Posts about Amazon
(afagen)
(WDAF-TV)
(nffcnnr)
The Mirasol Hanvon C18
(bnilsen)
(Amazon.com)
(CLimage)
(Amazon)
(Enokson)
(Consumer Reports)
(matneym)
(Enokson)
(Yo Spiff)
(camknows)
(Nintendo)
(ups2006)
(formatc1)
(Amazon)
Nook Beats Kindle In Consumer Reports Ratings
(Kei!)
(formatc1)
(TLFagan)
(hkarau)
(Meg Marco)
(Consumer Reports)
(Amazon.com)
(dmuth)
Photo: Consumer Reports
(sfxeric)
(zegolf)
(dabby1)
(Amazon)
(jonathon)
(Amazon)
(Jason)
(Consumer Reports)
(Amazon)
(Brian)
(Alan)
(jetalone)
(Fisher-Price)
(lexuh)
(emily)
(Woot.com. Please don't charge us for this. We need the
money to upgrade our database server.)
(lexuh)
(robertdx)
(Zappos.com)
(eschipul)
(oskay)
(Patrick Sung)
(oskay)
(formatc1)
(TechCrunch)
(Mark)
(Nathan)
(Sindy)
(Photo: lexuh)
(Photo: Tengaport)
(Photo: quinn.anya)
(Photo: So Cal Metro)
(Photo: GlennFleishman)
Photo: U.S. Army
(Photo: smcgee)
(Photo: chhipkali)
(Photo: Rex Features)
(Photo:krossbow)
(Photo:formatc1)
—>The new music search capabilities that Google introduced today will make it easier to quickly find a song you can't remember the name of, or sample some tracks from an artist you're interested in. But it's not so much a new service as a more efficient combination of a bunch of services already scattered around the web. More »
—>If you have $80 and a lust for video games, Amazon has a deal for you, which was spotted by Joystiq. Spend the money on pre-selected video games and you get a $40 credit. More »
—>Considering the growing amount of credit card fraud, it's not surprising that banks are becoming more and more vigilant about identifying suspicious transactions. It's too bad they haven't been as successful at filtering out false positives or promptly notifying customers, as James Fallows at The Atlantic recently discovered when he got his account frozen for sending files to his Kindle. More »
Kindle coming to a PC near you next month. Amazon's Kindle software will be available as a free download for PC users starting next month. Versions for Macs and BlackBerrys will be available next year. All will have DRM, though users will be spared the pain of having to download their locked-down lit via AT&T's 3G network, which has replaced Sprint's more reliable data network in recent hardware Kindles. More »
—>One of the big selling points about the Nook, the new ebook reader introduced this week by Barnes & Noble, is that unlike Amazon they'll let you virtually "loan" your ebook to a friend for up to 14 days (if the publisher allows it). What they don't tell you—some smart readers over at MobileRead sussed it out—is that you can only do this one time per book. You'd better lend wisely—and your friend had better finish that book within 14 days. More »
—>Even though it most likely wasn't Amazon's fault that Lucas's iPod arrived in a hippo-flattened package, a company rep stepped in and gave him a $10 credit to say sorry. More »
—>Lucas opened his door one day to find this mangled package, containing an iPod Touch that was a birthday gift for his wife. No doubt he had the same expression as Rosemary when she saw her baby for the first time. More »
Paul is generally speaking a very smart cookie, plus he went to law school, so he sent them a very strongly worded letter noting that Amazon falsely indicated the device's durability in a video (embedded here) that shows it falling to the ground unharmed This is the amazing letter he sent them:
Paul Gowder
[Address omitted]
August 12, 2009
Amazon.com Inc.
Legal Department
1200 12th Avenue South
Suite 1200
Seattle, WA 98144-2734
Dear Sir or Madam:
On June 21, 2009, I purchased an Kindle 2 e-book reader from the Amazon.com website. I purchased this device based, in substantial part, on the expectation that it would be reasonably durable. In particular, I expected that it would be approximately as durable as is ordinary in the consumer electronics market.
Amazon.com advertises the Kindle 2 on the basis of its durability. Notably, Amazon.com displays a "drop test" video on the web page for this product. That video displays the device being dropped twice from thirty inches onto what appears to be tile. That video displays a fall with sufficient force that the device visibly bounces, and deliberately creates the impression that the device will function after impacts similar to that sequence of drops.
Despite those representations, the Kindle 2 is far less durable. On July 26, 2009, I dropped a messenger bag containing the device onto the sidewalk, from approximately two feet above the ground. It was dropped only once, and the messenger bag absorbed enough of the shock that nothing else in the bag, including a Macbook laptop, suffered any damage whatsoever. (Unlike the drop displayed in Amazon.com's video, for example, nothing actually bounced.) Moreover, there was no visible damage on the exterior of the Kindle 2. Nonetheless, the Kindle 2 became completely unusable, with over 50% of its screen no longer able to display any text.
I called Amazon.com support and was told that, because of the accidental drop, you would not be willing to supply a replacement device under warranty. You did, however, offer to sell a new device at a discount, for $200.00. I took advantage of that offer under protest, and explicitly reserved my rights to bring a claim against you based on the unreasonable fragility of the device and the misrepresentations in your advertising. It is that claim that forms the subject of this letter.
I am prepared to offer an immediate settlement of my claims against Amazon.com for a payment of $400.00. That sum represents the $200.00 replacement fee I paid plus $200.00 to compensate me for the diminution of utility and value of the device as well as of the e-books I have purchased for that device, in light of the fact that the replacement device, too, can be expected to be far more fragile than advertised and prone to destruction under the slightest stress. This offer expires thirty days from your receipt of this letter. If you do not accept this offer, I intend to bring suit either individually, or, if I decide it is warranted, as representative for a class of similarly situated plaintiffs. At that time, I will seek the amount noted above, plus punitive damages under the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Cal. Civil Code �1750 et. seq., costs, fees, and such other monetary damages as provided for by law, including without limitation Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code �17200 et. seq., the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, and other relevant law.
Also, you have demanded the return of the broken device as a condition to the unreasonable discounted replacement offer which I accepted under protest. Your agent has informed me that you will charge my credit card for the full price if the broken device is not returned to you. I am considering seeking a protective order placing that device in the custody of the Court pending litigation. However, should I instead return the device, you are hereby notified that it is evidence in the anticipated litigation to which this letter refers. Should you modify, destroy, or resell the broken device, I will ask the Court to treat that as deliberate spoliation of evidence and make adverse inferences as appropriate.
Very truly yours,
Paul Gowder
<- And this letter is Amazon completely surrendering.Savvy. It's a great example of having all your facts lined up, knowing exactly what you want from them, and not making your request too outrageous. And Paul's not the only one to have problems with Kindle screen breakage.
Sure, who believes advertising? The thing is, there is an allowance for puffery in advertising, but the drop test video goes beyond puffery (i.e. "The greatest car ever!" Or "World's #1 Gold Buyer!) and creates the warranty that a Kindle 2 can survive as high a drop onto a hard surface. As one commenter said, "If you are at a fast food place and a picture of a hamburger has a bun, cheese, and lettuce on it you expect the hamburger to come with those items on it." If Amazon can't live up, they gotta pay up.
