Amazon Dash AIBU to be very cautious of this brave new world?

[beluga425]

So, say your button pressing 5 yo has an extended visit to the loo. Next day 5000 loo rolls appear.

oh and nerf lol

I've ordered one

We have a branded rubbish bin, we always buy replacement bin bags from Amazon anyway and the husband usually empties the bin, uses the last bag and doesn't think to order new ones. Now he'll have a handy button to press.

But Amazon normally have several different suppliers listed. Which one will be selected to supply to you? Does it default to the cheapest?

No, it will just come direct from amazon regardless of whether it's the cheapest.

Basically, if you hate freedom of choice and hate the environment, get this.

But Amazon normally have several different suppliers listed. Which one will be selected to supply to you? Does it default to the cheapest?

I suspect behind the scenes, Amazon will have stitched together a system whereby different suppliers "bid" to fulfil any orders taken at the price Amazon set when the button what clicked.

After all, does it matter where your bin bags come from ? Or does it matter they are the correct ones you need ? (Would these be the ones that have letter codes like "K", btw ?)

And, yes, price is important to everyone. However, the demographic Amazon are targeting with this will be people who buy based on value rather than price. Which will be 80% of folk ? How many people do 90% of their weekly shop in one place, and then spend another hour and a half finishing off the last 10% elsewhere to save .... £5 ? Personally I'd rather have the extra 90 minutes - it would be worth the extra £5.

For all the gee-whizzery of the front-end websites, UK internet retailing is partying like it's 1996 at the back end (as a recent thread about how pisspoor Ocados picking system is demonstrates). Mainly because - like the record companies before them - they assumed they could transplant their 20th century business model of a 19th century paradigm into the 21st century. One of the things they are learning - painfully - is that you have to keep spending, year on year, to stay afloat. That is really invest. And of all the things the UK does well, really investing is not one of them. car industry. Hence a US company has to show us the way.

I had to laugh with hollow mirth when the government pretended by calling a road feature "silicon roundabout" they would magically invent Amazon or Google, or Apple in the UK. None of those companies could ever have started in the UK.

I see this is only available if you also pay for Prime (which makes sense) so that makes it even less useful to me as I rarely have Prime membership.

Interesting that the environmental impact is being seen as a block but we're quite happy ordering things from the internet for delivery otherwise. Come December fleets of delivery vans will be rushing about delivering a DVD here, a pair of socks there etc.
In theory if uptake is high then the impact lessens.

Interesting that the environmental impact is being seen as a block but we're quite happy ordering things from the internet for delivery otherwise.

You'd think if the apocalypse is upon us (as trumpted by the press) then there would be laws against such things .

Why, it's almost as if climate change is only a factor when it suits people in power .

I think the major advantage for P&G and Amazon is in reducing price sensitivity. Most of these things are stuff I'd never dream of paying full RRP for: that's only for people who have more money than sense or who are desperate for something in a hurry. The real price is the heavily discounted version that's available every other week.

Dishwasher tablets are the classic example, who the hell pays the RRP for branded dishwasher tablets when they'll be 50% off next week?

Ocado actually facilitates this behaviour by showing me an "offers on your favourites" page before I check out, so I can see there's an decent offer on one of the laundry liquid/loo roll/coffee brands I buy, and think, oh yes, I'm running low, I'll restock.

But Amazon's magic buttons don't show a price which gives them licence to charge the headline 20 quid rather than the "50% off! Only Ten Pounds!" price that all the other supermarkets are charging this week.

Interesting that the environmental impact is being seen as a block but we're quite happy ordering things from the internet for delivery otherwise.

It's the fact that these are items you would usually order along with a whole host of other things in a single grocery delivery. For things like ink cartridges you would usually only be ordering those anyway so there is no increased environmental impact.

But Amazon's magic buttons don't show a price

But they could ....

