Author Topic: 2016 Amazon free crap thread (Read 41970 times)

pbj · « **on:** February 18, 2015, 08:00:29 pm »

The dawn of a new era.

Generic Eric · « **Reply #1 on:** February 18, 2015, 08:05:21 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 18, 2015, 08:00:29 pm

The dawn of a new era.

To everyone else: If you aren't ordering your paper goods online, you should be. Less reasons to go to the store, less impulse buys.

yotsuya · « **Reply #2 on:** February 18, 2015, 08:25:59 pm »

Or, conversely, Jim wipes his ass a WHOLE lot.

nitrogen_widget · « **Reply #3 on:** February 18, 2015, 08:27:22 pm »

Better than not wiping enough.

BadMouth · « **Reply #4 on:** February 19, 2015, 02:51:41 pm »

I wish I'd bought more of those 1lb bags of beef jerky.

I still have a desk drawer full of Planters Fruit and Nut Trail mix.

pbj · « **Reply #5 on:** February 19, 2015, 03:41:53 pm »

For the first time in my life, we actually had beef jerky go bad. We ate so damn much of it we couldn't finish a package. I never thought that would happen.

Anyway, about $210 in free junk from Amazon in 2015 thus far. I'll try to reduce updates to just the highlights.

bfauska · « **Reply #6 on:** February 19, 2015, 04:54:01 pm »

What?How?

pbj · « **Reply #7 on:** February 19, 2015, 05:27:28 pm »

Well, after 2.5 pounds of jerky in a week, we got sick of it and threw the remaining half pound into the back of the pantry. Three weeks later? Mold.

SlammedNiss · « **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2015, 05:44:38 pm »

I buy quite a bit of "free" stuff, but never hear of anything from Amazon.

bfauska · « **Reply #9 on:** February 19, 2015, 05:51:41 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 19, 2015, 05:27:28 pm

Well, after 2.5 pounds of jerky in a week, we got sick of it and threw the remaining half pound into the back of the pantry. Three weeks later? Mold.

I meant "free stuff" what how. Too much beef jerky resulting in old moldy beef jerky I understand. I'm good at ruining food.

nitrogen_widget · « **Reply #10 on:** February 19, 2015, 07:01:54 pm »

I'm good at leaving my lunch by the front door when I goto work.
My dog is amazing at ruining it.

pbj · « **Reply #11 on:** February 19, 2015, 09:42:09 pm »

I've been reluctant to share this for a long time but I don't think people from the forum will present much competition.

The trick is to keep at it and be satisfied with small returns. You also have to be believable. If things are too cute, or implausible then nobody will go for it. I'm gonna keep my best angles to myself but below are some moderate earners. Keep moving and don't approach anyone with kids and you'll do alright.

One hint, tactics like, "why lie? Need cash for drugs" don't work too well.

Vigo · « **Reply #12 on:** February 19, 2015, 11:36:17 pm »

Oh ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, that is gold.

jennifer · « **Reply #13 on:** February 19, 2015, 11:57:19 pm »

OMG!!!...

Locke141 · « **Reply #14 on:** February 20, 2015, 12:06:00 am »

JMB · « **Reply #15 on:** February 20, 2015, 10:29:19 am »

PBJ's garage. All running bots for Bing Rewards searches to get $5 Amazon gift cards

BadMouth · « **Reply #16 on:** February 20, 2015, 11:32:21 am »

Quote from: bfauska on February 19, 2015, 05:51:41 pm

Quote from: pbj on February 19, 2015, 05:27:28 pm
Well, after 2.5 pounds of jerky in a week, we got sick of it and threw the remaining half pound into the back of the pantry. Three weeks later? Mold.

I meant "free stuff" what how. Too much beef jerky resulting in old moldy beef jerky I understand. I'm good at ruining food.

So I shouldn't eat the pieces with white fuzz on them?
This is my last bag, maybe I did order the correct amount.

pbj · « **Reply #17 on:** March 07, 2015, 06:21:54 pm »

Yo, dawg,I herd you like boxes.

Malenko · « **Reply #18 on:** March 07, 2015, 07:15:57 pm »

I wouldnt take those for free. Did you mark "return to sender" on the box?

pbj · « **Reply #19 on:** March 07, 2015, 07:26:57 pm »

Yes, malenko, I returned my wife's favorite candy to sender.

bfauska · « **Reply #20 on:** March 07, 2015, 07:27:14 pm »

Quote from: Malenko on March 07, 2015, 07:15:57 pm

I wouldnt take those for free. Did you mark "return to sender" on the box?

What the hell is wrong with you? That's a perfect "dinner for 1" in that box.

Malenko · « **Reply #21 on:** March 07, 2015, 10:34:04 pm »

Quote from: pbj on March 07, 2015, 07:26:57 pm

Yes, malenko, I returned my wife's favorite candy to sender.

So she has bad taste in more than just men.

BOOOOOOSH, you just got served.

pbj · « **Reply #22 on:** March 08, 2015, 09:22:13 am »

You salty, bro.

hypernova · « **Reply #23 on:** March 08, 2015, 03:18:10 pm »

Black Forest and Howe brands are so much better than Haribo.

Malenko · « **Reply #24 on:** March 08, 2015, 03:19:28 pm »

Quote from: pbj on March 08, 2015, 09:22:13 am

You salty, bro.

Naw, I'm jelly you get free stuffs and wont tell me how

DeLuSioNal29 · « **Reply #25 on:** March 08, 2015, 03:22:21 pm »

Quote from: pbj on March 07, 2015, 06:21:54 pm

Yo, dawg,I herd you like boxes.

SlammedNiss · « **Reply #26 on:** March 08, 2015, 06:59:00 pm »

Free stuffs you say?

http://imgur.com/a/K2LHP

http://imgur.com/a/qa5Cx

hypernova · « **Reply #27 on:** March 09, 2015, 07:27:11 pm »

Does this have anything to do with it?

Vigo · « **Reply #28 on:** March 09, 2015, 07:47:03 pm »

Quote from: hypernova on March 09, 2015, 07:27:11 pm

Does this have anything to do with it?

Well, PBJ could easily be the reviewer on any of these top amazon reviews of Haribo Gummies.

http://www.amazon.com/Haribo-Sugar-Free-Gummy-Bears/dp/B008JELLCA

pbj · « **Reply #29 on:** March 11, 2015, 01:19:18 pm »

Got this on its way:

2 years of entering Coke points.

TWO YEARS

jdbailey1206 · « **Reply #30 on:** March 11, 2015, 01:26:25 pm »

Best movie ever....

Vigo · « **Reply #31 on:** March 11, 2015, 03:28:38 pm »

I do coke points. Wait until around Christmas where they give away coke certificates for next to nothing. Also, dummy accounts are a good thing, but be clever enough to put micro tweaks in the address and change the name completely. I've lost about 3 accounts from stupidity. Done right, it pays off. I've walked out of Walmart With about $300 of cases of coke, completely filling a couple shopping carts.

pbj · « **Reply #32 on:** March 11, 2015, 03:55:55 pm »

Quote from: Vigo on March 11, 2015, 03:28:38 pm

I do coke points. Wait until around Christmas where they give away coke certificates for next to nothing. Also, dummy accounts are a good thing, but be clever enough to put micro tweaks in the address and change the name completely. I've lost about 3 accounts from stupidity. Done right, it pays off. I've walked out of Walmart With about $300 of cases of coke, completely filling a couple shopping carts.

I don't accumulate enough points for it to be worth having multiple accounts, and the 75 points a week thing has supremely devalued them (and it's really more like 73 points because who the hell buys six packs anymore).

People will trade the codes for ANYTHING these days if Ebay sales and Slickdeals are barometers of value. I'm going to be mildly surprised if Coke renews the program next year, to be honest.

Anyway, this is my second belt buckle, I got the first one in 2013. They retail for $150 and the first one cost 1,500 points. That was basically a $1 per 12 pack subsidy which I thought was doing pretty good. Certainly not for everyone but the shock value of ---my bottom--- walking around in one of these things is priceless. Plus the Houston Rodeo gave my wife money so we like them.

Vigo · « **Reply #33 on:** March 11, 2015, 04:28:13 pm »

Yeah, the program is a pain in the ass. Don't feed it for a couple months and they snatch your points as well. My extended family collect for me, so it is the only reason why it is worth it in my case.

That is one spendy buckle. I never quite got the buckle thing, but I am a northerner. One of these days I will probably buy a buckle and a leather belt that will last more than a year, but I think I will feel obligated to "mosey" everywhere I go.

Slippyblade · « **Reply #34 on:** March 11, 2015, 04:36:11 pm »

Quote from: Vigo on March 11, 2015, 04:28:13 pm

...and a leather belt that will last more than a year...

So hard to find actual leather anymore though. Most belts are crappy leather "look" nonsense that disintegrate after a few months. I've taken to cutting my own belts, that way I get good quality and actual leather.

JDFan · « **Reply #35 on:** March 11, 2015, 04:48:13 pm »

Quote from: Vigo on March 11, 2015, 03:28:38 pm

I do coke points. Wait until around Christmas where they give away coke certificates for next to nothing. Also, dummy accounts are a good thing, but be clever enough to put micro tweaks in the address and change the name completely. I've lost about 3 accounts from stupidity. Done right, it pays off. I've walked out of Walmart With about $300 of cases of coke, completely filling a couple shopping carts.

