Larger Than Life
by Ohara1861 - Written: Aug 25 '01
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The Bottom Line
You can find everything here, great selection, great prices, deals, coupons, great packaging,
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| Full Review |
Apparently, I have been shopping with Amazon.com for 3 years now. I was reminded of this fact in July, when I received a nice little e-mail from them stating that it was my third anniversary of officially becoming an Amazonian. I could get $10 off when I purchased $50 or more from their site. I opted not to get anything however.
Amazon is my first stop when I am shopping for myself or for gifts. At first, they only sold books but when I first dipped my feet into their waters, they sold books, movies, toys, music and probably a few other things. Now since they have merged with Toys R Us and have partner sites, they sell everything from baby equipment to housewares and yes, even the kitchen sink!
They also found the need to compete with ebay and all the other auction site and now have Z-shops (persons selling merchandise with a fixed price) as well as auctions.
Amazon's home page is nicely laid-out although a lot of pictures and information is loaded on that first page. If you are searching for a particular item, you can type in the name and pick the category it would be under (ie. music, tools, toys, DVD, kitchen, etc.) or you can have them do a search of their entire site and you will get the number of matches in each category and their top sellers.
Almost all their items have nice clear pictures which fully illustrate a particular item. Sometimes, their product is too new to have had a picture and they give the "picture coming soon" icon but they almost always have a description, including weight and shipping restrictions.
Also based on items you have previously looked at or have bought, their system give you recommendations for other items that may pique your interest.
Choosing items to purchase is very easy and I have never had a problem with their system crashing or being busy, especially at the holiday season. Sometimes, they are out of an item, most particularly if it is popular and near the holidays. You can opt to submit your email address for an item and they will e-mail you when it is back in stock.
Amazon is great with offering coupons which you can get by either regular mail (if you have purchased before) or through email or by visiting coupon websites (www.bizrate.com). Mostly their coupons will be for free shipping if your order is over $100 (last year's promo) or $10 off an order of $50. Also if your group/organization is into fund-raising, you can sign up with www.efunddrive.com and your group can receive 5% of every purchase made through that site by linking to Amazon.
And when you hands get itchy to spend some money and you choose some items to buy but the kids start crying, your washing machine is exploding and you can't find your wallet and never go through with your purchase, your items are stored in your "shopping cart" for 90 days. This is especially nice if you've found something and don't feel like trying to find out what department it is in again. Of course, you can always delete an item, the whole order and change the quantity the next time you log onto their site.
Their check-out process is very easy. You can have all your information stored so whenever you buy from them again, you make 1 click and your previous credit card information is used for the next purchase. Of course you can also choose to re-submit a new card number or just do the same one over again.
You will always be asked if any of your items are gifts, which addresses set up in your address book these items are going to or you can select sending a portion of your order to one address and the rest of your order to a different address. If you check off that some items are gifts, you can choose to have it gift-wrapped for an additional charge and for free you can add a gift message to the invoice.
The one thing I like about Amazon is their shipping. When placing your order, you will be asked if you wish to have the entire item sent when all items are ready to be shipped. They tell you that this is the way to keep the shipping costs down. I always choose this option but they always have sent some of my items that have a availability time of 24 hours versus some items that have a time of 2-3 days or longer first. I get an email stating that a portion of my order has been shipped ahead and this will not raise the shipping price I previously paid. Your credit card is also only charged for the items that have been shipped. You may also cancel an item or items that have not gone into the shipping process yet. This is great if you change your mind or find the same item at a brick and mortar store.
All my items are sent by priority mail and their packaging is impeccable.
They also have a nice tracking system so I can view my items and their locale. I can also check on previous orders to see their progress and view my current order.
I have never had the need to deal with their customer service so I cannot comment of that aspect of business.
Another nice feature is personal recommendations, somewhat like this, based on products that I'm looking to buy. People will comment on a product, their feelings, the durability, whatever they feel and I can read them, choose if it was helpful to me and perhaps use it when making a purchase or not. They also rank their items, especially the books telling you where in the country it is most popular.
Overall, this site have everything and have partnered with drugstore.com and a gift site but I forget it's name. You can find almost everything you need here and at competitive prices. They are constantly having deals in different departments with these deals lasting about a month.
Amazon.com is my first stop for my shopping pleasures. It's similar to visiting a mega-gigantico-super duper warehouse store without having to leave my house. Because it's a jungle out there.
Recommended:
Yes
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