My Love/Hate Relationship with Amazon.com and a serious flaw in their service

I love Amazon.com. I love their selection. I love their prices. I love their return policies. I love my Prime membership. I love their delivery options and prices and speed.

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But, Amazon.com has a nasty, horrible flaw. And it’s horrible on multiple levels. Let me explain the flaw and then how it’s exacerbated by them:

The Technical Flaw

For the past week or so, I’ve been having trouble logging into my Amazon.com account. It started with an e-mail message I got that looks exactly like a phishing email message… you know the kind… That warns you that someone might have been messing with your account so they had to lock your account and that you need to click this link in the email to log in to “verify” you account?

Yeah, that’s what I got. But all the links in the e-mail went to the actual Amazon.com site, which was unusual, because everything else about the e-mail threw up ALL the red flags of a phishing scam, so I simply ignored it. But, no less than a day later, I started having trouble logging in. I KNOW my login credentials I was using were correct because they’re stored in LastPass and LastPass is the one that enters them into the form. Also, the Amazon app on my phone suddenly couldn’t log in either.

So, I went through the “I forgot my password” routine, had some e-mail sent to me with a link to change my password. I changed it, but I STILL couldn’t log in. I changed it again and I STILL couldn’t log in. I changed it again and I STILL couldn’t log in. I tried the latest, newest PW on my phone and I STILL couldn’t log in. I tried it from Chrome, from FireFox, from the app on the phone, from Chrome Beta on the phone… all with the same failure.

I called tech support and after an hour and 14 minutes, talking to 2 agents, I was able to confirm (well, I was able to prove to them) that the problem was indeed on their end.

The problem is the CAPTCHA image they’re displaying in my browser for me to read and type in the letters is a DIFFERENT captcha than what their server thinks it sent me. For example, if the image they send has the text VRB7TC in it, their server THINKS it sent me an image with KFB98RX in it, so when I type the right text, it still thinks it’s wrong. But, somewhere between 2 to 7 tries, it eventually gets it right. But if I log out and back in again, I go through the same nightmare.

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How do I know it’s a CAPTCHA problem on their end?

Two reasons:

While on tech support, the agent read to me the CAPTCHA text that their server said it sent me. It was NOTHING like the captcha text on my screen.
The agent finally admitted this is a problem they know about.

They actually willfully make this problem worse

They wasted my time and they wasted two of their agents time by willfully lying to me, giving me the following lies:
1. It’s my fault for logging in and out so often, causing my account to get locked out (BTW, it was never locked out)
2. I need to upgrade my browser (I have the latest version of Chrome and FireFox on Linux and Chrome Beta on Android AND their own app on Android (also latest version) failed too).
3. Told me I need to clear my cache.
4. Told me it’s because of cookies that I need to delete.
5. Telling me (I’m a web developer, just so you know) that even though I’m typing in the right password, my browser is sending the wrong one. (This gets 7 out of 4 Pinocchios… Yes, you read that right). Yes, I educated them on how this works.
Not admitting early on that this is a known problem.

It gets worse!

After I berated the second level agent that all of his excuses were bullshit and explained in precise detail WHY they were, he finally admitted that this is a KNOWN PROBLEM! This is AFTER he said he opened a ticket for me.

A KNOWN PROBLEM??? WTF didn’t he tell me that at 1 minute into the call? Why drag me along for over an hour?

I asked when I should expect it to work for me. He responded with gibberish and no answer.

I asked again, “When will this be fixed for me”. He reordered the words of his gibberish with no answer.

I asked a third time, “But when will this be fixed for me?”. Again, gibberish.

I asked a fourth time, “When will this get fixed for me?”. This time he said, “Soon. They’re actively working on it”.

My next obvious question was, “WHEN?”. Him: “Soon”.

Me: “How long have you known about this problem?”

Him: “Well, it was caused by security updates in your browser”.

Me: “How long have you known about this problem?”

