A brilliant online shopping experience (amazon.co.uk)

Member Name: AbsintheFairy

Product:	amazon.co.uk
Date:	07/01/10 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap prices, excellent customer service

Disadvantages: None really

I've been using Amazon for over five years now to buy books, CDs, DVDs and other items, including a laptop and DVD player. I used to use them only occasionally but over the years have bought from them more and more!


***Website***

The site itself is easy to use, with an orange theme, an easy to use search box and a drop down menu so that you can choose if you are searching for DVDs or books or CDs, etc. At special times of year, such as Christmas, the interface takes on a festive theme and the basket becomes a sleigh! If you have an account with them, the home page will display things you have been looking at recently, which can be helpful - though be warned if you have been looking at Christmas presents for somebody with whom you share the computer, as they will be able to see what you've been looking at!

***Price***

I don't buy things from Amazon automatically: I check a number of websites including Play, HMV and Waterstones as well as looking in high street shops. I will usually buy from the cheapest place (although if there is minimal difference I may go for Amazon anyway because of their customer service - of which more later!). I must say that on the majority of occasions, Amazon is indeed the cheapest place. I also have a Nectar card and go through Nectar eStores to collect Nectar points on my Amazon purchases.


***Customer Service***

I think Amazon's CS is fantastic. Most transactions go through smoothly and are delivered within the right timeframe. The ones that don't are quickly sorted out. If I ever have to return something (for example, if a book I ordered is creased) I can fill in the simple online form, print out a pre-paid postage slip, stick it on a parcel and shove it in the letter box while they dispatch another item to me first class. Once I ordered a book in November that later proved to be out of stock - in December I got an email saying that they were sorry that the item was not available yet as they'd expected, and in case it was a Christmas present that would now not be received in time they were sending me a £5 gift certificate to say sorry - this was not prompted by me at all, and I was in no hurry for the book so it was a nice surprise!


***Wish List ***

This is a nice feature, allowing you to save the items you want in a list to check and buy from. It is handy if you want to keep on checking to see if an item has gone down in price! It is possible to have more than one wish list - I usually put my Christmas present list on a separate list around November time!


Overall, Amazon.co.uk is a great website and I can see why they are one of the biggest companies out there. I'm hardly likely to stop using it any time soon, partly thanks to Dooyoo vouchers!

Summary: A great site