keep goods sold in stock. Instead, in a form of supply chain management, it transfers the orders and their shipment details to either the manufacturer, a wholesaler, another retailer, or a fulfillment house, which then ships the goods directly to the customer."
It sucks that they used that name. Abebooks is actually a really good alternative to amazon that I've used since before Amazon was big.
@@SuperS05 Abebooks is owned by Amazon, they bought it in 2008. Bookdepository is also now owned by Amazon, they also used to be a good alternative.
As a Canadian, the fact I pay more on the official LTT store ($37.98 USD -> $47.40 CAD atm with shipping VS $39.99 CAD free shipping on Amazon) KNOWING LTT increased the price on Amazon is wild.
Canadian shipping is stupid expensive.
Makes it really hard for sellers who don;t do enough volume to get a volume discount from UPS/Fedex/Purolator, etc.
In Germany i had the opposite experience with Amazon when it came to invoices. When we ordered from third-party vendors on amazon, we were barely getting any invoices unless we explicitly asked for them by contacting the vendor.
My grandfather tried to purchase some vacation items from Amazon and was told he would get it on the advertised day, only to get an email on the day of intended arrival to claim "Oops, there's been an issue. It'll come on this day." Then that day came and went... Finally, papaw started tracking his package to see it arrive at his post office one day and moved up to Michigan the next! He called the Amazon hotline to complain and his order was swiftly (and justly) cancelled by threat of a lawsuit. He got all of his money back, but was so frustrated that the vacation goodies he intended to get my mamaw (his loving, super-sweet wife since 1967), my parents, me, my siblings, and my cousin were sold by terrible vendors... If this Amazon quality continues to decline, Bezos' prediction of Amazon going bankrupt will likely become real within the next decade.
You still Need to shop around to find the best price
I only ever order from Amazon if it's something I can't get at a nearby brick-and-mortar store (or shipped by a regular retailer). This happens about once or twice a year.
And I haven't been to a brick and mortar store for 5 years other than getting groceries, thanks to Amazon
interesting that this video just got suggested to me. I've been at my current address for 6 months. any time i have an amazon delivery that is delivered by amazon logistics, they just deliver it to someone else's address or throw the package in a nearby hallway. i contacted amazon support this past week when it happened again to try and maybe get a credit or partial refund or something. after chatting for like 15 minutes and getting no sense that they cared about their quality of service at all, they straight up canceled my prime and didn't initially refund me for the full 9 months left on the subscription stating that "i already used all my benefits". i had to press them on it and they finally refunded me the extra amount (even though they kept saying they couldn't refund any amount beyond the first one). it was a pain, not worth the time, and made me not want to give amazon any more money. going to see how long i can go without prime.
Smaller vendors feeling more personal is so true. I love shopping with Sweetwater for that reason!
Man, if shipping to my neck of the woods didn't cost an arm and a leg... Sweetwater is pretty great. They just understandably only use first-class shipping companies, which gouge the crap out of my region.
And free candy. :)
8:41 Wow "Being COE of the company everyone is my boss and being at the service of customer and staff because if they leave l lose my job", now that is the way to be a COE as customers will be happy and come back for more and staff will be dedicated to the company and do a good job. Hats of to you Linus - outstanding philosophy.
I worked at an Amzon fulfillment center briefly. My money is on the bottle getting mixed up there. That being said, I was there during peak and my warehouse was decent to work at.
I do the same as Luke, with Best Buy Market Place too. Used BB to shop for a new toaster, but ordered it through a small vendor's own website since he was offering free shipping and BB did not. The owner of the shop even emailed me personally to thank me for encouraging his business during 'these difficult times', and told me to message him any questions or inquiries I would have. An A+ service that Best Buy would've never given me.
The compensation thing you were talking about with Amazon for late deliveries basically where a package arrives late you can contact customer support and they'll give you a $5 credit on your amazon account to compensate for the late delivery
Linus's face when Luke said he finds the products on Amazon then buys them elsewhere said, "Thats kinda stupid, but I'm not going to say anything, and I admire the principal behind it."
Wait, isn't that what everyone else does? I could find the same thing cheaper on other sites or local stores lol.
i do the same thing but for games and movies 😜
@@ThumberBulls6 if we even had local stores that sold anything where I live.
I do the exact same thing. Amazon is a great as a free product directory.
@@ThumberBulls6 sometime most things I buy from Amazon are always cheaper than other retailers.
Bought a microcontroller board for school a few years ago and it arrived like a few days later than it was supposed to.
Got a full refund for it and I'm wondering now if the company selling it got any money for it.