Him: “It’s when the browsers made a security change that caused this to start happenning.”

Me: “How long ago did this start? I’m concerned that you’re not giving this the attention it needs.”

Him: “We found out about it in October 2014”

Me: “WHAT?!?!?! You’ve known about this for SIX MONTHS?!?!?!? And it’s STILL not fixed? This is UNNACCEPTABLE for a company as big as Amazon. This is CRITICAL and you should have had programmers working on it as a priority one and should have had it fixed on DAY ONE! This is the CORE of your business! If we can’t log in, we can’t buy anything!”

The call ended politely and he acknowledged that it was not a good situation, but I was left with ZERO resolution. Nothing changed. It’s still broken, and they’re not really going to do anything about it.

THAT’S what’s so insane and inexcusable about it.

Before you shout, “BUT IT WORKS JUST FINE FOR ME!”, let’s make perfectly clear, this is not a global problem. It happens on some accounts. Unfortunately, mine is one of them, and they have no idea why and don’t appear to be doing anything about it.

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The Silver Lining and tiny shred of hope

The agent told me they are beta testing 2 factor authentication (though the agent didn’t know that’s what it’s called and kept calling it “a way for you to enter a code when logging in”. After interrogating him, I was able to determine it is actually 2-factor authentication.

He showed me where, on the website, to activate it, but sadly, it was not available to me. I asked him to add me to the beta. He said he can’t and that it is just rolling out to random people over a period of time.

If you’re interested, this is where you can find it:

Go to your Account page.
Scroll down to Settings.
Underneath “Forgot your password” and above “1-Click Settings”, there will be a new item. I don’t know the text, but it will be something like “2 factor authentication”.

If you don’t see it, that means you haven’t been given the roll out of the newer version of their website, and no, you cannot call up and ask to be put on it. Trust me, I tried. They can’t do it.

I find it amazing that Amazon could let such a serious flaw go on for half a year (so far). This is the kind of bug you give top priority to and put programmers on it until it is completely resolved.

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2014-02-02

Best Android Apps to Start Off 2014 (SHOPPING)

Check out Android Spaces

All these apps are free. This article is one of a series of articles about the best Android apps available as of the beginning of 2014. Click here for the main article that includes links to this article and links to all the other categories of “The Best Of” apps for beginning 2014. This article is for the shopping apps category available at the beginning of 2014.

Amazon

The Amazon app [phones] [tablets] (not to be confused with the Amazon App Store, also reviewed below) is a native front end to the Amazon online store (not the app store). This provides most of the features in the web site (if not all of them… I’ve, by no means, researched each and every feature of this massive web site).

This app is useful for obvious reasons in addition to the fact that you can be browsing in a brick and mortar store, like Wal-Mart, pick up an actual item off the shelf and scan its barcode into this app and it’ll tell you what you can get it for on Amazon.

I won’t go into extreme detail of what this app does. If you’re familiar with Amazon.com, you already have a good idea. You can, of course, track your Amazon.com orders with this app too. Not much has changed from my review of it last year. It’s still a good, solid app and I highly recommend it, even if you don’t purchase anything from them, at least you can do some comparison price shopping while walking around inside other stores.

Amazon App Store

Download Here. One of the great things about Android is that you’re NOT locked into just ONE app store, like you are with iOS and Windows Phone. You don’t have to root or “jail brake” your Android phone to install another app store. It’s perfectly legitimate to do so on Android and is activated with just a simple settings change on any Android phone or tablet.

The Amazon Android App Store is a direct competitor to the Google Play app store that’s pre-installed on almost every Android device made (with the exception of the really cheap and crappy Chinese Android products).

This app has been improved significantly from this time last year. It still has some issues though. For example, it still doesn’t have a “What’s New” section for each app. Apps are not updated nearly as often here as they are in the Google Play Store. Installing an app seems to take significantly longer and they do NOT install in the background. You HAVE to wait until the app finishes installing before leaving the App Store, or next time you come back to the App Store, you’ll find (even days or weeks later), that it hasn’t finished installing your app yet.

