You know the feeling. Early one morning, Sales a reminder pops up on your phone to let you know that tomorrow is your mother's birthday. Oh no! You completely forgot! Now, you love your mom, but let's face it, she can be difficult sometimes - especially if she feels you aren't thankful for all the years she spent raising you and shaping you into the fine young person you are today. You have to get her a gift, and you have to get it NOW. Here's the problem, though: Your mom's favorite thing in the world is this very special candy that can be exceedingly difficult to find. You could spend all day running from store to store looking to see whether they have any in stock, but you have to go to work. You don't have time for that. But if you don't get her that something she really likes, well, you'll be written out of the will - or at the very least, sitting at the kiddie table for sneakers Thanksgiving. You can buy anything online, right? Yes, but it could take days for your order to arrive with standard shipping, and overnight costs an arm and a leg (your mom also taught you to be frugal). Well, my procrastinating friend, welcome to the future - courtesy of Amazon. Beginning May 28, 2015, the online retail giant began offering free same-day delivery to its Prime customers living in select metropolitan areas across the United States. So if you're the kind of child who forgets his or her mother's birthday - or simply demands a great selection and fast, free delivery - you'll want to hear our take on how Amazon same-day delivery works.
Richard Stallman's personal site. For current political commentary, see the daily political notes. If you want to order a book (or something else), don't buy it from Amazon. Amazon harms its customers, as well as workers, the national treasury, and many others that it affects. Here's a good (though long) overview of why Amazon's overall activity is harmful to society overall. This page lists alternatives to Amazon for buying various kinds of products. Some of these sites may share some of Amazon's unethical practices. I am pretty sure that any site selling MP3 files on the internet imposes an EULA - an inexcusable wrong. Streaming sites, too. And all of them identify the purchaser. It is better to buy from a store, and pay cash. Or else get a copy through sharing. For a book, order it directly from the publisher or through a local book store. If you want to use a URL to refer to a book, please don't use an Amazon page.
Here are specific reasons - plenty of them. Amazon is so close to being a monopoly for internet sales by most companies that it can gouge them. It drives many of them into bankruptcy. If you do internet purchases, making a point of not buying through Amazon is a way you can personally push back. Amazon biases its searches to favor vendors that use Amazon for their shipping. If this isn't illegal, it ought to be. We should not allow a store as big as Amazon to have anything to do with order fulfillment, for its own sales or anyone else's. Amazon Fashion has so much power over the US retail economy that it imposes its power over all participants. If it is going to be a monopoly, it should be regulated like other monopolies. Amazon has so much market share that its sheer size distorts the market. We should not allow a company to have a share over around 10% of any market.
This art icle has been gen erated by GSA Content Gen erator DE MO.
If in a certain field a single dominant company is beneficial for society, that means it is a natural monopoly, and should be served by a regulated utility. Amazon offered a "30-day free trial", and started paid subscriptions automatically at the end of it. This is clearly an attempt to trick customers - wrong in all cases no matter how many companies do it. Amazon's persistent blindness to certain fraudulent sales schemes makes it easy for fraudsters to invalidate Amazon's guarantee to purchasers. Amazon closes the accounts of customers that send back a substantial fraction of products they buy. It has the additional effect of stealing any credit balance. Amazon appears to have cooperated with the US government to intercept a Thinkpad keyboard purchased by a Tor developer. To install a spy device, presumably. Amazon delays order processing for customers that have not paid a subscription fee for "prime" delivery. Amazon's new grocery stores do not accept cash.
They impose the same surveillance as ordering online from Amazon. In addition, success of this would mean the loss of thousands of jobs. The ACLU's criticisms of Amazon's private internet, "Sidewalk". Amazon distributes ebooks in a way that strips users of many freedoms (PDF or html). Amazon's on-line music "sales" have some of the same problems as the ebooks: users are required to identify themselves and Amazon Deals sign a contract that denies them the freedoms they would have with a CD. The Amazon Swindle has a back door that can erase books. We found out about this when Amazon Fashion remotely erased thousands of copies of 1984. In response to criticism, Amazon promised it would never do this again unless ordered to by the state, which I find not very comforting. Amazon did not keep that promise. In 2012 it wiped a user's Kindle and deleted her account, then offered her kafkaesque "explanations". The Swindle has a universal back door through which that Amazon can forcibly change the software.