Comment by neilv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by neilv | Hacker News Reader

Figuratively, some of Mr. Bezos's famed Two Pizza Teams seem to be throwing their pizza crust ends at The Customer's Chair.

(Incidentally, I think that line should let me skip the hiring screen Leadership Principles made-up anecdote STAR recital. :)

I make a lot of personal decisions on-principle, but Amazon is too essential for me to boycott it.

I also tolerate a number of practical non-customer-focused qualities of the company, of late, because of remaining utility.

Overall, I like that I have use of Amazon, even though in some ways it's not as good as it used to be, and there are obvious ways it could improve customer focus but doesn't seem like it's going to.

Though, I did cancel Amazon Prime awhile ago. The final nudge was that Prime Video seemed to be getting conspicuously customer-hostile, though I'd come to consider Prime Video to be part of the value for which I was paying. Also, Amazon no longer seemed to be taking 2-day shipping as seriously as they used to.

A side effect of canceling Prime is that I recently stopped using my Amazon credit card. Since I'm no longer getting 5% rewards at Amazon and WFM, my non-Amazon 2% cash rewards card is close enough. The last nudge was Chase switching to eight-unhyphenated-digits SMS 2FA, every time I checked my statement. It was a tiniest little customer-unfocused thing, but it annoyed me enough in the moment, on top of ongoing mixed feelings, to energize me to go to the trouble of switching.

Another side effect of canceling Prime is that I've been buying a lot less there, because I wait for $35+ orders, to get the free slow shipping, with the effect that I often end up buying the items elsewhere or not at all.

(Incidentally, Walmart.com had a chance tonight, to get more of my business, since I hate-hate-hate that Amazon commingles product with questionable third-party sellers. But Walmart.com's product search was was no longer filtering by "Retailer" like it used to, which led me to Web search and learn of a potential problem with their supply chain integrity in general, and I really didn't want to be spraying third-party-sourced counterfeit/returned/shoplifted Flonase up my nose.)

> I make a lot of personal decisions on-principle, but Amazon is too essential for me to boycott it.

Or just too convenient?

You survived at some point without being dependent on Amazon. You really couldn't do so again?

Not if typing all those comments only rates interrogation without an upvote.

We’re getting to the point where that might not be a safe assumption… my purchase history goes back 19 years… you could have a 25 year old on here who doesn’t really remember pre Amazon

If they can't figure out an alternative, that says a lot about their lack of critical thinking skills, and that's a problem.

> If they can't figure out an alternative, that says a lot about their lack of critical thinking skills, and that's a problem.

I'm with you on the value of critical thinking skills.

But, before using this thread to call out anyone for a perceived lack of critical thinking skills, maybe first make a compelling argument that it's worth their time to even determine whether Amazon is "essential" rather than "convenient".

I suspect that you arrived to the thread with a belief that there's something like a moral imperative not to use Amazon. But you didn't articulate an argument for that, and it wasn't otherwise established in this context. So maybe that's why I think your approach in this thread was a bit aggressive or rough. Which is disincentive to invest critical thinking energy into the thread.

> I suspect that you arrived to the thread with a belief that there's something like a moral imperative not to use Amazon. But you didn't articulate an argument for that,

Was it not you above that said you make a lot of decisions on principal, but find Amazon too efficient to not use?

Is that not implying you see moral issues, but decide to use them anyway? If so, is it not fair to then question to what extent by efficient you really mean convenient?

I'm not interested in trying to argue a moral imperative here. People that don't see an issue are not going to be convinced by my arguments that I definitely would not be investing a lot of time in.

I am interested in questioning peoples given reasoning as to why they keep using it when they see a moral issue with doing so, though.

> So maybe that's why I think your approach in this thread was a bit aggressive or rough.

I don't think I was aggressive or rough on any individual. My above comment you quote is against an unnamed abstract group, and I wasn't rude or aggressive in my reply to anyone else by my view - I just asked a simple question.

> Was it not you above that said you make a lot of decisions on principal, but find Amazon too efficient to not use?

No.

Your exact words[1] were "I make a lot of personal decisions on-principle, but Amazon is too essential for me to boycott it."

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43288929

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