That's what I used to buy the book for the programming class -- the $10 Amazon card was 690 points so a couple months worth of points.

pbj · « **Reply #36 on:** March 11, 2015, 04:59:41 pm »

Once I got a Sprite t-shirt for something like 50 points. My wife wears it occasionally. Besides a few coupons and the belt buckles that's been about it for me. Couldn't give away the "distressed" Sprite hat.

Quote from: Slippyblade on March 11, 2015, 04:36:11 pm

I've taken to cutting my own belts, that way I get good quality and actual leather.

Go on. How big can you cut them?

Slippyblade · « **Reply #37 on:** March 11, 2015, 05:36:19 pm »

Quote from: pbj on March 11, 2015, 04:59:41 pm

Go on. How big can you cut them?

I like big belts and I cannot lie!

Seriously though, it's a side effect of that medieval thing that I do. I occasionally have leftover leather fromn other projects, usually armor building or repair. When that happens I make a belt. As a man with no hips, a belt is a serious must else I look like this.

pbj · « **Reply #38 on:** March 11, 2015, 05:37:52 pm »

hypernova · « **Reply #39 on:** March 11, 2015, 08:58:33 pm »

Quote from: Slippyblade on March 11, 2015, 05:36:19 pm

Now that is one fine looking, svelte gentleman!

pbj · « **Reply #40 on:** March 16, 2015, 10:19:52 am »

I used to be interesting and fun. Now it's all coffee machines and toilet paper.

Generic Eric · « **Reply #41 on:** March 16, 2015, 11:39:11 am »

ITT: PBJ's haberdashery and fine Prison wine.

http://www.amazon.com/Springfield-Leather-Companys-Vintage-Buffalo/dp/B00G6PO1GM/ref=sr_1_6?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1426520120&sr=1-6&keywords=1+3%2F8%22+leather

jennifer · « **Reply #42 on:** March 16, 2015, 01:50:52 pm »

**Jennifer laughs, and laughs.... I suppose he could try cooking that wine in that coffee pot, and to be really frugal, perhaps use the toilet paper for filters?

pbj · « **Reply #43 on:** April 06, 2015, 07:33:05 pm »

This went on sale for $11 shipped in some promotion. Opted for regular shipping to get a $6 promotional credit. Oh well, into the drawer it goes.

pbj · « **Reply #44 on:** April 09, 2015, 08:14:19 pm »

Remember, no matter how bad your life gets, at least you aren't spending gift cards on this:

pbj · « **Reply #45 on:** May 07, 2015, 04:55:01 pm »

Well, all of my passive income grifts are effectively dead now. Fun ride while that lasted, I suppose.

Nothing fun lately except Raspberry Pi junk like HDMI->VGA adapter, Micro SD cards, and a composite cable.

Here's to the end of an era.

yotsuya · « **Reply #46 on:** May 07, 2015, 05:19:39 pm »

Quote from: pbj on May 07, 2015, 04:55:01 pm

Well, all of my passive income grifts are effectively dead now. Fun ride while that lasted, I suppose.

Nothing fun lately except Raspberry Pi junk like HDMI->VGA adapter, Micro SD cards, and a composite cable.

Here's to the end of an era.

So now that it's over, spill the beans. What did you do to get them?

pbj · « **Reply #47 on:** May 07, 2015, 06:00:01 pm »

A large chunk of it came honestly. I got very efficient at doing low paying tasks online during idle moments. Probably the "best" one involved doing an ever increasing amount of work reading, summarizing, and interpreting scientific literature for someone's graduate thesis. At a rate of $1/paper, damned if I didn't do most of their project for ~$75, and I speak fairly expertly about that subject now.

A low point was doing an hour long survey where I was asked to look at pictures of dead kids and periodically asked trick questions to see if I was still looking at the photos and how upset I was feeling. Gee... really upset?

But, hey, PS4, four controllers, and Diablo 3.

In terms of the passive income:

Opened bing rewards accounts until I got a few that gave me $1.10 a day. Slammed them with search scripts. Microsoft wields the ban hammer pretty viciously these days and ALL accounts have been chopped to 25 cents a day. And they call you to verify information. And they love banning you when you're redeeming points. Not worth the effort on your own time/electricity.

The bigger fish was using a rewards program on a bunch of old Apple devices. Predictably, it got less and less lucrative and required more user intervention for far fewer rewards. They finally shut down the really old version of the app I was running on an old Ipad behind a firewall that filtered out their attention check pings. My wife was conscripted to occasionally thump "Yes" on the screens on the other devices as she walked by. Anyway, it was sad to see that come to an end because it started around $40 a week and was still a good $20-25 until recently.

In terms of squeezing blood out of Amazon:

Never call. Never e-mail. Always chat. Always click that you want a transcript. If you don't like what you hear, close the chat and start a new one.

They have a three month return window from Nov 1 - Jan 31. Buy your video games mid-November, squeeze them for refunds on Black Friday, squeeze them for more refunds mid-Dec, and squeeze again in January when the prices bottom out. I actually MADE money on Shadow Warrior. If they refuse, threaten to return and rebuy. Do so if necessary.

Get Amazon Prime. Every time they miss the 2 day delivery window, demand your extra free month of Prime. This is part of the deal. If you want to be a real ass about it, order from "fulfilled by Amazon" sellers in other parts of the country. You'll avoid sales tax, they'll miss the 2 day shipping guarantee, and you get a free month. Amazon's going to get their act together eventually on this one. Maybe.

Occasionally they'll put a game on sale for less than they'll give you on a trade in. They've paid me to slap a label they've provided on their envelope and push their same package back at them more than once.

I've got a couple others but the returns are diminishing on those, too.

yotsuya · « **Reply #48 on:** May 07, 2015, 06:19:43 pm »

Slippyblade · « **Reply #49 on:** May 07, 2015, 06:48:11 pm »

Crap. I'm impressed.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #50 on:** May 07, 2015, 11:36:29 pm »

Bing rewards ultra bans you if you have more than one account now, but there are still bots that work so long as you stick to a single account. A few will do mobile searches as well, so that's 26-28 points a day. I get about 5 bucks every two weeks from them.

Something else that's good to try is credit cards. Where I've been I'll I've had nothing but free time this winter so...... Amazon.com store card offered a 40 dollar gift card for signing up... so I did that. I've yet to use the thing because it isn't a real credit card and it has a ridiculously low limit, but hey, 40 bucks! Amazon credit card by chase (totally different thing) offered a 50 dollar gift card for signing up, so I did that one as well. It actually has decent cash-back awards so I actually use that one. The CB gets converted to more gift cards. In addition there are amazon credit cards by capital one, citi, and visa and they all offer similar deals at certain times of the year.... so when one comes up, I get a new credit card.

In addition, buying gift cards with your gift cards is a good idea. Amazon occasionally puts their gift cards on sale, so use your gift cards to buy the exact same gift cards and make money that way.

BadMouth · « **Reply #51 on:** May 08, 2015, 09:42:41 am »

I tried to do the bing rewards thing on my work computer, but the search results were just unusable.
Even pages I'd been to and remembered exact phrases of text from could not be found through bing.

In other news, I finally ate the last bag of Planters Fruit and Nut trail mix.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #52 on:** May 08, 2015, 10:21:54 am »

Heh, nobody actually uses bing for searching.

For the record though it has an excellent image search... probably better than googles.

pbj · « **Reply #53 on:** May 08, 2015, 10:23:05 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on May 07, 2015, 11:36:29 pm

In addition, buying gift cards with your gift cards is a good idea. Amazon occasionally puts their gift cards on sale, so use your gift cards to buy the exact same gift cards and make money that way.

Once you get your money tied up into an Amazon gift card, there is no way to break it back out. $:-\$

Quote from: Howard_Casto on May 08, 2015, 10:21:54 am

For the record though it has an excellent image search... probably better than googles.

Yep. And it'll bypass filtering.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #54 on:** May 08, 2015, 03:36:46 pm »

Well I didn't mean spend money. I meant if you already have amazon gift cards from doing one of the other promotions and gift cards go on sale, buy gift cards with the gift cards.

pbj · « **Reply #55 on:** May 08, 2015, 04:33:37 pm »

Unless you've figured out some type of Amazon hack, that I want to hear about in explicit detail, there's no way to buy Amazon gift cards with a gift card balance.

They do occasionally discount their gift cards, but you've got to use another payment method.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #56 on:** May 08, 2015, 09:16:36 pm »

Really? It's been a looong time since I did it, but I did get away with it once. Maybe they changed their policy or something. Then again it could be I bought one kind of gift card with another (like say bought Nintendo shop cards with amazon gift cards), it's been too long.

pbj · « **Reply #57 on:** June 07, 2015, 11:10:22 pm »

Not sure if I'm actually keeping these. Already have a trade in back to Amazon locked in for $6 more than I paid.

They do sound amazing, though.

A few days to decide...

pbj · « **Reply #58 on:** July 17, 2015, 08:16:00 pm »

Getting down to the bitter end of these gift cards.

Now I own a stupid dust collector statue.

pbj · « **Reply #59 on:** August 09, 2015, 01:01:54 pm »

Sunday delivery.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #60 on:** August 09, 2015, 01:23:57 pm »

My bing rewards account was finally banned last week. It had been going strong for a couple of years now. I'm not sure if accounts can be restored or not. Ah well, it was a good run.

