One of the reasons why I like this place is that if find similarities with people in here also in small things. Like being addicted to Amazon. very addicted. On-click is my drug

At work, security desk (where packages get delivered) guards expect few packages for me every week. That is because I use Amazon for both personal and work purchases. Today I received three. A book for SWMBO, a wireless keyboard for my HTPC, three CDs for myself.

Amazon Prime in Italy has no general delivery time, but for every item you order you're told beforehand when delivery will occur; they are right 99% of the times. Actually, based on my experience since Prime started (I subscribed as soon as it was available too), they are only wrong, and rarely, when a third vendor is involved. Otherwise, they're just always right in their estimates. Most times, that is 2 days. But very often it is just 1 day. And they keep improving by the day. Few times, I ordered at 10:00pm from home while watching TV, and got the package on my desk the morning after. That means, I would say, that if I had ordered in the morning, I would have received the package that very day. Amazing. Really.

Interestingly, packages are most times not from Italy, in spite of me ordering from amazon.it . Most packages are from France, several from Germany, less often from the UK, but that happens to. Once I got a package fro Poland, so they must have some storage facility there too. Clearly Amazon has a network of storage facilities in EU that all ship to several countries in the union.

More interestingly, I've been a customer of Amazon.com (meaning US) since before amazon.it was available. Prices have typically been so good, often due to the favorable exchange rate, that on specific items it was still convenient to order form the US in spite of custom taxes. That was particularly true before 9/11, after which Customs got wild here in the name of safety and security, adding a great deal of uncertainty in terms of custom taxes and delivery times.
Well, my account immediately and seamlessly translated to every other amazon site. Carts and related features (save for later, for example) are obviously separated, but wish-lists, logon credentials, payment methods and most (not all) shipping addresses are in common, which made Amazon a quite unique case in my experience where nationalized websites did not add confusion and frustration.
Superb is the currency conversion service they add between the Eurozone and UK. Even there, they proved excellent.

Today, I often check from amazon.co.uk if a specific item is more convenient in Pounds rather than in Euros. Unlikely, but it happens, and because they let you switch prices from Euro to Pound and vice versa, you can see it right away. And, by letting you pay in Euro if you purchase in the UK, they take the currency conversion risk. Again unique in this compared to any other on-line store.

Prices in the Eurozone are now identical, but there used to be some inexplicable differences between Italy and France and Germany, for some reason.

I now buy even just a 8 Euro CD from them. I'd rather wait one day than having to drive or even just walk to the music store round the corner. Because they still exist - music stores, I mean -, don't they? I haven't checked for a while now...

I mean, I look at their website (I agree it could use some improvement in various areas, but that really is not enough to make me less than enthusiastic with the purchasing experience from them) and I am amazed to how their product range is expanding. And they're so good that I feel they deserve their success.

I've returned items foru or five times for various reasons, and while I had (and gave them) some suggestions to make the return process smoother, all cases ended up well.

What did you guys buy from Amazon? I bought all sorts of IT hardware, ranging from mice to some rack shelving to Drobos and Synology NAS units to networking devices of all price ranges to cabling of all sorts - and edned up loving Amazon Basics products and packaging - to HiFi components; a couple of Cisco IP Phones I could not wait to get from Cisco. Tons of CDs. Shoes. Clothing (including --> Steampunk Corsets <-- for SWMBO's halloween costume :D).
I am indeed spoiled. I forgot how the world was before Amazon. I shiver at the thought of it. Worse than that is just the world without the Internet.