Amazon sucks

nkuitse on 2003-02-27T02:43:17

(That's amazon.com, not The Amazon.)

Well, they've done it again. So much for Jeff Bezos's claim that he "shares my concern for both customers and innovation" (according to Tim O'Reilly).

Here's what I'm doing about it:

From: (me)
To: help@amazon.com
Cc: jeff@amazon.com
Subject: Please help

I want to cancel my account with amazon.com,
because of its abuse of the US patent system.
(Sorry, the stupidity of the USPTO is no excuse.)

Instead of shopping with amazon.com, I'll shop with its competitors.

Please tell me how to cancel my account.

Thanks,

(signed)

It isn't much (heck, it's hardly anything at all) but their latest abuse was the last straw for me.

---

don't do it

wickline on 2003-02-27T12:21:41

if they cancel your account, just make a new one.

You might as well use their resources for everything but making purchases. Their site is great (IMO) for reccomending things you might want to read, and for reading reviews from others, sample chapters, etc. If you don't mind giving up some privacy, their reccomendations are even better. You can tell them which books you own, and how you rate them. They then compare that to how other folks rate books and find books liked by folks who like the books you like.

Then you buy those books somewhere cheaper.

-matt

Re: don't do it

nkuitse on 2003-02-27T15:15:10

if they cancel your account, just make a new one

Maybe. I won't buy anything more from them, and I wanted to tell someone there that I was doing this. Not that they'll care, but if enough people do it and tell them about it...

You might as well use their resources for everything but making purchases. Their site is great (IMO) for [...]

Yes, but boycotting their site altogether feels like a more thorough protest. I'm going to miss the wishlist feature, though!

Oh, and thanks for the pointer to alldirect.com.

for easier book shopping

wickline on 2003-02-27T22:14:30

see also these bookmarklets

-matt

Re:don't do it

ajtaylor on 2003-02-27T16:03:43

alldirect.com looks pretty darn cool. Thanks for the link. If only you could filter results by type (like cd/dvd/etc)... But the prices are so cheap, I can live with that!

for easier book shopping

wickline on 2003-02-27T22:15:01

see also these bookmarklets

-matt