Why do people use Amazon?

Why are Amazon so popular? I've tried using them many times in the past and on nearly every occasion they've screwed up.

You order something that's "available" and two weeks later you're still waiting for it.

More often than not a few months later you'll get an email telling you the item is no longer available. SO, AMAZON, WHY DID YOU SAY IT WAS AVAILABLE?

A few months ago I ordered a soundtrack CD from "Everything is Illuminated". They said it would take 2 weeks. A few weeks later they said it would take 2 months. Then a few weeks after that they said it looked like it wasn't available. The first alternative online store I tried had it in stock and it arrived the next day!

The same thing with the soundtrack CD for "Casanova".

Friends tell me I've just been unlucky, but surely nobody's that unlucky that consistently and repeatedly they find Amazon can't deliver what they promised when they promised.

Then there's the situation of their buying rules that they change at will to suit them NOT the customer.

At the beginning of this year I discovered the wonderful "Movies of the xxs" books by Jurgen Muller. The trouble is that most of the stores I checked didn't have the most recent volume (covering the 90s) and I wasn't prepared to commit to volumes covering the 40s through the 80s if I couldn't get the most recent volume in the series. So I ordered the lot from Amazon using their "only send them all in one package" - I figured that way they would either send the whole series or none at all.

WRONG!

You can guess what happened. The whole order got delayed for a couple of months because they were waiting for a delayed "Movies of the 90s" volume. Then suddenly, without any warning, they sent me all volumes EXCEPT the 90s volume, telling me the 90s volume wouldn't be available until August.

Some months later August is finally here. This morning I received an email telling me the title was no longer available.

SO WHY ADVERTISE IT AND KEEP TELLING ME IT'S ON ITS WAY WHEN IT ISN'T???!!!!!

The same thing happened with a soundtrack CD for "Jewel in the Crown" from one of their resellers. An email telling me it should be shipped within 24 hours. It never arrived and then 2 months later an email out of the blue saying they couldn't source it.

The truth is the vast majority of my orders have been unfullfillable or have taken over 2 weeks to ship when they've been advertised as immediately available.

I won't use them again. For computer books I get an incredible service (and big discounts) from www.compman.co.uk - their customer service is light years ahead of Amazon who deliberately make it difficult to contact them.

So tell me, why do YOU use Amazon? Their discounts can nearly always be beaten. They're one of the few suppliers who don't give free postage until you order a substantial amount. They don't keep to their delivery promises. And yet most seem to love them??!!!

Personally I could do with a good online supplier of non- computer-related books. Any suggestions?