Good deeds are supposed to be rewarded, but all too often they simply go unnoticed. When Reddit user zambuka42 had a good experience dealing with Amazon customer service, he decided to let his friends at the social news site know about it. Now, half a million people have read what happened and the number continues to rise. It all started with an order for some merchandise that was sent to his parents’ house. Amazon performed their part properly and the order was received. Getting the order to zambuka42 was a little more challenging as he is currently volunteering in Tanzania. When the USPS lost the…

When costs are high and demand is low, it’s time to cut out the middle man. That seems to be what Amazon is doing in their latest move to expand both their reach and influence as they will be publishing 122 books this fall directly from the writers’ works. They’re publishing program has been available for some time but this is the first time that they are actually threatening to do something with it. To accelerate the move and bring credibility to the product, they hired veteran publisher Laurence Kirshbaum to run the program. Kirshbaum, 67. was CEO of Time Warner Book Group until 2005. He was hired earlier…

Steam has more competition coming its way as Amazon is expected to offer PC game pre-orders on digital downloads starting today. The online sales giant already offers downloads of current titles such as Civilation V and NBA 2K12. Now, they will join Steam, EA’s Origin, and other online retailers in offering pre-orders with additional content and other pre-order-inducing incentives. They plan on starting with some of the popular games due out before the holidays, including Battlefield 3, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Saints Row: The Third, and Sims 3. Amazon has long used their clout, superior…

Based on one research firm’s estimates, online retailer Amazon may have sold 95,000 units of its all-new Kindle Fire tablet in the first day the device was available for pre-order. “eDataSource’s panel of 800,000 [email] inboxes allows us to gain insight into eCommerce sales” said Carter Nicholas, CEO of eDataSource, a leading provider of online competitive intelligence. “Within hours we can get a read on hot product launches based on sales from leading eCommerce websites.” By analyzing purchase receipts received by email, eDataSource is able to estimate the daily orders placed at major…

Amazon unveiled its all-new tablet computer today, adding the more robust Kindle Fire to its well-established line of Kindle e-readers. The Kindle Fire isn’t merely a copy of Apple’s dominant iPad. Instead, it’s far smaller and cheaper than its main rival. Powered by Google’s Android operating system, the Kindle Fire provides a platform for games, movies, music and other applications. Unlike the current iPad, the Fire doesn’t need to be backed up on a PC. Instead, it backs up its content wirelessly on Amazon’s servers. “That model that you have to back up your own content is a broken…

“Heading out for a Big Gulp and a Kindle,” you might end up saying to your loved one soon. In an eCommerce world where just about anything that people need can be purchased online and mailed to us, logistics and risk of theft of packages left at the door make for concerns, albeit minor for most. There’s the PO Box option, but the post office isn’t always located conveniently. One thing that is located conveniently in many cities across the country are 7-Eleven convenient stores. In an apparent partnership between Amazon and 7-Eleven, these delivery lockers are starting to roll out in Seattle. Geekwire…

Seven states are currently taxing out-of-state online retailers. The practice, called the “Affiliate Taxes” or “Amazon Taxes”, are spreading rapidly as the catalog loophole that has protected them for years is being re-evaluated. What does this mean from one state to the next? Which states are doing it, which states are considering it, and which states are safe. Perhaps most importantly, what does all of this mean for the future of online retailers? These and other questions are discussed in this infographic by our tax-talented friends at Intuit. Click to enlarge. …

According to reports, Amazon.com is planning to battle Apple with the launch of its own tablet computer. The device will reportedly hit the market by October and it will help the online retailer sell its music, movies, and other types of digital content. Since introducing the iPad last year, Apple had sold 19.5 million of the devices as of the end of March. It is far and away the leader in the tablet market, so Amazon’s looming entry into the tablet market will undoubtedly have a long road ahead of it. Although Amazon has yet to officially comment on this new tablet, reports suggest it will have a nine-inch…

Regardless of which side of the debate you’re on, one thing is clear: Jeff Bezos and Amazon are fighting with everything they’ve got to keep states from imposing sales taxes on affiliate sales. In March, we reported the cutoff notices sent by Amazon to many affiliates in certain states.  The fight continues and Bezos is going on the offensive, appealing to Washington to step in and protect them. “We will continue to drop states who pass those affiliate laws, from the affiliate program,” CEO Jeff Bezos said at the ShopSmart Summit in New York in May. “In the U.S., the Constitution prohibits states…

When Amazon rolled out their cloud player, it streamed sounds from the cloud flawlessly on Android and the web but wasn’t working at all on iOS. It wasn’t a Flash issue, nor was there any indication why it was so. It simply didn’t work. That changed today. No announcements, no updates. It simply started working. When you first visit Amazon’s Cloud Player from an iPhone or iPad, you get the standard warning that the browser is incompatible, but if you skip passed it you’ll see that it works. This would be an indication that the change was made on Apple’s end, not Amazon’s. That is not the case, and the warning…