No
Amazon pays for inventory when it arrives at their Fulfillment center. The failure to recieve your item in their quoted time is their own fault, not the company whos product you've purchased.
@@mmonkeyman1403 Linus claims otherwise in this video.
Are you a seller on Amazon?
@@Jehty_ not a seller, I just know how the process works. If its fulfilled by Amazon and they don't deliver it to you in time, you'll get some type of refund, not necessarily the total price of your item. 3rd party sellers on Amazon is a whole different thing.
@@mmonkeyman1403 yes, the customer gets a refund.
But you said that Amazon would pay that refund.
Linus said that the seller/manufacturer would pay the refund.
So who is wrong?
I bought a 3070 on Amazon, and it got absolutely destroyed in shipping, I literally watched the driver drop it in front of me, although it must have been dropped on bashed way many times beforehand to be in the state it arrived. Amazon wasn't the courier, they used a third party courier that is famous in the UK as a company that can only guarantee they'll destroy every package they handle, I was lucky I initially refused the delivery, the driver was hesitant and decided to open it in front of me to prove it wasn't broken, which to their honest surprise it was annihilated although probably before he even picked it up since the metal backplate was split into multiple pieces as if it were dropped off a damn skyscraper.
Amazon eventually refunded after a very long argument with a chatbot, and I bought the 3070 again, but this time directly from the seller's website, unfortunately they used the same courier even though I paid extra to avoid them (but there was a delivery strike, so I do not fault the seller) but the box was drenched in water which was crazy since it was during a nationwide heatwave and drought.... The seller couldn't have been more apologetic and polite, luckily they had insured the delivery, so the delivery company paid them the cost of the card, but what blew me away was they upgraded me to a 3070Ti and sent me a box of chocolates, both through a private courier, I will never buy a single part through a different retailer, they have won a lifelong customer.
As someone outside the US, I buy on Amazon because it's the most reliable way to buy things internationally with warranty. I can get stuff from Aliexpress cheaper, but returning stuff there is impractical. In my coutry local commerce is usually more expensive than amazon (including taxes) and often denies returns.
I'd love to move away from amazon but local stores suck when it comes to having issues. I had to argue with the local computer store multiple times when the ram I purchased was faulty before they gave me a refund. With amazon? Easy as 1-2-3. Amazon does quite a lot of nonsense but as a consumer, until local shops understand the value of quality customer service, I am gonna continue to use amazon because of how hassle free they are.
Fax ppl say support local but local businesses are strait trash lol
Love that Luke is doing this and that it got at least a spot on WAN. I pretty much do the same at this point, with some minor exceptions like fittings for my 3D printer (I just can't find any elsewhere in my area).
I started to get myself away from amazon when they cancelled my seller account out of nowhere with no notice or even explanation. had 1 thing for sale (a PS Vita game) and tried to log in to check on things and found out that my entire seller account was banned. I received no email, no notice of potential violation at all (I have all my amazon emails go to their own folder, I also check my junk folder daily just incase something ends up there by mistake). I tried contacting them and all I could get out of them was "If you want to continue selling on amazon you'll have to create a new account and use a different bank account". Still have no idea why my seller account was even cancelled over 5 years later.
Gz... Where I live I usually get next day delivery without additional charges/services to a delivery point(if you order before noon and the sender doesn't f up)
I was having trouble with non-amazon deliveries going missing, so I started ordering everything from Amazon because they seem to have actually solved the delivery issues. I'm going to try to order using normal shipping methods again, but I'm not hopeful.
In the US or Canada perhaps.
In Germany it's terrible.
whenever i hear the teams ping in wan show, i check if someone chatted me on msft teams xD
Wanted to buy some new model trains last months. Manufacturers MSRP (in their own shop) is 13400yen (abour 150 canadian rubles).
Amazon wanted minimum 28700yen (330 Canadian) PLUS SHIPPING for the exact same item.
So yeah...
I still buy through amazon, despite knowing how bad they treat employees-because i know it's pretty common everywhere. Even when i applied to fedex (or maybe it was UPS? they are basically the same at an operational level) and got a tour of the facility during their first step of hiring it was made pretty clear it was a bad place to work. You had to come in every day, but no guarantees how many hours you will get-if any. The workload changes, but you have to go in to find out. They openly admitted you might go in, have a half hour of work, then be sent home with only being paid for time worked. The pay wasn't very good, and the requirements were high (like the complaints about amazon, you have high quotas to meet per hour and they don't hesitate to write up or fire employees who don't make it), and they pretty openly admitted to all of this, because it's just industry standard. UPS used to be better with full time jobs regardless of slow times, but they too decided to save a ton of money by just going all part time for the package processors and put high requirements on them to keep the hours they work extra low. So...not using amazon because you think they treat people bad, then using fedex or ups because 'ignorance is bliss' is kind of pointless.
