Comment by thaumasiotes
7 days ago
> We traded so much for the cheap convenience of fast shipping and a few dollars off.
There's more to it than that. The fast shipping and a few dollars off was a good deal.
But modern Amazon no longer offers fast shipping or a few dollars off. And, separately, they've stopped being willing to provide an amount of packaging that prevents your items from being damaged in transit. They're betting that having provided a good service in the past means they never have to bother in the future.
This is highly location specific, in the last 3 years at my current apartment my orders are received roughly 40% same day, 40% next day, 20% 2+ days shipping. And I've never had a return rejected (and I do a lot of returns) so damage in shipping is a minor inconvenience.
My main gripes are related to search being borderline unusable as it becomes more ad-dominated by the day, and overall trend of other Prime benefits becoming worthless, but not shipping speed or returns.
> And I've never had a return rejected (and I do a lot of returns) so damage in shipping is a minor inconvenience.
What? Every item arrives damaged. You can file several returns in a row, sure, but since you can't receive an undamaged item, this is not a "minor inconvenience". How does it help you to return the third damaged item and receive a fourth one?