Amazon closing AmazonSmile - Page 2

theducks · 01-19-2023, 12:57 PM

I liked that service.
You should see my monthly snail mail. Many charities I used to support think the FUND RAISING is ther most important task. I receive multiple solicitations a MONTH from quite a few.

Also, they never purge their mailing list. My bother in law died in 2017, my Sister died in 2020. THE KEEP MAILING to either name wasting $$$.
And who do some hire for office staff. 'In memory of' does not mean ADD the name to the address

Cactus Chef · 01-19-2023, 02:20 PM

I'm sad to see it go. I had used it for a number of years to contribute to the EFF, FSF, and a couple other orgs I care about. And I could see from the yearly emails they used to send out that it was a non-trivial chunk of change they were getting from myself and others like me. I have an email from Amazon in 2019 stating that the EFF had received a lifetime donation total of $420k through Amazon Smile at that point in time.

jhowell · 01-19-2023, 04:19 PM

Mine is set to donate to my local public library. It is not a big deal to me if it goes away. But I did find the email explaining the closure to be more than a little self serving.

Gardenman · 01-19-2023, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Aw, that is a shame.

I will say that Amazon kept reverting from my smile link and I kept forgetting about it half the time, but I did like the program, just wished they kept the settings saved properly. I had chosen a rabbit rescue organization.

I have wondered how many people knew that you had to use the smile link and not your regular amazon account.

JSWolf · 01-19-2023, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twowheels

twowheels closing Amazon Prime

What's the point? Nothing ships in two days anymore, everything sits for a week before even leaving the warehouse... half of the shipments get lost somewhere between some no-name carrier and USPS... their worker treatment is garbage... they've got a huge counterfeit problem... 99% of what they sell is junk that belongs on wish.com... I've not watched anything on Prime Video in over a year... I've not listened to anything on Amazon Music in just as long...

Time to hang it up.

Even if it's not shipping next day, if you've not reached the price point for free shipping, you get free shipping. Amazon Prime Video I do watch as there are good programs/movies there. The last series I watched was The Peripheral based on the book by William Gibson and it's quite good. Amazon Music is now a mess and I don't use it.

Overall shipping from Amazon works well and comes on time.

JSWolf · 01-19-2023, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Aw, that is a shame.

I will say that Amazon kept reverting from my smile link and I kept forgetting about it half the time, but I did like the program, just wished they kept the settings saved properly. I had chosen a rabbit rescue organization.

I chose a pug charity for Amazon to donate to.

jhowell · 01-19-2023, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Overall shipping from Amazon works well and comes on time.

A lot depends on where you live. Here in the Tampa Bay area many items have same day delivery. Amazon's delivery vans go though our neighborhood multiple times a day.

ownedbycats · 01-19-2023, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhowell

This is the email I received:

Quote:

• Housing Equity Fund: We’re investing $2 billion to build and preserve affordable housing in our hometown communities. In just two years, we’ve provided funding to create more than 14,000 affordable homes—and we expect to build at least 6,000 more in the coming months. These units will host more than 18,000 moderate- to low-income families, many of them with children. In one year alone, our investments have been able to increase the affordable housing stock in communities like Bellevue, Washington and Arlington, Virginia by at least 20%.

I think they made a typo there. They keep saying "affordable housing" rather than "company housing."

JBaby · 01-20-2023, 06:52 AM

The email was such BS because You can’t just say it didn’t have the impact that you wanted when you made it so hard to join Smile to begin with. It wasn’t always obvious that it even existed for a long time. Smile didn’t even work from the iPadOS side of the app. That never made any sense!!!! I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to checkout on my phone. Also, it only worked on iOS if you allowed notifications.

My charity of choice was the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation because I have OI. OI is a rare disease that most people have never heard of so getting donations isn’t the easiest thing to do.

DuskyRose · 01-20-2023, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I have wondered how many people knew that you had to use the smile link and not your regular amazon account.

Probably very few knew this. Took me a while to realize it, and I kept forgetting when I acturally ordered stuff.

I don't think they wanted it to work very well.