Idrc about amazon as a shipping company, but as a retailer and as a tech company. I can live with 2 day shipping and horrible work. I dont like reatailers in general and especially online because i feel like the service they offer is trivial enough that they shouldnt be rewarded. Yeah i can find products on amazon, or on any search engine ever. It contributes minor conveniences to society at most and, at its worst, actively hinders the free market. Fuck em, i dont need amazon prime to get paper towels in 2 days or some bullshit. Ill go literally anywhere else.
Thats also why i hate facebook and love tesla. Facebook is only in the business of ads. Meanwhile, tesla is reducing carbon emissions, preventing accidents, saving people hours of commute every week, getting us to mars, like holy shit
EXACTLY :D
As someone outside their shipping area their reviews are still a great way for me to decide on what to buy or not. I look for products, then I search for them by code and a lot of times it's at Amazon and I just read reviews and buy elsewhere.
I have been off Amazon since COVID started... was super easy... until Christmas.... Caved then which I know is the worst time, but I still feel great about the rest of the year. Even used a free trial for Borat 2 :D.
Any time I hear about Amazon now I can't stop thinking about Bo Burnham's Bezos song ! XD
15:54 I've bought items that seem to be part of a similar scheme through the Walmart app, specifically to avoid going through Amazon, only to receive a package that was shipped by Amazon.
I dropped Amazon earlier this year after being a member for over 20 years and out of the blue, flagged my account for leaving "suspicious reviews" and banned me from writing any new reviews and deleted all of my old ones. All of my reviews were honest, unbiased and I was never paid by or received free products from a company. I tried emailing multiple times and was just told that my random ban stood and wouldn't tell me why. I used to order stuff there all the time and had prime, prime music, etc. I'm sure I was a drop in the bucket but I have been able to find a majority of what I want elsewhere.
I've been talking to my wife recently about wanting to severely limit our purchases through Amazon. The way they treat their employee's is not anything I want to support.
I never knew the water bottle guy had so much tech related content!
I never knew the tech related guy had so much water bottle content
I hate having to go through Amazon, but where I live specifically... there are basically two alternatives. And those two alternatives mark up products to cost more than 1.5x as much as on Amazon. There is no way to get things second-hand, no ebay, and international shipping? It will probably cost as much as the entire product itself.
I do exactly the same thing Luke described, searching on Amazon and buying elsewhere. Most online shopping sites do free shipping these days, and like he said if you really need the thing in 2 days for some reason you can just pay a bit extra the one time.
I remember you guys talking a while ago how hard would it be to send LTT merch to europe because of logistics, getting a warehouse, etc...
Would using Amazon be a solution for europeans buyers?
Honestly I rarely find anything is cheaper on Amazon, you can usually find it for less elsewhere even with shipping. And Amazon's search is a god-damned joke.
I've had a few bad experiences with smaller companies. Ordered a $400 item and it took 4 weeks to even ship where on Amazon it would ship next day. Also they didn't accept returns on it where Amazon would (or a restocking fee of 10%!). It's also annoying to enter your payment information on all the different websites.
The thing with lower product cost but higher shipping cost is mainly due to countries such as mine taxing the product only and not the delivery. So if you have a 100$ product, it is beneficial to split it into shipping and say it's 50$ product and 50$ shipping because then the customer will only pay 30% import tax (more or less depending on where you live) on the first 50$ and not on a 100, therefore saving 15$ and the company that sells the product still gets their 100$. Also there are countries that regulate the minimum tax worth, so if it is 100$ no tax, it's worth selling a product that costs 120$ for 99$ and charging 21$ shipping.
My main use for Amazon is price matching at Micro Center or Best Buy. As long as it's an item "fulfilled by Amazon" they'll match the price. If I can get something at a brick & mortar, I'll go there.
Edit: Honest Abe's sounds like a business front for a money laundering racket.
And target and office depot, staples. Those are the only physical stores in North america that price match amazon.
@@JeskidoYT Wal-Mart used to until some asshole bought a PS3 for 100 bucks. As someone put up a bogus sell page. Sooo...Wal-Mart has a major beef with Amazon. Still, to this day.
@@Qardo they banned price match policy a bit after the recession i believe
I literally only kept prime for the Grand Tour and because my wife shops alot, but the lack of convenience in buying stuff might make it easier on my wallet.
Also, if you're considering working for AWS, it's a stepping stone, don't expect to stay with them long term because you will eventually be attacked internally to get rid of you.
