I’ve already praised Amazon to the skies: “Amazon is simply the best store that ever existed, by far, with incredible selection and unearthly convenience.” Recently, however, Amazon managed to exceed my sky-high expectations.
Over the last few months, my Sony Blu-Ray player has been losing streaming services one after the other. Apparently I’m such a dinosaur that Hulu can’t be bothered to update my software. Such is the price of progress…
Last week, Amazon joined this rush for the exit, sending me an email to let me know that my Amazon Prime streaming would soon be discontinued. My knee-jerk reaction was, “Et tu, Amazon?”
Yet happily, the email didn’t end there. Amazon informed me that I could restore service by buying a Fire TV device – and gave me a $25 coupon for such a product. How much was the normal price of such a product? You guessed it – $25. Somewhat incredulously, I entered the coupon code – and confirmed that Amazon was giving me cutting-edge electronics for $0.00.
Two days later, I received my Fire TV Stick and easily installed it. To my delight, it was superior in all respects to my previous streaming system. Most notably, I often host Youtube karaoke parties, and the new interface works like a charm. Amazon, I love you.
Am I overreacting? I think not. When I was a child, no one would have believed that a major company would treat its customers so well. In all candor, Amazon treats me with far more respect and appreciation than I’ve ever received from the United States government. Democratic government, Republican government, divided government; Amazon outshines them all. If the feds ever go after Amazon, I know what side I’m on.
P.S. Here’s a screen cap of Amazon’s email to me.
P.P.S. If you’re thinking, “This isn’t a fair comparison. Running the federal government is much harder than running Amazon,” I’m thinking, “Another great thing about Amazon is that it doesn’t email me excuses.”
READER COMMENTS
Thomas Knapp
Oct 7 2019 at 1:13pm
I’ve never had anything but great service from Amazon. Very few problems in more than 20 years, and all of them solved quickly (and often with a credit of some kind for my trouble).
That said, I’m not a fan of their Fire TV line for one reason:
I can’t get Google Play or Vudu on Fire TV, at least not without complicated “Android side load” hacks, and whenever Amazon and Google have a fight, YouTube goes away too.
I switched to a cheap Roku stick some time back. The interface is better and I can get the services I want instead of the ones Amazon is willing to let me have.
RPLong
Oct 7 2019 at 1:42pm
I recently had to place back-to-back technical support calls to Amazon first, and then to Apple. The difference was staggering. Amazon’s service was vastly superior by every conceivable benchmark.
blacktrance
Oct 7 2019 at 2:52pm
I’m a fan of Amazon, but this isn’t their finest moment. Isn’t the real story here that you can’t use your (presumably) perfectly good blu-ray player as before because they’re pulling support for it? It’s great to get stuff for free, but people don’t always want to upgrade.
Also, looking at Amazon right now, the cheapest new Fire TV stick is $40. $15 with the $25 coupon is cheap, but I’d still be right to grumble.
Nick
Oct 7 2019 at 9:17pm
It’s clear. Life has gotten MUCH better and capitalism has made great progress in improving ordinary people’s lives.
The things have deteriorated since the 70s story is utter BS. One, they haven’t, two, there’s no way to compare alternative timelines other than by honest theorizing, which I don’t trust anti-market ideologues to do all that well.
Of course Amazon may be a hard place to work at, but that’s the price for the bounty it provides everyone. If one criticises free markets for the harsh inputs (production), one has to sing praises for the output it provides (available consumables).
Matthias Görgens
Oct 8 2019 at 9:43am
It’s actually not that bad. People complain about the warehouses, but that’s mostly because Amazon basically takes everything. Other companies running warehouses avoid those complaints by mostly sticking to people with experience instead of the general public. (That’s from reading insider accounts.)
As a programmer, I wouldn’t recommend working for Amazon though. In absolute terms, they treat programmers nicely, but in relative terms Google and Facebook and Microsoft have better working conditions and interviews that are about equally demanding. (I know that from personal experience and talking to friends and co-workers.)
Michael
Oct 8 2019 at 9:11am
I think you misunderstand the greatness of the ‘Fire Stick’. It’s selling extremely poorly compared to other similar products and services, so them giving it away to you is a gift, but is also just them trying to get rid of stock and hopefully grab some new die-hard Fire Stick fans.
I’m sure you know this already. But it might be a little dishonest to represent this as Amazon simply giving you something for free for no reason besides they love you.
Matthias Görgens
Oct 8 2019 at 9:37am
True. Though I am sure Bryan is well aware of Amazon’s profit motive.
Jon Murphy
Oct 10 2019 at 9:51am
He didn’t say that. The word “love” appears just once, and it is in regard to his relationship to Amazon, not their relationship to him (and even that is used colloquially). The relationship to him is just one of service and respect, not love. No dishonesty there.
Joseph Sunde
Oct 8 2019 at 10:53am
In related news, I bought a $500 Smart TV through Amazon a couple years ago. The thing worked great for 2 months and then crashed out. It was under warranty but the TV manufacturer flaked out and refused to replace it. It was CLEARLY not Amazon’s fault or responsibility. When I contacted them, they acknowledged this…AND THEN SAID THEY’D REFUND ME THE TV ANYWAY.
There were no strings attached. Not even an “Amazon” voucher. Just a full refund.
But of course I bought the replacement through Amazon, and of course (now) I always will.
Comments are closed.