Ginsu Victim · « **Reply #61 on:** August 10, 2015, 09:57:03 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on August 09, 2015, 01:23:57 pm

My bing rewards account was finally banned last week. It had been going strong for a couple of years now. I'm not sure if accounts can be restored or not. Ah well, it was a good run.

All four of mine were banned about a year ago and I just stopped caring at that point. They had really cracked down and my points had all dropped to 15 per day anyway, so I was already tired of it after four years. I managed to get a lot of credit during that time, mostly in Microsoft points/credit, some Amazon.

pbj · « **Reply #62 on:** August 10, 2015, 10:31:34 am »

Yeah, I quit bothering with it when they dropped it to 25 cents a day (15 from PC, 10 from mobile). I got careless and redeemed rewards from 4 accounts within 5 minutes from the same IP, so that was a pretty obvious ban.

I've got a drawer full of dusty devices ready to grind away more gift cards as soon as the next scheme comes along...

SlammedNiss · « **Reply #63 on:** August 10, 2015, 10:50:47 am »

Anybody else around 3-4 years ago when Live Search Club was a thing? Man, those were some good times.....

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #64 on:** August 10, 2015, 12:35:45 pm »

I remember the free ipod and later free zune pyramid schemes. My ipod finally crapped out on me a couple of years ago. The zune is still chugging along..... I actually prefer it to the ipod.

I've got to think with the integration of Cortana into windows 10 it'll have some sort of rewards program in the future.

dkersten · « **Reply #65 on:** August 17, 2015, 02:17:00 pm »

My short book "Paradox Cycle" will be free on Amazon from 8/22 to 8/26. My full novel will be on sale from the 23rd to the 25th as well for 99 cents.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U9BGI56
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ROILFFU
Both can be read for free if you are in Kindle Unlimited (and I get paid well for KU reads

)

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #66 on:** August 17, 2015, 04:03:56 pm »

Good to know. Thanks for the heads up.

pbj · « **Reply #67 on:** August 31, 2015, 08:16:39 pm »

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/08/28/amazon-prime-not-all-goods/

Told you that loophole would close, but at least the charade is over.

dkersten · « **Reply #68 on:** August 31, 2015, 10:02:07 pm »

Quote from: pbj on August 31, 2015, 08:16:39 pm

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/08/28/amazon-prime-not-all-goods/

Told you that loophole would close, but at least the charade is over.

What some don't see is they have moved the "guaranteed" time to 8 pm. How many businesses are open after 5 or 6 pm on weekdays? So basically they can "guarantee" 2 day shipping, but if it doesn't get there, it's because they tried to deliver it after you were closed.

And guaranteed shipping is a joke anyway.. it's free, so what are they going to do, refund your shipping costs? And even the times I paid for next day shipping in the past, when the package got lost (about 40% of the time), the only guarantee was that they would refund the shipping costs. What good does it do when you actually NEED something the next day and it doesn't show up?

I got Prime because I needed an in wall AC unit a few years ago, and it was $2.99 to ship it next day air (75 lb package, lol). Then a month later I bought a 3 lb light fixture that was mislabeled as 85 lbs and they wanted something like $60 to next day it. The package arrived with about 20 "extremely heavy" 80lb+ stickers from FedEx, but even the driver was laughing at it. Now if a package is heavy the next day shipping is still expensive.. like upwards of $50. I still like Prime, but if the shipping goes away then my membership goes away because I could care less about the other addons. The Video sucks, the music is worthless, the KOLL library is crap (except my books of course), and who cares about "special" deals on stuff nobody wants?

pbj · « **Reply #69 on:** August 31, 2015, 10:10:20 pm »

Well, the loophole was getting a free month of Prime for every "prime eligible" item that didn't get delivered in two days. You could intentionally select "fulfilled by Amazon" sellers that were located across the country to exploit it. Customer service would give you some guff but it's clearly in the terms of service. Funny how Amazon didn't automatically do it, though. Never bothered me doing it because the whole setup was a trick to avoid sales tax anyway.

BadMouth · « **Reply #70 on:** September 01, 2015, 10:30:02 am »

The main reason I have prime is to get free shipping on cheaper items. First they started converting prime items to "add-on" items.
Now they will have two product listings for the same product, but with different prices. $2 regular or "add-on" price, but the one listed as prime is $5-6.
So if you filtered for only prime items, you only see the higher price.

I barely use prime video anymore and I don't use any of the other services.
I'm seriously considering dropping it and just not ordering until I want $25 worth of stuff.

pbj · « **Reply #71 on:** September 01, 2015, 10:40:00 am »

Quote from: BadMouth on September 01, 2015, 10:30:02 am

I'm seriously considering dropping it and just not ordering until I want $25 worth of stuff.

Pre-order a video game that's not coming out for a year. They'll sit on your package for a week and then ship it. Cancel pre-order.

yotsuya · « **Reply #72 on:** September 01, 2015, 10:47:41 am »

I've been a Prime member many years now, and I would never dream of cancelling. I use it so much, its paid for itself by the end of February, usually.

pbj · « **Reply #73 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:21:02 am »

Quote from: yotsuya on September 01, 2015, 10:47:41 am

I've been a Prime member many years now, and I would never dream of cancelling. I use it so much, its paid for itself by the end of February, usually.

yotsuya · « **Reply #74 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:32:04 am »

Quote from: pbj on September 01, 2015, 11:21:02 am

Quote from: yotsuya on September 01, 2015, 10:47:41 am
I've been a Prime member many years now, and I would never dream of cancelling. I use it so much, its paid for itself by the end of February, usually.

***Photo of his love***

Well, I don't try to game the system like your cheap-ass does, so that's probably why I don't have any complaints.

vwalbridge · « **Reply #75 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:33:45 am »

Quote from: yotsuya on September 01, 2015, 10:47:41 am

I've been a Prime member many years now, and I would never dream of cancelling. I use it so much, its paid for itself by the end of February, usually.

+1 I absolutely love Amazon prime. Easily pays for itself 6 times over in a year.

BadMouth · « **Reply #76 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:34:20 am »

I order regularly, to the point that the boxes that accumulate are kind of a nuisance.
Still though, $100 is nothing to sneeze at and if the order is over ~~$25~~ $35 it ships free anyway.

For ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and giggles, let's compare our compulsive amazon habit.
I'm sure I won't have the most, but I want to see how bad PBJ beats us by.

I have 89 merchandise orders for 2015 so far, 113 total for 2014. (shipped stuff, no digital orders)

vwalbridge · « **Reply #77 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:36:24 am »

159 orders for 2015 so far, 183 orders for 2014. (shipped stuff, no digital)

yotsuya · « **Reply #78 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:37:41 am »

Quote from: BadMouth on September 01, 2015, 11:34:20 am

I order regularly, to the point that the boxes that accumulate are kind of a nuisance.
Still though, $100 is nothing to sneeze at and if the order is over ~~$25~~ $35 it ships free anyway.

For ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and giggles, let's compare our compulsive amazon habit.
I'm sure I won't have the most, but I want to see how bad PBJ beats us by.

I have 89 merchandise orders for 2015 so far, 113 total for 2014. (shipped stuff, no digital orders)

39 orders from me, but my wife uses it as well with her Kindle, and my adult kids also share on the plan, so who knows?

yotsuya · « **Reply #79 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:39:09 am »

Damn, you guys are orderin' fools!

Oh, and most of my orders are around $20, so they'd missing the free shipping threshold anyway.

vwalbridge · « **Reply #80 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:45:41 am »

Forgot to mention that I have accumulated over $600 in Amazon rewards points since I started using my Amazon Visa Card.

Canceling my United mileage card was the best thing I ever did. Airline miles are worthless.

pbj · « **Reply #81 on:** September 01, 2015, 11:53:32 am »

35 orders, $684 in 2015. Two of those are copies of Mario Maker that haven't shipped yet.

EDIT: 65 orders, $1,462 in 2014.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #82 on:** September 01, 2015, 12:28:51 pm »

Quote from: BadMouth on September 01, 2015, 10:30:02 am

The main reason I have prime is to get free shipping on cheaper items. First they started converting prime items to "add-on" items.
Now they will have two product listings for the same product, but with different prices. $2 regular or "add-on" price, but the one listed as prime is $5-6.
So if you filtered for only prime items, you only see the higher price.

I barely use prime video anymore and I don't use any of the other services.
I'm seriously considering dropping it and just not ordering until I want $25 worth of stuff.

Well my main issue is I mostly buy electronic parts from Amazon and/or video games. Well games are over 35 bucks and have a set MSRP, so prime is useless for that. Electronic parts are from china and thus either ship for free already, or aren't prime eligible. Also if you sort by price, the prime listing is seldom the cheapest.

dkersten · « **Reply #83 on:** September 01, 2015, 04:52:27 pm »

29 items ordered so far for 2015 - $3893.90
184 items ordered in 2014 - $11,713.45

I'm sure I saved a lot on shipping, but at the same time almost every order would have been cheaper if available without Prime, and with some effort to group things together and accepting 3-5 day shipping, I bet I could have come close to breaking even without Prime.

I enjoy having it, but without the free 2 day shipping it's worthless to me.

dkersten · « **Reply #84 on:** September 01, 2015, 05:06:32 pm »

Quote from: vwalbridge on September 01, 2015, 11:45:41 am

Forgot to mention that I have accumulated over $600 in Amazon rewards points since I started using my Amazon Visa Card.

