I was ACTUALLY angry at this. They had thd best customer service and they delivered everywhere as well as great deals. Did take a bit longer but I could get books I did not want to buy from amazon. Fuck amazon btw, not only for this but in general. You buy a book from them and how do you get it? Broken, destroyed. The amounts of times I got destroyed books by them does require both hands to count.
Anyone got a good alternative that ships anywhere or at least in Europe?
Amazon packaging has degenerated into just throwing the items in a box. Half the time they don't even include those useless air pillow things.
I'm sure they had an actuary that figured out it was cheaper to process the returns rather than bother to pack things correctly in the first place, but it has definitely kept me from ordering nice editions or coffee table style books from them if they're just going to come dented up.
Isn't even about being dented. I can look past a tiny dent. I am taking full blown damage. The final straw was the back of one book I ordered ripped into deeply. Like, how do you even do this unintentionally? Packaging outside looked only slightly damaged.
I know what you mean. When I say dented, I mean the corners look like somebody dropped the thing from 5 ft in the air. I've had them hit so hard it actually split the hardcover down to the internal cardboard or separated the spine.
I used to send those fuckers right back, but the replacement would be just as bad, so I simply stopped ordering anything that I really cared about condition.
Wow, both examples you guys have given are much worse than I would ever expect...
I know of plenty of orders getting "lost", here, but nothing of quite that... Level of actual destruction...
Pretty telling, though. If you're a company for which delivering books is your supposed core business, and you fuck it up that badly, I think it tells you something...
But "muh convenience", we're told. Which worked as an argument for a while, but once they become the only game in town..? Can't imagine it'll be so "convenient" when they actively blacklist the books we wanted anyway... :-/
They honestly should have been broken up years ago. AWS and Amazon retail existing as the same company is... Dubious at best.
And yeah, sure, "free market" and all. But when the "free market" produces an influence-peddler like Bezos, who not only "owns" most of the political class, but indirectly controls far too much of the internet, I would say... Something's not right there.
Already ordered more Beserk Deluxe editions(I already ordered 5 from them over last year). Sadly, my preorders(I have a light novel series I follow) I had to cancel. Local retailers have them as options to preorder so I did it there.
This aint good, they were often the cheapest bookstore, the only one with halfway sensible shipping costs for a lot of the world, and often the widest selection. If anywhere has the obscure anatomy book I needed, it would be book depository.
We used to have actual decent competition for Amazon. So naturally, they, and their fellow idiots (see: the guy who ran The CoOp into the ground) had to either buy it, or destroy it, leaving us with fuck-all choice…
If ever there was an evil company, it’s Amazon. And everything Bezos touches.
But everyone knows that. However as long as he owns WaPo et al, ain’t nothing gonna change… 😔
So naturally, they, and their fellow idiots (see: the guy who ran The CoOp into the ground) had to either buy it, or destroy it, leaving us with fuck-all choice…
Absolute cock heads, how that monopoly failed I have no idea, big captive audience, easy money, like that old bookstore here Wooldridge's. If you can't make money selling to every damn school student their entire catalogue, there is a problem.
From memory he defrauded them some very large amount of money, while running the Aus Geo brand into the ground (by buying it, and then attempting a failed rebrand) in the process...
White collar crime/insider trading, if you will.
But because of the structure of that "company", I don't think he was ever charged with anything...
Remember Dick Smith Electronics..? Like that, but somehow worse, because I believe this was one person...
They pulled a Walmart. Sell at a loss (you're huge can can absorb it), gobble up market share, put the competitors out of business, now you're the only game in town.
That is something no one is talking about. For years, Amazon was just about the cheapest for books; 30-50% off cover price was routine.
I was ordering some novels recently, and they were all cover price- there would be no reason to bother ordering from Amazon at that point, except the only bookstore left in town is Barnes & Noble and they didn't have the books I wanted on the shelf.
And society slides one step closer to a world without physical media, where text can be rewritten or remotely deleted from your devices as Management sees fit.
There are examples of all of this ‘banned’ content on the Amazon sale list, but let’s just end the example with The Communist Manifesto, responsible for the most political deaths in human history, available from $15.77, and Hitler’s Mein Kampf for $2.99
Anyone else find it funny that the handbook for communism costs over five times as much as Mein Kampf?
I was ACTUALLY angry at this. They had thd best customer service and they delivered everywhere as well as great deals. Did take a bit longer but I could get books I did not want to buy from amazon. Fuck amazon btw, not only for this but in general. You buy a book from them and how do you get it? Broken, destroyed. The amounts of times I got destroyed books by them does require both hands to count.
Anyone got a good alternative that ships anywhere or at least in Europe?
Amazon packaging has degenerated into just throwing the items in a box. Half the time they don't even include those useless air pillow things.