Kindle 2: fragile piece of shit or overpriced fragile piece of shit? [Uncommon Priors]
The Kindle War Begins [Uncommon Priors]
This is what victory looks like. [Uncommon Priors]
More »
—>Walmart just tried to undercut Amazon on, of all things, books. They've announced that they're now selling the "top 10 pre-selling books" for $9 each, with free home delivery. Amazon has responded by dropping its price to $9 on the same titles, but their free shipping doesn't kick in until you buy $25 worth of merchandise (or pay the annual fee for Amazon Prime). Price war! More »
—>If you live in New York, Seattle, or a handful of other cities, and you've got to have that book, DVD or Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster Funhouse right now, Amazon has a deal for you. The mega-etailer is now offering same-day delivery — for a price that may just send you out to the nearest subway: as much as $19 to get a single book delivered. More »
—>Joshua had a problem with Amazon. He and his wife bought Kindles, broke one and went for a return/exchange, in which the couple ended up with a new Kindle and $300 of Amazon's money in its account. More »
—>It's not often that we get an email from a reader complaining about a company that gives him money and won't take it back, but with Amazon, anything is possible. More »
—>Some people who got away with using a $60 gift certificate on two separate Amazon orders would take the merchandise and run, hoping to get to use it a third time. More »
—>Unbeatable Sale, Inc. is offering a deal on a 47-inch HDTV befitting of its name on Amazon. The company is charging $12,555,000 for the TV which seems a bit outrageous until you consider the following factors: More »
—>As part of a settlement with the customer who sued Amazon over the 1984 fiasco this past summer, Amazon has clarified under what circumstances it can delete your books. Notably, Amazon is not saying that it will never again delete books, which keeps the Kindle in the "do not buy" list for consumers who want unequivocal ownership of the items they purchase. In fact, despite the muted praise Amazon is receiving for doing this, the best we can say about the clarification is that it's about time, but that it still doesn't address the fundamental ownership issues raised by the Kindle licensing system. More »
—>Robert ordered a defective textbook from Amazon, which let him return the book outside its 30-day return policy. Amazon let him do so without trouble, but that wasn't even the coolest thing the e-tailer did for him. When Robert received the next book, with the same defect — it too was missing codes he needed for his lab — he decided to go to the school bookstore to buy a copy with the codes he needed. The CSR told Robert he could keep the second book and gave him a full refund. He writes: More »
—>Reader Len recently found out that it's sort of impossible to order shampoo and a book from Amazon at the same time. They'll just keep sending you a shampoo-covered book until they eventually give up and refund your money. Trouble is, Len didn't want a refund. He wanted a shampoo-less book. More »
—>Amazon sent Will this humongoid package for his tiny little SD card, apparently concerned shipping complications might mutate the SD card into a giant mutant capable of eating a computer. More »
—>A post on Amazon's Kindle support forum yesterday says the company is sending out emails with offers of $30 to customers who had their George Orwell purchases erased from their devices earlier this summer. More »
—>Sarah ordered a book on Amazon, but the package was stolen before she could get to it. She called Amazon and was pleasantly surprised with the results. She writes: More »
—>Let's get straight to the bad news: although Amazon did answer my questions, their answers included "we're working on that," "I don't know," and "I don't know (but it's the publishers' fault)." To be fair to the "Kindle Specialist" I spoke with this morning, he has promised to talk to the Kindle marketing department—why marketing? these are DRM issues!—and get back to me with better answers. Until then, this is what the average consumer can expect from a Kindle ebook license. More »
—>Best Buy has been downgraded to neutral from "buy" by Goldman Sachs on concerns that Amazon.com and Walmart are poised to begin a serious asskicking. More »
—>Valerie got married about a year and a half ago. While planning the wedding, she had a registry on Amazon.com, but no longer had a use for it after the wedding. About a month ago, suddenly, mysteriously, she started receiving Brides Magazine. She received three issues in a span of three weeks. Not planning another wedding anytime soon, she has no need for a subscription, and called to cancel. What followed was a voyage into the mysterious intersection of magazines and third-party subscription vendors, since nobody can tell Valerie where the subscription really originated. More »
Later this month, Sony will start selling a $199 ebook reader through Walmart and other retailers ($100 less than the Kindle). They're also dropping the price of new releases to $9.99, which is what Amazon sells ebook licenses for. [Consumer Reports] More »
—>I was never much for writing in books in school, though I did use Post-Its frequently. Which is a precursor to leaving digital notes in a Kindle edition of the book. A Michigan high school student is one of the parties in a class action suit against Amazon because in deleting the unauthorized MobileReference edition of 1984, the company effectively ate his homework. More »
—>No, Amazon is not contacting its members and performing regular fraud checks. Jason received this e-mail, which is associated with a rather convincing Amazon phishing site. More »
—>Nearly a week after Amazon remotely deleted 1984 and Animal Farm from customers' Kindles because they weren't licensed, head Kindle-cheerleader Jeff Bezos posted this statement on the Kindle Community discussion board on Amazon.com. More »
—>According to the San Francisco Business Times a report by PrivateEquityHub citing "two sources close to the company" claims that Zappos wanted to remain independent, but was forced to sell to Amazon by venture capitalists who had invested in the company. More »
—>Amazon has purchased Zappos for $807 million. Reaction around Consumerist's (virtual) newsroom: "Oh, no." Then we started locking up our shoes in case our right to own them is revoked. No, no, we kid. Maybe. More »
—>Oh jeez, AT&T, don't you have enough on your plate? You can't handle your iPhone customers as it is. TechCrunch says some customers' voicemails go missing for days or even weeks, you can't enable MMS because there's no room for it on your system, and the "faster" 3GS isn't any faster at all on your network. Now comes word that you'll be the one providing so-called "connectitivty" for Barnes & Noble's new ebook reader coming out next year. The result: more congestion for every AT&T customer. More »
—>So you've got a Kindle, and you have books on it, and you want to keep those books—no matter what Amazon or a publisher decides you deserve in the future. Your legal options are limited, but you do have some. More »
—>Sure, electronic books are portable and have all sorts of advantages. But Borders has not, to date, broken into my house and stolen back my copy of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide. More »
Received my new Kindle today, same day I heard about their price drop to $299. Obviously I wanted to see if I could get some cash back. Did their customer callback and got a call as soon as I hit OK. CSR said the shipping cutoff for a partial refund was July 8th and that they'd be crediting me $60 in 2-3 days. More »
—>This story is a little old, but was just brought to our attention this weekend. Elsevier, which is sort of the Death Star of academic publishing, was caught offering $25 Amazon gift cards to professors who gave the book five-star reviews on Amazon. More »
Everyone keeps reporting it, so we feel like we should also mention it here: Amazon has dropped the price on its normal-sized Kindle to $299. [Consumer Reports] More »
—>Instead of paying outsiders to give their products fake positive reviews on Amazon product pages like Belkin and other companies, DeLonghi cut out the middleman. Their communications manager, Tara Carpenter, simply went on Amazon and gave a variety of DeLonghi products five-star rave reviews herself. More »
—>Dan, the Kindle owner who last week found that some of the books he'd purchased were no longer available to download due to unspecified limitations set by the publisher, spoke to more Amazon reps on Sunday. They clarified the DRM policy. Well, sort of. More »
[The CSR said] that there is always a limit to the number of times you can download a given book. Sometimes, he said, it's five or six times but at other times it may only be once or twice. And, here's the kicker folks, once you reach the cap you need to repurchase the book if you want to download it again. More »
—>This morning, Amazon e-mailed all North Carolina residents who are part of its Associates program to notify them that their accounts will be terminated in the next few weeks. More »
—>Amazon.com has released the latest batch of special coupon codes and Probargainhunter has the roundup. This month, they seem to all be for groceries. More »
—>Although eMusic is a great service—for a flat monthly fee, you get a set number of downloads per month of DRM-free music tracks—it's about to get better. Or maybe worse, depending on the breadth of your musical tastes. Today eMusic will announce that Sony is adding its back catalog of songs to eMusic's library. The bad news is that eMusic also plans to slightly raise prices and/or drop the number of downloads per month. Even if it works out to between 50-60 cents per track, though, that's still far less than iTunes Music Store or Amazon, and probably the cheapest way to grab music from Sony artists without resorting to piracy. More »
—>Brent was ready to order two-day shipping from Amazon merchant Electronics Expo for a set of Boston Acoustics speakers until he realized it would cost an extra $186. The speakers were only $49, and standard shipping was available for $14.99. More »
If you own a Kindle, you can now access your notes and highlights via the web at kindle.amazon.com. [TechCrunch] More »
—>Today's "Toothpaste For Dinner" Web comic features a visit from the Stupid Shipping Gang. A bigger version of the comic, and more adventures of the Stupid Shipping Gang, inside. More »
—>One of the hotter indie flicks of the summer, Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, debuted on Amazon's rental service this week, way before the movie opens in theaters May 22. At $9.99 for a three-day rental, the movie is also cheaper to rent than it will be to see at many theaters. More »