Canceling my United mileage card was the best thing I ever did. Airline miles are worthless.

I use the Chase Freedom. 1% on all purchases, 2% and 3% for things like gas and hotels and stuff. Every quarter there's 5% on the first $1500 of something seasonal that I usually end up using in some capacity (like when it's for Amazon or Lowes or the movie theater). I don't put my mortgage or most of my utilities on it, but EVERYTHING else goes on it. Each year I earn around $900 in cash back. I usually just take it as a credit on my statement or deposit it directly to my bank account. I have never found anything I could buy with credit card points that I can't get cheaper elsewhere and still collect the 1% on top of the savings.

DeLuSioNal29 · « **Reply #85 on:** September 02, 2015, 03:30:17 pm »

+1 on using Chase Freedom card.

pbj · « **Reply #86 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:25:46 pm »

So, you can't use this on gift cards, I've already tried... but if you live in a city with same day delivery, Amazon's got a $20 off $50 promo going on their smartphone app.

I've got a pile of soda, chips, and bbq sauce coming my direction with guaranteed by 6pm delivery. Everything cheaper than shelf price at the store.

Works on other crap like video games and such.

Photo updates later...

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #87 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:39:10 pm »

Quote from: pbj on October 15, 2015, 02:25:46 pm

So, you can't use this on gift cards, I've already tried... but if you live in a city with same day delivery, Amazon's got a $20 off $50 promo going on their smartphone app.

I've got a pile of soda, chips, and bbq sauce coming my direction with guaranteed by 6pm delivery. Everything cheaper than shelf price at the store.

Works on other crap like video games and such.

Photo updates later...

*Goes and downloads the app...

pbj · « **Reply #88 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:40:55 pm »

Amazon Now. Promo code is GETITNOW.

Make sure you set the tip to $0.

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #89 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:44:26 pm »

Ahh ok, I had just grabbed the regular app. Getting the Now version...

Vigo · « **Reply #90 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:46:32 pm »

Thanks for the heads up, unfortunately the area I moved to is a little too far east in the twin cities metro to cash in.

Here is the site to check your zip for eligibility

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=pn_surl_lp/?node=10481056011

pbj · « **Reply #91 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:50:34 pm »

Yeah, I'm a little hacked off I couldn't stack it with the buy $25 gift card, get $5 gift card promo from last week, but I'll console myself with cherry coke zero and potato chips.

Vigo - you could try having it delivered to your office.

DO IT.

BadMouth · « **Reply #92 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:52:02 pm »

Quote from: pbj on October 15, 2015, 02:40:55 pm

Make sure you set the tip to $0.

What is PBJ's tipping policy a restaurant or bar?

Vigo · « **Reply #93 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:54:43 pm »

Quote from: pbj on October 15, 2015, 02:50:34 pm

Vigo - you could try having it delivered to your office. DO IT.

My office qualifies.....I will just have to make sure the receptionist doesn't steal my order.

pbj · « **Reply #94 on:** October 15, 2015, 02:54:56 pm »

Quote from: BadMouth on October 15, 2015, 02:52:02 pm

What is PBJ's tipping policy a restaurant or bar?

20% unless you piss me off, and then it's 10% and I never come back. If I come a lot and you're cheap - 25-30%.

If you're being paid by Amazon to deliver things... and you deliver things... I fail to see what's tip worthy.

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #95 on:** October 15, 2015, 03:02:55 pm »

Crap. My zip isn't available yet. I thought it would be, only like 20 minutes out of Phoenix.

pbj · « **Reply #96 on:** October 15, 2015, 03:15:36 pm »

Have it delivered to yotsuya's house.

yotsuya · « **Reply #97 on:** October 15, 2015, 03:50:55 pm »

My zip isn't available either yet. Don't think I didn't try that mofo.

pbj · « **Reply #98 on:** October 15, 2015, 04:24:35 pm »

Have it delivered to pbj's house.

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #99 on:** October 15, 2015, 04:42:22 pm »

Quote from: pbj on October 15, 2015, 04:24:35 pm

Have it delivered to pbj's house.

lol

pbj · « **Reply #100 on:** October 15, 2015, 04:56:00 pm »

Tatiana currently has my delivery and is en route to my house. C'mon, Tatiana, I believe in you!

pbj · « **Reply #101 on:** October 15, 2015, 07:09:22 pm »

Tatiana did not look too pleased unloading her Mazda and dragging all this to my door.

Anyway:

yotsuya · « **Reply #102 on:** October 15, 2015, 07:51:50 pm »

Quote from: pbj on October 15, 2015, 07:09:22 pm

Tatiana did not look too pleased unloading her Mazda and dragging all this to my door.

You put pants on for Tatiana, right?

jdbailey1206 · « **Reply #103 on:** October 15, 2015, 08:25:17 pm »

Quote from: yotsuya on October 15, 2015, 07:51:50 pm

Quote from: pbj on October 15, 2015, 07:09:22 pm
Tatiana did not look too pleased unloading her Mazda and dragging all this to my door.

You put pants on for Tatiana, right?

Whats the fun in that?

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #104 on:** October 15, 2015, 11:18:26 pm »

Cherry Coke Zero huh? Combining the horrible non-sweetness of Coke Zero with the nasty aftertaste of Cherry Coke?

BadMouth · « **Reply #105 on:** October 16, 2015, 06:41:25 am »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on October 15, 2015, 11:18:26 pm

Cherry Coke Zero huh? Combining the horrible non-sweetness of Coke Zero with the nasty aftertaste of Cherry Coke?

It's pretty good with whiskey or rum.

pbj · « **Reply #106 on:** October 16, 2015, 09:28:39 am »

Meh, Coke Zero permanently changed my life. And this was $3 a 12 pack to my front porch. The entire experience was very bizarre, to be honest.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #107 on:** October 16, 2015, 01:15:21 pm »

Hey man, if you like it then I'm glad for you. For me it's the only thing worse than diet coke, possibly the most vile tasting liquid ever invented.

Vigo · « **Reply #108 on:** October 16, 2015, 01:23:52 pm »

I remember the time I went to get a coke from the vending machine and some asshat filled the coke selection with Diet Caffeine Free Sam's Club brand Cola. I am pretty sure I have never been more pissed off in my life.

Vigo · « **Reply #109 on:** October 16, 2015, 02:10:32 pm »

Getting a delivery to my work guaranteed by 4pm.

JMB · « **Reply #110 on:** October 16, 2015, 02:10:58 pm »

pbj · « **Reply #111 on:** October 16, 2015, 02:16:24 pm »

Quote from: Vigo on October 16, 2015, 02:10:32 pm

Getting a delivery to my work guaranteed by 4pm.

Lol zero tip. Just wait until it's a 40 year old white lady delivering out of her Mazda 3. We'll see how that well that grifter resolve holds up then. Brace yourself for multiple phone calls, too.

JMB · « **Reply #112 on:** October 16, 2015, 02:22:00 pm »

Quote from: pbj on October 16, 2015, 02:16:24 pm

Lol zero tip. Just wait until it's a 40 year old white lady delivering out of her Mazda 3. We'll see how that well that grifter resolve holds up then. Brace yourself for multiple phone calls, too.

They are probably all former Uber drivers anyway.

Vigo · « **Reply #113 on:** October 16, 2015, 02:39:24 pm »

Orvel will be delivering my coke shipment today.

If Orvel impresses, I might throw a buck or two his way.

BadMouth · « **Reply #114 on:** October 16, 2015, 04:16:08 pm »

I spent more than $5 worth of my time on the Target website trying to figure out the best thing to spend a $5 gift card on.
Finally gave up that, installed the target app, & transferred it to my phone so it can be used in-store.
Now I can't convince myself that it's worth driving across town and wandering around the store for a half hour just to get a $5 item.

My cheap game has become weak.

pbj · « **Reply #115 on:** October 16, 2015, 04:20:10 pm »

Yeah, I have had some $5 target gift card for years and never use it. I've even thrown it at price mistakes and gotten it re-issued a couple of times. :/

Vigo · « **Reply #116 on:** October 16, 2015, 04:20:59 pm »

Orvel may have creeped out the receptionist, but he did deliver.

yotsuya · « **Reply #117 on:** October 16, 2015, 07:47:22 pm »

Quote from: Vigo on October 16, 2015, 01:23:52 pm

I remember the time I went to get a coke from the vending machine and some asshat filled the coke selection with Diet Caffeine Free Sam's Club brand Cola. I am pretty sure I have never been more pissed off in my life.

Holy crap, did this make me laugh right now...

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #118 on:** October 16, 2015, 09:52:39 pm »

Quote from: BadMouth on October 16, 2015, 04:16:08 pm

I spent more than $5 worth of my time on the Target website trying to figure out the best thing to spend a $5 gift card on.
Finally gave up that, installed the target app, & transferred it to my phone so it can be used in-store.
Now I can't convince myself that it's worth driving across town and wandering around the store for a half hour just to get a $5 item.

My cheap game has become weak.

Well driving across town ain't free and in all likelihood you would have to spend more than the 5, so I think your cheap game might be strong.

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #119 on:** October 30, 2015, 12:01:38 pm »

Looks like they just rolled it out in Phoenix.

