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Comment by justinzollars | Hacker News Reader

I have to say - Amazon is almost the only thing that works during COVID. Everything else is pegged.

I've been waiting 6 months to buy a couch, every time I check on an update, its delayed. Government services are impossible to work with, try getting a passport or license. If you have an emergency every office is closed or dysfunctional. Amazon on the other hand works fine. I'm so thankful for it.

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Yeah, there's a reason Amazon is on or near the top of those "which institutions do you trust most?" polls. Regardless of what you think about the company's practices/dominance/anything else, there is a lot to love about consistency.

Not just consistency, but customer service. It's gone down a bit in recent years, but Amazon is still amazing at it. I can actually chat with someone, almost instantly, if I'm having a problem. Having had to deal with flight delays on American Airlines recently, it's insane how much of a difference there is.

You're comparing apples to oranges.

Would you be able to buy a couch on Amazon? The #1 bestseller on Amazon currently says "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." so it doesn't work here the same way other retailers don't work.

So you're saying you can't get a passport from the government but you're able to buy certain things on Amazon therefore Amazon is better?

I just opened amazon incognito, searched for "couch", and everything seems to be available in a week. Some in 4 days.

Don’t you need to lay on it first? I’ve avoided beds like Casper because it’s an inconvenience if I don’t like it. Gotta lay on the couch.

Having had to get a passport recently, yes. At least better in the sense that you are actually receiving a service you've paid for.

It is virtually impossible to get an appointment at the passport office in the US right now. Not a local passport office, ANY passport office. There were people outside the one I went to offering a Nintendo Switch to people to trade for a time slot. The shortest wait time I had on the phone was three hours, and I called one minute after they opened.

I'm not sure what you are arguing here. You can buy things on Amazon but it's difficult to get a Passport right now. How is one thing related to the other?

Probably parent is writing in terms of the common line of thinking that Amazon exercises significant control over our lives by being so enormous and saying that it's not nearly so abusive a relationship as ones he's trapped in with other large institutions.

And if you have only a single citizenship, being stuck with the passport office is about as stuck as you can be.

You waited 3 hours for a passport appointment?

I just moved in to a new apartment, and I've been ordering furniture on Amazon. Why? Because the local Ikea is out of everything I've looked for, which is unsettling because I don't think of Ikea as running out of things.

It works... ok. The delivery company only delivered one of three boxes for my bedframe, I got a refund but now I have a headboard and a mattress on the floor, and the model is out of stock. Woe is me, right?

Everything else has gone off without a hitch, and so, tl;dr yes you can buy a couch on Amazon. Or Wayfair. But not necessarily at Ikea, at the moment. At least not here.

I did the same and used Home Depot ship to store, then picked it up myself.

Which might show the monopsony power of Amazon being abused.

I recall an article talking about how manufacturers with limited stocks would supply Amazon first, prioritising Amazon other channels, due to the incentives of their contracts and the penalties imposed by Amazon's business processes. Unfortunately I can't find the article now...

> Amazon is almost the only thing that works during COVID

Only in the US, thank goodness. Or I suppose I should say: everything is still working here in Norway, not quite at 100% but close.

Why is everything but Amazon underperforming in the US? It sounds like mismanagement to me.

I cancelled all of my 'subscribe and save' items on Amazon last year because they stopped delivering them. I think Amazon delivered maybe half of what I ordered in 2020. I've all but given up on Amazon at this point.

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