—>We're no fans of fake customer reviews here at Consumerist, it's true, but obviously goofy reviews are one of my very favorite things. (The reviews for this gallon of milk are an Internet classic.) More »
—>Previously: Amazon Deletes Reviews That Mention Pay For Play Review Schemes More »
—>After buying an anti-snoring mouthpiece from a third-party seller on Amazon, reader Bob received an email from the company offering him a free mouthpiece in exchange for a five-star review. He noted this attempted bribe in his Amazon review, and Amazon deleted it. Twice. More »
—>Amazon recently banned a customer for making what they considered too many returns, and when they did this they also disabled his Kindle account, although the returns were never related to Kindle purchases. So what happens when your Kindle account is taken away? Your Kindle still works, and the books you already bought for it will work, but you can't download those books ever again (better have made a backup on your PC!), you can't receive your magazine, blog, or newspaper subscriptions on it anymore, you can't email documents to Amazon to have them converted and sent to your Kindle, and you can't buy any new books for the device. That $360 device only works so long as Amazon decides it will work. More »
—>Was it a hacker? Probably not. Was it a translation error? Who knows. Here's the official #Amazonfail apology email (again) for your reading pleasure. It is, apparently, the final word on the matter. More »
—>Mike Daisey, the monologist and former employee at Amazon.com, told the Seattle PI that the weekend's gay and feminist book fiasco was actually caused by an employee at Amazon.fr who confused the term "adult"—which refers to porn stuff in Amazon's system—with "erotic" and "sexuality." That sharp-toothed troll who claimed all the credit is going to be pretty miffed to find out about this. More »
—>UPDATE: Amazon Gay Book Removal Was Massive Prank, I Did It, Claims Troll More »
—>Is Amazon trying to kill off our "stupid shipping gang" tag? Alex wrote to us today to point out that now there's a new "Packaging Feedback" link under your "My Account" page on their site. Among other things, you can leave feedback on the size of the box relative to what's inside. More »
—>When the Authors Guild successfully agitated for the right to selectively remove the text-to-speech feature from books read on Amazon's Kindle 2, they alienated an entire group of potential consumers: people who have trouble reading normal printed works. Now a group called the Reading Rights Coalition is going to storm the Authors Guild's NYC office tomorrow at noon to protest. More »
—>It took a while, but Bealls Florida has sent us their official explanation for why people who thought they were buying 12 plates through an Amazon sale received just 1 earlier this month. More »
—>PC Mag has assembled a list of instructions on how to wipe your account from a long list of websites, including Classmates.com (you'll have to call), Windows Live ID (it's complicated), and Friendster (ha ha ha). In many cases, canceling is as straightforward as clicking a link and authorizing the cancellation, but it's nice to see all the phone numbers and tips collected in one spot. More »
—>If you don't like GameStop, how about Amazon? On Thursday, they announced their new "Video Games Trade-In" program (www.amazon.com/tradeingames), where you send in your used games for Amazon gift card credit. What we like about this is you don't have to spend the money on more games if you don't want to, so you can convert old games into anything Amazon accepts gift cards for. What we don't like is you can't just get cash back—but hey, if you hate GameStop, here's an option for you. More »
—>The 8,000 member Authors Guild—the RIAA of the publishing world—has complained about the text to speech feature on the Amazon Kindle 2, which can read aloud your ebook in a computerized voice (something text to speech programs have been doing for years). The Guild says that's equivalent to an audio book, and that Amazon can't just allow it without paying extra, so last Friday Amazon caved in and announced they'll let writers and publishers disable the feature on a title by title basis moving forward. More »
—>Kevin couldn't understand why Amazon charged $29.95 for the digital version of Confessions of a Butcher when the paperback cost only $11.95. Amazon tried to gussy up the Kindle edition by offering what looked like a steep 45% discount, but the digital edition still cost $5 more than the print edition. Even the author's wife chimed in to Amazon's discussion forum to pan the discrepancy, adding, "what's really ridiculous is that we sell more ebooks at $20 than we do new paperbacks for $11.95." More »
—>Update: Mike writes back to say that after reading the comments below, he checked his purchase history and the album is indeed listed there. What's confusing is Mike didn't buy it through iTunes, but through Amazon, but he says that other people did have access to his account and may have purchased it without his knowledge. More »
—>Reader Marc would like Amazon to stop shipping bubbles of air all over the country. He ordered two items that would have been fine to ship in an envelope — but instead he got the usual large box with several air bubbles. This makes Marc mad. More »
—>Joel says when he ordered a disc from DVD Planet via Amazon, the company automatically created an account for him on their website. The problem is that the default password they used was so easy to guess that he figured it out on the second try, and he suspects it's the same password they use on every account. Once you guess it, you can see the customer's past orders and credit card billing address. When Joel contacted them to have the account removed, he was told that wasn't possible. More »
—>Michel Cuhaci ordered a book from Amazon, only to discover it was an unreadable misprint copy. He made sure that the one-star review of the book made this known. Little did he know, the Author of that book was reading the reviews. And little did he know, that author is a Certified Bad Ass. More »
—>We all know that Amazon's review system is kind of a mess. It's plagued by "professional reviewers," reviews from friends, legitimately critical reviews that get yanked after complaints by angry fan groups, and—worst of all—fake reviews, usually written by employees of the manufacturer. Adam found a new fake reviewer named David Jacob, but what really caught our eye was how real Amazon shoppers have picked up on it and left a series of comments to warn future customers to stay away from Gamenamics. More »
—>Amazon announced the Kindle 2 today and there are already people on eBay trying to sell their "place in line" for a huge markup. The new Kindle will retail for $359.00 (you can pre-order them now) but if you are really impatient can pay some person on eBay $599.99 for their presumably better pre-order spot.. ugh. More »
—>Amazon.com has released the latest batch of special coupon codes and Probargainhunter has the roundup. More »
The economy might be in a tailspin, but Amazon.com is doing just fine. "Amazons net profit rose 9 percent, to $225 million, or 52 cents a share, in the quarter that ended on Dec. 31, up from $207 million, or 48 cents, in the same quarter a year earlier," says the New York Times. More »
—> Amazon is selling this item to my left as a Bluetooth headset. Problem is, I don't think it will be very comfortable — Unless you are upgradable. Yes, if your heart resides in a cold, steel compartment, then perhaps this "Bluetooth" headset really is for you. The product revealed, after the jump. More »
—>It's been a little over a year since Amazon released the Kindle, and now publishers are finally getting the chance to set their own pricing on ebook editions. The result has been a slow creep in pricing on some titles—in some cases to levels above the price of a paper edition of the same book—for a digital edition that you can't resell, give away to someone else, or read on any other device. Kindle owners have started to notice, and now some of them are complaining that Amazon overpromised the $9.99 bookstore concept to move Kindles. More »
—>Add this to the Consumerist toolbelt: Star Raids. If a company is pissing off a bunch of customers and refuses to change some aspect of their product, some consumers are finding it effective to band together and thrash the product's rating. An avalanche of "zero" ratings can make a ratings score plummet, and turn away potential customers. The fall-off in sales will definitely grab their attention. More »
—>Amazon's "White Glove Delivery" seems primarily aimed to combat the sordid state of big-box retail; hand-delivering products, mostly televisions, into your home. However, if you follow their logic, I am not sure it exactly pans out. More »
- We're very sorry this happened;
- We don't condone unethical behavior
- We'll try to remove the fraudulent reviews;
- Our business partners had no role in this fiasco.
—>Belkin Business Development Representative Michael Bayard has been caught offering to pay anyone willing to leave perfect reviews of Belkin products on Amazon, Buy.com, and Newegg. Even worse, the highly unethical strategy seems to have worked—almost fifteen pages worth of Belkin products on Amazon have perfect five-star ratings. More »
—>I liked Jim Carrey's portrayal of "song-and-dance-man" Andy Kaufman as much as the next guy, but these Amazon.com glitches are beginning to get to me.[Thanks, Eric!] [Amazon] More »
—>A New York state Supreme Court justice threw out Amazon's sales tax lawsuit earlier today, opening the way for New York to begin collecting sales taxes on Amazon purchases. More »
—>Familiarity breeds contempt, and nowhere is that made more explicit than when shopping online. By deleting your cookies and returning to internet stores you've previously bought at, you may find yourself getting discounts usually reserved to lure in first time buyers. More »
—>We'd like to share a personal story: it involves Amazon, Christmas presents, and three broken pizza stones. More »
—>One of the interesting customer service trends of 2008 has been corporate pandering to customers who leave negative feedback on Amazon.com or company sites. Here's a look at the past year in bribery! More »
—>Our reader ordered some gifts from Amazon in early December, only to have the post office lose them right before Christmas. Amazon saved his Christmas by overnighting a new package at no charge. More »
Every other retailer in existence may have had an awful holiday season, but Amazon says it was its "best ever." [MarketWatch] More »
—>Jen ordered a product on Amazon, but what arrived in the shipment was significantly less than what was promised. More »
—>Intuit will rescind the controversial new $9.95 fee for each additional printed return, in response to angry customers online who, among other things, slammed TurboTax's Amazon rating to one star. [Press Release] (Thanks Craig!) More »
