[bambax]

> to my understanding, anywhere outside of the US, not just Canada – Amazon is next to useless

No it's not. In France they are fantastic. The product selection is very narrow, yes, but everything else is perfect, namely:

- delivery time and accuracy

- customer service

I once bought a kitchen appliance that my kids broke by letting it fall on the floor. I told Amazon that I would like to buy the part that was broken and they said "we'll just send you a complete product as a replacement, free of charge". The new product came in the very next day.

After a life of having to deal with French retailers this feels like landing on Mars, if Mars had rivers of milk and honey.