One thing I really like about the Amazon Android App Store is their Free App Of The Day. Every day, they GIVE AWAY a PAID app. In other words, it’s an app that’s NOT free on any other day, but on THAT day, you get it for free!

To Install It:

On your phone, go to Settings –> Security –> Unknown Sources

and make sure it’s checked.

Then go to this URL to download it to your phone (or Google search for “Amazon App Store”).

Amazon Price Check

This app [Amazon App Store] [Google Play] lets you scan barcodes while in a real store and compare the prices to Amazon… Not sure why this is a different app from the Amazon app, which provides the same functionality.

Ebay

This is a nicer and more responsive native app [Amazon App Store] [Google Play] than trying to use the ebay website from your mobile browser. If you’re familiar with ebay, you already know what you can do with this app. If not, just look at these screen shots and those should pretty much tell you what you need to know. On the left is my screen shot from last year (logged in). On the right, from this year (not logged in).

Best Buy

[Google Play] This is a front end to the Best Buy web site and is very useful when you’re in a physical Best Buy store. If you’ll notice, most products have a ticket on the shelf with a price, a small description, and a 2D QR bar code. Scan it with this app and you’ll get the full details of the product. No significant changes from last year’s review, though I’ll point out that I now seem to lose my logon and have to continuously log on. Since my passwords are long and complex and stored in LastPass, this is very frustrating.

You can also check the balance of your Best Buy gift cards by simply taking a picture of the back of your gift card.

If you’re a RewardsZone member (and if not, WHY NOT?), you can check on your RewardZone points and even display your RewardZone points on your phone to the cashier at checkout to redeem your points, instead of printing them out at home and bringing them in. You’ll save ink, paper, time, frustration, and money… an the “green” Nazis will sprinkle their happy happy fairy dust on you.

Game Stop

I no longer recommend this app. It tracks too much of your information. I’ve uninstalled it.

FedEx

[Amazon App Store] [Google Play] The FedEx app is highly useful when you’re tracking a packing you’ve either sent or are expecting to receive (such as one you ordered with say, the Amazon app). The screen shot to the right pretty much sums up what this app does. It’s short and simple… It does the things you expect and nothing fancy.

UPS

[Amazon App Store] [Google Play] The UPS app is similar to the FedEx app. It does the same thing, except for UPS shipments. No surprises here. New this year (since my review last year) is the “UPS My Choice” feature.

QR Droid & Barcode Scanner

[Amazon App Store] [Google Play] Both apps “QR Droid” and “Barcode Scanner” let you scan those 2D barcodes you’re seeing everywhere. They usually represent a URL and it’s extremely convenient to scan them in places like BestBuy on product tags on the shelves or on movie posters or even on web sites on your desktop computer to load up the URL on your phone. Installing QR Droid also gives you the ability to create your OWN QR Codes. For example, you can send a contact from your contacts to it and it’ll display as a QR code on your screen. Someone else can scan your screen with their phone and receive your contact. If you’re on a web page, you can share the web page to the app and it’ll produce a QR Code with the URL encoded in it. You can save it and e-mail it or publish it on your website, or show it on your screen to let someone else scan it. But, since we’re in the “Shopping” apps category here, you can use it to scan 2D QR Codes in stores to get more information on the products and to even compare prices.

Kroger

[Google Play] The Kroger app is a master app for all the stores shown in the screen shot:

Kroger
Baker’s
CityMarket
Dillons
Food4Less
Food4Less Fremont
Foods Co
Fred Meyer
Fry’s
Gerbes
JayC Food Stores
King Suupers
Owen’s
Pay Less Super Markets
QFC Quality Food Centers
Ralphs
Smith’s

Kroger is the parent company for all these grocery stores. This app works with all of them. If you have a customer loyalty card at any of these stores (and if you don’t, WHY NOT?) they all work at all those stores. This app will let you browse coupons and add them to your card. When you check out, if you’ve put any of those products in your cart, when you swipe your card at the register, all those coupons are applied. You can check your fuel points too and see the weekly ads. This is a MUST HAVE app if you shop at any of these grocery stores.