—>Emily bought a very "high quality" pirated copy of Windows from an Amazon seller and didn't realize that anything was amiss for an entire year. More »
—>Rob is mad because Amazon, in the figurative sense, delivered his wife's secret Christmas gift in a see-through glass box: More »
—>UPDATE: TurboTax Price Hike Reversed After Online Outcry More »
—>Matt would like to let Amazon know that there's no point in gift wrapping a present if you then put the gift wrapped item inside a box that says what the gift is. This should probably be self-evident — but alas — it isn't. More »
—>Check out the 18 and counting online retailers at freeshippingday.com for stores that will give you free shipping and guarantee delivery by Christmas if you shop there on Thursday, December 18th. The retailers include Amazon, Zappos, Dell, Target, Macy's and other big names, with perhaps more joining before the 18th. Nothing like getting rewarded for waiting until the last minute. More »
—>Yesterday we told you about PrettySinful, a clothing maker on Amazon that was marketing its tween girl tights as being "sexy." Tipster Jasmine also sent a complaint to PrettySinful. A customer service rep responded and pledged that they'll be removing the word "sexy" from all their children's clothes descriptions. More »
—>I don't think it's ever appropriate to market clothes to tween girls using the term "sexy." Manufacturer "PrettySinful" has a different opinion, as seen in these "sexy" tights sold on Amazon, accompanied by a picture of a prepubescent girl. Perhaps the picture is in error because the rest of the clothier's offerings are along the lines of crotchless bodystockings and various "do-me" adult party costumes. In any event, it's gross and should be fixed. More »
—>Amazon.com is doing holiday PR a little differently this year. They've announced something called the "Holiday Customer Review Team," which is comprised of "six of its top reviewers." More »
—>Anyone who was once a child or has been around a child during the holidays knows that toy packages are pure evil straight from hell. Now, according to a letter currently on the front page of Amazon.com, they've decided to dedicate themselves to removing this scourge from your lives. More »
—>The LA Times says that Amazon.com had a mask depicting democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama listed under the search term "terrorist costume." The listing has since been pulled but the LA Times has a screengrab. More »
—>Yes, our pro-consumer bias has its limits. For instance, when a customer service representative tries to help you, don't respond by telling them to "go back to school," or by mentioning that your fourth-grade class can "spell better." Of the tens of thousands of tips you have sent us, this is one of the worst. Do not be this guy. More »
—>32 new Amazon coupon codes for October. Notable: 25% off K-cups, 20% off Silk Soymilk and 15% off Amy's Organic Soups. Mmm, I loves me some Amy's soups, especially that no-chicken noodle. More »
—>Dell charged this guy's daughter over $200 for replacement batteries that don't even match her laptop. When her battery died, Dell sent her the wrong battery. Since she was out of warranty, Dell insisted that they could only continue to send her the wrong battery. When she asked why, Bill says the a supervisor repeatedly said, "I don't know ma'am, that's not my problem." More »
Highlights From Dealhack
- Abt Electronics: Sony Cybershot S750 7.2MP Digital Camera $129 Shipped
- Office Depot: HP AMD Dual Core Widescreen Notebook $550 & Free Shipping
- B&H Photo: Panasonic Viera 42-inch Plasma HDTV $830 Shipped
- Amazon: J.A. Henckels 8 Piece Stylus Block Set for $49.99 w/ Free shipping
- Walmart: Eastsport Mesh Backpack for $9.88 + $0.97 Shipping
- Timberland: 30% Off Coupon w/ coupon code: FALLEVENT4
- Geeks.com: Four Wireless Day / Night Color Security Cameras with receiver for $130 + $11 s&h
- Newegg: Creative ZEN X-Fi 8GB Portable MP3 / MP4 Player for $112 + free shipping
- Buy.com: Refurbished SanDisk Sansa MP3 Players from $22 + free shipping
—>Call it the welcome side of Christmas Creep; manufacturers are discounting LCD and plasma TVs ahead of the traditional year-end holiday sale cluster mess, but you won't find the best deals in retail stores. More »
—>Earlier today, about 2200 reviews of the game Spore disappeared from the product page on Amazon.com, almost all of them negative. Did Amazon censor the reviews because of their anti-DRM nature? Amazon says no, that it was a technical glitch, and they restored the reviews by the end of today. An Amazon spokesperson told Ars Technica, "Amazon doesn't censor or edit customer reviews based [on their content] and we'd only remove a review if it fell outside our guidelines." Spore's rating is back to a single star, and it's #5 on Amazon's video games chart. More »
- Apple: Refurbished iPod touches on sale, 8GB for $180, 16GB for $240, 32GB for $320
- Amazon: Rewards points upgrade for existing Amazon.com Visa holders
- Apple: Free Select iTunes TV Shows in HD (requires iTunes 8
- Travelocity: United Airlines Sale: Round-trip flights from $108
- Amazon.com: Amazon.com Men's Watch Deals: Timex, Marc Ecko, more from $40 + free shipping
- Sears: Seven7 Women's Jeans for $18 + $6 s&h, more
- Budget Truck Rental: $50 Gift card when paying w/American Express
- Reverie: T-Shirt Sale: Buy 1 TEE get 1 free TEE
- BestBuy: Westinghouse 42" 1080p LCD HDTV and portable DVD Player for $749.99 + shipping
- Drugstore.com: New Customers: Save $5 or $10 off First Order
- Vann's: Panasonic FZ28 10.2MP Digital Camera $340 Shipped
- Amazon: Get Savings of up to 75% off Bargain Books
A number of readers chimed in on the Best Buy-branded wishlist browser add-on post with the alternatives they prefer instead. They were: 1) Amazon's Universal Wishlist, 2) Del.icio.us, 3) Wishlist.com, 4) Wishlistr.com. Got any others? As far as what most Consumerist's thought of the Best Buy add-on, commenter dragonfire81 probably captured it best... More »
—>Spore, the long awaited new game from SimCity creator Will Wright, has been critically well-received, so what's up with its Amazon.com score? As of this posting, the game, despite being #1 on Amazon, has 1,494 one star ratings from gamers who are upset about the game's DRM. Here are some excerpts from the angry reviews: More »
- Banana Republic: 30% off today only with coupon code HAPPY30 or printable coupon
- Sears: Free Masterlock with printable coupon
- MusiciansFriend: AKG Handheld Condenser Microphone for $100 + free shipping. Today only.
- Timbuk2: Save up to 60% off Messenger Bags, Backpacks, & More
- New York & Co.: Extra 20% off Store-Wide Women's Apparel
- Office Depot: Viewsonic N3235w 32-inch LCD HDTV $470 & Free Shipping
—>Amazon is having a grocery clearance sale, 55% off regular price with coupon code CLRNCFTY. [Amazon] More »
—>Slickdeal forums members are complaining about a mass-closing of Amazon accounts. The reasons cited vary from having too high a percentage of returns, shipping to too many different addresses, and having too many different Amazon accounts. Guess they're trying to tighten their bottom line and prevent loopholes from being exploited, but the net may have been cast too wide; some of the adversely affected users say the action was unfair and unwarranted. Couple this with the online retailer dropping the post price guarantee at basically the same time and you have to wonder if the boys in the Amazon backroom spent Labor Day Weekend earning their Six Sigma certificates. More »
—>Amazon ended its post order price guarantee this Monday, according to an email a reader and deal forum members received from the online retailer. More »
- Amazon: 37 new coupon codes for September 2008
- Google: Get Chrome for free, Google's new super-minimal browser (still in beta, read review at Lifehacker)
- Apple: Seven refurbished Apple Aluminum iMac Core 2 Duo Desktops from $949 each + free shipping
- Newegg: Nikon Coolpix P60 8.1MP Camera $150 Shipped
- Amazon: Save Extra $20 off Kellogg's, Keebler & other Grocery Products
- 1-800 Contacts: Save $20 to $80 + Bonus $5 off Contact Lenses with Coupon
- Toys "R" Us: BOGO 50% off all video games up to $19.99
- Proctor & Gamble: Free Tide TotalCare sample
- BuyCostumes.com: Sale: Up to 60% off
- Amazon.com: Get three DVDs for $10 when you add all three to your Shopping Cart
- Golden Gadgets: 2 Pack of 9 LED Aluminum Pocket water resistant Flashlight for $3.99 + Shipping ($2.02)
- Newegg.com: A-DATA 16GB Flash Drive WHITE for $24.99 after $15 rebate!
—>On one hand, the mere existence of such a thing as a "ready to ship" box at Amazon leads us to believe that there may be hope for them after all. Sadly, the fact that they packed the "ready to ship" box inside another box before they shipped it does leave us with some nagging doubts. More »
- Lenovo: Employee Pricing on ThinkPad and IdeaPad Notebooks, up to 42% off (login with passcode 536686)
- Woot: Sandisk Clip 2GB MP3 Player for $19.99
- Newegg: ESET NOD32 Antivirus Home Edition v3 for $14.99 (Best antivirus around, won't slow down your computer)
- Buy.com: Kingston 4GB USB 2.0 Portable Flash Drive $14 Shipped
- Hanes.com: Save 15% off Complete Order on All Clothing
- Vann's: Sony FX820 Portable 8-inch DVD Player $150 Shipped
- Amazon: Kitchen & Home Labor Day Sale: Save up to 65%
- Linens 'n Things: BOGO 50% off bath furniture, more + 20% off coupon
- American Eagle: 40% off purchases coupon
—>In the battle for customer satisfaction, if Mike's letter is any indication, it appears that ASUS is (still) under siege attack by General Incompetence. More »
—>Reader Gibson ordered 8 plates from Amazon, and they arrived in 13 boxes. We're sure the operations research management scientists at Amazon shipping have an answer as to why, in the context of the entire shipping infrastructure, this was the most cost-effective solution, but it escapes us mere mortals. Full pic inside. More »
- Iams: Free Iams Premium Protection Dog or Cat Food if you give them your address
- Iomega: 3.5" External USB 2.0 Hard Drive shipped for $55.66(250 GB) Or $64.16 (320 GB)
- Newegg: Sennheiser CX300B 3.5mm Connector Canal Headphone (Black) $10 after rebates
- Sierra Trading Post: Extra 10% off Clothing, Footwear, & Gear
- Amazon: Summer Sale: 25% or More off Kitchen Small Appliances
- Dell Home: Save 20% to 30% off Inspiron Notebook PCs
- Torrid: $10 off select Birkenstock
- Toys "R" Us: BOGO $20 off all Wii games
- PayPal: Back to school savings @ Foot Locker, Guess, Tiger Direct, more
- Amazon: Lego sale. 50% off 8 Different Items
- Walgreens: 6 Sharpies for $2 (in-store only)
- eforcity: iPod/iPhone charging cable for $7.99 (down from $43.99)
- DealExtreme: iPod/iPhone charging cable for $3.46
- Woot: It's a woot-off!
