"Is Government the Only Force Able to End Amazon Dominance?"

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Why are people so concerned about this? Is Amazon evil? Are their books overpriced? Do they intentionally and willfully cheat the consumer and society?

There is a reason Amazon is so successful. All Amazon fans are not deluded. I realized from the beginning I was allowing myself to be locked in. I found Calibre, and I discovered libraries and other ebook formats. I have experienced customer service at Amazon and at other ebook sellers. Amazon just does it better.

[rdjack21]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

There is a reason Amazon is so successful. All Amazon fans are not deluded. I realized from the beginning I was allowing myself to be locked in. I found Calibre, and I discovered libraries and other ebook formats. I have experienced customer service at Amazon and at other ebook sellers. Amazon just does it better.

Agree with this.. Lets be honest Amazon just does online book browsing and finding much better than anyone else. I even have a B&N Nook but I still find myself going to Amazon to actually find the books I want because B&N web interface and browsing experience just sucks. I've tried the others as well and again Amazon beats them hands down. I'm now considering buying a Kindle PW to replace my NST because Amazon just has a better back end than any one else. What is really sad is there is nothing stopping B&N or anyone else from fixing their systems but they don't so why should I continue to wast my money on a company that does not give a flip about me or what I want. At least when I complain to Amazon someone replies to me. I don't know how many times I've written B&N and not once have I gotten a response.

So yes Amazon is winning the war but they are winning because they deserve to win because they are making it easy for me to Find what I want, When I want it, With the lest amount of hassle. Even if DRM was removed Today and no one had to use it I would still shop at Amazon because they are better than any one else at giving me what I want. The other book sellers have no one to blame but themselves for the problems they have.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by rdjack21

Agree with this.. Lets be honest Amazon just does online book browsing and finding much better than anyone else. I even have a B&N Nook but I still find myself going to Amazon to actually find the books I want because B&N web interface and browsing experience just sucks.

April next year B&N will launch a completely new website that is supposed to be much more integrated with Nook.
So hopefully that will make the B&N web experience more on par with Amazon.

[Lemurion]

I would be perfectly happy to switch from Amazon, but why should I when they offer better prices, selection, and customer service than the competition?

As a consumer, I don't see the benefit to paying more for a smaller selection and worse customer service.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by geertm

April next year B&N will launch a completely new website that is supposed to be much more integrated with Nook.
So hopefully that will make the B&N web experience more on par with Amazon.

Assuming they last that long.....

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by geertm

April next year B&N will launch a completely new website that is supposed to be much more integrated with Nook.
So hopefully that will make the B&N web experience more on par with Amazon.

Originally Posted by kennyc

Assuming they last that long.....

And assuming they actually live up to their claims. Their track record isn't the best re: ability.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I would be perfectly happy to switch from Amazon, but why should I when they offer better prices?

Is their stuff actually cheaper? I've read reports that it's not particularly the case.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Is their stuff actually cheaper? I've read reports that it's not particularly the case.

Well, Baen Bundles (which I buy) are definitely cheaper than Amazon, at least until the bundle breaks. Beyond that, I can only speak to my own experience which is that I'm spending less buying from Amazon than I did when I bought elsewhere, though I may not be buying the same books I would otherwise.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Is their stuff actually cheaper? I've read reports that it's not particularly the case.

In general, yes. I do a lot of comparison shopping before buying things, and I'd say that 90% of the time Amazon is the least expensive or matches the lowest price for most items I purchase online, ebooks included.

[Sregener]

Originally Posted by Rizla

To the last point, yes they do. Their business model is based on tax dodging and they treat their temp staff like many companies treat staff in India etc. It is not a good trend.

Their business model is based on tax avoidance, which is different than tax evasion or dodging. Using legal means to reduce one's taxes is not unethical. If the laws are faulty, it is not Amazon's fault for obeying the laws in the way that is most beneficial to their bottom line.

Any company that treats its staff poorly will not retain staff for long. There are dramatic costs involved in employee turnover, and successful companies do not encourage employee churn. My guess is that Amazon is paying pretty well, and most people will give up a lot of dignity for a big paycheck. Who are you to judge them for their free choice?

[rdjack21]

Originally Posted by geertm

April next year B&N will launch a completely new website that is supposed to be much more integrated with Nook.
So hopefully that will make the B&N web experience more on par with Amazon.

By the time they finally get around to doing this they will have already lost the game. I have waited years for them to fix the bad web experience and now it's time for a new device. So do I pick a device from the supplier that has shown in the past that they don't give a flip about me and what I want or do I pick up a device from the supplier that has proven over time to be a advocate of consumers and actually does provide what I want. I'm not the only one in this boat and I think B&N has waited to long to fix the issues or even to admit they have issues. I'm tired of waiting and I'm tired of the frustration so it's now time to find another supplier. In my case I think that supplier is going to be Amazon.

What is also sad is that the B&N B&M stores are loosing there appeal to me as well. In those cases that I need or want a paper book I don't mind waiting a couple of days for it to get here. The last paper back book I bought I got at the Grocery store (The House of Hades) for my son because the Grocery store wanted $11 for it and but B&N wanted ~$18 or I think ~$16 with a B&N Card where am I going so spend my money? Now that the initial rush is off B&N still wants the same price for it but Amazon wants $10 with free shipping (prime member) or $4.99 for the kindle edition again where am I going to spend my money?

I'm sorry I think this has turned into more of a rant but I'm very disappointed with B&N and what really bugs me is that this is all self inflicted Amazon did not do this to them they did it to themselves and have no one to blame but themselves.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by rdjack21

By the time they finally get around to doing this they will have already lost the game. I have waited years for them to fix the bad web experience and now it's time for a new device. So do I pick a device from the supplier that has shown in the past that they don't give a flip about me and what I want or do I pick up a device from the supplier that has proven over time to be a advocate of consumers and actually does provide what I want.

I'm not a fan of B&N, but the HD/HD+ tablets are really nice and very cheap these days. Buy an HD+. Blow away the B&N OS. Install Cyanogenmod (Android 4.2). Install Kindle app/Nook app/whatever ebook reader you like. End up with a solid *useful* device.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by rdjack21

Agree with this.. Lets be honest Amazon just does online book browsing and finding much better than anyone else.

The only site I can recall that was as good as Amazon-and better IMO for ebooks-was Fictionwise. I had hopes for B&N when they bought FW but apparently they bought it to kill off the competition rather than learn how to improve their site. The only area in which I disliked FW's site was how they sorted by ratings. I would have preferred a book with fewer than some arbitrary number of ratings (at least 10, maybe 25) to be shown as unrated. Far too often I looked for 'excellent' books and had to page thru dozens that had only 1 rating. Sure, it was excellent-but how reliable is a single rating?

Other than that slight quibble I liked it better than Amazon. For ebooks, of course. I do find Amazon interesting & their recommendations are sometimes good. But their searches are horrible. Not that it doesn't find what you want but that it pulls in so much garbage. As an example I searched for McKevitt (author of the Savannah Reid mysteries). The 4th item listed was the movie 'Bullseye' starring Michael Caine & Roger Moore. I even checked the list of supporting actors-not a McKevitt among them. Stupid. But it's easy to ignore so really just a minor complaint.

[tubemonkey]

My favorite bookstore is OverDrive, followed by Amazon. Really have no need to shop elsewhere.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

And when, EVER, has the gov't actually solved a problem without creating 52 others? Problems that didn't exist before gov't interference?

More gov't isn't the solution.

Well said. Karma to you good sir.