Gardenman · 01-20-2023, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

Probably very few knew this. Took me a while to realize it, and I kept forgetting when I acturally ordered stuff.

I don't think they wanted it to work very well.

It was the same with me.

Fiat_Lux · 01-21-2023, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I think they made a typo there. They keep saying "affordable housing" rather than "company housing."

Can company employees afford the "affordable housing" in Bellevue.

Bellevue and "affordable housing" tend to be mutually exclusive concepts.

Company housing would be in Everett or Marysville, but public transit from there to downtown Seattle is, at best, an iffy proposition. Driving is out of the question, because parking in down town Seattle is higher than rent in a boarding house.

chrisridd · 01-21-2023, 08:36 AM

ISTR the prevailing view when they started Smile was that it was to distract from their very low tax payments.

Well, hopefully they'll compensate for their lack of charitable payments with increased tax payments..

DNSB · 01-21-2023, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisridd

Well, hopefully they'll compensate for their lack of charitable payments with increased tax payments..

Great. More coffee snorted onto my keyboard. OTOH, can I get a half kilo of what you've been smoking?

DuckieTigger · 01-22-2023, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

Great. More coffee snorted onto my keyboard. OTOH, can I get a half kilo of what you've been smoking?

Since they are collecting sales tax when needed, Amazon is, in fact, paying a lot of taxes. They still make a lot of profit, and I am sure they use every trick to avoid taxes on that. But then, the only way to avoid taxes on profit is to reinvest the money which creates a tax payment elsewhere.

As for Smile, it was a great way to avoid affiliate links, since checking out with Smile gets rid of all money to affiliates and gives it to my choice of charity (a local school).

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01-19-2023, 12:57 PM	#16
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,965 Karma: 55705602 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I liked that service. You should see my monthly snail mail. Many charities I used to support think the FUND RAISING is ther most important task. I receive multiple solicitations a MONTH from quite a few. Also, they never purge their mailing list. My bother in law died in 2017, my Sister died in 2020. THE KEEP MAILING to either name wasting $$$. And who do some hire for office staff. 'In memory of' does not mean ADD the name to the address

01-19-2023, 02:20 PM	#17
Cactus Chef Addict Posts: 319 Karma: 5736038 Join Date: Apr 2019 Device: Kobo Sage, Kobo Clara HD, Galaxy Tab S5e, Kindle 4th Gen	I'm sad to see it go. I had used it for a number of years to contribute to the EFF, FSF, and a couple other orgs I care about. And I could see from the yearly emails they used to send out that it was a non-trivial chunk of change they were getting from myself and others like me. I have an email from Amazon in 2019 stating that the EFF had received a lifetime donation total of $420k through Amazon Smile at that point in time.

01-19-2023, 04:19 PM	#18
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,557 Karma: 84810789 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Tampa Bay, Florida Device: Kindles	Mine is set to donate to my local public library. It is not a big deal to me if it goes away. But I did find the email explaining the closure to be more than a little self serving.

01-20-2023, 06:52 AM	#24
JBaby Zealot Posts: 148 Karma: 3719858 Join Date: May 2013 Location: Parsons, KS Device: 11th Gen Paperwhite SE, 2021 iPad Pro 11” & iPhone 11 Pro	The email was such BS because You can’t just say it didn’t have the impact that you wanted when you made it so hard to join Smile to begin with. It wasn’t always obvious that it even existed for a long time. Smile didn’t even work from the iPadOS side of the app. That never made any sense!!!! I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to checkout on my phone. Also, it only worked on iOS if you allowed notifications. My charity of choice was the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation because I have OI. OI is a rare disease that most people have never heard of so getting donations isn’t the easiest thing to do.

01-21-2023, 08:36 AM	#28
chrisridd Guru Posts: 946 Karma: 2146660 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: London, UK Device: Kobo Aura, Kobo Aura ONE, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	ISTR the prevailing view when they started Smile was that it was to distract from their very low tax payments. Well, hopefully they'll compensate for their lack of charitable payments with increased tax payments..

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