When I started using Amazon, over 20 years ago, it was like a breath of fresh air. Finally it seemed I had access to any book title I could think of and could conveniently have it delivered.
Since then, according to many reports, the back end of Amazon has gotten ugly, with fatigued and underpaid workers, cutthroat delivery competition, and community subsidies.
This is not what I wanted. I wanted endless selection. I've never really cared about "low prices." In fact, I don't believe there is such a thing as "low prices." Low prices are always a come-on that you end up paying for in other ways regardless. When you pay the "low price" at the retailer, you likely have to pay the healthcare cost of their stressed out employees through taxes, higher insurance cost caused by traffic jams and accidents around the premises, etc.
(On the other hand, there IS such a thing as a "free lunch." Better goals, methods, and organizations can yield endless free lunches. Human organization could be far better than it is today. We already have the technical capacities to build free lunch for everyone all the time, but we choose to build a heavily armed and paranoid hierarchical slum instead.)
Generally the Amazon online shopping experience has been first rate. On other sites, I've had about a 75% chance of the shopping thing working OK, but it had been close to 100% at Amazon until the last few years, and assisted greatly by Amazon's formerly peerless customer reviews.
No delivery experience has been 100%, and sometimes I've had even worse delivery experiences from Amazon competitors, such as Powell's Books, who you'd think would be better since they do in fact generally charge more. In my most recent order from Powell's, my book was packed in a thin bag instead of a box and not surprisingly arrived damaged after having been crammed into my mailbox. IMO, anything larger than a few screws should be packed in an actual box, not a thin bag. Powell's effortlessly processed the return but gave me no human reply that indicating they could make it better next time. So--I re-ordered from Amazon, and at least a box was used (without wrapping the book or stuffing padding into it) so it didn't get crushed, just the usual scratches.
Generally, Amazon's delivery has been well below average in quality packaging and getting the goods to me undamaged. About 75% of the high value books I've ordered from Amazon ended up with a minor scratch or wrinkle because of cheap and fast packing. I usually try to order off-Amazon when it is fairly easy to do so primarily for this reason (and also because I hate employee crushing monopolies). For example, my experience in getting well packaged electronics items from Newegg has generally been better than Amazon. Also better at Music Direct and Audio Advisor. Since my recent disappointment with Powells, I do not at this time know of a decent online bookseller. I generally try to order direct from publishing houses when I can, and this usually provides quality delivery, at the highest full retail price too.
But things have been devolving at Amazon and elsewhere, another example of the movie Brazil in real life, in terms of showing advancing technology failing more and more. With the underlying complexity of recent computer programming methods and systems, it's a wonder anything works at all anymore at all. Meanwhile, we're told breathless stories about how computing will getting more and more wonderful in the future: impossibly fast, take care of everything, etc. We'll hardly need to think, or maybe the computers need us at all. But history tends to repeats itself: they stopped making decent can openers during the Apollo program, and then they cancelled the Apollo program. I'll start considering celestial predictions when I start seeing pedestrian results continue for more than one step. But in fact, over time, computerized systems have been getting less and less pedestrian, as complexity exceeds both human and machine grasp, and as goals broaden to include more and more ways of ripping people off. The essential problem of scaling up parallel processing is that the cost of exchanging information begins to exceed the cost of benefit. There is a similar problem, even more dramatic, in scaling up complexity, where things can break down entirely.
My most recent experience with Amazon has been especially discouraging, and might lead me to avoid Amazon whenever possible, even if other shopping methods are far less convenient.
I've been trying to Twin XL sheets for my new guest bedroom adjustable bed. I had figured they might be hard to find in stores and with a limited selection. (Actually, there were several good choices at Bed Bath & Beyond so I now strongly recommend that brick and mortar store I hope to see a lot more in the future. I was able to buy just what I wanted at BB&B for $49.99, cheaper than the $69.99 Amazon on the only suitable item I could find there, though the Amazon product had an additional touted benefit. Recently there had been talk about BB&B folding. I hope they stay around, especially since Anna's Linens is gone. I will try to go to BB&B more often now.)
And now that I'm not working outside the home, it's more of a hassle to get shaved and dressed and go out to buy something. I'd say that adds at least $40 of "personal cost" onto every outside shopping trip. I'm with those who say the long run impetus is toward electronic purchasing of most everything, everything except those things which require a personal touch such as clothing and produce. Given ever increasing populations and therefore high desireable population densities, "main streets" generally don't make sense anymore, the transportation cost is much cheaper simply to deliver everything to the customer. But HOW this major social transformation is worked out is not unimportant. The Amazon monopoly model is not the best solution for all stakeholders. And, in addition to that market failure, we have to find more pro-social ways of employing people people displaced from retail into other sectors, such as building green energy systems.
