[Hippocrates]

Lately I prefer to shop at Best Buy over amazon. I have a couple nearby, so picking something up at the store is more amenable to impulse and instant gratification. It’s also fun to take a lap around a play with some stuff.

Besides that, the prices are competitive, not that it matters because they price match. Sometimes you can score a deal on open box items, which are conveniently listed on their site. Returning something to BB has been painless. I recently returned a monitor without the box for a full refund. I’d at least have had to find a box, pack, and ship that at my own expense w/ amazon which is a huge hassle.

Prime’s 2 day shipping on nearly anything is great but more than a few times I’ve had things lost in the mail. Amazon waits 3-5 days PAST the delivery date to consider it lost while you wait in limbo, and then you have to restart the order. It’s really frustrating if you need the thing quickly and it ends up taking more than double what it should to arrive. IME Amazon is not generous in compensating for these inconveniences.

[tracker1]

Monitors/TVs are something I've had so much bad experience with, I pretty much always buy at a physical store over mail order of any kind.

Also, Prime's 2 day shipping doesn't mean nearly as much when a lot of products don't ship for 2-3 days after you order a lot of times now. I'm not sure if it's just gaming the system, but seems to be the case a lot these days. Not to mention co-mingling inventory makes me feel less certain on whole classes of items.

[jstarfish]

They're definitely doing all sorts of nonsense to game the system.

My latest gripe is in how they'll change or merge listings after an item ships so when what you order isn't what you get, it makes it look like you ordered the wrong thing in the first place.

The order confirmation they email to you forces you to click through to the site instead of giving you a static copy of your invoice so you have no proof to contest it either.