Article and rant detailing my extremely negative experience with business account opening and network gear order on Amazon, covering difficulty in getting customer support, difficulty setting up business account, difficulty reporting potential security issue, shipment of second-hand open-box devices...
I've been boycotting amazon for the past 6 or so years, and it's gone well. But I moved to a remote place a while ago and they're close to the only shop shipping there. I chose them over other shops for my recent hardware upgrades because the cost of shipping plus the customs' 20% (applied on the cost of the item plus shipping, of course) make it unbearable unless I go for the lowest bidder. That doesn't make me happy though
I think there's a lot to be said for "soft boycotting." If we could get more people to just check a few other retailers before they go to Amazon, that would actually hit their bottom line a lot harder than a small number of people cutting them out entirely.
The problem with boycotts is that people get told to treat it as an all or nothing thing. It's a lot better, to my mind, to just reduce our reliance on large monopolies where possible, and accept them as an unfortunate necessity when not.
Not that easy seriously. I boycott them most of the time, but there has been a product that I didn't have a choice to order through them in the last year. I don't mind paying a bit more elsewhere if it means they don't get any of my money, but they've literally destroyed some of their competition to the point where no alternative exists for certain products.