Amazon.com Shuns Alaska
4 May
It’s increasingly clear that Amazon.com is unable to adapt to the mobile age and worse than that, they can’t even live up to their original hype of being THE, Web 1.0 e-commerce giant (at least for Alaskans).
Disclaimer: This post is 95% ranting.
As many Alaskans do, I find myself shopping online to find speciality items or even basic items that aren’t on the shelf at the local brick and mortar establishment. For example, I recently went looking for some specific tools for car cleaning and added to my cart a few other items I’ve been wanting to get…basic stuff, like a 3TB hard drive that I could not find on the shelf at BestBuy and ink refill for a Tombow pen.
Assuming that Amazon.com would be a great source for these random items, I made my way through unnecessary hours of reviewing comments and comparing ink refills until I had 11 items in my shopping cart. Finally, I was getting somewhere and looked forward to moving on to other more important things – like work and getting outside of the house. But, alas, this was not to be…for Amazon.com could not ship to any address in Alaska. (The mailbox, the home or office addresses.)
Having already read the disclaimer of shipping to Hawaii and Alaska, I thought I’d reach out to Amazon for assistance. Little good that did, I only wasted more time to learn what I already knew. Amazon.com is not interested in my money.
I may continue to use Amazon.com for Mother’s Day gifts to the Lower 48, but I’ll be shopping elsewhere for anything I actually want to buy and ship to Alaska. Very disappointing. A decline in customers is the sign of what is to come for behemoths that cannot adapt or even live up to their original mission.
(just a random passerby!)
I too have been experiencing problems with getting some things shipped from Amazon. I used to get all my diapers from them, but now certain diapers won’t ship. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this, especially since I can get other things shipped. (Like canned pears that showed up damaged – but that is a whole other story). Its just a shame that a company I have used for years is not friendly to us anymore.
This is surprising since I have been using Amazon for many years and not only do they ship without a problem, the product usually arrives faster from them than from any other place other than maybe Zappos. But I share your frustration with many other Lower 48 companies.