Stress Free Shopping. Almost (amazon.co.uk)

Member Name: mattygroves10

Product:	amazon.co.uk
Date:	06/10/05 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazon is convenient, no doubt about it .

Disadvantages: Hidden extras can jack the price up to real world store levels and higher.

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Why I Use Amazon
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I am an American living in the UK. I (unsurprisingly) have family living in the States. Christmas and birthday shopping for them used to be a nightmare. Now, I'm one of those people who tends to leave (for example) Christmas shopping until somewhere around Christmas Eve. To get gifts to the family anywhere near Christmas, it meant pre-planning, purchasing, gift wrapping, shipping wrapping, going to the post-office, getting the packages weighed, sticking stamps and on and on. A nightmare for the chronically disorganised.

Then, I discovered Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. It's important to me that I have access to both, since I use .com for my family in the US (saves on shipping charges) and .co.uk for shopping for myself.

This makes my life so easy. Log on, choose, click and send. Easy peasy. Mostly.

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The Site
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Navigation The site is reasonably easy to navigate. Like dooyoo, it has a search engine as well as a browser. Once you've been using it a while, it will even recommend specific books, DVDs or whatever, based on what you have purchased before. You can also rate and write reviews on products (sound familiar?), but I have to say, I don't tend to use this feature - the quality of reviews is extremely variable.
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Buying Stuff
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Purchasing isn't difficult, but it is easier if you are only shipping to one address. In short, if you have used the site before, you choose one or more shipping addresses (or add a new one), decide whether you want a gift card or gift wrap (irrelevent if the items are for you!), punch in your credit card details, and away you go. There is also the option of 'one-click' ordering, but I'm a coward and a cynic, so I don't use it. Besides, I like to be able to choose which credit card I wish to use - in other words, the card that isn't currently maxed out!
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Products
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Amazon started as a book site, but has branched out considerably. A while back, I purchased DVDs for my brother and sister-in-law, a video for my mother, and a dog toy for my brother's dog (it was too easy - I couldn't resist). I have, in the past, bought face paints for my daughter - Amazon is now more than just books!
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Gift Vouchers
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You can also buy gift vouchers on Amazon. This is very handy if (a), you don't know what to get your friend or loved one, or (b), you've left everything until the very last minute. Gift vouchers are delivered to the recipient's inbox very quickly.

CAVEAT - Of course, the disadvantage of this is that the recipient must have e-mail and internet access. There is no point sending a gift certificate to someone who does not own, nor know how to use, a computer with internet access.

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Other Info that doesn't fall into any other category
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Having said that, Amazon's main thrust is books, and arguably music, videos and DVDs. You can even rent DVDs now. I'm sure there are shopaholics out there who buy everything and anything. However, for many of the other items available, you are actually buying from another retailer who has a co-operative arrangement with Amazon. For example, the dog toy actually came from and American outlet called Target. Furthermore, there are also auctions, used items for sale and zShops - from which you order directly from the retailer. I've never used any of these 'non-Amazon' facilities.

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The Advantages
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Searching
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As long as you know what you want, Amazon makes book, music and movie buying easy. Simply punch in the name of the book, CD, or movie and more or less: voila - you usually end up with a list of your chosen title in several different editions, often with an option to buy it used for (possibly) a discount.

If you are looking for a product (such as 'dog toy'), the process can be a little hit and miss. My search for 'dog toy' did come up with two honest-to-god dog toys, but it also offered me some bizarrely titled books and music. Face Paints were even more difficult - some real lateral thinking and narrowing-down was required (it finally occurred to me to narrow the search down to toys and crafts, or something like that).
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Prices
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Amazon does generally offer a discount from standard book, music and video store prices. Sometimes, the discount can be considerable - 30%, 40% or more. Sometimes, not. If you have time, it is worth shopping around, because, at least here in England, some bookstores discount heavily anyway - in fact, there are bookstores here that specialise in heavy discounts (although their selection of books often enters the realms of the seriously weird).
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Delivery
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Gee, it's nice to have items delivered straight to your, or your friend's or loved one's door. So long as they/you are in to receive the package. If you're not, at least in England, it means a schlep to the post office to collect your package.
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Gifts
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OK, for me, this is the real advantage. I decide what presents to give my family, go to Amazon, do the bit described above, and that's my American gift shopping. Lovely, and most of all, stress free(ish). Instead of trawling the shops and spending hours in a post-office queue behind senior citizens collecting their weekly pensions, I am writing a rambling essay. How nice.
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Disadvantages
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Browsing
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Don't misunderstand me, the browsing engine is good. It's just, well....I love bookstores. I can spend hours in them. If I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, I'll pick up a book, read the back, thumb through it, read a couple of pages, admire (or not) the cover...that kind of thing.

No matter how good the browser, you simply can't do that on-line (or through mail order, come to that). Yes, there are reviews, and ratings, and recommendations. That's nice. But it's not the same. That's one reason why I don't use the review feature on Amazon. If I'm using the site, it's because I know exactly what I want. Or at least, more or less exactly. I'd have a good idea, anyway. To be honest, I'd sooner read a review here if I'm uncertain about a book. I feel like I'm getting a recommendation from a friend. I've never spent enough time on Amazon to feel that way. For me, it's a store, no more and no less.
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Prices - hidden extras
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Shipping
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If your order is (as of October 2005) less than £19 in the UK, or $25 in the US, or if you want next day delivery, you have to pay shipping on Amazon. If you are only buying one or two items, the shipping costs can cancel out any savings made. Shipping costs per items drop drastically when ordering several items. So if you're shopping on Amazon, save it up until you have several items.

The British postal system is, despite grumbles ,far more efficient than the American (and I speak from bitter experience of both services). So if you're ordering from Amazon.com for delivery to the US, you have to leave plenty of time between placement and delivery of the order, otherwise, you get REALLY stiched up for express delivery. Avoid express delivery for US gifts if you can - that will really kill any savings you may have made from retail prices.

On a related note, shipping can get you if you need to ship to more than one address. I needed to do that this morning, as I am sending gifts to my mother and my brother's family. Since I was sending only one item to Mum, the shipping for that items was painful. I sent several items to my brother's house, so the shipping wasn't a significant additional cost.
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Gift wrapping
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Boy, they do stitch you up for that. Over $3.00 per item to gift wrap American gifts, and about that in pounds for UK gifts. They do throw in the card for free, though. Woopee. I know what you're thinking - they'd understand if I didn't have the presents gift wrapped. But for Christmas - it's just not the same if you don't have something to open on Christmas Day (I'm still a kid a heart).
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Returns
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If you have to return anything (I once had to return a video that didn't work), their policy is that you have to pay the return postage. However, I raised a bit of a stink, and was sent a pre-paid return package. Amazon did reply quickly to my emails, and rectified the situation, though it did take a minor kerfuffle to avoid postage charges.

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So, Matty, What do you REALLY Think?
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I like Amazon. I really do. However, I personally use it for the convenience rather than the prices. One can get books cheaply in shops (try the Sussex book shop in Kingston upon Thames - I got Thud! by Terry Pratchett in hard cover for £9.99), if you know where to look, and are willing to wait for sales. I like shops because I can pick up a book, browse through it, buy it, and read it on the bus home. I don't have to wait several days for its arrival.

However, for gifts, Amazon is brilliant. Apart from the exorbitant gift wrap prices (and, if you're not careful, shipping prices), it is a reasonably easy and not-too-expensive way of sending gifts abroad. They have a huge selection, and Amazon isn't just for books anymore.

Summary: Not as cheap as it once was, Amazon is still a convenient portal to buy books, movies and music.