We’ve had the same Amazon Echo for well over ten years, because I was part of the group to which it was available before widespread release. It’s always worked flawlessly, though a few years ago I had to secure the top control cover with a little super glue.
But it won’t do the new, AI-driven Alexa+, so I got us one of the newer Echo models. It’s a bit larger than a softball and speaks in a new voice with much more natural cadence. She’s much smarter, too. Amy asked her a complex question about psychological research models and she nailed it. (The old Alexa was good for a lot of things, but she was periodically dumb as a sack of doorknobs.)
So, yeah, I’m still playing, even as I feel my affection for Amazon at large waning. To me, the overarching appeal of Amazon has always been how “magic” and automatic it is. I’ve written before of how they almost always get it right, and when they don’t, they fix it quickly and satisfactorily. To be fair, I’ll say Amazon returns are still the best in the business. Carrying a loose item into The UPS Store or Staples, showing them a QR code to scan, and leaving is a marvelous process.
Are cracks in the facade appearing, though?
- Remember when Amazon Prime shipping was not only free, but two-day? We haven’t had two-day shipping from Amazon to our house in several years, even when it’s not Christmastime. Part of this is plausibly blamed on our badly overloaded local USPS infrastructure, but I’m finding Amazon doesn’t make even its more modest promised dates a lot of the time now.
- How often do you price-check Amazon against other merchants? Amazon is as likely to have a good price as anyone, but it’s hardly universal, and I think they’re significantly less competitive across the board now than they once were.
- Whither Prime Video? I’ve watched some great stuff—Bosch is an all-time top-five for me, and Lea and I love to watch Reacher together—but I can’t say I spend a lot of time with it otherwise. Plus, they get into me now for another $3 monthly if I don’t want commercials. What if I drop Prime and just pick it up for a month when there’s a new season of something we want to watch? And isn’t the free shipping threshold still $35 without Prime? Now I would lose Alexa+. What’s the value of that?
For me, and I think for many people, Amazon getting almost everything right all the time transmogrified into a sort of monolithic excellence that we didn’t often challenge. But I question whether it’s there anymore, and I think I’ve been coasting for some time as if it still were.
Are you?