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Why I'm ditching my Amazon account

7 Comments

I've got an Amazon habit. Like many of my other habits - coffee drinking, newspaper reading, excessive profanity - it's one that I've cultivated and refined over the years, ever since I made my first purchase on June 24, 1996, for a new copy of Dan Wakefield's "New York in the Fifties."

In the beginning, I used Amazon primarily as a gift-delivery service. Later, I became the primary recipient of my purchases. Later still, I started "subscribing" to stuff my family regularly consumed, and after that I purchased an Amazon Prime membership, that amalgam of "free" movie streaming, speedy and cheap delivery of purchases, and more, including many purchases of audio books from the company's Audible subsidiary. I purchased Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite, which now anchors a drawer filled with orphaned devices and chargers. But I've resisted an Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card from Chase. You've got to draw the line somewhere.

One would think with that many hooks into me, I'd be more an Amazon slave than a customer. But that's not so. Thanks to the company's recent non-response to criticism that it's abusing its market power - a silence that's consistent with Amazon's we'll only-talk-if-we-want-to-promote-something media policy - I've made the easy decision to turn my back on the world's biggest store.

The dispute appears to be over pricing, with big-five publisher Hachette refusing to accept Amazon's terms on e-books, although nobody can be sure because Hachette has been evasive about the exact cause of the dispute, and Amazon has so far refused to discuss it with the press or anybody else. What's transparent is that Amazon has slowed delivery of popular Hachette titles, including works by Malcolm Gladwell, Alexie Sherman, J.D. Salinger, and many others, and on a separate front is refusing pre-orders on many soon-to-be published Hachette books, such as J.K. Rowling's next effort.

Ordinarily I'd ignore this scrimmage between two capitalist antagonists and go find something random on Amazon to buy while drinking a strong cup of joe, reading my newspaper, and swearing randomly. But Amazon's silence has made me madder than an anaconda stuffed into a black garden hose and left to cook in the Arizona sun, to paraphrase Ed Anger of Weekly World News.

If Amazon thinks I don't care about its silence, it's wrong. I take it personally that the company doesn't think it owes me even a half-baked explanation for why I can't buy some books from it.

Unlike other dedicated readers, I hold nothing against Amazon for changing the book business, helping to drive many retailers under and accruing power over publishers. The customer has been the benefactor here, with Amazon creating a reader's paradise of cheap new and used books that it delivers quickly. The company's customer service department has always decided disputes in my favor and done so promptly, and its return policies are uniformly good.

But while Amazon may have captured my wallet, its recent behavior has convinced me to take my business elsewhere. As long as the company's high-pressured negotiating tactics served my interests - lower prices, expansive selection, superb service - I was on board. But the company has erred in this dispute. It would have been okay with me if it had hard-balled the publisher by refusing to discount its books or even insisted on selling them at a premium. In that case, I could do what I usually do - make individual decisions about where to buy stuff based on price and availability.

But by essentially banishing many Hachette titles from its stock, Amazon, which ordinarily puts its customers first, has put them last, telling them they can't buy certain titles from it for any price.

If Amazon prevails in this clash, will it put me and my material needs last whenever a supplier resists its will? I don't know for sure, but I can guess. It could be that Amazon holds the unassailable high moral ground in the dispute and I should be yelling at Hachette instead, and if that turns out to be the case, I will amend these contentious words.

Until Amazon addresses the currently unpleasantness, I'm deleting my "Wish List" and canceling my food subscription. (I paid in advance for Prime. You won't hold it against me if I still stream free programs until my account comes up for renewal later this year and I bail, will you?) There are other places to buy books, Luna Bars, computers, lawn mowers, fashion accessories, music, lady bugs, uranium ore, Roswell UFO soil, fake poop, and more.

Like the woman profiled in the New York Times last week, Amazon's conduct has made me a little embarrassed to be its customer. Amazon doesn't owe me access to Hachette titles, and I don't owe Amazon my business. So I'm stuffing my 1-click button into my drawer of abandoned devices and chargers and won't reclaim it until Amazon makes this thing right.

© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

7 Comments
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Actually, as a writer, I won't say Amazon isn't scary in the way they control the market, but one of the points you're basing your argument on isn't quite right. Amazon isn't refusing to sell Hachette titles, they're just refusing to do pre-orders. As I understand it, all Hachette titles that have been previously published are still being sold, and all Hachette titles still to be published will be sold, starting on the day they're published.

What Amazon is doing is denying Hachette the marketing boost of allowing people to pre-order books, thus front-loading the first-week sales and producing numbers that impress reviewers, readers and those who compile best-seller lists. Without presales, Hachette has to scramble to get the word out some other way, to make sure all those people click "buy" in that first crucial week. FWIW.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Aamazon is a business, not a charity. Apple, Google and Microsoft are way nastier and few people seem to care.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Amazon is pretty useless if, like me, you're into Japanese music, anime figures and Cosplay. Overpriced and dreadful selections. There are specialist sites for that, which I regret not finding sooner. Could've saved around £300 on figures but hey, I'm not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. But for things like books, DVDs, video games, jewellery, and many other things, it's pretty much up there. Amazon was the only place I could find the Starship Troopers book by Robert A Heinlein. It is also my go-to for replacement parts for my Nintendo 64. I've bought two Memory Paks, a set of component cables, and a new controller from there. All new, all reasonably priced and quickly delivered. Also bought a new game for it on Amazon. Overall Amazon is a good store to shop from, just not for everything. Somethings you're better off shopping around for. So, I think I'll stick with them for all my general consumer needs, and go elsewhere for the more unusual purchases.

1 ( +3 / -3 )

Amazon pays less UK tax than I do, that's why I'm not a customer. Treats it's staff like machines too.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

So what you're saying is that Amazon's use of its position to influence deals is all well and good so long as the publishers turn over and submit. Hypocrisy much?

Besides, there are other considerations you don't take into account, such as the possibility of a non-disclosure agreement in their arbitration.

I will give you this, though. When I'm back in the States, I give all the business I can to Barnes & Noble.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ok, goodbye then !! Have fun buying all those ebooks that went up in price after the publishers got together to punish amazon. Go Go Amazon

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

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