CraigsNotifica

That’s not a typo. That’s actually what it’s called. This app is dropped from last year’s recommendation because it appears it’s no longer available.

Google Shopper

Google went on a rampage last year, axing many apps. Google Shopper was one of them. So, this is no longer available. But see “Google Offers” below. But, here’s my review from last year: Google Shopper integrates with “Barcode Scanner” (reviewed above). Scan any barcode and this app will find multiple sources for that product. This is probably the best way to find the best price on anything. Use this when shopping in any physical store to decide whether or not it’s worth buying that product in your hands now, or somewhere else.

Google Offers

New on this year’s list, Google Offers, I believe, is somewhat of a replacement for Google Shopper. I have chosen to NOT install it because you have to enable both GPS location services AND location history. That’s too much for my personal taste, but if you don’t mind your personal location being tracked and recorded, then this app can provide you some savings. From their description:

“Now with Google Offers, you don’t have to pay to get offers. No need to buy them, just save offers to your account and redeem with your phone when you shop.

The app helps you discover relevant offers from local businesses and big brands, and keeps track of offers you find on Google Search, Maps, and more.

You can use them straight away, or the app will remind you next time you’re near the store. Then, all you do is open the app to show your offer at checkout—no printing needed.”

Gift Shopper Pro ($0.99)

[Google Play] [Amazon App Store] New on this year’s list. This was a free app of the Day on the Amazon App Store, so I got it free. This is a great app for keeping track of gifts you’re buying for loved ones for any holiday or occasion you need to track. It is tablet friendly as well.

T-Mobile MobileLife

Available for free [Amazon App Store] (and likely pre-installed) for T-Mobile customers, this app does many things, but my family uses it for a shared and immediately live shopping list. Whenever I discover I’m out or running low on something, I’ll pull my phone out and enter it onto our shopping list. When my wife or I are getting groceries, we’ll pull out this list on our phones and check off the items as we put them in our buggy. What’s great is if I remember something after my wife has already left for the store, I just add it to the list, and she’ll see it while she’s shopping. A non-carrier specific shared shopping list app that’s very popular is “Out Of Milk” [Amazon App Store] [Google Play]

You Chime In

What are some of YOUR favorite apps in this category? Let us know in the comments below.

Conclusion

This completes my list of “Best” shopping apps available to start off 2014. There are, of course, other shopping of apps and this is, by no means, a comprehensive list. Some of these are the apps in this category that I use on a daily basis and install on a new phone or tablet as soon as I get it.

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2012-03-30

Understanding what Android actually IS

Android is not a 1 to 1 comparison to any other mobile OS. Android is something that unifies many mobile devices that used to be different.

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In reality, all those mobile handsets, tablets, and “phablets” are still different from each other, but now they share a significant amount in common. They now share so much in common that people now mistake them as interchangeable like Windows desktop PCs pretty much are.

Folks need to remember that they’re still devices created by the same phone makers that still want their phones to stand out and be unique… like they were before Android. The fact that these phones now have a similar UI and more than zero compatibility now is a huge improvement over the state of the market just a few short years ago when there was NO compatibility. But, this compatibility should really be thought of more as a side effect than as an intent. Sure, the handset makers know there’ll be some compatibility with their competitors simply because they’re starting with the same base code and yes they even sell on that fact, but you should understand that it is really more of a side effect of the fact that they’re starting with the same base code.

Each mobile handset maker still has their OWN OS, despite the fact they all call their OS “Android”. In reality, HTC had “HTC Android”, which is different from say, “Droid Android”, which is different from the “Amazon Kindle Fire Android”.