I get a month subscription when ever a new grand tour or their other shows pop up.
i have never bought something from amazon and i dont intent to, it seems very convenient but i just like supporting other stores and i dont typically buy a lot of stuff online anyway. i really like the small businesses that i do deal with online anyway, for example i ordered the parts for building a keyboard that i designed and i needed a lot of advice on some parts and stuff and the vendors normally will have a really nice discord that you can go to and chat with them and ask questions
I quit Amazon a few years ago and I haven't missed it at all. I'm similar to Luke in that I don't buy a lot online, and when I need to buy something my first step is to find a physical store that sells the item. Not only can I look at and touch potential purchases, but the employees (especially for speciality goods like electronics components) are super helpful and can suggest things that you haven't thought of. On multiple occasions I've had employees help me trouble shoot issues and suggest alternatives. You don't get that anywhere else, and certainly not from Amazon.
Having to restrict oneself from using amazon is so weird to me. I guess I just don't shop online enough. I may end up using amazon once or twice a year in general.
Is it weird though? Amazon is effectively the digital version of Wal-Mart. Here in the states, aLOT of people shop at wal-mart for the same reason tons of people use Amazon. Convenience. When you can get everything (or most everything) you need from one place (or one stop) people find it harder to justify taking the effort to go somewhere else. I realize driving from store to store is more effort than going from website to website, but the effort comes from having to find those sites, then ultimately, make a new account just for that site, entering in all your information, then placing the order, paying shipping on each, then keeping track of each of those orders, and dealing with the shipping boxes they all come in. It just takes time and ultimately, not *too* much, but people in mass will make rather grand justifications in order to gain convenience for themselves.
Also, there are some vendors that only sell though Amazon, and dont have their own store page.
There are very good comparison platforms that do an even better job than Amazon in deciding what you want to buy by having a great filtering, sorting and display system to give you all the information quickly that you need, and they also tell you where it‘s cheapest, how long the delivery is and also have a rating system for the traders.
They might even have a price alarm and track the past price history. In Germany we have such a platform called idealo. That way you don‘t restrict yourself to only one platform, while still having the advantages of getting the product even cheaper. And if Amazon has it with the cheapest price, it‘s also in there and I‘ll also order it on Amazon then.
Amazon's service in Denmark is so horrible that I haven't used anything they've made in almost ten years now. They might be big in the states, but I concur that considering it a personal sacrifice not to use their services seems like a different world.
same. never ordered anything off amazon ever. did receive 2 amazon boxes in 4 yrs tho. our shipping charges are really high so the local buissness are still happy
i think you should go investigate into that abs book store. might be an interesting video
When ordering at small shops you often get some extra stuff in the package, when I odered some kde vinyls for my laptop from freewear they put a smaller one in there, I still have that.
16:00 they don't buy the item or even have it shipped to them. They just put your shipping info into amazon checkout. Tons of listings on ebay are algos that just ship from amazon.
i am trying to avoid amazon and go to local stores but it is hard during lockdown...
Yea that was the point of the lockdowns dude. Destroy the economy
I remember when Amazon Prime shipping was two-day. Ahh, those were the good-old days! Now, prime shipping takes 2-4 days and commonly up to a week.
Odd. I guess that very much depends on where you live. I still get very consistent 2-day shipping, and even often 1-day shipping. But I do live in a city
I try to use other shops if possible and it has given me a better selection but quite often I've had to eat shipping costs and or exchange rates when no one wants to ship to me
As a student I get prime for 19€/yr, so 1.5€/mo
Even if I ordered one thing every 3 months I would pay more by not having prime... Here in Italy we also have next-day shipping, so it's way more convenient than anything else for me at this point.
Now I only buy from them if orders are _sold_ by Amazon and if I need it quickly, if not I just support the smaller shops, for the same reasons you stated. If anything, I get my money's worth with Amazon music. The app looks like it came straight out of 2012 but for 1.5€/mo you can't really complain lol
It feels like this entire talk was just a subliminal way to push water bottles on us.
It was great to hear you say that you are here to be of service to your employees and to the customer. So many owners or CEO’s have that backwards.
I'm from Latin America. When I go to the US on vacation, I most often don't have any physical address to send stuff bought online, but Amazon has these free of charge pickup lockers that make it possible for me to receive a package anyway.
I don't necessarily want to support their business, but sometimes there's no other option...
Just an FYI here...
Not sure how it works OS but in Australia we get the Amazon TV service with Amazon Prime. I actually pay for the TV and use the free/fast shipping as more of a bonus.
10:37 Mad World playing quietly in Luke's background
I’ve been cutting out Amazon and I don’t miss it. I only use it as a last resort. Prime is really just an excuse to buy more from Amazon to get your money’s worth.
