Damion loves to trade in his tech for newer, better tech when a new item comes out. He also loves to save the manual and accessories so his old gear is extremely sellable when something new comes out. He decided to give Amazon’s Trade-in Service a try instead of his usual venues, Craigslist and eBay. Things went smoothly when he traded in an iPhone 4S, then… not so smoothly when he decided to trade in his iPad for an iPad Mini. [More]
amazon
The Heaviest Item On Amazon To Qualify For Free Shipping: A 1,509-Pound Gun Safe
By 11.29.12
When shipping is always free after an annual fee, who’s to say where Amazon Prime members will stop shopping? Sure, the company is betting that most members will be shipping smaller, everyday items — but what if you wanted to ship something super heavy, say, a 1,509-pound gun safe? Well, that would be free, too, even though it’d probably cost Amazon a tidy sum to ship. [More]
Boost Mobile Doesn’t Seem To Understand That “Amazon” Is Not Someone’s Last Name
By 11.27.12 — Updated: 11.30.12
Okay, so there are probably more than a few people out there with the last name of “Amazon,” but when you tell someone at a major prepaid wireless provider that you bought your phone “on Amazon,” they should understand that you are referencing the mammoth online retailer and not a particular human being. [More]
Study: Amazon Has Cheapest Toys Online [Cue Other Retailers Scrambling To Cut Prices]
By 11.14.12
In the retail world, it’s all about beating out the competition. And if you can offer the lowest prices and thus lure the most customers, well then you’re the winningest of all. A new analysis of retailers has come up with a big old carrot of motivation by saying Amazon has cheaper online prices for toys than major chains like Walmart and Target. Let the price wars begin, just in time for the holiday season. [More]
Bookstore Combats E-Books With One Thing Your Kindle Can’t Offer
By 11.13.12
Whatever benefits an e-book might have over its print counterpart, and no matter how close digital media gets to ink-on-paper, there is one thing that downloaded copy of Moby Dick can’t offer to some readers: The collectable factor. [More]
Amazon To Customers: How’d You Like A Bottle Of Wine To Go With Your New Corkscrew?
By 11.8.12
While many of my Amazon purchases arrive as the result of a glass (or three) of wine and access to the World Wide Web, the company is moving from being the purveyor of wine accessories like wine racks and corkscrews to booze merchants. Specifically, the company announced today that it will be selling wine through the appropriately named Amazon Wine program in certain states. [More]
When A Price Is Too Good To Be True, Prepare Yourself For Possible Disappointment
By 11.8.12
Adam happened to see the stand mixer of his dreams listed on Amazon for only $36. That was quite a discount from the list price of $500, even with $76.76 shipping, so he jumped on it. As you can guess, this deal wasn’t real and the Amazon Marketplace vendor certainly hadn’t meant to offer a 93% off sale. The seller canceled the transaction, claiming to have no inventory. Now Adam has no mixer, is sad, and blames Amazon. Is this really Amazon’s fault? [More]
Staples Agrees To Let New Best Pal Forever Amazon Install Lockers In Its Stores
By 11.6.12
We’ve heard about Amazon’s new delivery system, wherein online shoppers can send their packages to physical pick-up locations and grab their stuff from lockers. Previously the company announced that the lockers would be at grocery stores and malls and the like, and now it seems Staples is on board to become a locker host as well. [More]
Amazon Trade-In Trades My Camera For Invisible Camera
By 11.6.12
Nate saw that he could get a few bucks for his old Canon Digital Rebel camera using Amazon Trade-In. It was a few bucks more than he could get using eBay, so he packed it up and waited for his $97. They didn’t agree about its condition, so he asked to have it sent back. He received back the manual and cables in a smaller Amazon box…but where was the camera? [More]
Someone Charged $560 Worth Of Kindle Books To My Amazon Account; No One Seems To Care
By 11.5.12
Say what you will about print vs. digital and retail vs. online, but if you were to go into your local bookstore and show them proof that someone had somehow illegally purchased $560 worth of books there, you’d probably get a better response than the one Consumerist reader Joe received from Amazon. [More]
Apple & Amazon Top This Year’s Brand Loyalty Survey, Blackberry Hangs On In Last Place
By 10.26.12
If there’s anything we want from our products and the brands that provide them, it’s love, true love. Well, maybe not quite that level, but according to the most recent Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders List, we consumers are craving an emotional connection to brands. And when they fill that special place in our hearts, they earn our loyalty. [More]
FedEx Hiring 20,000 Seasonal Workers To Deal With Upcoming Holiday Rush
By 10.22.12 — Updated: 10.24.12
Tis the season to sit at home and click, click, click buy and send presents to loved ones around the world. This year, FedEx is expecting even more shipping traffic than it did last year and as such is hiring 20,000 seasonal workers to help make things run smoothly. [More]
Amazon Erases Customer’s Kindle, Wishes Her Luck In Finding Somewhere Else To Shop
By 10.22.12
Compared to ebooks, physical books might have the disadvantage of being heavier and subject to wear and tear. But you know what’s nice about a printed book? Amazon can’t come to your house, take it off your shelf and tell you to go buy it somewhere else. [More]
Will Price-Matching Websites Just Result In More Angry Best Buy & Target Customers?
By 10.18.12
In the last week, both Target and Best Buy have each announced they will match prices on Amazon and other online retailers at their bricks and mortar stores. While the goal is to woo customers into retail stores by taking away the attractive discounts seen online, some wonder if this will result in ticked-off customers standing in line. [More]
Analyst: Best Buy Employees Feel The Most Threatened By Amazon
By 10.17.12
With the holiday shopping season looming on the horizon, and retailers wondering just how much of their business will be lost to Amazon and other online retailers, an analyst for Topeka Capital recently visited some of these bigger stores and came away concerned that their attempts to adapt to online competition might be too little, too late. [More]
Target Follows Best Buy’s Lead, Will Match Online Prices For Holidays
By 10.17.12
Less than a week after Best Buy announced it would be price-matching online competitors this holiday season, the folks at Target declared “us too!” and dove headfirst into the price-matching pond. [More]
Amazon Makes A Push To Get Kindles Into A Very Lucrative Market — Schools
By 10.17.12
Let’s see… where is a place with a captive audience that will always involve reading books, paper or otherwise, that will also need to keep updating its tools as the years go by? Oh yes, schools. They’re quite an attractive market for the makers of tablet and e-readers, and now Amazon is making a big push to make sure Kindles are the technology of choice in schools. [More]
That Amazon Video You Bought? You May Not Actually Be Able To Watch It
By 10.16.12
Imagine if you bought a DVD of a movie and then one day when you go to play it, you get a message saying “Sorry, but the studio has decided you can’t watch this movie for the foreseeable future.” It sounds ridiculous, but that’s what can happen to customers who try to stream the movies they buy from Amazon. [More]
