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I first actually tried this site because of some of the reviews that I had read here at this site. I expected them to be the same as all other online stores but they are not like others at all. Time and time again they have amazed me with their speed and accuracy when I place an order. They have never missed any of their shipping deadlines and have never gotten any of my orders wrong. Don't worry I'll give a lot more details about this in this review and show why you should order from Amazon!

My First Experience With Amazon.com

Well my first experience with Amazon.com was about 6 months ago. I was taking a class at U.C.R. and the book for that class had not been ordered by the school bookstore (actually the teacher had not ordered it through the bookstore because he knew they would raise the price). Instead he told us that we could order it through Amazon and that they had the best price and fast delivery. I then went and read several reviews about Amazon on Epinions to see if this was going to be an easy experience or a bad experience. What do I find? The first review about them is very bad, but I decide to read on and there are many good reviews about them as well. I decide that this will be a typical experience and go to the site.

At this time I did not sign up for an I.D. from the site because I figured I wouldn't need to order much from them so why go through all the work to sign-up and get an I.D. (although I did end up getting one because you have to before you can order but I didn't know this right away).

I ordered my book ("In The Eye of the Beholder") and got a confirmation that it would be sent by UPS in 3 - 4 days. This was good news to me.

Then the next morning I got another notice that it had been shipped to me already and thought this is great, it's on it's way and I can start reading it for my class.

The next day I was getting home from school and UPS was pulling out the of the parking lot. They had tried to deliver it to me that day but I wasn't home. Now I couldn't believe they had gotten me my book within 2 days from when I ordered it.

From that experience I referred my mother and my brother to order from them and I have continued to go back and place more orders from them as well.

Amazing Delivery

Now here was a time that their delivery astonished me. My brother ordered a CD on a Saturday night and it arrived at our house (normal shipping) on Monday morning. Now that is incredible service from any company.

The Site

The site is very simple to navigate. I have never been more than a couple clicks away from anything that I am looking for. The navigation is to the left side of the page (I know very common for sites so that does make this site very simple to follow also).

The Main Page

The main page is very well laid out. The first thing I have always noticed are the feature selections that they have listed there. Not that I usually like what they have but that does not mean I don't take a minute to look through them or that other people reading this review would not be very interested in what they have there.

Navigation

The navigation at the left side lists all of their categories that they have to sell, including:

Books
Electronics
Toys and Games
Health and Beauty
DVD
Software
Kitchen and Housewares
Tools and Hardware
Computers
Camera and Photo
In Theatres
Computer and Video Games
Baby and Baby Registry
Cell Phones and Service
Video
Magazine Subscriptions
Outdoor Living
Travel
Cars
Gifts and Gift Certificates
Auctions
zShops
Outlet
Corporate Accounts

Now as you can see from this list their navigation includes virtually everything that you could be looking for here. They have almost everything that I can think of that I would be looking for so finding anything on this site is very easy.

Find

If you have something more exact that your looking for you can also search by the name of that item. If you do know what your looking for this is a better way to find it then going through the categories that are above because this will take you straight to what your searching for.

Top Navigation

Yes there is also a top menu for you. If you already have an account set-up you will be able to view your:

Shopping Cart - What your ordering now.

Wish List - What you want in the future.

Your Account - This shows you a detailed list of what orders you have made and that are in process right now.

Help - If you need any help with this site, you should try here first because they have some good tutorials to help you out.

Recommendations

If you have made some orders already they also provide you with their recommendations of things that they feel that you might like. They have made some very interesting recommendations for me in the past so this is worth checking out sometime.

Selection

Now as you can see above they have a huge selection of categories that you can choice from. Normally I order, books, CD's and DVD's from Amazon so that is what I mostly have experience with. They have always had what I am looking for (once they were out of stock of something but they were able to get it in within a week of my order and still got it to me on time).

So far they have had everything that I am searching for and trust me - if you look at some of my reviews you will see that I sometimes listen to some strange music.

Signing Up For An Account

Now this is something that you will have to do when you order from Amazon the first time. They ask for the basic questions:

Name
Address
City
State
Zip Code
Phone Number
Credit Card Information

Actually at first I wasn't thrilled about leaving all of this information there but now I have seen how simple it makes all of my other purchases so this is a great way to use the site.

It will also remember who you are when you return to the site at a later date. The site even welcomes me back each time I go - yes I know strange reason for really liking a site but I think this does make my shopping experience far more personal and I like that.

Special Selections for you

Also when you have an account there is a link on the main page to a list of special selections for you. When you go here it will list selections that they have for you. Okay sometimes these are strange but they are fun to view.

Shipping Progress

After you get an ID you can also get your shipping status on the main page. Right now I have two orders that are being shipped (they were both back-ordered so I do watch their progress) but when I just checked one was shipped today so I love seeing that listed there.

Shipping and Delivery

I have always had a great experience with their shipping (as I explained above). They have three levels of shipping prices:

Standard Delivery - 3 - 7 days
Two Day Delivery
One Day Delivery

The rates for shipping depend on what you have ordered and what type of delivery that you have requested. They seem to have excellent pricing in their delivery costs and they are very fast.

Return Policies

I was very interested in their return policies. I have never seen such liberal policies about returning items. In fact when you get your items a card is included with many reasons as to why anyone would return an item:

Wrong Item
Right It but changed mind

I like that last one. I guess that covers them on everything. They do make this very simple if you get the wrong item, found it someplace else, or it was even damaged during shipping.

Partner Sites

Yes, they also list their partner sites, if your interested in them:

Target.com
ToysRUs.com
BabysRUs.com

These are more specialized but still part of the Amazon.com family and from what I have seen and experienced on these sites they have the same great customer service and delivery as Amazon.com

Help Department and Customer Service

Now for any store we all know that customer service and help are important (especially for the new user). From my experiences with the site and my orders I have found that their site is extremely helpful. They include order status on the main page and this is the most helpful feature on the site.

Help FAQ

This is a wonderful feature and has every question here you could have about any of their products. I have gone here first if I had any questions about anything. I have not had to go any further than this in my search for help from this site. That to me says a lot in itself because they have answered everything for you that you would need to know.

Customer Service

I heard from one friend who did have to call once that they were very helpful with her order status (she couldn't get back on the site for a while to check and it was back-ordered so she called to get more information about it). She said they were very friendly and answered all of her questions about her order. (Just in case we have curious people out there she did get her order in less than a week after the call.) In fact the funny part about her calling was that I got the phone number for her to call from the epinions page about Amazon.com and although it is not a local number she was able to use that to get customer service. I guess since she couldn't get to her computer e-mailing them was not an option so this worked well for her but I would recommend e-mailing them before calling a long distance number.

Conclusion

As you can see I have had nothing but great experiences with Amazon.com and have found that there features are very useful and practical for me. If I need to order something online I do now try to locate it here before trying other places that I have not had any experience with (although I will go to other online stores if it is something that Amazon is out of stock on or if it's something that I know I can get fast from another source - for example Import Records I would go to hmv.com or virgin.com before amazon because I have had luck with them for those since they are in England which is where my Import Records are most likely to be found or if I want toys I would go to Toy's-R-Us first) but overall I do try to go to Amazon first because of the service that I have received here in the past.

Now I have read of a couple bad experiences on Epinions about Amazon.com and don't doubt their validity at all but we all have to realize that what might be great for one person might not work as well for the next. So even with the bad reviews that I have read (I even read a couple before I tried the service) I can fully say that I have only had great experiences with this company.