- Best Buy: Dynex DX-LCD32 32-inch LCD HDTV $490
- Tiger Direct: Unlocked Motorola RAZR V3 GSM Cell Phone $100
- Buy.com: Kodak Z1285 12 Megapixel Digital Camera $90 Shipped
- Kohl's: 80-90% Clearance Sale
- Disney Outlet: Kid's costumes up to 80% off, plus extra 20% off code
- Amazon: Dr. Martens Men's 1914 Cherry Red Size 14 Boots $38
- Tiger Direct: UTStarcom GSM708 Unlocked GSM Phone $20
- Butterfly Photo: Canon Rebel XSi 12MP DSLR & Lens $790 Shipped
- Expedia: Save 30% off Hotels, Cars, Cruises & Other Travel
- Amazon: 80lb Crossbow Pistol - Hunting - $19.99 (Reg. $59.99)
- Shirt.Woot: Funny/cool movie snack shirt for $10
- B&H Photo: Drobo DRO4DU10 4-bay, USB2.0 Robotic Storage Array for $350 (down from $500+)
- Performance Bike: Save an Extra 10% off Bikes & Gear with Coupon
- Mwave: OCZ Mini-Kart Micro-Sized 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Free AR
- Buy.com: Save $100: Pentax Optio Z10 8MP Digital Camera $140 Shipped
- Amazon: Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset $60 shipped
- Lane Bryant: 40-50% off storewide
- Ralph Lauren: Extra 25% off select sale items
—>Sarah bought some car chargers from Eforcity through Amazon, and was disappointed to find that the charger plug doesn't stay in the phone unless you hold it in. She said as much in her Amazon feedback. In response, Eforcity said they would be happy to give her a refund, as long as she deleted her negative feedback. In other words, a bribe for self-censorship. Eforcity's email, inside... More »
—>Yes, folks. It's time for everybody's favorite post: Stupid Shipping Gang! In this episode, Amazon demonstrates how to package a tiny microfiber cloth efficiently. More »
Amazon.com seems to be back up. A bit slow, but functional. All in all, the site was down for 3 hours, which is very very long for a gigantic online retailer to be down these days. [Amazon] More »
—>Whoa Amazon is down. It just says, "Http/1.1 Service Unavailable." Then I tried again and the front page was there, but when I clicked through, same error message. It looks like it's been this way since at least 1:30 PM, eastern. It was broken for several Consumerist writers who tested it out. More »
—>Here's something to break the monotony of your day. Reader Jim sends these pictures of the night stand he ordered from Amazon.com. It came packed not in peanuts, but covered in spray foam insulation. He says it took him half an hour to hack through the sticky stuff to get to the furniture. Weird, yes, but the item did arrive intact... so maybe they're on to something. More »
—>ProBargainHunter tells us how to snag 5-15% in extra savings on Amazon by tweaking the "Quick Picks" function. More »
—>There's something deeply wrong with HP these days. It seems that instead of just fixing your laptop's overheating issue, they'd rather accuse Amazon.com of selling fake HP laptops and deny your warranty. Reader Floria says that even though she got a letter from Amazon stating that there's no possible way they sold her a fake or refurbished laptop, and then escalated her complaint to a "senior case manager" who approved the repair, HP still hasn't fixed her computer. Is anyone in charge over there? More »
—>Amazon.com apparently has a glitch whereby if you have 1-click ordering set up to buy MP3 downloads, and you forget that you canceled your credit card because it had been stolen by a random French person, you'll end up with a bunch of "free music." And, if you're an honest person like Jeff Somogyi, when you try to contact Amazon to pay for the music, they'll chuckle at you. More »
—>"MyGearStore," a seller on Amazon, tried to bribe reader Michael into remove less-than-stellar feedback. Michael writes, "There were some problems with the order, and I gave them neutral feedback (which was pretty generous)." They said they would give him a partial refund if he took down his feedback. He complained to Amazon, who didn't reply except with a "thanks for emailing us" and to MyGearStore, who didn't respond. One tool consumers use to evaluate the slew of online retailers out there is by looking through feedback left by other customers. If stores are trying to pay off customers to get rid of negative feedback, one, they're stupid because they're going to get caught. Two, it means you should be suspicious if the feedback for one store, product, or seller is overwhelmingly positive. Critical reading, it's a good ability to have. The original bribe note sent by MyGearStore, inside.. More »
Amazon launched a new "BPA-free" baby supply shop (BPA is a chemical found in some plastic bottles that may cause cancer). The only problem was that not all of the bottles were BPA-free. [Z Recommends] More »
—>Amazon has filed a complaint in NY's State Supreme Court challenging a new law that forces the retailer to collect sales tax on shipments to residents of NY state. More »
—>Reader John is an Amazon Prime member who can't get anything sent to his house via UPS without a signature after he filed a claim over a $30 DVD that never showed up. He really likes his UPS driver, but the guy says that because of the "blacklist" he's powerless to leave packages when John isn't home. Period. Does anyone know how to get off of a UPS blacklist? More »
—>CouponCodesMall has rounded up some previously published Amazon deal hacks into one Amazon coupon code e-book in three parts: More »
—>Today only, all AT&T phones are on sale at Amazon for only 1 cent with new service plan (Sorry, the iPhone is not included). We don't know whether it's an error or what, but it looks like on some of these you actually make money after rebate. More »
—>Reader Craig ordered some gym equipment from Amazon, but he accidentally used his debit card instead of his credit card. Realizing his mistake, he immediately tried to correct the problem. He went through the change payment process right away and figured all was well. Of course it wasn't, and he ended up getting charged $2,288.44 for $750 worth of equipment when Amazon got the refund process backwards. Twice. See how it happened after the jump. More »
—>One of the budget-related changes voted in last week by New York State's politicians included a new "Amazon tax":
"Another $50 million will come from requiring online retailers like Amazon that do not have a physical presence in New York to collect sales taxes on purchases made by New Yorkers and remit them to the state.New York's argument, based on a reading of the 1992 Quill vs. North Dakota U.S. Supreme Court ruling, is that because Amazon makes sales through affiliates who live in the state, it can be considered to have a physical presence there—which means the new law wouldn't apply to retailers who don't use affiliate programs. More »
This list of Amazon coupon codes for April makes me want to puke, irregardless of the fact that the only thing I ate all day was a small money salad. Only scumbags avoid paying full price. [ProBargainHunters] More »
Buy It Later is a cool Firefox extension that monitors specific products for you for price drops or for them to come back in stock. [BuyLater via Lifehacker] More »
—> Two days ago, Shawn bought a video card from Amazon and was surprised when the advertised "Instant Rebate" 
wasn't applied to his shopping cart. Turns out, it's a mail-in rebate, sorry for the confusion. Unfortunately Amazon still hasn't corrected the error as of the timestamp on this post, despite assuring him two days ago that they'd remove the icon. Remember to always click the "Rebate" link to see the actual details of the offer—it's not listed on the main product page, and mistakes happen. More »
—>Amazon gives you free shipping if you buy over $25 of qualifying goods so people will sometimes search for "filler" items, little cheap doohickiesand to toss in to bring the total up. Here's three quick ways to find them, courtesy of WiseBread: More »
I bought two books on Amazon - and my total came to $24.74. So I scouted around and found a site (www.filleritem.com) that lets you choose a small priced item to bump the price over the $25 to qualify for free shipping. I chose a small wooden knob for $0.72. More »
—> Jon saved up a bunch of PepsiStuff points and decided to redeem them for an item PepsiStuff is promoting on its website. That's how these point redemption programs usually work, you see. PepsiStuff.com apparently thinks otherwise—they'll let you redeem the points for a COBY player (ha ha ha ha), but the Sony alarm clock is just redemption bait. You're not supposed to actually pick that. More »
I'm sure you get a number of these, but here's another one because I know I don't get tired of them. A word of advice to anyone planning on making a purchase from Amazon.com that I overlooked myself; do not order anything glass with anything heavy, as they most likely WILL package them together. More »
To help fill New York State's budget gap, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has revived a plan to impose sales tax on some goods purchased online that are not currently taxed, notably things bought from Amazon.com. The state estimates this will bring in $47 million a year. More »
I found this on Amazon's video outlet. No wonder it's on sale.We're not, like, Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa or anything, but yeah. Something seems a little off. More »
