When ordering new or used books, CD's, DVD's from one of Amazon.com's small vendors, a customer is offered 3 shipping options: Standard Shipping, Expedited U.S. and International.

In the USPS handbook of regulations, Standard Shipping is flatly defined as Parcel Post rate, nothing else.

Media Mail service is not offered by Amazon, but Media Mail is the service most Amazon small vendors are giving Amazon customers in order to maintain their profit margin. Media Mail service costs less that Parcel Post or 1st Class rate, and takes far longer for the shipment to deliver to its destination than either Parcel Post or 1st Class mail.

For example, a single book sent Parcel Post or 1st Class from NYC to Honolulu will typically reach its destination in 7-10 days, whereas a book sent Media Mail rate will typically take 29 days or more-- a difference of weeks. And shipping Media Mail, the longer transit time (up to 6 weeks, cross country) means greater risk of damage to the shipment with repeated handling and processing, and the routine open inspection of Media Mail, to which Parcel Post and 1st Class are not subject.

The customer pays for Standard Shipping, defined by USPS regulations as Parcel Post service, but the customer gets Media Mail Service.

I phoned Amazon Customer Service, and was told that for a vendor to arbitrarily decide to ship by Media Mail when the customer has paid for Standard Shipping, is flatly against Amazon policy. But every Amazon small vendor I've written to or talked with, says that Amazon actually suggests that sellers ship via Media Mail. They also complain that Amazon has been eating into more and more of the small vendor's profit margin with the fees and commission it extracts, and that it's useless complaining about it to Amazon. So Amazon cheats its small vendors, and these small vendors cheat the customers in turn.

A customer can argue with these small vendors about this issue until they're blue in the face, but most often, you get nowhere. And likewise, you get no help from Amazon, other than a referral to their A-Z Guarantee, which does not cover this issue. Making out an Amazon complaint form is not only time consuming and pointless, as no response or action from Amazon follows it, but Amazon limits customers to submitting 5 complaint forms in their lifetime business relationship with Amazon!!!

The fact remains, that in most media transactions, even though the Amazon customer pays for Standard Shipping (Parcel Post service), they still don't get their merchandise for weeks, because they're getting cheated with Media Mail Service by the small vendors.

I've found it helpful to instead order the media directly through a small vendor Amazon has listed as having the item, without going through Amazon at all, or to contact the small vendor ahead of making the purchase on Amazon and getting a pledge from them to ship 1st Class or Parcel Post for the Standard Shipping fee paid to Amazon, which many have been willing to do.

Well, this is short and sweet! My husband ordered a book from Amazon.com and then a few weeks later, a $79 charge appeared on our account. This is such a deceptive business practice. Reason being is that people ordering a book from them are not knowingly signing up for this 'Prime Membership' that is billed annually. I did a google search and discovered that there are HUNDREDS of complaints! Listen up Amazon, if that many customers out there are pissed off and not knowingly signing up for this membership, perhaps you should figure out another way to gain business for that product!!! Granted 'its in the small, fine print' Hence, the asterick strikes again!

Amazon.com will apparently refund back your money, just call 866-557-2820. Or logon to your account to manage your 'Prime Membership' But nevertheless, they need to figure out a better method than automatically signing people up. We will NEVER order from AMAZON.com again!! Never. Period.

I have filed two separate complaints (within last 9 months)with Amazon regarding poor packing practices when shipping electronics and other sensitive or breakable items.
The first complaint was done through the standard customer service line while the last was done with a direct phone call and email to Amazon corporate offices.

I began 7 years ago using Amazon consistently for on-line ordering and was very pleased with expediency of order fulfillment, customer service with a misinformation of a product through one of the store fronts and concern regarding gear that came in in a damage box. Overall packaging quality at that time was good and with ordering photography equipment packing was, in my opinion, a natural concern.

Beginning at the end of 2007 when ordering Christmas gifts, I noticed a significant deterioration with packaging and initially allowed benefit of the doubt due to Christmas season. However my next order and subsequent orders came in with minimal to no packing and damaged cartons.

When calling customer service and also corresponding with corporate office, I was advised in each situation issues would be passed to fulfillment. My call to corporate headquarters spurred by my having started a company, placed and order and the box arriving damaged. I refused the package, called customer service and had issues there in having the order replaced. I than contacted Amazon corporate headquarters offering a dollar volume of business I had done, explaining the nature of my business and addressing concerns regarding packaging.

Ultimately, it was inferred I should not refuse orders (anyone using Amazon is most likely familiar with their process of take in a package and than call customer service with issues) and the packing concerns I had would be passed to fulfillment.

Today there is a discussion with the photography/canon (Amazon tags) that has been addressing this issue ongoing. Personally, I have closed my corporate account and have scoured the web searching for other on-line services from which to make purchase while using Amazon as a price comparison base, individual reviews of various items and looking at photographs for specific lenses I am considering buying.

Overall, I would like to continue purchasing from Amazon but can not given the apparent lack of response to mine and other complaints that while possibly passed to fulfillment, have not been responded to in noticeable manner, meaning better quality packing.

I received an email from amazon marketplace informing me that my bank debit card had been charged $239.94 for my merchant account. I immediately contacted them at their email address and informed them that I have never signed up for a market place account or any other services and that I wanted my money back.

I received an email back from amazon that told me that they would refund my money. I contacted them again and asked when this would happen and I have never received another response or my money back.

I contacted my state attorney generals office on their web site and filed a complaint and I also contacted the better business bureau and filed a complaint. As of today, I have not had a response from anyone.

The only thing I have ever purchased from amazon was a critter tunnel and that was a year ago. I guess that they saved my debit card information and just waited until they thought that I would not notice this transaction. My purchase from them a year ago was only 15.00 (approximately) I would advise anyone that uses this company to use a prepaid card that you can throw away after use. that way they can't steal your money later on.

My only income is social security disability and the amount they took was almost half of my check. I guess they don't care if people have money to eat on and pay their electric bill for the month. Be Aware of this company. I have saved all of my email to and from this company.

I saw a story on this website about a a person who was a third-party seller with Amazon, and one day he got an email from 'Amazon Alliance' stating that he had been permanently barred from selling on Amazon. This happened to me as well.

In December of 2004, after barely a year of selling (and maintaining what I thought was an OK seller rating) we received the ominous email, and just like the other guy said, this was a PERMANENT action taken by Amazon. We grossed over $40K that year, and we thought everything was under control. We pleaded with Amazon to lift the ban, but to no avail.

If the person who wrote the previous article is serious about a class action suit, I may be willing to participate. Someone has to stop Amazon from taking what I consider to be cruel and certainly UNUSUAL steps to punish those who they believe have broken the rules...I do not recall giving any of my constitutional rights away to become a member of the Amazon team.