So I recently priced some NAS items on Amazon, and saved items in my cart. When I decided to purchase a few days later, when opening one of the items in my cart, the price had changed and it was listed as used. The price and item in the cart was the same, but it no longer led to the same item on Amazon, as it appears it was no longer available. So Amazon was going to substitute without letting me know. I saw the same thing at work a few weeks ago. WTF Amazon! So the items were purchased on Newegg instead.

I also want to say that Amazon’s search feature sucks donkey balls. When I want to find something on Amazon, I have to use Google. I could literally enter the exact thing I was looking for in the search, and it would not bring it up, even though it existed. Maybe Amazon doesn’t want me to buy things from them?

And finally, during all this I remembered that about a month ago I was forced into Prime membership. I say forced because the only option I had for shipping was free next day shipping with a prime trial. The normal I don’t want prime option was not there. I looked today and yep, there was a prime charge on my credit card. At least I caught it now and canceled, and am supposed to be refunded.

So this is how Amazon got to be so big…

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This person was stung with a fake WD HDD when he bought through Amazon recently:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/brand-new-wd-gold-2tb-running-slow.3515666/

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I was trying to buy WD Red 8TB drives, and had what looked like a good source on Amazon. But I think maybe that source changed what they had, the new drives were no longer in stock. But that is no excuse for having to notice it myself. Any change in what is in my cart should be clearly presented. The drives in my cart went from new to used with a price change, and on top of that every other time I opened the item the price changed between two different prices. I am not impressed with Amazon right now.

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As for the incident I mentioned at work, I think the item was switched to a totally different seller, with a different price and shipping, with no notification. We ordered it anyway because it was needed, but the point is that the actual item was switched in the cart with no notification at all. If an item becomes unavailable, then it should say so, not be substituted with something else without informing the buyer. Bad for business.

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Not so much with that type of trickery generally speaking. Though, Am*zon's goal is to keep you a happy customer and locked into the mindset of coming to Amazon to shop by any means necessary. Not finding what you are looking for on Am*zon is a no-no in Am*zon's book. They want you to go to Am*zon's website for everything possible, or at least try there first. Obviously, getting things delivered in two days (and soon it will be one day deliveries - they built enough fulfillment centers around the country and adopted the Uber-like delivery contractors to possibly make this happen) "for free" is very convenient, therefore motivating enough for many to go there first to search (especially young people [free prime shipping for students at check out] - they have built a culture, very much like Ap*le has). There was even a silly poll study where results show young people would choose the convenience of shopping on Amazon over having sex if they had to choose one over the other. Wth?!!? Really?!

The way they got so big is rather with a bold massive convenience oriented plan of attack through borrowing money from private sources in the beginning/IPO later and retailing products cheaper than the rest of retailers one category at the time (they started with books, then CDs, and so on) until forcing the other businesses to go out of business, or sell into Amazon. This was a long term strategy, as Amazon was not profitable for a very long time, until they turned the corner.

Famous example: Zappos.com - very successful shoe online retailer. Eventually, it was acquired by Am*zon because Am*zon entered the shoe category and dropped the price strategically over time until enough customers shifted buying shoes on Am*zon rather than Zappos. When Zappos' profits shrunk so badly that scared the founders, they finally gave in and sold to Amazon.
Highly recommend reading Am*zon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos' book called: The Everything Store. The vision is in the title and people around the world are making it come closer to reality one purchase at the time due to our addiction to convenience.

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Hard Disk Drive, SSD, USB Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

They also put a lot of bookstores out of business. funny Amazon started opening some Brick & Mortor stores. Ive also seen some shady stuff go down. Seems if you see, buy straight away you wont notice anything much but if you are a shopper that takes the time to weigh up possibilities, over time you will have a few WTF moments. I agree the search sucks.