Iāve also recently cancelled Prime, for much the same reasons. Thereās quite a bit of choice out there, and Amazon is often far from the least expensive option.
I do still use Amazon occasionally (and I like Alexa devices). However, Iām concerned about what seems to be a very shady practice when ordering as a non-Prime customer.
Every time, as I try to check out, it offers me the opportunity to buy Prime or pay a quoted amount for shipping. Yet when I plough on without buying Prime I find that free shipping is still available or shipping is substantially less than on the ābuy Primeā page.
Thereās perhaps something in the very small font at the bottom, but Iām inclined to complain to Trading Standards.
Agree. If I go on Amazonās site and it says ābuy within 2 hours and it will be there tomorrowā, I expect it to be here tomorrow not because I feel entitled, but because thatās literally what they told me when I was buying it.
If it doesnāt show up tomorrow, doesnāt show up the next day, and then Amazon support says āwe donāt know whatās going on; it should be there within a weekā, I can understand that they screwed up - but the item is STILL on their website promising next-day delivery. Thatās not cool.
I can totally see this point of view. That said, Iāve seen a number of those local mom & pop type businesses getting inventory deliveries in Amazon boxes.
Just noting that at least here in the US, adjustments to the tax code are actively and intentionally used to incentivize/disincentivize behavior. It seems strange to me for that to be true while maintaining that business changes in response to code changes arenāt proper. Iām not sure if this is the same in the UK.
I agree. Businesses should pay exactly what is required by the law, and no more. Apple is a master at this. Itās not up to business to correct any mistakes made by our elected officials.
For us the value in Prime is the time saved. Many of the things we buy ther are not availabnle locally (10-15 miles away, or 30+ miles away and often not available even the 75miles away place we go to once a month.
The few times they are there youāve spent way more than the cost of prime in the fuel to drive all over looking for a store that has the part.
Very true, and on Prime day there were additional incentives with up to 6% cash back on most items which offset not only any higher costs (actually quite rare) but also taxes which are different between the 3 locations where we shop and avoided the CO bag fee but adds the CO car deliver fee but itās still less (%0.28/car delivery)
My main issue with Amazon (as a customer) is the āenshittificationā. Here in the UK, I used to be able to find a wide range of reasonably reliable, reasonably priced products for quick delivery without having to wade through hundreds of dubious āknock-offsā and āsponsoredā items and wondering why the search algorithms seem to produce results designed to rip me off.
Right now, itās just about worth it for us, but if not for family members, Iād probably ditch Prime.
Yes and No. Nation states are really not up to the job of controlling massive multi-national organisations. The macinations that companies like Starbucks go through (in the EU) to avoid tax are quite remarkable - companies laying on companies. None of of it illegal I might add. However our tax money is now being spent to keep up with their huge departments of tax lawyers. This of course is not helped in the EU by the corporate tax policies of certain countries.
Should they be doing this? Well it depends on your point of view. The zest of shareholder primacy was promoted by Friedman in the 70s. It was not always like that. My belief is that if a company benefits from the stability emerging from properly funded nation states - including rule of law, proper policing, a thriving and happy workforce (that has money to spend) then they should be prepared to contribute to that society to maintain the status quo which is one of the key pillars of its success. Since the late '70s large corporations have focused on value extraction, not value creation. Some of what we are seeing in the west is as a result of that change in focus. Companies are not divorced from the environments in which they exist, although they might sometimes believe it.
But you are correct, it should be up to Governments working together to look at how these MNCs are taxed and regulated. That is unlikely to happen - so here we are.
Just a tiny bit of inverse thinking here - it could be argued that those departments exist because government tries to slice and dice everything in order to manipulate incentives and get companies to do various things. They also exist because itās cheaper to pay those departments of people than the alternative.
If the code werenāt complex, it wouldnāt take entire departments of accountants and lawyers to optimize compliance.
I cannot believe they charge so much in the UK. In Europe, it is only ā¬50 for Prime.
I was considering not renewing even at that price! In the end, I did because we use the Prime Video service a lot and order a lot of school supplies. It is the only place I can get certain materials and books for my kids.
For the EU it is extra complicated because it is a single market of sovereign nations. And some of them have been accused of giving favours to big companies, e.g. Ireland mostly from the US. Also some of the legality of mastering tax avoidance is disputed (see Apple vs EU).
Since decision making for the political decision takes forever, I think customers share in the responsibility to hold businesses to account by picking where to buy. However, I do not judge people keeping Amazon Prima as I have done for years. It is hard to find a comparable level of service and convenience online. In fact, it makes me a bit angry that a lot of businesses do not offer this level of service and then blame the customers for choosing Amazon.
I had no idea, and presumed it was the same across the continent. If it goes that high where I live in the future I will seriously consider not renewing.
So did I. Felt a bit cheated, when I saw that it is not the same (in Germany we seem to be at the upper end). However, Prime Video content differs as well I think.
For me this is a big thing. I get that local shops have a hard time competing on price, but I think thereād at least be some room to compete on service, knowledge, etc.
Iāve been in local stores where the person behind the counter was talking on a cell phone the whole time I was in the store, and didnāt even pause the call to ring me up. Couple that with policies like āno returns for any reason,ā and you have a recipe for a local store going out of business.
This is true of big chains too sometimes. In the mid-2000s, our local Borders wouldnāt help customers order out-of-stock products, or order them into the store for pick-up. Theyād tell people they needed to go to borders.com and place an order. I outright told one of the employees that if I wanted to order a book online, the first letter I typed wouldnāt be ābā.
I donāt think we disagree about very much, if anything.
I agree. I was lucky to work for two companies that did and were well respected by their employees and community. But companies are just people and people donāt always do what they āshouldā. That is why societies form governments that determine what their people, and companies, āwill doā and āwill not doā.
If a company like Apple takes advantage of every legal loophole to minimize the taxes that they pay then they have fulfilled their obligations to both their stockholders and society. The same as any citizen. If that no longer satisfies the majority of the people it is up to us to change the law through our elected officials.
If everyone ātreated others the way they want to be treatedā we would have far fewer problems. But instead we have laws that determine what is legal and illegal.
Itās worth noting that this is the position even of billionaires like Warren Buffet when they advocate for higher taxes on upper-income earners. Even though they advocate an increase, they still donāt voluntarily pay a dollar more than theyāre currently obligated to.
I donāt entirely disagree with you and I recognise what you are saying - it is complicated!! It seems governments bring some of this on themselves. It is all quite a mess.
I only mentioned it because I remember having a conversation with an accountant who was telling me that HMRC (UK equiv of the IRS) was having to spend more and more resource on dealing with the some of activities of the MNCs. Some of the tax affairs of these companies are now so byzantine that they almost canāt be unpicked. Within that they can not easily see what is avoidance and what is evasion. I am not sure it is entirely inverted thinking.