Soup yes I see that but my point was that as the system expands you'll end up with maybe a dozen deliveries to one road. And we order one DVD to be delivered by Yodel without a second thought to the environment. Or at least it appears.

So my Dash just arrived and I tried to set it up. You get offered a list of available products and you have to select one. The bin bags we need are not on the list to choose although I can see them on the website. So I've emailed them to ask why but I'll be sending my button back if I can't get the bin bags I need!!

My plan had been to use it once and then compare if I was getting the best price available or if Amazon were using it as a sneaky way to up the price of the orders they fulfil via Prime.

I'll be a bit sad if I have to send it back. It's well designed and the button has a nice click to it. I was also looking forward to the novelty of pressing it. Little things, little minds and all that

I don't know about the environmental impact - it depends how this works. Isn't it the case that delivery in an electric van from supermarkets is actually more ecofriendly than people making individual trips due to mileage efficiencies? You can almost see a return to the milkfloat - only this time, it'll be driverless, electric and carry any kind of stuff you need.

Packaging is a problem, though. However, Prime deliveries now come in a plain paper bag. Maybe this could be rolled out?

Just musing aloud, but one (another !) feature Amazon could introduce would be to map your wishlist of books to the second-hand booksellers they storefront for. So that you get 5 books from the same vendor, rather than (at present) having to hunt for the book, and hope there's a copy available from a store you already have an order with.

Although I suspect the requirement on the sellers to keep their lists up to date is what prevents this. Amazon are not going to invest a lot of money if it relies on other people to do something to make the system work.

Still, there's no excuse for not having an "add to wishlist" option on the search results page.

lurking - I find I am charged separate postage from most secondhand booksellers, so £2.80 per book, however many I order from them.

I would like there to be an alert system for rare items, so I could have a wishlist of books that I want that are no longer in print and I would be sent an email if they ever came in stock.

I would also like them to sort out the bloody crap search function on abebooks.com!

There's a lot Amazon could do to offer (even) better service. However, an awful lot of that is actually in the gift of the 3rd parties. Who are in the main pretty crap and unable to deliver the service Amazon would require.

The customer service expectations of the new internet world is light-years ahead of what has come before. Although I would be the first to agree it's a shame the coalface pay isn't .

So I've emailed them to ask why but I'll be sending my button back if I can't get the bin bags I need!!

Let us know, buying binbags for a certain branded bin is why I would use it too (size L )

They've not replied yet. But my idiot husband just pressed the damn button and accidentally ordered the wrong size bin bags (i had to select something, anything, to finish the set up)

Happy to confirm it's very straightforward to cancel accidental orders.

Will report back when I hear from Amazon about right size bin bags.

I can see its usefulness. RNBrie's binbags are the perfect example. If you always buy the same brand regardless of price you're not losing out.

I don't like being tied to a big supplier like Amazon, though. And I don't like the one delivery per item thing. It's so wasteful.

Ideally I would have a button on my bin that adds binbags to my weekly shopping list. Then I won't have to worry about forgetting between changing the binbag and the next time I'm in the shopping app on my iPad.

This is the way forward. It's the internet of things. The possibilities will be endless.

It's not something I want but this is the future. It's going to be huge. People are lazy

So Amazon have refunded my £4.99 but have not acknowledged or answered the questions I asked.

What a disappointing introduction to a new technology! I guess it's going to need some time to ramp up what's available.

I agree it would be good if the button added bin bags to my weekly shop. However my ludicrously niche bin bags are only available through the manufacturer who sell via their website or Amazon and delivery is "free" as I have Prime (its not an uncommon brand but the size seems to be!)

I'm well excited (sad I know).

I knew of the service in the states, so knew it would not be long before we got it.

In terms of repeated pressing; It won't accept another order from a button press until the previous order has actually been delivered, and as mentioned by previous poster, you are notified of an order so have time to cancel it.

On the downside, Amazon prices can fluctuate wildly. So what may be a great offer on one button press, could be eye watering on another. This is the same on their subscribe and save service.