My zip works now.

pbj · « **Reply #120 on:** October 30, 2015, 12:44:28 pm »

So, turns out the drivers are suing Amazon because they're forced to wear Amazon gear but they're not actual Amazon employees. They're also agnostic to who is tipping them and how much they're getting - they just get a lump sum after so many days. Amazon is apparently paying them less saying that they'll make it back on tips, which is why Amazon is being so heavy handed about it when you place an order. If you DO feel compelled to tip them, I suggest you do it in person with cash.

BadMouth · « **Reply #121 on:** October 30, 2015, 01:21:17 pm »

I don't see Amazon winning this one. They gave the people uniforms and told them exactly where, when and how much they had to work.
They are not allowed to refuse deliveries or set boundaries for where they were willing to deliver to.

That's a textbook example of a misclassified employee.

Relying on tips to cover part of their pay is even more incriminating.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #122 on:** October 30, 2015, 02:09:06 pm »

Well you are 100% correct BUT.... how many eating establishments get away with paying their employees less than minimum wage, using tips as an excuse for the low pay? How many of these same eating establishments classify their workers as part time even though according to the amount of hours worked they are full time?

They should really crack down on the service industry. I don't mind paying a few extra bucks on my steak if it means I don't have to worry about my waitress starving.

pbj · « **Reply #123 on:** October 30, 2015, 02:42:49 pm »

If the tips don't add up to minimum wage, the restaurant owner is supposed to supplement their pay.

That "I only make $2.13 an hour!" stuff only comes from people trying to guilt you into tipping more.

Vigo · « **Reply #124 on:** October 30, 2015, 02:53:12 pm »

As a guy who spent his whole life in the service industry, I can agree it is a broke system, but the tip wage employees are the ones who rake in the most cash. Many employees fight to get the position that makes $2.13 an hour (in states that allow) above the $10-$12 jobs because they know that they can take 12 tables per hour. All it takes is two tables per hour giving a $5 tip and they are the highest paid employee in the restaurant. In reality, our servers can rake in $100 a night in tips. 5 nights a week, add in the regular salary and that is a 31k annual job for unskilled labor. Not bad. Throw in the huge tax bonus because 90% of waitresses don't claim much of their tips. Not reporting your tips right also qualifies you for an ass ton of welfare and food stamp programs. Waitresses do just fine and grift the system regularly.

Don't feel bad for the waitresses that can work the system, feel bad for the guy in the kitchen for $8.00 / hour cleaning up your slop and wont see a cent of that tip you left.

Vigo · « **Reply #125 on:** October 30, 2015, 02:56:17 pm »

Quote from: pbj on October 30, 2015, 02:42:49 pm

If the tips don't add up to minimum wage, the restaurant owner is supposed to supplement their pay.

That "I only make $2.13 an hour!" stuff only comes from people trying to guilt you into tipping more.

Yep, restaurant owners need to pay up to minimum wage, and don't give a crap if a penny more in tips is reported.

BadMouth · « **Reply #126 on:** October 30, 2015, 03:18:45 pm »

The whole point with Amazon though is that they claim the delivery people aren't employees, but self-employed independent contractors.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #127 on:** October 30, 2015, 03:31:02 pm »

Yeah they do the same thing in the WWE. Vince doesn't want to be obligated to pay health insurance or other benefits normally associated with a full time employee so all the wrestlers are "independent contractors" even though they are forced to sign a exclusivity clause. I doubt anyone on Raw is going home hungry, but the ones on NXT or in dark matches might.

dkersten · « **Reply #128 on:** October 31, 2015, 12:23:38 pm »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on October 30, 2015, 02:09:06 pm

Well you are 100% correct BUT.... how many eating establishments get away with paying their employees less than minimum wage, using tips as an excuse for the low pay? How many of these same eating establishments classify their workers as part time even though according to the amount of hours worked they are full time?

They should really crack down on the service industry. I don't mind paying a few extra bucks on my steak if it means I don't have to worry about my waitress starving.

It would have to be a pretty crappy restaurant to not average over minimum wage in tips over the course of an 8 hour shift. MOST people tip 10-15% at the minimum and I have never been to a place with actual waitstaff that cost less than around $8-10 per meal. Sure, if you averaged 4 tables per hour that were all single eaters you might not hit minimum wage, but then you would have time to sit around and do just about anything in that situation (play candy crush, read a book, etc.) Not exactly earning your money.

See, I don't mind paying a few dollars extra for my steak if the service is decent. But as service declines, so does my tip, regardless of whether the waiter/waitress looks like they are starving.

I spent the first couple years of my working life bussing tables at a buffet. You want to talk about a miserable restaurant job... $2.85 per hour to scrape mashed potatoes off the underside of tables and get yelled at by senior citizens that took their purse to the bathroom for 20 minutes and returned to find their table cleaned off. I have no sympathy for people who choose to work a job they don't like and complain about the pay that is probably higher than most untrained workers make. I have a friend who works at an Applebees. She isn't rich but she can afford her house, her car, to support her son, and even to pay child support to her ex husband who makes more than her but works in the mines and was laid off when he got the agreement. She always has cash in her pocket from tips that she doesn't claim. She takes home somewhere in the mid 40's, probably a little more after those unclaimed cash tips.

pbj · « **Reply #129 on:** November 02, 2015, 11:39:18 am »

So, the Amazon holiday return season has started. When you see games on sale that you want, go ahead and buy them now.

If they drop the price between now and January 31st, get an adjustment via chat. Rinse and repeat every time they drop the price. They ended up paying me $10 to keep Shadow Warrior last year.

The Metal Gear Solid game at $40 today is a good candidate for this... just be ready to hop into chat if they put it on further sale....

BadMouth · « **Reply #130 on:** November 02, 2015, 12:30:50 pm »

Quote from: pbj on November 02, 2015, 11:39:18 am

So, the Amazon holiday return season has started. When you see games on sale that you want, go ahead and buy them now.

If they drop the price between now and January 31st, get an adjustment via chat. Rinse and repeat every time they drop the price. They ended up paying me $10 to keep Shadow Warrior last year.

The Metal Gear Solid game at $40 today is a good candidate for this... just be ready to hop into chat if they put it on further sale....

Man, I just ordered a TV on Friday. $:-\$
I thought about the extended return period of the holiday season if I waited until Today, but didn't know about the price adjustment.
Might have to cancel and reorder. IIRC, the holiday season stuff states it is for items shipped after 11/1 and it hasn't shipped yet.

pbj · « **Reply #131 on:** November 02, 2015, 12:41:27 pm »

Yeah, you just threaten to return/rebuy if they won't refund the difference. I walk past drop boxes daily so it's no big deal to follow through if you have to.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #132 on:** November 02, 2015, 01:11:36 pm »

Amazon has a chat?

HaRuMaN · « **Reply #133 on:** November 02, 2015, 02:22:17 pm »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on November 02, 2015, 01:11:36 pm

Amazon has a chat?

Customer service, yes. Have used it a couple times, pretty easy.

vwalbridge · « **Reply #134 on:** November 02, 2015, 02:24:12 pm »

Quote from: HaRuMaN on November 02, 2015, 02:22:17 pm

Quote from: Howard_Casto on November 02, 2015, 01:11:36 pm
Amazon has a chat?

Customer service, yes. Have used it a couple times, pretty easy.

+1, I've used it and it's great if you are never in the mood to pick up the phone like me.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #135 on:** November 02, 2015, 02:32:49 pm »

I did not know that.

I've always used email for the few times I've had trouble.

So if I buy something and it gets discounted I can chime in a get a refund is what you are saying..... There have been a few games I wanted to pick up but I was waiting for the sales. ......

pbj · « **Reply #136 on:** November 02, 2015, 02:36:15 pm »

That is exactly what I am saying. Right now the return window is extended to January 31st. In my anecdotal experience, game prices tend to drop in the next week or two, stabilize, and then drop again mid-January.

BadMouth · « **Reply #137 on:** November 05, 2015, 09:23:05 am »

$80 price drop on TV, $80 refund.

pbj · « **Reply #138 on:** November 05, 2015, 10:26:06 am »

Yes... yes... squeeze them for everything.... yes....

jennifer · « **Reply #139 on:** November 06, 2015, 10:44:32 am »

Cheapskate much?...

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #140 on:** November 06, 2015, 12:02:15 pm »

Hey! He's insuring quality service by reminding amazon workers of their price matching quality. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

pbj · « **Reply #141 on:** November 12, 2015, 05:22:18 pm »

Quote from: Vigo on October 30, 2015, 02:53:12 pm

Don't feel bad for the waitresses that can work the system, feel bad for the guy in the kitchen for $8.00 / hour cleaning up your slop and wont see a cent of that tip you left.

So, I saw in the news today that Joe's Crab Shack is transitioning to "no tips." They're going to pay the servers ~$12 an hour and increase their food prices 15%. I haven't been into one of those places in years, but I don't recall them being inexpensive. Seems like a server could very easily make more than $12/hr in that place, and a 15% price hike is way more than necessary to cover that wage.

So... if you've got any money tied up Ignite Restaurant Group, cash out now. They're obviously about to go bust.

Edit: http://consumerist.com/2015/11/10/joes-crab-shack-tests-no-tipping-policy-raises-server-wages-to-14hour/

vwalbridge · « **Reply #142 on:** November 12, 2015, 05:36:36 pm »

I love the idea of living in a country without tipping. When I visited Italy, it was not necessary and it was a breath of fresh air.

