> There is little that Amazon can (or will) do to help you in those cases
Oh how I wish that were true!
As a buyer, your most powerful weapon is the A-Z Guarantee process.
Filing an A-Z is an almost guarantee you'll get your money back, or a new product for free (unless you're obviously at fault or provably pulling some sort of scam).
A-Z's significantly impact sales. They impact search visibility, "Buy Box" share time, and can even get your account(s) flagged for review (during which Amazon freezes all sales). A-Z's can be downright scary.
Sometimes Amazon pulls funds from the seller's account to refund the customer... and sometimes when the seller is obviously not at fault but the customer is still very unhappy, Amazon covers the refund themselves. Both impact the seller.
> So, I really don't mind if Amazon's price is higher
The real advantage Amazon has is the convenience. You can buy groceries, electronics, and clothing all at the same time, from the same website (even if it's multiple sellers you're actually ordering from). You can't get that really anywhere else.
It does pay to check the seller's website if they have one. You'll save money most of the time... but you lose convenience, and it's a hassle for some folks to shuttle around multiple websites.
> I know they have such liberal customer satisfaction procedures
True - but you really should try to support sellers off-Amazon. There's little risk if you checkout with a Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/PayPal. If you're not happy, all of these systems will get you your money back, most of the time (so long as you don't have a large history of chargebacks, etc...). Majority of sellers are out to help customers, not screw them over. Most will bend over backwards to help out a reasonable customer. It's a lot cheaper to keep you as a happy repeat customer than it is to acquire new customers.
Oh how I wish that were true!
As a buyer, your most powerful weapon is the A-Z Guarantee process.
Filing an A-Z is an almost guarantee you'll get your money back, or a new product for free (unless you're obviously at fault or provably pulling some sort of scam).
A-Z's significantly impact sales. They impact search visibility, "Buy Box" share time, and can even get your account(s) flagged for review (during which Amazon freezes all sales). A-Z's can be downright scary.
Sometimes Amazon pulls funds from the seller's account to refund the customer... and sometimes when the seller is obviously not at fault but the customer is still very unhappy, Amazon covers the refund themselves. Both impact the seller.
> So, I really don't mind if Amazon's price is higher
The real advantage Amazon has is the convenience. You can buy groceries, electronics, and clothing all at the same time, from the same website (even if it's multiple sellers you're actually ordering from). You can't get that really anywhere else.
It does pay to check the seller's website if they have one. You'll save money most of the time... but you lose convenience, and it's a hassle for some folks to shuttle around multiple websites.
> I know they have such liberal customer satisfaction procedures
True - but you really should try to support sellers off-Amazon. There's little risk if you checkout with a Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/PayPal. If you're not happy, all of these systems will get you your money back, most of the time (so long as you don't have a large history of chargebacks, etc...). Majority of sellers are out to help customers, not screw them over. Most will bend over backwards to help out a reasonable customer. It's a lot cheaper to keep you as a happy repeat customer than it is to acquire new customers.