Author Topic: Amazon - it’s complicated  (Read 5368 times)

Beardy

  • Shedist
Amazon - it’s complicated
« on: 03 December, 2021, 10:11:10 pm »
We’ve briefly touched on the subject somewhere on the forum, and I said that I’d stop using them. But it’s not that easy is it.

I don’t have an active Debit card or a Mastercard, so it’s going to be difficult even if i do decide to stay. No, I don’t want to capitulate to corporate bullying, so yes, I do want to leave. I can shop elsewhere on line with only a little more inconvenience. I’d come to terms with dropping Prime Video, even if I haven’t yet broached the subject with Dr Beardy (Mrs).

But it occurred to me this morning as I was perusing the kindle store for a new device for Dr Beardy’s Christmas present. Kindle books are Amazon. And then there’s Audible which I use extensively. I now find myself, with plenty of other people I’m sure, on the horns of a dilemma and possibly a need to get a new credit card.

I’d like to leave because bullying but like the title says, it’s complicated.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Snakehips

  • Twixt London and leafy Surrey
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #1 on: 03 December, 2021, 10:22:52 pm »
I would like to stop buying stuff made in China  but how the hell do you do that these days?
An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #2 on: 03 December, 2021, 11:00:13 pm »
I am just doing an estimate to repair a garage that was reversed in to by one of their vans .                                                            The driver fled the scene of the collision .
The garage was so badly damage the fire brigade were summoned, by the police to shore it up .
At first Amazon claimed it was a subcontractor and had no idea who owned the van or who was driven it .
I believe it was pointed out by the boys in blue that if the driver did not come forward . He would end up with more points than Newcastle united . ( that will be 6 points then )
To add salt to the wound , amazons secret van drivers insurance are insisting on three estimates . While the garage wall and roof are swaying about in the storm  like a drunken sailor and are in no hurry to get the job sorted .
I  always try to have a visa card with one bank ( Santander have  been spot on ) & a Mastercard with another.  Yorkshire bank were appalling. But unfortunately  Virgin Money have buggered it up even more . (dear God they could not run a tap ) So I am now with a local to me high street bank who just do visa .   So Amazon can get stuffed.   
 
   
Its More Fun With Three .

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #3 on: 04 December, 2021, 05:07:49 pm »
I would like to stop buying stuff made in China  but how the hell do you do that these days?

Conflating the 2 issues, the only place I could find that had stock of the tiny built-in microwave I needed as a replacement for our 20 year old one, whose “start” button had failed, was Amazon. (Although it actually came from Germany, surprisingly without FedEx trying to gouge me for duties). It’s a “Bosch” microwave. Made in China (as opposed to Taiwan for the original)
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

ian

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #4 on: 04 December, 2021, 06:18:39 pm »
I can use my wife's visa, but still, I've mostly stopped buying stuff from Amazon* apart from the video service and Kindle, which I seem to be stuck with (and I have to be honest, it is very good).

*it helps to be modestly affluent and already be in possession of just about everything, of course, but we've opted to stop buying new stuff unless it's replacing something that genuinely needs replacement and when we do so, buy something decent.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #5 on: 04 December, 2021, 06:55:28 pm »
I get not wanting to use Amazon, that makes sense for many reasons, and most of the reasons are ones that might make it difficult (perhaps more psychologically than in a real material way; you don't need what they have, you just want it). But I don't get "because of bullying". Bullying is a good reason to avoid someone or something, but in this case, aren't both Amazon and Visa bullies? (In which case, the answer is not to use either; but avoiding Visa and/or Mastercard is much harder than not using Amazon.)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #6 on: 04 December, 2021, 07:38:41 pm »
I think its worth having several debit/credit cards, from different banks. It can be rather inconvenient if they block your account, and stop all of your cards from working. Then it could take several days/weeks to get it sorted out.
So might as well make sure you have a variety of Visa and Mastercard, to give you a choice of what to use where.