I praise what Joe's Crab Shack is doing. They are attempting to pave the road. However, what sounds good on paper doesn't always work in reality. It would be great to see others follow suit but I seriously doubt we will see a system-wide change to something that has rooted its way in for decades.

(In addition, Joe's is the last place that should be doing this because they obviously have to raise the prices of their food to do it. And their food can NOT support the price hike. I was NOT impressed the last time I ate there....spoiler...it was the first time I ate there. )

pbj · « **Reply #143 on:** November 12, 2015, 05:48:55 pm »

Eh, I see it as a cash grab by a desperate company under the auspices of doing right by their employees. I figure a typical tab in that place is $40-50 for two people, and a server is probably doing 5-8 tables an hour. At a miserly 10% tip rate, they're easily pulling in ~$25-40 an hour in tips during peak times. I've never seen that place not full of drunk people. I'd be really surprised if servers didn't see a reduction in their actual take homes, even assuming they're being honest on their taxes now. The good ones will go elsewhere, and these places will be full of duds that can't pull that $12 elsewhere.

We'll see....

BadMouth · « **Reply #144 on:** November 13, 2015, 08:03:28 pm »

11 hours into my 9am to 9pm delivery window for my tv from Amazon. The truck driver did call me out of courtesy this morning and give me a smaller 3 hour window so I didn't have to waste most of my day. That window has passed.

This is the first tv I've bought from Amazon. I'm regretting not just loading one from the local best buy into my own truck and bringing it home myself.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #145 on:** November 13, 2015, 08:09:30 pm »

Unless it's super cheap I won't buy anything that is fragile and requires special shipping online. I mean it'll probably turn out fine, it just makes me nervous.

yotsuya · « **Reply #146 on:** November 13, 2015, 08:35:12 pm »

Quote from: Howard_Casto on November 13, 2015, 08:09:30 pm

Unless it's super cheap I won't buy anything that is fragile and requires special shipping online. I mean it'll probably turn out fine, it just makes me nervous.

I bought a 50 inch Samsung from Dell. It was shipped by some small carrier, but there were no issues.

BadMouth · « **Reply #147 on:** November 13, 2015, 10:41:44 pm »

Normally I'd have bought it locally so if I had a problem it would be easier to return, but Amazon was offering 2 years no interest and a 30 day price guarantee that with the holiday shipping season becomes a two month price guarantee. I normally wouldn't finance something like a TV, but for some reason it sweetened the deal just enough for me to bite now instead of a month from now.

The TV arrived around 8:40. One small 20 something girl in a van. She was nice enough, but the paperwork I had to sign off on said that I was affirming that it was delivered by a two person delivery team. Also had a bunch of crazy stuff like affirming that the remote works. I don't expect a delivery driver to wait around and find out. Especially not at 9pm. I only initialed the part that said the TV wasn't busted.
Overall, meh. I'd had a better experience just driving to best buy and bringing it home in my own truck when it was convenient for me.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #148 on:** November 14, 2015, 12:52:18 am »

I wish small 20 something girls would bring me TVs. I've never seen a female delivery lady the whole time I've lived here and even the men are 50+ and 300lbs+

jennifer · « **Reply #149 on:** November 14, 2015, 12:55:28 am »

I just bought a TIG welder on amazon, and couldn't be more pleased....

BadMouth · « **Reply #150 on:** November 25, 2015, 09:11:36 am »

On Sunday Target had the TV I bought from Amazon for $100 cheaper than I've already price matched to, but I didn't find out until Monday so didn't get the price match refund

I check the price every damn work day through google shopping. It had to be on a friggin Sunday.
Bitches caught me slippin' I should have set up a slickdeals price alert.

Walmart has it $80 cheaper today so that almost makes up for it, but not quite.
Hoping it turns up even cheaper on black Friday or Cyber Monday.
I imagine Amazon customer service is going to be pounded then.

pbj · « **Reply #151 on:** November 25, 2015, 10:16:43 am »

Keep getting that price adjusted. You may get lucky and they'll double dip a refund.

I've purchased 3 TVs from Amazon. The first included "white glove" which meant they were supposed to plug it in and verify that the remote control works. They got quite salty that I actually made them do it but you are ---fouled up beyond all recognition--- if you don't get the OEM remote with your TV. Vizio is the only manufacturer I've encountered that a remote will work 100% across their models.

Now a days? Meh. There's a problem and they get to send their delivery monkeys back out to get it.

Picked up a couple of games from Game Fly yesterday... got down to $10/shipped. What a fantastic modern age we live in.... not even worth the effort of piracy anymore.

BadMouth · « **Reply #152 on:** November 25, 2015, 10:33:57 am »

Quote

Please know that we can honor price match for TV only once.

Upon checking your order, I see that you've already been issued a refund of $84.80 for the price match.

Hence as an exception, I'm issuing a refund in the amount of $95.20

Guess I should be happy that I've gotten $180 refunded already, but it sounds like they're going to be asses about any further refunds.

pbj · « **Reply #153 on:** November 25, 2015, 10:38:59 am »

Yep, tell them you will be delighted to return the item and purchase it again at the lower price. They use pretty abrupt language in their scripts, don't take it personally or as a sign of their convictions. One of them e-mailed me a personalized apology after I told him I was offended by his use of the word "exception" when I asked him to honor Amazon policy and wanted to chat with his supervisor.

No mercy.

pbj · « **Reply #154 on:** February 06, 2016, 02:38:50 pm »

Job is doing a "power of vitality" program and I'm earning 10-15 cents a day by waddling around with a Fitbit. You get bonus points for taking "online health courses" and such and everyone is encouraged to do it on the clock.

So between various incentives, bonuses, and wandering in traffic I made $30 in Amazon gift cards his week.

Sleeping Dogs definitive edition is $10 right now. Slow shipping bonus credits count towards it and we all live in Bear, Delaware when making digital game purchases.

Downloading my free game.... And my wife's goofy Valentines present arrives Tuesday.

Malenko · « **Reply #155 on:** February 09, 2016, 10:43:46 am »

Quote from: pbj on February 06, 2016, 02:38:50 pm

Slow shipping bonus credits count towards it and we all live in Bear, Delaware when making digital game purchases.

I live right next to Bear,Delaware

pbj · « **Reply #156 on:** February 09, 2016, 12:01:38 pm »

Everything is right next to each other in Delaware. The greater Houston area is five times the size of Delaware.

Malenko · « **Reply #157 on:** February 09, 2016, 12:21:26 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 09, 2016, 12:01:38 pm

Everything is right next to each other in Delaware. The greater Houston area is five times the size of Delaware.

"right next to" as in neighboring town , I know Delaware is only 96 miles tall but no one from north DE claims to be from (or right next to) slower lower Delaware =D

harveybirdman · « **Reply #158 on:** February 09, 2016, 08:08:49 pm »

Everytime I read this thread I imagine pbj more and more like this....

And no, I don't want to borrow his pajamas.

BadMouth · « **Reply #159 on:** February 09, 2016, 10:39:59 pm »

Tomorrow is the last day of my Amazon Prime membership before I let it expire.
I really thought they'd be begging me to stay the closer it got to running out, but nothing.

The reliably quick shipping has really fallen off and on the cheap stuff they're adding extra shipping costs by charging more for Prime items vs a duplicate listing for the same item without Prime.
I'd probably have had another 8 months if I'd bugged them for a free month every time a delivery was late this year. (only did it once)

Gonna try and get by waiting until I want $35 worth of stuff before I order. $:-\$

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #160 on:** February 09, 2016, 11:17:26 pm »

Honestly most of the stuff I buy from them is from the Chinese vendors and they offer free shipping anyway. Everything else is over-priced like you mentioned so I end up getting it on eBay, which also usually has free shipping.

dkersten · « **Reply #161 on:** February 10, 2016, 11:06:25 am »

I'm just spoiled by the speed of the delivery with free 2nd day air. Of course, I live in Montana where standard shipping from almost anywhere is 3-10 business days. It ruins shopping anywhere else though because now waiting 10 days to get something sucks. I will sometimes just not buy something online if I can't get it in 2 business days.

Yes, Prime items are more expensive, but not nearly as expensive as two day shipping would cost. For small items there is simply no comparison... either I can pay $20-40 for 2 day shipping on a $5 item or I can pay $6 with Prime.

Don't get me wrong, I am not happy with a lot of what Amazon does, including the ever increasing cost of next day air (one of the reasons I signed up for Prime to start), and the "guarantee" for 2 day and next day items being stretched out until 8pm, which for a business that runs normal business hours, that makes the "guarantee" more of a "We hope you get it but if you don't, there is fine print that says we are not responsible."

As much as I never wanted to get tied down to one company, the fact is I am pretty tied down to Amazon, not just because I have a lot of their devices or because I prefer to shop with them, but also because I use them to publish my books. It is kind of a "no brainer" to take those last few steps and use things like Prime to help integrate so many parts of my lifestyle. I am still holding off of using the Echo, but soon I might change my mind and use it to pull more things together on the home automation front.

pbj · « **Reply #162 on:** February 10, 2016, 11:10:28 am »

If Amazon doesn't make their guaranteed ship time, it's a free month of Prime. It's not an automatic thing, but they'll give it to you if you squawk about it in chat.

