The things you find in the Amazon!?!
by ia_young - Written: Oct 09 '01
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The Bottom Line
See opinion... :-)
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| Full Review |
Welcome to my review of Amazon.com, it may not review all of the website, but it will give you a good idea of what Amazon are like to use. I hope this is helpful for those who read this and if you decide to use Amazon for any reason they for me have given me good service and good prices. Please read on…
** What can you Purchase? **
Well the simple answer to this simple question is a lot, there are so many sections of goods that you can buy. The sections that are available are: Books, Music, DVD, Video, Electronics, Software, PC & Video Games, Toys & Kids, Auctions and zShops. I can’t give a review off all of the sections as I have not used them all but I can give a review of the sections that I have used. The first thing that I will say is that each of the sections are as similar to the others as possible, to make the use of them that little bit easier. The majour differences are in the searches, say in books you can search on ISBN but not in DVD, where as in DVD you can search on actor etc…
From my use of the books section of Amazon I have gained a respect of the site as it is very easy to use and very informative. Each of the books that I have looked for have had reviews on them, they have also had comment from people who have purchased the books, this is very good as you will get a good honest opinion of what the book may be like. I can’t say if this is the same for each of the sections, but I would assume so, this makes this, for me, a very good website with a lot of information on the products that they sell.
** Content and Prices **
What can I say about the conent of and prices of the items at the Amazon website. Well the content is absolutly amazing, you can basically find and order most of the books that have been released and are in print still (I would assume that this would be the same for most of the sections, I can’t see the standards changing between departments much.). The prices of these items are also very, very competative. I rarely find books cheaper anywhere else, I would assume that this would be the same in the other sections, although I can’t say for sure as I have not used tham.
** The Site Generally **
The Amazon website is very easy to use, this is an essential quality if a website is going to be successful. The website is also very quick, with all the content downloading very quickly, this shows how well designed the website actually is as it is effecteive with the minmum ammount of pictures having to be downloaded, which is always a good thing. Nothing worse than having to wait for a picture to download!
** Placing an Order **
Once you have found the item that you wish to purchase all you have to do it click the “Add to Shopping Basket” button. This is clearly marked and is a nice welcoming yellow, abd as it states “you can always remove it later”. Once you have done this you get wisked away to the shopping basket page. From this page you can do several things, change the quantities of the item or items you want to purchase. Remove any items that you do not want to purchase any more or continue shopping for more items (clicking this takes you back to the section from which the item came from, i.e. Books etc…).
If you choose to proceed you will be asked to log on (if the automatic logon is not activated). If you are a member already all you have to do is to logon using your e-mail address that you used to register and your password. If you are a new customer you will have to fill in all the details which Amazon require before giving you an account (this is stuff like name, address, e-mail, password, phone no, payment details. This process is relativly easy and quite painless!). Once logged into your account you have to choose which address to send the goods to (as you can have multiple addresses), you then have to select the payment method (you can select from the methods already used or input a new method. These details are always saved.). Having got this far you are displayed a review page of your order, this shows you what you are ordering, where the goods are to be dispatched and the payment method. Any of these items can be changed or edited very easily. To complete the order all you now need to do is to click the “Place Your Order” button, this is a nice yellow and it clearly warns you that clicking this will order your goods.
1-Click is a system developed by Amazon to make the ordering process easier. It basically uses the details of your first or last order you made and selects these by default when ordering some goods. This would be quite useful as it means less information to fill in when ordering your goods. But if the computer you are using is shared I would no recommend this as the other people who use it could access your account.
** Delivery **
Is not free, which is not good when ordering items from the interenet, as the cost of the delivery nulls out the discount price on the website (a lot of the time). All of the books that I have received have all come to me is very sturdy carboard envelopes, which makes the books quite safe from the bumbs they may revieve in the post. All of these books that I ordered cam very promptly, they only came late when they had to be back ordered, in this case you are contacted by Amazon and informed of the delay.
Here is a list of the delivery costs:
• Electronics £3.31 per delivery plus £1.10 per item.
• Book, AudioBook, Video, Software, Toy £2.16 per delivery plus $0.59 per item.
• Music, DVD $1.19 per delivery plus £0.29 per item.
• PC or Video Game $1.40 per delivery plus £0.42 per item.
If there is a combination of items then the highest delivery charge counts plus the individual item costs.
** Account Management **
This is very easy and simple, once you have logged onto your account all you have to do is click on the “Your Account” button and you will be taken to your account details page. This page lets you manage your account and orders. You can change details about your address, payment methods, e-mail address, password. You can view your most recent orders and also view all your orders. If the order is very recent you can also cancel the order that you made. You can also view the status of the orders that you have made, with the most recent at the top of the page. This is all very easy to use and is all presented in a very good way.
** My Thoughts **
If you have read the opinion you will probably get the impression that I realy like Amazon. This at the moment I would say is quite true, but there are several parts of the Amazon service that I have never tried out, such as the Customer Support of returning goods. I can’t comment on these as I have never had to deal with them, but I can only hope that they are good as the rest of the Amazon product is so good, it would let them down to have a bad customer service.
Recommended:
Yes
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