So recently I’ve been on the lookout to stay away from Amazon. While they have good customer service in regards to anything they sell on behalf of others and good shipping times, I’ve found that Amazon isn’t as cheap as it might appear to be.
I recently built a new PC (AMD rig) and found I could get the majority of parts cheaper by going to the same seller directly. For example, I bought a new PC case which I saw on Amazon being sold by CCL (UK company), but checking their site I could get the same case £10 cheaper, they also offered much better shipping options and could even get it the next day if I wanted for £8 shipping, still saving money.
I noticed the same today with some products that were consistently a little cheaper on the sellers direct site.
Amazon sells prime with the idea that you get fast shipping, and it’s a nice offer, but it seems you really end up paying for the shipping twice anyway, once with primes subscription and once as many sellers seem to have higher prices on Amazons site.
I wouldn’t blame the sellers for this, as I imagine it’s part of Amazons cut or something similar.
It’s something to keep an eye out for through, I don’t know what Amazon plan to do in the future but if more people do a little research they may find themselves using Amazon for windows shopping more and more which is a little funny considering that’s what Amazon did somewhat to book shops.
Has anyone else noticed this? Is it like this I in the US?
I buy shaving/beard stuff from one place usually, and even though they also sell stuff directly on Amazon, if you buy it directly from their own online store it’s about $1 cheaper per item.
Same with the wort chiller I bought not too long ago, $72 on Amazon with Prime or $61 shipped from the manufacturer.
On the flip side I see plenty of stuff on Amazon for far cheaper than other sites. I bought a nice fountain pen sold and shipped by Amazon for less than half the street price, and it wasn’t even a grey market item judging by the stickering from the US distributor.
All in all Amazon is just another shopping site for me. Sometimes they have good deals, sometimes those are elsewhere. Sometimes I just buy from them because they have the stuff I want all in one place, sometimes I avoid them because their packaging is shit.
Amazon’s prices are always competitive, but depending on the seller you can absolutely get some items cheaper direct. However, you’re giving your credit card to another site, you will need to pay for shipping, the shipping will undoubtedly be slower than the 2-day Prime, and if there’s a problem you’re dealing with an unknown quantity rather than Amazon. So I stick with Amazon.
It definitely depends on what your looking for I think. Amazon is definitely cheaper for some things, and I agree assuming you stick with “shipped by amazon” sellers, Amazons customer service is good.
It does depend on what it is though I think. Computer parts, scan in the UK are reputable and competitive, and there shipping was quicker than amazon and by DPD rather than the 3rd hand car guy “amazon logistics” that shows up at some point in the day.
It does depend. A got some hygiene stuff today which was consistently £1 cheaper per item on their site direct, payment was though google pay for example (they had other options to).
At the rate that i’m finding reputable sellers directly amazon prime is also becoming more of a drain than benefit as well as i rarely use the other benefits, the 1 day delivery doesn’t matter if i can get it cheaper with 1-2 day delivery anyway elsewhere.
Yeah, here in the US they use “Lasership” which will actually deliver up to 9PM at night.
I have the Amazon credit card so it’s essentially 5% off every purchase. Sounds great but that doesn’t fully compensate for paying sales tax, which we can avoid in the US purchasing from small sellers. Outside the US of course you pay VAT no matter what.
I don’t have Prime anymore. 2-day shipping is nice and all, bit at $99 per year or whatever it is now I don’t think it is worth it unless you buy stuff from Amazon frequently and/or always wait until the last minute to buy stuff. Plenty of other websites offer either free or cheap-ish shipping as well, if a bit slower. Even Amazon has free 5 day shipping without Prime, and I think the faster shipping is still discounted.
Over the years I’ve learned even “Storefronts” who might also run their own sites tend to vary prices as much as Amazon so your mileage can vary–some companies will run mail-in rebate or limited number of coupons to help resellers move stock too. As far as buying direct, I don’t see enough promos/deals to justify setting up a shopping account–heck EVGA “B-Stock” while tempting at times isn’t much of a savings due to the shorter warranty & missing monitor adapter dongle(s) if you do need them. (I could have bought a B-Stock GeForce 1050 for my office PC but was lucky enough to find a new one via NewEgg for $10 more)
Personally I prefer NewEgg, Best Buy or shudder Jet/Walmart as you can find coupons, daily deals or even weekly promos which can beat Amazon in the price factor… sure you won’t get 2-day delivery on all items but you aren’t shelling out for an Amazon Prime membership(Amazon’s own delivery people are outsourced in an Uber style, you might have a great delivery man/woman or have someone who just throws a package at every house Paperboy game style). From personal experience NewEgg, Jet & Walmart do use FedEx or UPS for tech/small appliances–everything else your mileage varies(DHL, USPS or worse Lasership). While I don’t pay for Amazon Prime I was added via the old “family” feature, most orders were either late by a day or disappeared while passing through the Bridgewater Triangle.