—> Amazon sent out some unexpected bundles of email joy earlier this week, when it let unsuspecting couples know that not only did they have a baby gift registry, but that someone had bought them something off of it. Julee writes, "I was shocked to find out we were expecting a child. So was my husband. And that someone had been stalking us online early enough in the process to know to buy us a gift!" She asked her married friends and found out that they, too, had received similar good news. Babies for everyone! Hooray! More »
—>"I wonder if other readers have experienced the wasteful excessive packaging used by Amazon.com. I recently ordered a Gel Wrist Rest and a hardcover book (to qualify for free shipping). The two items were shipped to me separately, probably because they were coming from different warehouses. Though that itself is wasteful, I can understand why it may be necessary. But when the Wrist Rest arrived, it came in a GIANT box filled with paper stuffing (see photo). The box measured 24" x 12" x 18". The wrist rest is about 20" long, but flat. Is it possible that a company that sells all of its various products by mail doesn't have a long flat box that could have been used instead?" More »
—>Amazon's new "Subscribe & Save" service lets you sign up to receive shipments of certain goods on a regular basis, meaning that now it's possible to subscribe to your toilet paper. Or cereal. Or Priolsec. They're also offering a 15% discount to subscribers. You can choose whether to have the items shipped once every one, two, three or six months. Shipping is free. The service also sends out emails reminding you of an upcoming shipment, with an option to cancel. GTPD: Getting toilet paper done. Nice! More »
Hey guys, More »
—> Starting today, Warner Music songs are now available on the Amazon MP3 music store, in DRM-free formats and at prices competitive to what iTunes charges. According to Reuters, Amazon has now reached "deals with music labels Universal Music Group, part of Vivendi, and EMI. The remaining major recording group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, has yet to offer its songs for the service." Sony BMG, you guys are very, very old dorks. More »
—>Products don't advertise their drawbacks leaving shoppers to rely on online reviews as one of the only ways to determine a product's true worth. Salon argues in an article heavy on fluff and light on content that reviews are just a meaningless muddle of questionable opinions. We disagree, but the article does raise one good question: how do you judge the value online reviews? More »
—>
Dear Editors, More »
—>Amazon should take a closer look at how they're shipping hard drives, because the current plan just isn't working. More »
—>
I read consumerist everyday and your tips help me procure a Wii for xmas. I had bought one through Amazon, and it was delivered when I wasn't home. By the time I got home, someone had stolen it off my porch... More »
—>BusinessWeek says Amazon is buying a stake in "Bill Me Later" a firm that offers open lines of credit to customers so they can shop without using a credit card. More »
On Black Friday, Amazon.com held a raffle of sorts. Essentially, they had several awesome items at insane prices, and people were randomly selected to get these details. One of these items was a really nice laptop, regularly $1000, discounted to $300 for 250 lucky people. I was not one of those lucky people. That didn't stop me from winning in my own sort of way. More »
—> Amazon either ran out of inventory or didn't catch several pricing errors on their Black Friday sale until after they'd already begun to ship products, but either way a lot of customers just had their orders canceled. One customer even got tricked into re-purchasing a wireless mouse at full price because the CSR promised him Amazon would honor the sale price—then after placing the order received an email from another CSR saying that the promise was no good and he'd be charged the full $89.99. Then the CSRs continued their all-drinking, all-smoking holiday office party over at Amazon Customer Service. More »
—>HowItSucks.com is an interesting project that scrapes just the negative consumer electronic productive reviews from Amazon.com. Search by type or brand, and a red bar shows you how much it "sucks," based on the negative feedback. Pass the mouse over the item and the popup lists the essential statement from three of the reviews. Could be an interesting tool for comparison shopping. Negative reviews are a good starting point if you're trying to choose between similar products. You always need to be a critical reader, though. I bought an iPod sports band once and on the Apple site were all these people complaining about how it was too big and was falling off their arm. I then thought about how a number of Apple users are very picky and have twig-like bodies, whereas I have chunky biceps. I bought the sport-band and it fit perfectly. More »
According to one reader's report, Amazon free shipping for Prime users and free Super Saver shipping isn't working. An Amazon rep told that their system is experiencing a major problem and that his account is among the first to be affected. Anyone else seeing this? More »
—>Amazon's "customers vote" shopping game is back and it seems very fun. More »
—>Mike Antonucci from the Mercury News tells us that Amazon.com has pulled the lead-tainted Fisher-Price Medical Kit from its website after fielding questions about a Consumer Reports investigation that found "troubling" levels of lead in the blood pressure cuff. More »
Amazon will supposedly sell a unspecified but large number of Wii game consoles on Wednesday, October 31st at 10 am PDT (1 pm EDT). [NintendoWiiFanboy] More »
I just wanted to let you guys know that Amazon has been tracking reviews posted for possible safety concerns. I had a rice cooker that decided to shock me several times, so I wrote an anonymous review back in January. Unexpectedly, a few weeks ago, I get an email from Amazon asking about the incident. Given the gap between the review and the email, I suspect this is a new program on their part. A copy of their email is below. More »
—> The "promise" of e-books is so old it's got hair on it, but now two online giants are stepping up to the plate with their own spin on how best to sell books digitally. Next month, Amazon will finally release its long-rumored Kindle, an e-ink reader which will wirelessly connect to Amazon via EVDO, so you can purchase books even more easily than new iPod Touch owners can buy songs while they're at Starbucks. And before the end of the year, Google will start charging for full online access to some digital copies of books in its database. More »
—>Jason Kottke was home Saturday at 3:36 pm when UPS claims they attempted to deliver his copy of Harry Potter. No notice was left on Kottke's door; the neighboring doorman saw no UPS truck; UPS' own website shows that the package never transitioned from the penultimate status of "In Transit To Final Destination" to "Out For Delivery." Why would UPS lie about delivering a copy of Harry Potter? More »
—> Reader Scott points out that the number one item on the "Movers & Shakers List" in the toy category (like, kids toys) on Amazon.com is the above pictured "cigarette dispensing donkey." More »
—>• Amazon.com offers $30 credit if you get their Visa card. Are there reasons not to get it? More »
—>Is Chase enrolling customers in paperless billing without their consent and then charging them late fees when they fail to pay? That's what seems to have happened to Jack, who writes: More »
—>Etymotic ER6is are good iPod headphone replacements/upgrades. More »
—>EnjoyDeals helps you find hidden Amazon deals. More »
—>The people behind BugMeNot and RetailMeNot have a new creation, JungleCrazy, designed to help you find the 70% off and up Amazon deals. More »
—>Amazon failed to deliver a $75 gift card reader Michael purchased for a business associate in 2004. Michael was notified of the failure in 2006, and issued a claim code worth $75. When Michael tried to use the code, it came up as invalid. Michael called Amazon and went through three representatives before reaching a supervisor.
She eventually decided that the reason the claim code was not working was because Amazon had expired it after sending it to me, and there was nothing she could do. It didn't matter that Amazon's web site said that gift certificates sold to people in Massachusetts don't expire. It didn't matter that Massachusetts state law required that the gift certificate remain valid for a minimum of 7 years (or forever if it doesn't clearly state an expiration date, which is what actually applies to this case). It didn't matter that Amazon had never sent the gift certificate to the original intended recipient, it didn't matter that Amazon had told me it was valid right before expiring it, what mattered was that the gift certificate had expired and so there was nothing that could be done.The resolution, and Michael's email, inside... More »
—>We don't want to rain on their parade, but we think the new IMDB website's recommendation engine could use some work. Just because a movie is about someone returning home, and contains the word...well, you get the idea. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
—>Working mom/WSJ reporter Suzanne Barlyn discovered it wasn't easy to return a busted Tamagotchi. The Journal also tried to return a Target shirt that didn't make it through the wash, a $13 camera from Toys "R" Us that broke after one use, a broken flat-panel TV from Amazon, a coat that didn't fit from BabyGap, and an oversize duffel from L.L. Bean. At each turn, they discovered retailers tossing road-blocks in their way.
