Not Bad (amazon.co.uk)

Member Name: Pingu

Product:	amazon.co.uk
Date:	11/07/01 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap-ish

Disadvantages: they're not the best anymore

I used to love Amazon. As an avid reader, the discovery that I could sit at home, click one button, and have a book arrive at my door was just like having all my birthdays and christmasses rolled into one. And for a long time I was blissfully unaware that there may be even better deals out there.

Although Amazon started out being very cheap, compared to high street stores, their prices have gradually risen, and many items are now more expensive than they are in the shops. Add postage, and you're not laughing any more.

Also they used to be able to get hold of more or less anything in print, but, more and more, I'm finding this isn't the case. Frequently I see something in a shop, decide I'll wait to see if it's cheaper on Amazon, only to get home and discover that Amazon claim the item has been out of print for some time. How can it be when I saw one copy of it in every book shop I went in?

Amazon.com are a lot better. Frequently a book will cost the same figure, in dollars, that it does in pounds on the British site. The Americans also seem to believe, much more, in not letting books go out of print. I've often found that I can still get a book, published by Oxford University Press, from Amazon.com, but not Amazon.co.uk. But then there's the cost of overseas shipping, and the wait of a month (that's for delivery - if the book is rare there can be another six weeks' wait before they dispatch it), and the whole thing hardly seems worth it, particularly if I needed the book for an assignment.

Nowadays, not being quite the computer illiterate that I was, I look on Bookbrain.co.uk. They search for your title, and then search a number of other sites for the best price. Occasionally Amazon.co.uk actually is the cheapest, but not very often.

Overall then, Amazon are a great site, particularly with the addition of all the other categories, such as music, but they are gradually losing the appeal
they once had.

Summary: