Fortunately this type of thing is somewhat rare, even for folks who buy a lot of stuff from amazon.

If this was a common occurrence with zero or difficult to get refunds, then I would think twice about ordering regularly from amazon. At least in my cases, amazon was prompt about refunds whenever this happened.

I ordered a pair of Amazon Basics pillows and they arrived in 10-days shipped from Amazon. That was also the initial shipping quote but they used UPS to deliver as opposed to their own couriers.

I buy a lot of blu-rays and I often go with "No Rush" for the digital credit. I had decent service when Amazon delivered things themselves, but lousy when it was UPS; it would be listed as "Out For Delivery" but I would end up getting it a day or two later. The last few items Amazon has sent via the USPS aka "regular mail".

Looks like Amazon is trying to persuade more people to pay for their music streaming service. They recently, about a couple weeks ago, removed the ability to sample songs before purchase. And now have removed the ability to add songs or albums to wishlist or any other list.

I often will hear a song we may want and then check to see where to procure the song. Yes my wife and I are old school whereas we'd like the CD first and if only liking a song or 2 we will purchase an MP3. Often there are numerous versions or releases for a particular song. We will sample them to find which has the best mix etc. For example a song may be on a greatest hits and an original album or even have multiple releases of the same album (or rerelease, remaster etc). Well now if we cannot listen first what incentive do we have to buy.

We would put items in almost and periodically double check we still want a song or album. Often we wait till we accumulated no rich shipping credits and will use all available and still spend beyond frankly.


​​​​​Now we are expected to buy blindly (sound unheard) without building a list of titles we'd want. I get there is Amazon Music to listen to some titles that are included with Prime. We won't however pay for an Unlimited streaming plan just to sample songs they have for sale. Defeats the purpose.

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They started doing this almost 2 months ago - at least that's when I noticed as I had a few CDs I was interested in but wanted to sample a few songs first. Not only were the samples removed but track lists as well on most titles I looked at. That makes it even more difficult with CDs having several different releases with differing "bonus" tracks.
I, too, purchase CDs although it's physical only unless a title is OOP and commanding stupid high prices for a CD. Even then I rarely purchase digital as all Amazon offers is MP3. If they'd offer FLAC I'd make the occasional digital purchase. Like you, if I'm going to purchase a single song on digital I want to be able to sample all versions. I've found that often the differences are not made clear and all versions of a title are made to look like it's the same thing when it's not. It's especially critical when making a purchase of classical (physical or digital) as interpretation can be quite different and make a song/work you love almost unlistenable with a "poor" interpretation.

The samples disappeared 2 months ago and then came back until recently disappearing again. The lack of ability to add MP3 to wishlist or other list is new within the last week or so.

I chatted with Customer service about the missing samples and inability to add to lists along with how broken the list of all songs by artist is now (sorting does not work, it doesn't show what album anything is from, and no ability to sample anything from that from the list of songs). They said they checked band it is all intentional. I said I could understand the removing of samples from the Amazon website interface if they wanted to encourage folks to use their media player. I said I don't understand why the titles can no longer be added to a wishlist as not everything is a bit now scenario. I also said there is no way they intentionally screwed up the full song list by artist to no longer sort appropriately nor have links to buy as that would reduce revenue.

They said that would make note of my comments and sent them to their team to review. They did assure me they would look into it.

I think they have a 1/2 baked update that screwed up their interface and won't admit it or they are planning to push it all to streaming only and remove the ability to purchase MP3s anymore. Pay to play model and/or subscriptions is the revenue of the future. Not pay once and use indefinitely.

I want to disclose that I worked at a local Amazon warehouse from November of last year to about February of this year. I had no real problems, and only quit because of the pandemic.

I will think twice about buying a item from a 3rd party seller at Amazon who accepts no refunds and if Amazon has the item at a higher price I will consider that.

I ordered 6 bottles of flavored water drops, but only got 5 from a 3rd party (shipped by Amazon). So I "chatted" with the bot, and it offered me a full refund without having to do anything else. WTF? I assume if you do this too many times they suspend your account, but I thought that was crazy. $20 of merch for free. Never had that happen to me.

A refund without having to return is the norm for food/drink products. If it's consumable you'll be given a full refund if it's shipped or fulfilled by Amazon. If Amazon sold the product they'll offer to ship a replacement instead of a refund with you keeping the original shipment.

So it used to be that Alexa on my echo dot would send an alert basically only if a package was just delivered. Useful.

Then like a few months ago, I'd get alerts when no packages were scheduled, and when I check it, it would be a reminder to reorder something. I didn't set any reminders, it just thought I needed more toothpaste or whatever. Annoying.

Today I get one saying that I ordered such and such two months ago, and what would I rate it. An alert in the middle of the day to do an impromptu review. Ridiculous.

Yeah, I get that too, and it is annoying. Let me know if you figure out how to turn that off, I've been too lazy to dig into it.

It's actually pretty easy.

Go to the alexa app on your phone (not sure if you can do it from a browser)
Use that three line menu on the top left, go to settings
go to notifications
go to amazon shopping

turn off
Requests to rate products you've purchased

At least I think that turns it off. Seems like they add notifications and then opt you in instead of, you know, letting you choose if you want their newfangled notifications.

Thanks!!

Amazon doesn't want you, and probably won't let you, turn it off. It's free advertising for them, one of the things you "agreed" to when being hoodwinked into purchasing the Alexa device in the first place. This type of shit is just the start of that slippery slope. Next, you'll be getting "alerts" when Alexa (Amazon) thinks you haven't been shopping -- or giving Amazon enough profits -- recently. And so it goes with this type of "smart" technology. Smart for them, stupid for you.

It’s easy to turn off, took maybe 15 seconds.

Good! Score one for the small guy, while Amazon regroups and devises other means to get their claws around and entrenched into you.

The easiest solution is to not let intrusive shit like Alexa into your home in the first place.

It's bad enough we have our fucking phones spying on us 24/7.

My wife actually just got me a pair of Oakley's for my birthday. They felt a bit too snug but wanted to try to make them work. I didn't know she bought them way early and the return date had actually passed. She contacted them and after explaining they actually said she didn't have to return them and she would get a refund. I was really surprised and she asked them if they are sure and they said yes you're a valued customer.

Another late package that was shipped using amazon's own delivery service. If I wasn't afraid of my packages being stuck in post office hell I would order from other retailers. I guess late is better than never getting it at all.

Remember when Prime meant you got your stuff in 2 days? Now, I see loads of stuff that qualifies for Prime shipping, but it's rarely 1 or 2 days.

The frustrating part is that the shipping, itself, is very quick. It's just that it doesn't actually ship for 4 or 5 days.

I ordered a logic probe on Monday. It's going to arrive between the 28th and the 30th. So, of course, it hasn't shipped yet.

Why do orders just sit like that? As a guess, they're prioritizing orders that people are paying to ship.

And, of course, this is Canada, so we don't have a 'no rush' option with some sort of reward. We just get 'no rush' service.

I have two outstanding orders right now, both using Amazon's shipping. One was supposed to be delivered two days ago, and all I get for status is "Now expected today", and the only information in their tracking "Shipment delayed in transit". The other one was supported to be delivered today. But the status shows it just leaving Pennsylvania today (I live in Maryland), so I doubt that will arrive on time either.

Conversely, the last few Amazon orders I had, that didn't use Amazon's shipping, arrived earlier than scheduled, including one that used the USPS.

ETA: Surprisingly, the package that shipped late out of Pa still got here. Delivered by an Amazon employee in their personal vehicle. Not surprisingly, the package that was already two days late wasn't delivered and Amazon now says it may be lost and I can get a refund. The problem is that when this has happened in the past, I've gotten a refund then they have eventually delivered it anyway, so I had to go back to their customer service to have it rebilled. Rather than doing that this time, I'll give it a week to see if it eventually shows up.

I don't know if this is a problem with Amazon or Roku, but just about every time I start up the Amazon Prime Video app on the Roku on my office room television, I have to register it using the onscreen code. It's getting very annoying.

Also annoying is that I have to choose which 'user' is using Prime Video every time, and I'm the only damn user listed!