If you know what you are looking for on Amazon, you can often find it, but otherwise not. If you just start looking for something generic, Amazon will apparently steer you to a certain set of items, and no matter how you navigate from there, you will not get beyond a particular limited horizon and into the famous brands you may only be able to find with a direct search for that brand. So, the shopping experience is getting dumbed down, just like going into a supermarket where store-brands are continually crowding and often forcing out the brand name items, even if, as on Amazon, the brand name items are actually there, you just cannot find them unless you know the brand name.
I found a few low cost Twin XL sheets, but it took a few hours effort to find something a bit nicer, with claimed US made organic cotton, for example. I was ultimately able to find something that looked quite nice for $69 and I ordered it.
When the package arrived, it was only Twin, not Twin XL. I studied the package carefully, and double checked my order. My order clearly said "Twin XL" but what I received was not. So I returned the item, using the "wrong item was delivered" option. (Amazon now has a long preset list of reasons to return an item, each having their own unique "policy.")
However, when the replacement item arrived, once again, it was only Twin, and not Twin XL.
Once again, I took a look at my previous order, now clicking back to the Item page and looking at the dimensions.
Curiously, when I first clicked back to the Item page, it showed the same Dimensions as on my Twin sheets, but it identified it as "Twin XL." If I then clicked on Twin, and then back on Twin XL, the Dimensions show were the Twin XL dimensions.
So, it looked like the dimensions of your "Twin XL" would depend on the order that you have gone through the size options. In some cases, those dimensions would be indentical to Twin, and then you would just get Twin like me.
Now I have returned the item under a different policy, "Website Error." I was hoping that would mean I'd just get a refund. But it seems to be "processing" my order now.
I may end up having to consider this order a total loss, and that Amazon is not going to send me a Twin XL or give me a cash refund.
It's already cost me more than it was worth in time and agony.
And then there's the bug where reviews for multiple versions of the same Item are all jumbled together, and don't really all apply to the item you may be looking at.
Since then, according to many reports, the back end of Amazon has gotten ugly, with fatigued and underpaid workers, cutthroat delivery competition, and community subsidies.
This is not what I wanted. I wanted endless selection. I've never really cared about "low prices." In fact, I don't believe there is such a thing as "low prices." Low prices are always a come-on that you end up paying for in other ways regardless. When you pay the "low price" at the retailer, you likely have to pay the healthcare cost of their stressed out employees through taxes, higher insurance cost caused by traffic jams and accidents around the premises, etc.
(On the other hand, there IS such a thing as a "free lunch." Better goals, methods, and organizations can yield endless free lunches. Human organization could be far better than it is today. We already have the technical capacities to build free lunch for everyone all the time, but we choose to build a heavily armed and paranoid hierarchical slum instead.)
Generally the Amazon online shopping experience has been first rate. On other sites, I've had about a 75% chance of the shopping thing working OK, but it had been close to 100% at Amazon until the last few years, and assisted greatly by Amazon's formerly peerless customer reviews.
No delivery experience has been 100%, and sometimes I've had even worse delivery experiences from Amazon competitors, such as Powell's Books, who you'd think would be better since they do in fact generally charge more. In my most recent order from Powell's, my book was packed in a thin bag instead of a box and not surprisingly arrived damaged after having been crammed into my mailbox. IMO, anything larger than a few screws should be packed in an actual box, not a thin bag. Powell's effortlessly processed the return but gave me no human reply that indicating they could make it better next time. So--I re-ordered from Amazon, and at least a box was used (without wrapping the book or stuffing padding into it) so it didn't get crushed, just the usual scratches.
Generally, Amazon's delivery has been well below average in quality packaging and getting the goods to me undamaged. About 75% of the high value books I've ordered from Amazon ended up with a minor scratch or wrinkle because of cheap and fast packing. I usually try to order off-Amazon when it is fairly easy to do so primarily for this reason (and also because I hate employee crushing monopolies). For example, my experience in getting well packaged electronics items from Newegg has generally been better than Amazon. Also better at Music Direct and Audio Advisor. Since my recent disappointment with Powells, I do not at this time know of a decent online bookseller. I generally try to order direct from publishing houses when I can, and this usually provides quality delivery, at the highest full retail price too.