Who can blame them? Return fraud soaked retailers for an estimated $9.6 billion in 2006, according to the National Retail Federation. Returning stolen merchandise for a refund is the most flagrant offense, affecting 95% of retailers last year. Computer-generated, counterfeit receipts make the practice easier. So-called wardrobing — the unethical practice of returning nondefective, used merchandise — affected 56% of companies. About 69% of retailers have modified their return policies in response to fraud, according to NRF. Changes include shorter time limits, restocking fees and requirements for original packaging.The Journal recommends making purchases with a credit card (paid in full each month,) since retailers look up purchases electronically. We agree, but for a different reason: credit cards allow you to dispute charges. Tell us about your fun experiences returning products in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
—>The prevailing trends in web design say go minimal or go home, so why then is Amazon's front page cluster bomb of choices? It sells more, writes Alex Moskalyuk. More »
—>Amazon.com has put together a list of bad gift ideas, and we must say we enjoyed it. Of particular interest is the Fresh Whole Rabbit that we posted about previously. Other bad ideas we like: More »
—>Amazon's semi-annual dress shirt sale is going on now. Quality shirts by Arrow, Izod, Geoffrey Beene, Calvin Klein, Kenneth Cole, and more for just $12.99-$29.99. More »
—>UPDATE: More Walmart Porn Found More »
—>Why go to the trouble of manually hacking Amazon's URLs to search for bargains when we've got all the messy work done for you? More »
—>Amazon has launched a new site, Endless.com, specializing in shoes and handbags. The site has 250 brands and 15,000 styles and makes the unusual, but tempting, offer of "Free Overnight Shipping." Really? Really. More »
—>Amazon sells everything. It's too bad Elmer Fudd didn't know about this service. It could have saved him a lot of trouble.—MEGHANN MARCO More »
—>This is the Amazon UK warehouse a week before Christmas. Click to enlarge. That is a lot of freaking merchandise. How do they handle it all? Answer: Get the small things right, then scale huge. — BEN POPKEN More »
You can save up to 80% off at Amazon.com's year-end clearance going on now. More »
—>Amazon has a policy that if you buy something from them, and the price drops within 30 days, they will refund you the difference. More »
—>Help reader OnoSideboard achieve the third level of tzedakah: More »
If you need traction on a thorny Amazon.com customer service issue, and you feel regular customer service isn't cutting it, you can reach their executive customer service team by email, at ecr@amazon.com. More »
Retailers are getting stricter with their return policies this year. If you're not hot about the Marshmallow Shooter or Toshiba SD-4990 DVD Player grams got you, keep the receipt and don't take it out of the package. Here's the return policies of some of the major retailers. — BEN POPKEN More »
—>ProBargainHunter analyzed Amazon's URLs and found ways to easily find hidden clearance and deal items by department. For instance, 75% off cameras: More »
"Readers who bought electronics products online were happier than those who bought at stores. That was the case for every product category we have data about. It proved especially true for digital cameras, audio gear, camcorders, DVD players, and digital video recorders. The top overall e-tailer was Crutchfield, closely followed by Costco.com, BuyDig.com, Amazon, Buy.com, and JR.com."More »
Dethroner's tagline may be, "where every man is king," but their take on Amazon's Friday sale can even be enjoyed by hermaphrodites. — BEN POPKEN More »
—>Amazon launched a new program that lets customers vote on the deals the online retailer offers this holiday season. More »
—>Like.com is a brand-new search engine that allows you to search by looking at shoes and accessories featured in celebrity photos. Sounds lame, and it is, until you realize that you can draw a box around the exact part of the featured accessory you like... and like.com searches for other products that have that same feature. More »
Online megastore Amazon.com won top honors in a national customer service survey released last Thursday. Here's the top ten list, according to a National Retail Federation/American Express study. More »
—>David ordered a 70 lb smoker from Amazon. For some reason, it shipped back and forth between Washington and Nevada 3 times, over 3 weeks, a total of 4500 miles. When it finally, arrived, it was in pieces. More »
—>PCWorld today posted an article on circumnavigating hassles while shopping online. More »
—>Those copyfighters over at BoingBoing have uncovered some tasty tidbits in the user agreement of Amazon's new Video-on-Demand service. The gist? More »
At least, that's what Amazon.com reviewers are saying. Currently, over three-hundred people have reviewed "milk." More »
—>There's at least one cock fighting in this legal battle: the U.S. Humane Society is threatening to sue Amazon for selling magazines for aficionados of the chicken, the razor and the plume. More »
For only $12.99, you can have possess the power to freeze poop with just a blast from this 12 oz can. It contains no CFC's and doesn't harm vegetation. Removes the "mush factor" from animal waste disposal without the pesky waiting for the forces of time and weather. More »
—>Practice what you preach. So we bought a pair of Adidas M3 running shoes at our own Morning Deals suggestion, only $44.90 at Amazon (sold out). We found comparible versions $55 and up at Shopzilla. More »
—>Man buys TV from Amazon. UPS keeps dropping it. Perhaps Amazon should use better packing. More »
Unadulterated gold: Amazon.com hates all lesbians. Or, at least one. An open letter, ostensibly to us. More »
—>On Monday we found the innuendo splattered Amazon reviews for the SuperSoaker Oozinator (a squirt gun which shoots slime and water in a very phallic fashion) wiped clean by some unknown, possibly socked, hand. More »
You've watched the video, you've read the reviews on Amazon, and now, we're all going to hell just a little bit faster, thanks to a cartoon over at Words & Pictures. More »
—>The Oozinator really is the toy marketing blunder that just keeps on giving. First, the priceless television spot, in which a panoply of children suppress their gag reflex as they squeegee ropes of creamy, sticky gelatin off of their faces. For some of our readers, this was likely their first introduction to the exciting world of subliminal pedophile bukkake. But while actually purchasing an Oozinator will open you up to prosecution under a number of federal child-sex statutes, people are still managing to have fun with one, as the hilarious Amazon.com product review page will attest. More »
—>We love this quote from AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre, referring to Google, eBay and Amazon.com: "Why should they be able to use my pipes for free?" Pointing out that people are actually paying for the bandwidth going through his pipes hasn't swayed good old Ed. If the man ran FedEx, both the sender and receiver would pay for a package. More »
—>The IRS' recent order for full record disclosure to Paypal is part of a larger movement to tax purchases and monetary transactions over the Internet. More »
—>Jeff Bezos knows something about tonight's NCAA basketball championship game the rest of us don't. More »
—>According to a report by a former Amazon.com customer service worker, the giant e-retailer moved their customer service call centers back from the peacock feather of the Orient. More »
—>Reader Julie received a perplexing pre-order notice: More »
—>Here is a cool t-shirt you can get for only fifteen bucks. It reads, "I Blew Vincent Gallo and all I got was lockjaw." More »
—>Michelle Slatalla suffers from a shopping disease. It's called pricenoia. The characteristic symptom is a pang of doubt every time she's about to press Click-to-Buy on Amazon.com: More »
—>According to the New York Times,
- "Until a few days ago, a search of Amazon's catalog of books using the word "abortion" turned up pages with the question, "Did you mean adoption?" at the top, followed by a list of books related to abortion."
• Today's Woot! is the iRiver PMC-120, one of those 20GB Personal Media Center jobbies that Microsoft was shilling a little over a year ago. We say skip it, even at $205. Not only is it sort of huge compared to an iPod video or Creative Vision M, but the platform does all sorts of stupid things like forcing you to convert all your videos before copying them to the device. More »
—>Reader Matt V. called our attention to Ben Laurie's blog. Ben recently purchased a Beth Orton CD from Amazon, only to discover that it had DRM on it that prevented him from playing it on his computer. Ben has since returned the CD to Amazon and filed a complaint against them with the Trading Standards Authority (a UK consumer rights organization) that Amazon is dishonestly calling it an "Audio CD". Ben argues it isn't an Audio CD, because he can't play it on his computer. More »
• SlickDeals is reporting that the Amazon coupon code TOOLDAYS, which is supposed to be just for tools, is working on nearly every item on Amazon to give a 10% discount. Try the 50OFFMAR code on Tools, too, to get $50 off $250. Good luck! More »
$100 off any purchase of $200 or more at Sharper Image. Could expire any second. Now's the time to stock up on those Jacob's Ladders, desktop-sized pinball machines and lazy ass robo floor vacs you've been saving up for. [via Tech Bargains] More »
• Amazon has Firefly - The Complete Series DVDs on sale for $20. If you like good TV, you'll like Firefly. Seriously, we've watched the series straight through like three times. [via SlickDeals] More »
• Amazon's Friday Sale is here, because today is Friday. Highlights include 12-Piece Anodized Aluminum Cookware from Anolon for $170, DEWALT Heavy Duty Drilling & Screwdriving Accessory Combo Kit for $30, Hydrofarm GTV4 4-Foot-Wide Green Thumb Grow Light System for $70, and a Tippmann Model 98 Paintball Marker for $80. More »
Check out this morning's hot-to-trot deals on home wares. More »
• We'll leave behind our 'no rebates' policy for this deal at Radio Shack for the Ultra X-Connect 500W Power Supply for free, after $100 worth of rebates. Slickdeals has the details. With Radio Shack's problems, we look forward to future big deals. More »
• Amazon's electronics outlet has many items on sale for 70% off or more. Get the Remanufactured Brother RPT-65 P-Touch Personal Label Printer for just $13, Lifehackers. [via DealNews] More »
—>Amazon.com announced plans to take on iTunes and iPod as early as this summer. It will launch its own Internet music service as well as sell its own branded portable music players. More »