Or you could go to your local shop, and buy Amazon gift vouchers with cash.

ian

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #7 on: 04 December, 2021, 07:43:35 pm »
I do have several cards, but somehow they've all mutated to Visa (they used to be a mix of Mastercard and Visa, and I even had a Virgin Amex at one point). I could get a Visa, but I'm not really sure I want to be bothered with yet another credit card.

That bloody Kindle has me though.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #8 on: 04 December, 2021, 07:49:45 pm »
I think its worth having several debit/credit cards, from different banks. It can be rather inconvenient if they block your account, and stop all of your cards from working. Then it could take several days/weeks to get it sorted out.
So might as well make sure you have a variety of Visa and Mastercard, to give you a choice of what to use where.

Or you could go to your local shop, and buy Amazon gift vouchers with cash.
I've got 1 visa and 1 mastercard, with the mastercard as backup.
My bank does visa, there is no benefit to switching to the other as my main card, in fact it creates more faff.
As I use a credit card as a budgeting device (read, I'm fucked I my work don't pay me 1 month but would rather have the plague than not pay it off) I'm hardly going to switch to buying on my visa debit card.

The prices aren't even all that competitive anymore so it's only their delivery offering I'll be missing.

That said I may flick myaatrrcard over to primary just to get the gift voucher but will then have to watch to make sure anything I do buy goes on the card I want it to

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk


ian

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #9 on: 04 December, 2021, 08:28:07 pm »
I just totted up my credit limits. If I wanted to go out with a bang, that would be a lot of coke, prostitutes, and I could block-book an entire Travelodge to do it in. Seriously, one of them is £16k. (I'm dull, they're all cleared by direct debit.)

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #10 on: 04 December, 2021, 08:42:16 pm »
I mostly stopped using them after the last time the not prime but is really button tricked me, and I deleted my card information. I relented for a book that was unavailable at Waterstones, but haven’t got back into the habit of looking there first or second for stuff.

Electronics from China are hard to avoid, but I find my modest habit can be satisfied without getting them via Amazon.

I only see things on Prime, via Mrs Dan, occasionally and don’t have a kindle.

But then I get to work, where we use AWS.

ian

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #11 on: 04 December, 2021, 08:47:33 pm »
Well, there is that, I'm on Azure these days (I used to give them about three-quarters of a million in prime USD every year for AWS).

Buying Kindle books in the bath though is my thoroughly depraved pastime. Try going to Waterstones naked.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #12 on: 04 December, 2021, 08:51:56 pm »
The books in Waterstones are clothes so so should you be.
Just because Amazon sells Naked books to naked people doesn't mean that's normal...

barakta

  • Bastard lovechild of Yomiko Readman and Johnny 5
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #13 on: 04 December, 2021, 11:07:52 pm »
Kindle format books is one of the few proprietary formats I can read these days. I can barely read print at all for vision and dexterity reasons. Other ebook systems like Kobo books don't let me change font or background colours so aren't viable alternatives. Where possible I try to buy un-DRM ePUB and read in FBReader, but more commonly books I read are Kindle.

I had about 3 years where I hardly read anything. I decided to try ebooks and I was back to 1-2 books a week on average...

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #14 on: 05 December, 2021, 01:14:21 am »
DRM may be removed from Kindle boks using Calibre and the DeDrm plugin, which is a Useful Thing even if all you want to do is make the Kindle titles consistent over, say, a series of crime novels in which the guilty party is nearly always the Scotsman.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

PaulF

  • "World's Scariest Barman"
  • It's only impossible if you stop to think about it
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #15 on: 05 December, 2021, 06:40:07 am »

Buying Kindle books in the bath though is my thoroughly depraved pastime. Try going to Waterstones naked.

Well I took your advice and they told me to go away and not come back.

Ever.

Last time I listen to advice on the internet.

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #16 on: 05 December, 2021, 08:17:53 am »
DRM may be removed from Kindle boks using Calibre and the DeDrm plugin, which is a Useful Thing even if all you want to do is make the Kindle titles consistent over, say, a series of crime novels in which the guilty party is nearly always the Scotsman.
Which requires Windows, which I have on a laptop somewhere in the house, I think. So 8ve moved over to Kobo (after a flirtation with an Android ereader).