Anyway, did first Ebay purchase in a couple of years on Saturday. Sent payment. Ebay then deletes the auction a day later and says, "don't make payment if you haven't, but if you have, don't worry!" Sigh. ---fudgesicle--- ebay.

dkersten · « **Reply #163 on:** February 10, 2016, 04:23:35 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 10, 2016, 11:10:28 am

If Amazon doesn't make their guaranteed ship time, it's a free month of Prime.

Which is why they extended the delivery time to late evening, well after most businesses are closed.. that way if it doesn't arrive they can just say "They tried to deliver it at 8 pm but the business was closed." Funny thing is, the delivery people who service our area know we close at 5, so if they know they aren't going to make it they don't even try... so waiting around until 8pm doesn't work either, they just flag it as "business closed" and put it on the next day's truck.

Oh, and like 4 times now they have changed the guaranteed delivery date after shipping, citing all sorts of reasons, which then nullifies the guarantee.

I imagine you wouldn't take that as an excuse though, and end up getting your free month, lol.

pbj · « **Reply #164 on:** February 10, 2016, 04:40:12 pm »

Original guaranteed delivery date is on your invoice.

ChadTower · « **Reply #165 on:** February 12, 2016, 02:06:05 pm »

I save more just on Xmas shopping shipping costs than Amazon Prime costs. It's biggest advantage for us is probably time saving. All of the local stores other than the huge box stores are gone. It's really hard to find anything locally unless they carry it at Target/Walmart/Lowes and even then if they carry it it's not in stock. Prime makes it a lot easier to actually find things and get them within a couple of days. A lot of times if I order early enough in the day we get it overnight. Not thinking about the shipping cost makes it a no brainer to do.

And we use the video service as our primary TV source at home. It works really well, we got Fire Sticks at $20 each, and with a sideloaded Kodi those things will play anything local as well. I use the music streaming at work too. I consider Amazon Prime as good of a purchase as AAA.

monkeybomb · « **Reply #166 on:** February 12, 2016, 06:15:28 pm »

I do same day fairly regularly and I've only had one thing arrive the next day. I have most things delivered to the house, but every now and then I use an amazon locker that is 5 minutes from my house. I'm a big fan of "free" same day shipping. The quotes are because some of the items are available for slightly less if you go with an alternate listing that has regular prime shipping. a.k.a. charging for the free shipping.

pbj · « **Reply #167 on:** February 13, 2016, 12:15:15 pm »

Waddled my way to Gauntlet Slayer Edition this week.

Also took a nutrition course that consisted of, "hungry? Have you considered salmon?"

pbj · « **Reply #168 on:** February 14, 2016, 11:07:05 pm »

Latest trick - use gift cards to buy prime eligible items one at a time. Select no rush shipping for $1 digital credit on each order. Roll digital credits into PSN wallet cards. Spend those funds during flash sales. Right now, the digital credits don't expire until May so you can hold them for awhile in case Amazon sells digital games cheaper.

Unfortunately you can only buy the wallet cards in $10 increments but you can keep churning free stuff into more free or heavily subsidized stuff. You also have to spend at least $1 to have an order eligible for the $1 credit. $:-\$

dkersten · « **Reply #169 on:** February 15, 2016, 02:38:54 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 14, 2016, 11:07:05 pm

Latest trick - use gift cards to buy prime eligible items one at a time. Select no rush shipping for $1 digital credit on each order. Roll digital credits into PSN wallet cards. Spend those funds during flash sales. Right now, the digital credits don't expire until May so you can hold them for awhile in case Amazon sells digital games cheaper.

Unfortunately you can only buy the wallet cards in $10 increments but you can keep churning free stuff into more free or heavily subsidized stuff. You also have to spend at least $1 to have an order eligible for the $1 credit. $:-\$

lol, but the prime stuff costs $2-$10 more than the non-prime, so you are usually paying MORE this way. Plus why have Prime if you want slow shipping? For $100 for Prime, it takes a lot of slow shipped items to get your $100 back (if you don't count spending several hundred more in the process for inflated pricing).

There is a line where frugality crosses into just being cheap. This might be it... or maybe you crossed that line a LONG time ago, lol!

pbj · « **Reply #170 on:** February 15, 2016, 02:43:18 pm »

1 - Don't try to school me on being cheap.
2 - The price is the same for the stuff I'm buying.
3 - If you're paying $100 a year for Prime it's only because you're too stupid to mooch a .edu address off a community college.

Token · « **Reply #171 on:** February 15, 2016, 03:09:08 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 15, 2016, 02:43:18 pm

3 - If you're paying $100 a year for Prime it's only because you're too stupid to mooch a .edu address off a community college.

It's getting harder to pull this off without using your (or someone else's) social security #.

You can also get someone on Fiverr to do the legwork for you for $5.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #172 on:** February 15, 2016, 03:18:33 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 15, 2016, 02:43:18 pm

1 - Don't try to school me on being cheap.
2 - The price is the same for the stuff I'm buying.
3 - If you're paying $100 a year for Prime it's only because you're too stupid to mooch a .edu address off a community college.

And this is why you are my cheap bastard hero. The only person I know cheaper than me, and that's a compliment.

dkersten · « **Reply #173 on:** February 15, 2016, 04:56:06 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 15, 2016, 02:43:18 pm

1 - Don't try to school me on being cheap.

I am far from cheap, so I would never even dream of trying to school you on being cheap. Frugal, yes, cheap, no. I will gladly pay what something is worth, but I will take the extra time to make sure I am getting the best price for my needs. If I can save a pile of money with a coupon, then it is worth the effort, but I realized a long time ago that sweating the pennies would make me lose sight of the dollars.. To each their own.

Quote

2 - The price is the same for the stuff I'm buying.

I'm not disputing that you are buying stuff that isn't inflated for inclusion in Prime, just pointing out that it is becoming exceedingly rare. Even when there isn't a vendor that sells it cheaper without Prime on Amazon, usually it means you can find it elsewhere for less and still have free shipping. If you can do this for products you actually need AND make sure the stuff you are buying is not available anywhere else for cheaper, then kudos.

Quote

3 - If you're paying $100 a year for Prime it's only because you're too stupid to mooch a .edu address off a community college.

OR, I happen to also be doing business with them, so lying to save $100 when it can cost me tens of thousands is probably a really dumb idea. I have five accounts with Amazon, all different sites, all the same login and username (kdp, amazon, ams, authorcentral, createspace). Amazon knows when someone I am acquainted with posts a review of my books and removes it. They know if the person is a facebook friend, if they are posting from my IP address, or if they have ever received any kind of order from me, gift or otherwise. I am pretty sure they can figure out that I am using an .edu account just to pirate a free year of Prime. The only question is when they will act on it and what they do when they act on it.

But hey, you figured out how to bilk the company of more money, so again, kudos.

I get entertainment reading about the creative ways you use loopholes...

The best loophole I ever saw was already closed up last July.. but dozens of legit authors took advantage, and hundreds of scammers milked hundreds of thousands of dollars from the other authors before it was closed up. See, you could publish a "book" that was only a few pages of crap you scraped off the internet and put a title like "How to get cheap crap from Amazon" and place it in the Select program where anyone in Kindle Unlimited or Prime could borrow it for free. By simply opening it, the "author" got $1.40. Even without automating it, you could scrape together (from blogs and the such) several dozen "books" (or "scamphlets" as we called them) of unique non-copyright content in a matter of a few hours, and if each got 20 borrows in the month you could make hundreds of dollars per day. Or if you chose to be legit, break up a full story into 50 sections, publish two "episodes" per week, and once you hooked a few dozen readers, you could make hundreds per month. The better authors would do this and get a few thousand readers and make tens of thousands per month. The program changed to pay based on pages actually read though, so now those scammers can't make money and the legit authors make about $200 per month on what they would make $10,000 per month on before. This scam was available for nearly 3 years before it was closed up. There were some unhappy authors when it changed, but since I never got on that gravy train, I am happy (my payout for a borrow went up from $1.40 to $4.75 once the scammers weren't milking the pool.)

jennifer · « **Reply #174 on:** February 15, 2016, 05:49:45 pm »

Using the system against itself is not a crime, Your wall of troll doesn't address legitimate piracy issues/concerns, Nor does your views of self destructive behavior and conflict of interests. It only serves as a platform in which creative resolution cannot stand.

pbj · « **Reply #175 on:** February 15, 2016, 06:38:35 pm »

Meh its a hobby and I derive entertainment from it. Technology these days makes it easier than ever.

Other day I'm in the shower buzz cutting my nuts and I've got the iPad on the windowsill. One tab has a redhead pretending she still feels while getting plugged in the butt, the other tab is an Amazon chat because my price alert dinged that I needed an adjustment on a Christmas present.

Five minutes later, I've got $11 back and my swing bag and shaft are like a baby seal.

Slippyblade · « **Reply #176 on:** February 15, 2016, 06:48:04 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 15, 2016, 06:38:35 pm

Five minutes later, I've got $11 back and my swing bag and shaft are like a baby seal.

Oh god, the image... it BURNS!!!

pbj · « **Reply #177 on:** February 15, 2016, 06:52:16 pm »

yotsuya · « **Reply #178 on:** February 15, 2016, 07:27:37 pm »

Dave's Gotta Dave, of course, but when PBJ PBJ's, it's much more entertaining.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #179 on:** February 15, 2016, 07:42:44 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 15, 2016, 06:38:35 pm

Meh its a hobby and I derive entertainment from it. Technology these days makes it easier than ever.