I'm sure they had an actuary that figured out it was cheaper to process the returns rather than bother to pack things correctly in the first place, but it has definitely kept me from ordering nice editions or coffee table style books from them if they're just going to come dented up.
Isn't even about being dented. I can look past a tiny dent. I am taking full blown damage. The final straw was the back of one book I ordered ripped into deeply. Like, how do you even do this unintentionally? Packaging outside looked only slightly damaged.
Shit, is that covered??
Do they refund you for that, because they absolutely should..?
I guess it wouldn't surprise me if they don't, though, sadly...
They did, I just felt bad for the book is all. I hate randomly wasting a good book when there's no need for it if they didn't destroy them.
I know what you mean. When I say dented, I mean the corners look like somebody dropped the thing from 5 ft in the air. I've had them hit so hard it actually split the hardcover down to the internal cardboard or separated the spine.
I used to send those fuckers right back, but the replacement would be just as bad, so I simply stopped ordering anything that I really cared about condition.
Wow, both examples you guys have given are much worse than I would ever expect...
I know of plenty of orders getting "lost", here, but nothing of quite that... Level of actual destruction...
Pretty telling, though. If you're a company for which delivering books is your supposed core business, and you fuck it up that badly, I think it tells you something...
But "muh convenience", we're told. Which worked as an argument for a while, but once they become the only game in town..? Can't imagine it'll be so "convenient" when they actively blacklist the books we wanted anyway... :-/
They honestly should have been broken up years ago. AWS and Amazon retail existing as the same company is... Dubious at best.
And yeah, sure, "free market" and all. But when the "free market" produces an influence-peddler like Bezos, who not only "owns" most of the political class, but indirectly controls far too much of the internet, I would say... Something's not right there.
/endrant
Amazon in general is doing poorly. Tons of layoffs, company is cutting everything it can to save money.
R/books has a surprisingly good thread on alternatives!
You got Booktopia over there, or..?
Depository is still up until April 26, and still delivering until at least June.
If there’s shit that you can only find there, I would honestly order it now, and just get it while you still can. 🙂
I would do that too, but unfortunately cash flow is just a bit tight, atm, so unless it’s a “need”, I guess it won’t be my priority, sadly…
Already ordered more Beserk Deluxe editions(I already ordered 5 from them over last year). Sadly, my preorders(I have a light novel series I follow) I had to cancel. Local retailers have them as options to preorder so I did it there.
Wordery is one thats been recommended to me
This aint good, they were often the cheapest bookstore, the only one with halfway sensible shipping costs for a lot of the world, and often the widest selection. If anywhere has the obscure anatomy book I needed, it would be book depository.
Fuck amazon.
Same, but for a different subject area.
You’re Aussie too, innit?
We are so fucked, lol…
We used to have actual decent competition for Amazon. So naturally, they, and their fellow idiots (see: the guy who ran The CoOp into the ground) had to either buy it, or destroy it, leaving us with fuck-all choice…
If ever there was an evil company, it’s Amazon. And everything Bezos touches.
But everyone knows that. However as long as he owns WaPo et al, ain’t nothing gonna change… 😔
too right mate, bloody oath I am.
Yeah from over west.
Absolute cock heads, how that monopoly failed I have no idea, big captive audience, easy money, like that old bookstore here Wooldridge's. If you can't make money selling to every damn school student their entire catalogue, there is a problem.
Oh I think it was actually deliberate...
From memory he defrauded them some very large amount of money, while running the Aus Geo brand into the ground (by buying it, and then attempting a failed rebrand) in the process...
White collar crime/insider trading, if you will.
But because of the structure of that "company", I don't think he was ever charged with anything...
Remember Dick Smith Electronics..? Like that, but somehow worse, because I believe this was one person...
Fucking crazy how this keeps happening, though!
C'est ça:
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/not-a-great-look-coop-bookshop-administrators-reach-deal-over-500000-worth-of-hats-from-ceos-company/news-story/5c133c3143fa604ac0df0386244b1ad6
"Hats". Somehow that is even more unreasonable and pathetic than I realised, SMH...
Fucking hate "business people" that do shit like this. And of course they get away with it, generally, too...
They pulled a Walmart. Sell at a loss (you're huge can can absorb it), gobble up market share, put the competitors out of business, now you're the only game in town.
That is something no one is talking about. For years, Amazon was just about the cheapest for books; 30-50% off cover price was routine.
I was ordering some novels recently, and they were all cover price- there would be no reason to bother ordering from Amazon at that point, except the only bookstore left in town is Barnes & Noble and they didn't have the books I wanted on the shelf.
And society slides one step closer to a world without physical media, where text can be rewritten or remotely deleted from your devices as Management sees fit.
Anyone else find it funny that the handbook for communism costs over five times as much as Mein Kampf?