There’s a very simple reason Amazon is crushing its competition and that is: Amazon never makes you jump through hoops to give them money.

— Josh Centers (@jcenters) July 24, 2021

This is exactly right. For all the talk about Amazon’s monopoly (some of which is correct), usually shopping for something at Amazon is just a better experience.

As a recent personal example, I ordered a very expensive workstation from Dell with a corporate credit card. It was to be delivered to a corporate address that has received dozens of Dells in the past. The order was flagged as fraud for no known reason and I got a threatening email that unless I called within a short period of time to confirm, the order would be automatically cancelled.

I called and the Dell customer service person treated me like I was a criminal, and like it was absolutely insane that I was attempting to order, of all things, a computer from Dell. You’d think I was attempting to purchase the services of a hit man or something, the way I was treated.

Now, a few days later, I am still not sure if I’ve jumped through enough hoops to prove to Dell that yes, we’d like to give them $5,000 for a machine. I still have no order confirmation and I do not see the order on the site under the account. I expect the order has been stealth-cancelled but I am not able to get accurate information from anyone, especially those who can barely speak English who usually answer calls to Dell.

Why make it hard to give you money? Knowing what I know now, I’ll never attempt to order anything like this from Dell again. As long as it comes with a warranty, I will just get it from Amazon.