It's AMAZON Time (amazon.co.uk)

Member Name: boredindunoon

Product:	amazon.co.uk
Date:	14/03/09 (181 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Massive Range Of Products, Very Good Prices, Great Delivery Service, Good Website & Customer Support

Disadvantages: No PayPal Support, Gift Vouchers Can't Be Used For Amazon Marketplace Items.

After 162 reviews, I've finally managed to get around to reviewing the website where I tend to spend most of my time and money - Amazon.co.uk, my personal favourite place to buy online.

Any person reading this who follows my reviews, or looks at my profile will find that I often finish a reviewing a product by saying that I've a reviewer on Amazon, or I include the price of the item from Amazon, or mention Amazon, or include some other reference to the website. But the question that has to be answered - why do I think they are so good?

For those of you who don't know Amazon.co.uk is an online retailer that was originally created as an online bookshop. Since then however it has grown to epic proportions, and now sells pretty much everything including music, films, computer and console games, electric goods such as camera equipment, gadgets, TV and audio equipment, computers and laptops, computer components, software. Not to forget products for the home and garden, toys and games, jewellery and watches, bags, shoes, clothes, sports and leisure equipment - the list goes on and on, so if you can think of a item the chances are you can buy it from Amazon.

As with all online shops you must first create a personal account and be registered with them before being able to complete a purchase. This is easy and straightforward to do, requiring only a supported payment method such as a credit or debit card, and a valid email address. After this, buying from Amazon.co.uk is easy. You simply add your wanted items to your shopping basket, proceed to the checkout, and follow through several easy to work steps such as choosing a dispatch address, and payment method. After this you sit back and wait for your goods to arrive (they will sent you and email to inform you when the goods are dispatched.)

I'm a frequent user of other online retailers such as Play, and eBay, but I've always found that Amazon offer the largest and most comprehensive range of products. I used to find that their prices tended to be the best online, but recently I've noticed on several occasions that the other retails I've mentioned are sometimes cheaper, so it might be an ideal to shop around. But generally for what I buy (usually DVD's) and the service I receive, Amazon will always be my first choice.

You can also create a wishlist of products for future purchases of items you may want to make, so you don't lose track of something. At one point in my life I was buying at least one item a day from Amazon, these day's due to my depleted bank account it's more like one item a week, but being part of the dooyoo community helps.

The prices on Amazon do change very often, and it is often useful to take this into consideration when your thinking about buying an item, as the price can drop or raise while you're making up your mind.

There dispatch and delivery service is excellent. At the moment if you place an order over the value of £5 (it used to be £15) you can have your item delivered free with Super Saver Delivery which usually takes between five and seven days. I normally pay the extra (which is usually not that much more) for first class delivery service. When I do, I've often received products the next day or failing that within two days. All products are well packaged and are often 'wrapped' in cardboard. I've never received an item that's been damaged in the post. For those of you who are really impatient when waiting for an item, a service known as Amazon Prime is available for a cost of £49 per year, which gives unlimited one day delivery for eligible items. Amazon also offer a gift wrap service in case you're buying an item as a present for somebody.

The Amazon.co.uk website has always been easy to use and navigate. They have a good built in search engine to help you locate a product, as well as well defined departments for different products. When searching for an item such as a DVD you can often browse through various subheadings such as the genres, new and future releases, and types of format (i.e. blu-ray, VHS, etc.) Amazon also have 'recommendations' based on your previous purchases that suggests products that you may be interested in. Each product page often has a wealth of information telling you everything you need to know before you buy. Supporting this is a network of 'Customer Reviews' where people share their own personal experiences, or add additional information of an product. Because of all this, it's a great website to browse if you searching from something but you're not sure what, or your looking to buy a gift for someone.

With the sheer volume of orders I've placed in my life, I only ever had two problems. The first was with a computer game that never ever arrived (most likely due to Royal Mail and not Amazon themselves.) But after contacting them via email two days after the estimated delivery date, they responded quickly and gave me the option of a refund or a replacement. In this case I choose a refund which was dealt with again quite quickly (I was going to Glasgow the next day, and I was planning to buy from there instead.) The next problem was a bit bigger and this time was Amazon's fault. I ordered "The Box Of Blood" (a boxed set of Vampire films). It arrived on time, but I had been sent the wrong item by mistake (a boxed set of something called "Scanners"). So I reported a problem with the order (easy to do through the website) and arranged to send the item back to them (they pay the postage and provide you with a prepaid postage label that you can print out via the website.) They sent me a email to confirm that they had received the item, and my correct item had been sent out. Sadly when I received this so called correct item they had sent me the boxed set of Scanners again. This time around I decided to contact them by phone (or rather get them to contact me through a service on the website.) I wasn't exactly happy to receive the same wrong item twice, but the person I spoke to on the phone was polite and helpful. She was able to identify that the problem was with my order number on the item, which for some reason was coming up as Scanner's instead of The Box Of Blood. She was able to sort the problem out, and I finally managed to received my desired item. But generally my overall experience with Amazon is a trouble free one.

It would be nice if Amazon accepted PayPal as a payment method. I often sell items on eBay and receive payment through this method. If I want to buy something from Amazon, I often have to wait until I've transferred money from my PayPal account to my bank account, before I order.

Also the Amazon gift vouchers (such as the kind we can redeem our dooyoo miles for) can only be used for items that Amazon themselves are selling as opposed to an Amazon marketplace seller. I wish they could be used regardless of who is selling the item on the website.

As I said above Amazon will always be my first choice and despite a few very minor inconveniences, I would strongly recommend the retailer to you. They really are a credit to online businesses, and a brilliant place for online shopping.

Summary: Thanks For Reading.