Back to cards-  my main card is Amex for the cashback, with a Barclaycard Visa also giving me cashback (at a lower rate than Amex). So I buy as much as possible using these cards and pay them off weekly (yes, weekly, I never ever am in hock to them).
I've not yet had the situation where neither were accepted, but I do have my bank debit card which is Mastercard.
I buy very little from Amazon  and am happy to watch the two bullies slug it out from the sidelines.
Too many angry people - breathe & relax.

robgul

  • Cycle:End-to-End webmaster
  • cyclist, Cytech accredited mechanic & woodworker
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Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #17 on: 05 December, 2021, 09:23:57 am »
Interestingly my main bank account moved from Visa to Mastercard recently citing "better performance" whatever that might mean in banking.

I guess there's little doubt that Visa will cave in to Amazon's demands at the 11th hour.

IIRC Visa sponsored the 2012 games and you could only buy tickets and stuff with that card . . .  that caused some uproar at the time.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #18 on: 05 December, 2021, 09:35:29 am »
DRM may be removed from Kindle boks using Calibre and the DeDrm plugin, which is a Useful Thing even if all you want to do is make the Kindle titles consistent over, say, a series of crime novels in which the guilty party is nearly always the Scotsman.
Which requires Windows, which I have on a laptop somewhere in the house, I think. So 8ve moved over to Kobo (after a flirtation with an Android ereader).

Works just fine on Linux...

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #19 on: 05 December, 2021, 10:17:29 am »
To be honest, I hardly read anything these days, mostly because reading in bed disturbs Dr Beardy (Mrs) and she can get very grumpy if when that happens. So I listen to a lot of audio books and use my kindle account to download the book I want to listen from kindle unlimited so I can get the audible version of £3.99. This does mean that I’m collecting quite stash of credits though, because I’m just not using them.  :facepalm:
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #20 on: 05 December, 2021, 11:06:35 am »
DRM may be removed from Kindle boks using Calibre and the DeDrm plugin, which is a Useful Thing even if all you want to do is make the Kindle titles consistent over, say, a series of crime novels in which the guilty party is nearly always the Scotsman.
Which requires Windows, which I have on a laptop somewhere in the house, I think. So 8ve moved over to Kobo (after a flirtation with an Android ereader).

Works just fine on Linux...


Windows-32, Windows-64, Linux, Mac-OS and “Portable” versions according to their webby SCIENCE and somewhere in there is something about using it with Android and iOS which ICBA to investigate.  Apprentice Alf tells you how to make DeDRM work on divers varieties of OS.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

ian

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #21 on: 05 December, 2021, 11:29:32 am »
I'm not so bothered with the DRM, Kindles are quite a nice device and there's the convenience of simply ordering another book in a few screen taps.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #22 on: 05 December, 2021, 11:40:36 am »
Though titles are bestowed on e-books by the WWEL at $PUBLISHER, replete with nine different numbering schemes and guff like “The New Inspectre Maverick-Copper BESTSELLER”.  And the Mega-Global Big River Corporation of Seattle, USAnia will restore them back that way given half a chance.  Which is why my Kindle stays firmly in Airplane Mode.  Take that, Bezos!!!1!
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #23 on: 05 December, 2021, 11:43:53 am »
Mrs Nutty bought me a kindle once.  It was good, but lacked the feel of paper.  It also meant that I had to buy books as opposed to going to the local library for free, or keeping the charity shops in funds by buying books cheaply and re-donating when read.

Only lasted a couple of years before the battery failed to hold a charge. 

Re: Amazon - it’s complicated
« Reply #24 on: 05 December, 2021, 11:45:23 am »
I'm stuck with Audible. There isn't an alternative that works even vaguely as well.
I've fallen for the 'I want it, and I want it now' and now get grumpy when my DMC cotton takes a week.

(and my bank does mastercard)

It's all shit and I'm paying for that baldy toss bucket to stick on a cowboy hat and fly into space.