Other day I'm in the shower buzz cutting my nuts and I've got the iPad on the windowsill. One tab has a redhead pretending she still feels while getting plugged in the butt, the other tab is an Amazon chat because my price alert dinged that I needed an adjustment on a Christmas present.

Five minutes later, I've got $11 back and my swing bag and shaft are like a baby seal.

Can I take back that whole hero thing now? TMI dude.. TMI.

jennifer · « **Reply #180 on:** February 15, 2016, 08:04:03 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 15, 2016, 06:38:35 pm

Meh its a hobby and I derive entertainment from it. Technology these days makes it easier than ever.

Other day I'm in the shower buzz cutting my nuts and I've got the iPad on the windowsill. One tab has a redhead pretending she still feels while getting plugged in the butt, the other tab is an Amazon chat because my price alert dinged that I needed an adjustment on a Christmas present.

Five minutes later, I've got $11 back and my swing bag and shaft are like a baby seal.

PICS OR IT DIDDNT HAPPEN!

pbj · « **Reply #181 on:** February 15, 2016, 08:48:14 pm »

Meh, I miss 1993, too, but times change and this is part of the package now.

yotsuya · « **Reply #182 on:** February 15, 2016, 09:00:16 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 15, 2016, 08:48:14 pm

Meh, I miss 1993, too, but times change and this is part of the package now.

I couldn't bring myself to go full baldy. Manscape, sure, the pubes need trimming, but zap it all off? Ugh.

thomas_surles · « **Reply #183 on:** February 15, 2016, 09:02:30 pm »

this thread just got so relateable.

dkersten · « **Reply #184 on:** February 15, 2016, 09:30:05 pm »

Quote from: jennifer on February 15, 2016, 05:49:45 pm

Using the system against itself is not a crime, Your wall of troll doesn't address legitimate piracy issues/concerns, Nor does your views of self destructive behavior and conflict of interests. It only serves as a platform in which creative resolution cannot stand.

uh... what?

I don't think bilking the system is a crime. Whether exploiting loopholes is ethical or not, well.... show me a member here who never downloaded a Rom and we can start pointing fingers. There's something about casting stones or glass houses or... you know.

I get just as much amusement from PBJ finding ways to turn 98 cents into a dollar as anyone else. I just thought it was ironic that just a few posts after a discussion about how Prime items are several dollars more than their non-Prime counterparts that still have free shipping, he is buying Prime items just to make $1. Boy, I got put in my place though... Imagine how dumb I feel for not putting my book income at risk by pretending I am in college so I can save $100.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #185 on:** February 15, 2016, 10:13:30 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 15, 2016, 08:48:14 pm

Meh, I miss 1993, too, but times change and this is part of the package now.

I find it fascinating that you thought I was weirded out by your man-scaping and not the fact that you brought your ipad in the shower to look at porn and browse amazon while you are doing it.

Don't ever change man.

jennifer · « **Reply #186 on:** February 15, 2016, 10:14:37 pm »

Quote from: dkersten on February 15, 2016, 09:30:05 pm

Quote from: jennifer on February 15, 2016, 05:49:45 pm
Using the system against itself is not a crime, Your wall of troll doesn't address legitimate piracy issues/concerns, Nor does your views of self destructive behavior and conflict of interests. It only serves as a platform in which creative resolution cannot stand.
uh... what?

I don't think bilking the system is a crime. Whether exploiting loopholes is ethical or not, well.... show me a member here who never downloaded a Rom and we can start pointing fingers. There's something about casting stones or glass houses or... you know.

I get just as much amusement from PBJ finding ways to turn 98 cents into a dollar as anyone else. I just thought it was ironic that just a few posts after a discussion about how Prime items are several dollars more than their non-Prime counterparts that still have free shipping, he is buying Prime items just to make $1. Boy, I got put in my place though... Imagine how dumb I feel for not putting my book income at risk by pretending I am in college so I can save $100.

Consider this is your lucky day friend, Jennifer is in a really good mood and doesn't feel like talking social convention with you.

pbj · « **Reply #187 on:** February 15, 2016, 10:47:22 pm »

I understand that Dave is trying to help but his points are self evident. Don't buy stuff you don't need and don't spend more than market in pursuit of digital credits.

My butt will be wiped with greater satisfaction knowng that toilet paper subsidized Gauntlet.

jennifer · « **Reply #188 on:** February 15, 2016, 11:01:12 pm »

**Jenn laughs**.... Dude you are horrible,

BadMouth · « **Reply #189 on:** February 18, 2016, 03:53:37 pm »

Placed my first order on Saturday after letting prime expire.
Order didn't ship until Thursday (today).
Man this is a different experience.

pbj · « **Reply #190 on:** February 18, 2016, 08:11:41 pm »

Preorder video games along with <$35 orders to get free shipping. Cancel preorder after other item ships.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #191 on:** February 18, 2016, 09:50:42 pm »

Quote from: pbj on February 18, 2016, 08:11:41 pm

Preorder video games along with <$35 orders to get free shipping. Cancel preorder after other item ships.

That's pretty brilliant. Is this something you do regularly or is it something they only let you do once or twice?

pbj · « **Reply #192 on:** February 19, 2016, 09:22:30 am »

I haven't done it since I got Prime, but I did it pretty regularly. Amazon doesn't charge your credit card until the item ships, so you don't even get a hold for the game. They do sit on the other items for about a week, though.

Another good site is Amazon Filler if you're trying to get to that $35....

BadMouth · « **Reply #193 on:** February 19, 2016, 09:32:02 am »

Another site to mention is http://camelcamelcamel.com/

If buying something over 60 or 70 bucks, I look at the price history before buying.
It would be stupid to pay $80 for something that is listed at $60 80% of the time.

You can also set up price alerts for things you want, but aren't worried about buying right away.

pbj · « **Reply #194 on:** February 19, 2016, 09:36:30 am »

Yes, I've mentioned that site before. It's particularly helpful around Christmas time. Anything purchased Nov 1 or later can be returned up to Jan 31. For everything you buy, set up a price alert on three camels to notify you if the price drops by even a cent. Every time it drops, get the price adjusted. That's how I got Amazon to pay me for holding onto Shadow Warrior for two months later year. It's how I got $11 back the other day while in the shower.

vwalbridge · « **Reply #195 on:** February 22, 2016, 12:22:12 pm »

Yet another reason to be a Prime member:

Amazon's Free Shipping Minimum Is Now $49

BadMouth · « **Reply #196 on:** February 22, 2016, 01:52:06 pm »

Quote from: vwalbridge on February 22, 2016, 12:22:12 pm

Yet another reason to be a Prime member:

Amazon's Free Shipping Minimum Is Now $49

Maybe a bit egocentric, but I hope this is a response to people dropping Prime because of the increase in price and diminishing shipping benefits.
I hope it backfires. It's definitely not making me want to sign back up for prime. It's making me want to escape from their ecosystem entirely.

I just ordered a $130 item last night. Normally I'd just buy it through amazon, mostly because I'd get it fast with prime shipping.
Without prime though, shipping isn't any better than any other online retailer, so I shopped around.
I ended up buying it from Wayfair because it was $7 cheaper. I wasn't figuring it into my decision, but upon checkout they didn't charge me sales tax so that saved me another $8.

Amazon always charges sales tax.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #197 on:** February 22, 2016, 02:41:46 pm »

Agreed. You don't reward a company with bad business practices by giving them more money. This is the second time they have upped the minimum price in 5 years. The first time it was understandable because gas prices were way up, but now that they are down and have been steadily low for quite some time, what is their excuse?

I've got gift cards for them that I need to get rid of, but after that I think I'm back to eBay and other retailers.

pbj · « **Reply #198 on:** February 22, 2016, 02:51:09 pm »

Ebay isn't much better these days. Won an auction, paid for item. Ebay later retroactively cancels the auction but doesn't notify me.

I check on the status on the website, "if you haven't already paid, don't pay. If you have, work it out with the seller."

Luckily the seller just refunded the money without too much fuss, but Ebay now requires that you "wait a week to work it out" and I was about 5 seconds away from summoning Captain Chargeback but I am at a loss for way they couldn't simply e-mail everyone that the auction was null and void and return the money. Used to be you filed a complaint and then could immediately 'escalate' to get Ebay involved, which was still a ridiculous system but at least it didn't give the seller a chance to pull all of their money out of Paypal.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #199 on:** February 22, 2016, 02:58:38 pm »

Maybe we are just buying different things. I haven't had much issue with eBay sellers, but then again there are only specific things I buy from them.... usually it's a inexpensive widget I need for an electronics project that I now have to purchase online because all the local Radio Shacks went out of business.

I'm still a big fan of brick and mortar for day-to-day stuff because I get to actually take a close look at what I'm buying. If I don't like the price I can always go home and order the exact same thing online.

I used to use Amazon for holiday shopping... they sell darn near everything after all, but this xmas as well as last there were a lot of things I had to return because they were damaged when I got them. This time some of the stuff was dented, but the shipping box they came in wasn't.... so they sent out defective goods. This wasn't an Amazon seller either, this was stuff directly from Amazon.


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