I love that Linus thinks about his performance as reflected by how well the rest of the company is doing, not his own compensation. Most other CEOs would do whatever they can to line their own pockets and nothing else.
I like prime video
I have a pretty extensive paper book collection, and I bought a number of them used for a penny, just pay 3.99 shipping. That makes it about cover price of most actually used book stores.
We sometimes have same day delivery here in the states
I don't buy a lot of stuff from Amazon because a lot of stuff is more expensive than if I buy directly without Amazon as intermediary. I don't like getting ripped off. I know it may be more convenient to get ripped off but I prefer not. A lot of people genuinely don't have a lot of choice tho, so I fully understand that they use Amazon
Yeah, I feel you! I have an FBA business! They can do what they want and you as a merchant will be blamed for everything!
Me too. Amazon basically forces you to go FBA because of their delivery promise refund policy. If you don't want to set the delivery time to 2-3 weeks because of some outliers, you will get A-Z claims for delayed delivery by customers and amazon will automatically grant and penalize you. Adding insult to injury after a couple of A-Z claims they will lock your account and unlocking can take one week or one year or whatever amazon deems appropriate.
This is a clear case for the competition authority...
I recently bought a book from this Honest Abe bookstore, out of print stuff but not used (Larry Gonick's "The Cartoon Guide to the Computer", I just had to introduce my kids to that classic). Got it for the price announced at Amazon with no shipping extra, but also no fast shipping, I completed the purchase on the bookstore's website although it uses Amazon login and payment system. So they are a legit bookstore even if they also play these tricks on Amazon.
An other point on consumer site why some (like me) prefere amazon is payment. You got one store where you set your credit card and that store (amazon) got a good security. Back in the day most shops had their own payment method and saved the credit card in their databases, which isn't that great if they get hacked. Also some smaller stores just got transfer payments and you had to wait up to 4 days till they got the money and if they had paypal, they added at least 5% on top.
Okay I actually share my Amazon account with my family, they pay me like five a month to split it up between my brother myself and my parents. So it's not bad, plus we get prime video so 🤷. They are still the evil empire though and they should be broken up.
Same here. Although the prime video feels like going through a bargain bin.
So, you believe they are evil but you still give them money?
@@iamperplexed4695 That's normal.
@@iamperplexed4695 this is a bad take. “You are critical of society yet you live in the society”. We are all oppressors at the end of the day. Pretty sure some of the clothes or products you have bought or used were made by a worker in a poorer place on the Earth who is getting exploited by the non-existent fair labor laws of their country. Yet you still have or use those products. There is merit to “vote with your wallet”, but we also have to demand change by laws and by demanding change directly from these exploitive and monopolized megacorporations.
@@hectamus_ No, its very simple, only equivocation makes it complex. If I find out a company is 'evil' like the OP stated, I won't use it. Anybody can make that choice, it just depends on how willing you are to pay for that choice.
South Africa is putting laws in place to limit online shopping. If you buy more than 3 times you'll have to register as a business and pay business taxes so online isn't really an option anymore for us.
Wow dude that's actually crazy.
This sounds idiotic. What's the reason behind this? Especially in these times where you should avoid going out to buy things that can be easily bought on the internet
@@podkriznikaljaz Right?
@@podkriznikaljaz I mean, it's South Africa, that country's government has always been idiotic. You can look up the nutty shit their government has done
wow that is such radical bs. Damn....Sorry you guys have to go thru that.
Often with that 3rd party re-shipping scam, they don't even bother shipping it to themselves, they'll just ship it directly to you from Amazon. My mom bought something from a Walmart 3rd party store and they literally just bought it on Amazon cheaper and shipped it directly from Amazon to her. It came in full Amazon packaging and when she looked it up on Amazon, she found out it was something like $5-10 cheaper on Amazon.
I have had the opposite experience with Amazon search. It has worked horribly. When I searched for transformer dielectric oil, it returned mostly transformer toys as search results. Even when specifically selecting the industrial and scientific category. Or it returns results of the wrong power rating first with the correct results 5 pages in when searching for power supplies.
Shaving cream. $13 dollars on Amazon. $1.50 at the grocery store.
Yet for some reason, lots of good ratings on Amazon.
I feel like "I live in Canada" seems to be what most problems boil down to.
In New Zealand we really don't use it as shipping costs normally make it not worth getting unless its an expensive item
Amazon no longer ships to my house for half the packages. Some kind of feud with Canada Post. My dad had to drive 45 minutes both ways to pick up his package they dropped off 60 miles away. Another thing I ordered failed to deliver and was turned around 2 hours away from where I live. No delivery was even attempted.