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Robert Woolley's avatar

In December 2023, I bought a Speediance home gym machine (which I love, BTW). I could order it either directly from the company or through Amazon. I chose Amazon because I've been a customer since 1997 and I trust them. The machine weighs about 200 pounds. I live in a 3rd-floor condo with no elevator. Amazon contracted with a 3rd-party shipper. When the machine arrived, they refused to bring it upstairs, saying that wasn't in their contract. I had to leave it on the ground outside the building, and the next day hire a moving company to bring it up to me, for $250. I called Amazon to complain. The rep I spoke to apologized, agreed that that wasn't right, and asked if a $250 credit to my account would make it right. Of course it would. She did not ask for a receipt, did not pass me off to a supervisor. Just fixed the problem on the honor system in less than 5 minutes.

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Tim Almond's avatar

I think most of this is about competition. Amazon are great, but more importantly, almost anyone can start competing with Amazon. It isn't like a government run service, where there's one of them that stays in business, regardless, and also, doesn't have the geographical lack of competition.

People romanticise mom and pop stores, but we got rid of them for a reason. They were expensive, inefficient and often had lousy service. Because where else were you going to go? As people became more mobile they could go to a shop on the other side of town.

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