“Android” simply means that they started their custom OS from a public base of an OS that others also started theirs with, so there are bound to be some similarities, and there are, of course.

If you look at it that way and adjust your expectations to that actual reality, it’s harder to get upset. If you’re looking for an iPhone “exactness across all models” experience, you’re going to be sorely disappointed because it is NOT that, nor is it supposed to be. That could change at some point in the future, but that also would change what Android actually is… which is a base OS that others branch from to form their own without having to start from scratch to save heap-big money. As a side effect, we get a lot of compatibility between devices.

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2012-02-20

How to get the Best Prices on Hard Drives [Updated for May-June 2012]

The technique I outline here for finding the best hard drive prices is timeless, but the specific models and prices I’ve listed are good for only a few days.

Whenever I need a new drive, I shop around online for prices, but like most people, I’m quickly overwhelmed with the plethora of offerings (Thank Goodness for Competition!!!!). There are so many models, with so many different characteristics (speed, capacity, interface, internal/external, brand, warranties, store, taxes, shipping, reliability, etc…) that I always fear that no matter what choice I ultimately make, I’m making a HUGE mistake by not getting another drive from another place that’s significantly cheaper, or faster, or with more storage capacity, simply because there’s not enough time for me to research them all.

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So, I’ve come up with a technique to help me greatly speed up my research and have a reasonable confidence that the choice I make is close to the best available, even if not the absolute best deal ever.

Here’s what I do:

First, I make a simple spreadsheet. It doesn’t matter which spreadsheet program or online spreadsheet you use. Pick your favorite, then follow along.

Create a spreadsheet in your favorite spreadsheet app.
Add columns for source (a link to the product page of the drive), capacity, & price. Feel free to add more columns like Make, Model, Interface, RPMs, etc…
Add a calculated field for price/capacity. The formula for row 2 should look like: =E2/D2 if column E is your price per drive column and column D is where you’re holding your drive capacity. Make certain you use the same units for capacity for all drives. For example, if you write Gigabytes for one drive, don’t put Terabytes for another or your calculations will be wrong (by a THOUSAND FOLD!!!). Choose either Gigabytes or Terabytes, but don’t mix and match.
Go to your favorite online store and search for hard drives, filtered to your needs (for example, maybe you’re only interested in external drives, so filter by that). Use that online store’s feature to sort by cheapest first!
Start entering the data into your spreadsheet. I recommend to NOT add columns that aren’t critical to your decision.
Once you enter a drive with a certain capacity, ignore any drives later in the list that are smaller in capacity because they’re a worse price/GB (since you’ve sorted by price).
1. This part is important to the whole process. Pay special attention to this part! Since you’ve sorted by cheapest first, the first drive of say 500GB you come across will be the CHEAPEST 500GB drive. If you run into LOWER capacity drives, just skip them. Scan ahead in the list until you find a drive that’s BIGGER than 500GB! THIS is how you significantly reduce time browsing the site!
Go to another online store and repeat steps 4-6 at a different online merchant. Continue this until you feel you’ve shopped enough online stores and have enough data to make an informed decision.
Now, sort your spreadsheet by your calculated column. The cheapest price per GB will be at the top.

Below, is a screen shot of my spreadsheet with affiliate links to amazon.com and plain old links to bestbuy.com. Click the image to be taken to my actual Google Docs spreadsheet with the actual data in it and links to each product. Keep in mind though that hard drive prices change on a daily basis, so this data is only relevant for a couple days, but the technique I outlined here should save you hours of research and hopefully save you lots of cash too, as well as give you confidence that when you do make your decision, that it’s well informed.

May-June 2012 (below)

February 2012 (below)

Oh! One more thing: I strongly encourage you to avoid buying a hard drive until the last possible moment that you need it. Why? Because hard drive prices are ALWAYS falling and capacities are ALWAYS getting bigger. The later you wait, the better deal you’ll get.

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