• No man—and few women—has failed to marvel at the power of the floor jack. Own your own Craftsman 2 1/4 ton floor jack with jack stands for just $27.50. Pick up from Sears only. [via SlickDeals] More »
—>Until Feb. 28 you can get a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate after making a $99-and-up Amazon.com order of Huggies brand products. More »
• We know that all hard drive manufacturers are probably about the same, but we just can't bring outselves to buy the Maxtor 300GB 7,200RPM, 16MB Buffer PATA Hard Drive. We've just had too many Maxtor drives bite the dust or wipe out our data. But we also suspect we may be under a very specific curse, so don't let our hellish experience stop you. Besides, you should be buying two at a time anyway. More »
—>Very nearly at the beginning of our existence as a weblog, we posted a link to Amazon Credits You, a site that helps you watch out for potential savings if Amazon drops their price on an item within the 30-day price guarantee window. We went back today to dig up the name of the site so we could punch in some numbers (see, even we use our tips; we aren't totally phoning it in) and discovered the site has been changed to Refund Please. More »
We rarely link to the Amazon phone rebates, but we have from time to time, and lots of other sites flog the hell out them. For good reason, apparently. Reader John R. — who in an amazing coincidence has the same first name and middle initial as myself — wrote in to admit his foolishness in buying a rebated phone through Amazon.com. A rebate, it should be mentioned, that doesn't turn around for 9 months. More »
• Amazon's Friday Sale—Because Thursdays are for suckers. More »
—>• CondomMan.com's Famous Valentine Day Sale is back, featuring 100 assorted condoms from brands including Durex, Trojan, Lifestyles, Okamoto, Viva, and Beyond Seven for just $20. More »
• H&R Block is giving away free copies of their DeductionPro software, which we've been told is normally a $20 upgrade ot thier TaxCut software. (Although it works in a standalone mode, as well.) [via Slickdeals] More »
We won! Maybe! At least, we'll take the credit! Good ol' Amazon listened to our complaints about mixing x-rated hentai when doing searches for hentai and has quickly fixed the problem. Performing a search for anime now returns only the most wholesome of results, while searching for 'hentai' returns all the tentacles and demon incest that we hold so dear. More »
• Friday sales! J&R! Staples! Amazon! And because we love you: 50% off Godiva Chocolates. Remember us when the endorphins flow. More »
—>Imagine the outrage from parents if the first returned product on Amazon in a search for 'movies' returned a hardcore pornography DVD. Adam, a fan of the Japanese cartoon stories known as 'anime,' has noticed something perhaps even worse: Searches for 'anime' on Amazon return results for 'hentai,' or adult, X-rated anime films. The top result [as pictured] is for a hentai film called 'Princess 69,' which as a reviewer describes as such:
If you're into non-con, excellent animation, girls going down on girls... you might like this. I don't much care for the enema or watersports parts of this film, but the facial expressions are priceless and lovely. These girls have the most wonderful "I am shocked, my mind has cracked by what is being done to me" expresions, they cry tears, they are bound, taped, mildly electrocuted, made to "initiate" new members, and brutally given sex.Now we have absolutely no problem with Amazon selling Japanese animation for adults; We know that some cartoons are made with adult themes for adults' enjoyment. But what we don't understand is why Amazon needlessly conflates anime and hentai. Many anime fans, often already scorned as creeps by those not familiar with the range of themes offered by mainstream anime, are worried that Amazon's lack of distinction between anime and hentai will both further the perception that all anime fans are also fans of hentai, as well as put children looking for traditional anime titles in an awkward position. More »
• Newegg has the Sennheiser PC 150 Headset, perfect for gaming or Skyping, for $30 after $10 off coupon code NYNG011006. Ships free, as well. More »
• We continue to be baffled by Amazon's ridiculously low prices on cookware recently, like this Cuisinart Chef's Classic Stainless 6-Quart Sauce Pot with Lid for just $14. They must have over-purchased for the holidays. [via Slickdeals] Update: Reader Kim L. confirmed that the price is showing as $40 for her. It still shows $14 for us (although they are out of stock). A mystery! More »
• Suzuki is running a test drive promotion for their Grand Vitara SUV that can net you a $25 gas card. Start with this form, go test drive a Grand Vitara at your local dealership (or more commonly, just go ask the manager to sign it for you to save you both wasted time), and mail the form and business card to Suzuki. Hopefully, you have a Suzuki dealer close enough that it won't take $25 in gas to get there. [via Slickdeals] More »
• Buy.com has a clearance sale running through the 14th. We didn't find any particularly fantastic deals, however, so shop carefully. More »
What better way to show our visitors that we don't go easy on Amazon.com than the shameless huckstering of their wares? Although we swear, the Amazon heaviness of this Morning (sorry, Afternoon!) Deal Round-Up is merely the random chance of a godless universe. More »
Reader Ray R. writes:
The company's infamous "customer relations" policy must be among the worst going. My christmas orders for nephew and niece went completely astray and I wasn't informed at all. When I phone head office in Seattle on Jan. 3 I get put through to Kham in India. She was polite enough, but the best she was going to offer was a $15 voucher, even though the $24 recharchable battery, the only part of the order being filled, was going to be delivered anyway, even though it was useless without the toy boat it was supposed to run, which was not being delivered. So, they're refunding me about $100 for two presents not delivered and giving me a $15 voucher, but not refunding the useless battery — not to mention the cost of the phone call, the hassle of tracking them down, the fact that I look like a deadbeat uncle for not delivering presents thanks to Amazon. More »
As we approach the New Year, let we consumers take a moment of quiet reflection to acknowledge that often we are as dumb as dirt. Before you make that phone call to customer service or write up your blistering review of your latest book, read up on the sort of teeth-crunchingly idiotic things clients and customers have said in the last year. More »
—>Remember a couple days back when we recommended using Amazon's 30-day price drop policy to your advantage? We thought that was a pretty good idea, obviously, but keeping track of the price drops for every item—not just in a month, but every day in between—sounds like a real hassle. More »
• If yesterday's $20 boxed set of Firefly snuck by you (as it did us), take advantage of today's $22 deal from Buy.com. Slow shipping is free. [via Slickdeals] More »
Want to sneak in a few extra dollars from your Amazon orders? This nice man name of Jim has a tip for you regarding Amazon's price drop policy. It's pretty simple, really. More »
• Today only, pay just 10 cents to list an item on the store the sows distrust in your fellow man: eBay. Obviously they are encouraging you to dump all the crap you got this Christmas and we think you should take advantage of it, because you are never going to fit into that after what you ate this weekend. More »
• The clothing clearouts are getting nicer. The code holiday2005, for instance, will get you 40%—and sometimes free shipping—at Timberland.com. More »
We've got another case of a reader getting burned by slow notification of shipment delays from Amazon. We expect that delays are reasonable this time of year—the Amazon warehouses must look like the Snickers machine at a Harry Potter convention—but this whole 'We can't fill your order but we won't tell you until it's too late to order again' thing is awful. More »
• We're unsure how the NYC transit strike can make us late to work when we work from home, but by god we've managed to do it. In celebration, have a full-blown computer for $250, after multiple rebates. Slickdeals has the details. More »
—>• ThinkGeek really has more fun stuff than they should, although for every 'Tool Logic Office Companion' there's a 'STFU University Tee.' Should you need to stuff a stocking, nothing says 'You are pathetic but I will still copulate with you," like O'Reilly Pillowcases. More »
The Catalog: Amazon.com's Holiday Tool Guide 2005. Yes, the online retail giant has a paper catalog. More »
This question is our own and we've yet to find a suitable answer, despite doing a fair amount of research into it. Is there a way to sort search results on Amazon to reflect 'Amazon-only' orders? Which is to say, orders that are sold and shipped directly from Amazon? More »
Two bundles, $1k apiece. Ships in 24 hours, they say. Go, go, go. More »
• Newegg has the Logitech Harmony 688 Universal Remote for $110 plus $5 shipping. Like most universal remotes, these control all your gear, but the Harmony series is configured using a USB interface on your computer, obviating the hassle of scouring manuals for special codes printed in the smallest text. Also, Newegg has a Holiday Sale. [via TechBargains] More »
• If you are actually going to buy an MP3 player that isn't an iPod, Best Buy has a promotion that gives you a free $50 gift card with the purchase—excluding iPods. The Sandisk Sansa 512MB player is just $100, for instance. More »
• Oh. Snap. $10 off $10 coupon up in the Fashion Bug. Get your brushed cotton medallion camisole on. Code: 776131401 Expired. More »
• Sometimes the simple deals are the sweetest: Use the code "EM21HL30" for 30% off for purchases at FootLocker.com, including gift cards. [via Slickdeals] More »
—>Amazon has become one of the de facto locations for customers to write up their experiences with products—even if they didn't buy them from Amazon. Now Amazon is toying with even more customer interaction in the form of 'ProductWiki,' a collaboratively-edited description page for each product. More »
• Enjoy yourself some Dell Game, wherein you may be creeped out by an overzealous elf and click to win prizes. Of course, you're probably going to win bupkiss, but when you play the 'Pick a Stocking' game you'll receive a coupon code in consolation. And you can play until the end of the Holidays. More »
—>Amazon is asking its customers to reenter their credit card information today in an attempt to encourage participation in its new Pay Directly From Your Bank Account option. Skipping the credit card companies will save Amazon the transaction fees, but how will it help you? More »
