Originally Posted by ctyankee (Post 13377898)

Ebay is up 39 percent since they split into separate companies.

If that's failing, please share your view on other failures as I may have to look into purchasing their stock.

Originally Posted by Troy Stiffler (Post 13375468)

"Legitimate" reviews are questionable too. These are customer reviews, not journalism. At that link I posted, those douchebags take pride in creating a case against your negative review, by cross-referencing your social media accounts, and looking for any dirt against you online. It's pretty fucking creepy. All in defense of someone putting out a lousy product that attracts a negative review.

By deleting my reviews and banning me from posting any reviews in the future, Amazon delegitimized tens-or-hundreds of millions of existing reviews. Between sellers paying for positive reviews, paying to remove negative reviews, and having accounts "wiped clean" (like mine), there's no truth to any review on there.

Amazon reviews no longer mean anything to me. And Amazon should just get rid of the entire review portion of their website if they're going to allow this kind of activity.

I mentioned I rarely leave a negative review for any product. Looking back at my order history, I suspect it was from ONE set of curtains I purchased, which looked much different in the pictures than they did in real life. So my review was probably 5 or 7 sentences, and said something like, "these don't look the way they do in the pictures. The actual color is much more faded and not the "gem" color you see in the pics. I will be returning these." I didn't reference the seller or service. I don't think I broke any rules. If I had to guess, I'd say it was that review is what got me kicked off. The private label brand probably paid a third party company to harass Amazon Customer Service until they caved and removed the review, which then blocked my account from ever writing a review again.

I also question the legitimacy of any "Top Reviewer". As I don't understand how anyone, other than a professional reviewer, could be leaving thousands of lengthy reviews. I know they started investigating and banning reviewers who are suspected of taking compensation (money or free product) from the seller. That was a discussion a year-or-so ago when they made changes (and I think the story made the news).

For what it's worth, I checked Google, and this seems to be a relatively common problem. I'm not the only buyer who's been incorrectly banned from leaving reviews.

Originally Posted by Noonan (Post 13377979)

If the Whole Foods around me are any indication, they're doing very well. A new giant store just opened in a mall; took the floor space of JC Penny. Giant two story Whole Foods.

Originally Posted by PhantomStranger (Post 13378093)

They aren't the customer-friendly company they were a decade ago, when attracting customers was still the top priority. They are now in the business phase of maximizing profitability by extracting as much as they can from their customer base.

The only company with even a chance at disrupting Amazon is Walmart, but Walmart appears perfectly content controlling the remaining brick-and-mortar retail space. It would likely take some combination of Apple, using its huge cash reserves, joining up with Walmart to take Amazon head-on.

Originally Posted by zyzzle (Post 13378718)

For people with loads of money to spend, but very poor financial management skills. Spend, spend, spend, foodies, and enjoy your 3x-4x markup! The monthly rents on such a place must be exhorbitant, that cost is being passed right along to those same foodies...

Originally Posted by zyzzle (Post 13378718)

For people with loads of money to spend, but very poor financial management skills. Spend, spend, spend, foodies, and enjoy your 3x-4x markup! The monthly rents on such a place must be exhorbitant, that cost is being passed right along to those same foodies...

Originally Posted by Noonan (Post 13379118)

If you have an issue with people who pay 3-4x markup on products, I really hope you never see what the base cost is for a BD disc...

Originally Posted by DJariya (Post 13379158)

Has anyone noticed that in some instances Amazon doesn't even give a firm shipment date?

I ordered a couple of BD's on Sunday (New releases that were supposed to come out on Tuesday) and usually they would come the day they're released. I guess not anymore. I got a Will be arriving "July 27-31". And for the record, it still hasn't shipped yet.

So has Amazon stopped delivering new releases on Tuesday now? I don't care as I'm in no rush to get them, but I could see many being annoyed by this.

Originally Posted by davidh777 (Post 13379114)

Whole Foods is expensive, and some people probably shop there for prestige, but some make that choice for reasons of fair trade, ethical treatment of animals, and sustainable resources. They don't deserve derision for "poor financial management skills." -ohbfrank-

Originally Posted by Noonan (Post 13379168)

No issues for me with Prime. I had a Final Fantasy art book on preorder which arrived on its release day this past Fri. It always tells me when things will arrive because it's always 2 day shipping.

Originally Posted by fumanstan (Post 13379702)

Unrelated, but did you order the Final Fantasy Ultimania book? I just got it, it's awesome. :p

Originally Posted by DJariya (Post 13379174)

I have Prime too. Just puzzled why they gave a vague shipment date.

Originally Posted by Troy Stiffler (Post 13378062)

Ebay has been labeled one of the worst-run companies in the world. They're coasting on the brand and lack of disruption. Their actual platform is garbage. They will be out like a light (similar to Myspace -> Facebook) when its legitimate competition makes it to market.