But things have been devolving at Amazon and elsewhere, another example of the movie Brazil in real life, in terms of showing advancing technology failing more and more. With the underlying complexity of recent computer programming methods and systems, it's a wonder anything works at all anymore at all. Meanwhile, we're told breathless stories about how computing will getting more and more wonderful in the future: impossibly fast, take care of everything, etc. We'll hardly need to think, or maybe the computers need us at all. But history tends to repeats itself: they stopped making decent can openers during the Apollo program, and then they cancelled the Apollo program. I'll start considering celestial predictions when I start seeing pedestrian results continue for more than one step. But in fact, over time, computerized systems have been getting less and less pedestrian, as complexity exceeds both human and machine grasp, and as goals broaden to include more and more ways of ripping people off. The essential problem of scaling up parallel processing is that the cost of exchanging information begins to exceed the cost of benefit. There is a similar problem, even more dramatic, in scaling up complexity, where things can break down entirely.
My most recent experience with Amazon has been especially discouraging, and might lead me to avoid Amazon whenever possible, even if other shopping methods are far less convenient.
I've been trying to Twin XL sheets for my new guest bedroom adjustable bed. I had figured they might be hard to find in stores and with a limited selection. (Actually, there were several good choices at Bed Bath & Beyond so I now strongly recommend that brick and mortar store I hope to see a lot more in the future. I was able to buy just what I wanted at BB&B for $49.99, cheaper than the $69.99 Amazon on the only suitable item I could find there, though the Amazon product had an additional touted benefit. Recently there had been talk about BB&B folding. I hope they stay around, especially since Anna's Linens is gone. I will try to go to BB&B more often now.)
And now that I'm not working outside the home, it's more of a hassle to get shaved and dressed and go out to buy something. I'd say that adds at least $40 of "personal cost" onto every outside shopping trip. I'm with those who say the long run impetus is toward electronic purchasing of most everything, everything except those things which require a personal touch such as clothing and produce. Given ever increasing populations and therefore high desireable population densities, "main streets" generally don't make sense anymore, the transportation cost is much cheaper simply to deliver everything to the customer. But HOW this major social transformation is worked out is not unimportant. The Amazon monopoly model is not the best solution for all stakeholders. And, in addition to that market failure, we have to find more pro-social ways of employing people people displaced from retail into other sectors, such as building green energy systems.
If you know what you are looking for on Amazon, you can often find it, but otherwise not. If you just start looking for something generic, Amazon will apparently steer you to a certain set of items, and no matter how you navigate from there, you will not get beyond a particular limited horizon and into the famous brands you may only be able to find with a direct search for that brand. So, the shopping experience is getting dumbed down, just like going into a supermarket where store-brands are continually crowding and often forcing out the brand name items, even if, as on Amazon, the brand name items are actually there, you just cannot find them unless you know the brand name.
I found a few low cost Twin XL sheets, but it took a few hours effort to find something a bit nicer, with claimed US made organic cotton, for example. I was ultimately able to find something that looked quite nice for $69 and I ordered it.
When the package arrived, it was only Twin, not Twin XL. I studied the package carefully, and double checked my order. My order clearly said "Twin XL" but what I received was not. So I returned the item, using the "wrong item was delivered" option. (Amazon now has a long preset list of reasons to return an item, each having their own unique "policy.")
However, when the replacement item arrived, once again, it was only Twin, and not Twin XL.
Once again, I took a look at my previous order, now clicking back to the Item page and looking at the dimensions.
Curiously, when I first clicked back to the Item page, it showed the same Dimensions as on my Twin sheets, but it identified it as "Twin XL." If I then clicked on Twin, and then back on Twin XL, the Dimensions show were the Twin XL dimensions.
So, it looked like the dimensions of your "Twin XL" would depend on the order that you have gone through the size options. In some cases, those dimensions would be indentical to Twin, and then you would just get Twin like me.
Now I have returned the item under a different policy, "Website Error." I was hoping that would mean I'd just get a refund. But it seems to be "processing" my order now.
I may end up having to consider this order a total loss, and that Amazon is not going to send me a Twin XL or give me a cash refund.
It's already cost me more than it was worth in time and agony.
And then there's the bug where reviews for multiple versions of the same Item are all jumbled together, and don't really all apply to the item you may be looking at.
