Amazon retires Dash Buttons in favour of virtual alternatives

[HEXUS]

But will continue to support the existing range of Dash Button hardware devices.

Read more.

[Ttaskmaster]

AH-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, but I thought this was a ridiculous product concept the moment I first saw it, so it comes as no surprise that it's flopped like this....

Reminds me of another recent thread where I was railing against other peoples' praises for Amazon's services.
I was actually shopping on Amazon just last night and had to Google why I couldn't get the items posted to me... apparently someone once sent me a gift that they bought off Amazon, so my address was a Registered Gift address and was thus verboten for anything sold in their Marketplace by other sellers. I had to do some ouiji fiddling and reconfig my profile, before creating a shopping list and moving everything over to that, then adding it to my basket and then trying to Checkout.... none of which was explained on Amazon's website.

So naturally, I'm feeling a little cruel and heartless toward the Rainforest Retailer, today...

[cheesemp]

Meh - I ordered a few when you got £5 off the first item ordered by the button (so £2 saving per item after button cost). Ordered from them each once and bin them after checking that they cannot really be purposed easily.

[spacein_vader]

fter checking that they cannot really be purposed easily.

Oh but they can.

https://www.dashbuttondudes.com/blog/2015/12/11/26-amazon-dash-button-hacks

[cheesemp]

fter checking that they cannot really be purposed easily.

Oh but they can.

https://www.dashbuttondudes.com/blog/2015/12/11/26-amazon-dash-button-hacks

They all require network sniffing. I just don't have the home network setup for this. If you could have reprogrammed them I might have bothered.

[AGTDenton]

I've never found their grocery items to be much cheaper than going to the supermarket. Quite a lot of it is more expensive on Amazon.
I thought it was a con that you had to buy the dash button when ironically they want you to spend more. Should have always been free never understood that, a convenient item at an inconvenient price.

[peterb]

I've never found their grocery items to be much cheaper than going to the supermarket. Quite a lot of it is more expensive on Amazon.
I thought it was a con that you had to buy the dash button when ironically they want you to spend more. Should have always been free never understood that, a convenient item at an inconvenient price.

Well they were effectively free as the purchase price of the dash button was refunded against the first purchase of the product. But I personally never found them appealing, the products usually weren’t things I’d impulse buy, and where I had plenty of warning that I was getting low on anyway.

[Output]

But I personally never found them appealing, the products usually weren’t things I’d impulse buy, and where I had plenty of warning that I was getting low on anyway.

They always seemed to be fulfilling a need that wasn't there, no matter how much they tried to create one.

Now that they are retiring them, maybe they'll repurpose it by making them programmable by anyone (rather than the limitation of the DNS workaround that others have used for that purpose) under a different name.

it still seems likely it would be too limited to be worth bothering with for most people to me, but maybe that version would actually be more useful to some.

[philehidiot]

The other issue is this completely removes the process of price checking. It's the same with "subscribe and save". They've got people lazy, using Alexa, buttons and regular subscriptions to order without checking the price. Then the price shoots up.

I used to pay £2.50 per toothbrush head. Now they are nearly £50 for 4... I was pestered repeatedly to put them on an auto subscription to save 5% or something. I declined. End result? Well, I'll be buying the cheap 3rd party ones or switching to a manual toothbrush.

Granted this is my only datapoint but it seems very suspect.

[lyesbkz]

I don't think I could ever order something without knowing the price. I would have to immediately open the email confirmation to check I was prepared to pay the amount, and then I might as well have ordered it the traditional way!

Is there anything to protect consumers against ridiculous price hikes on items ordered using dash buttons? Their pricing seems to fluctuate quite considerably...

[philehidiot]

I don't think I could ever order something without knowing the price. I would have to immediately open the email confirmation to check I was prepared to pay the amount, and then I might as well have ordered it the traditional way!

Is there anything to protect consumers against ridiculous price hikes on items ordered using dash buttons? Their pricing seems to fluctuate quite considerably...

I'm very heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem. I have a couple of Fire TV sticks, a Fire HDX tablet, 2 Echo Dots, Prime and so on. Hell, even my home alarm can be connected to it (but I'm struggling to see the advantage and so I'm not doing it for obvious reasons). First thing I did when I got my Dots was to disable being able to buy anything using them. I have never seen any kind of protective mechanism whereby you can tell it to confirm a repeat order if the price increases by X% or over a certain amount.

[Ttaskmaster]

I used to pay £2.50 per toothbrush head. Now they are nearly £50 for 4...

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttt?????!!!!!
Are they made of titanium, or something? Are you an elephant with exceptionally big tusks?

[ik9000]

I saw this just last night. Last year 25 isopropyl alcohol wipes £6.39. Now? £22. NB if you hunt around the site you can find the same wipes pack of 50 for £22.50. Both sold directly from Amazon. NEVER USE BUY IT AGAIN!

[Hoonigan]

This one made me laugh. Who is going through that much boot polish that they need to be able to order it conveniently and quickly, one at a time?

[Ttaskmaster]

This one made me laugh. Who is going through that much boot polish that they need to be able to order it conveniently and quickly, one at a time?

You'd be surprised!
I would wonder whether you'd need separate buttons for tan, brown, black and parade gloss, though...

[big_hairy_rob]

Sorry, but I thought this was a ridiculous product concept the moment I first saw it, so it comes as no surprise that it's flopped like this....

My view also. Plus with many people buying for price rather than any particular brand kind of leaves the whole 'brand loyalty' thing dead in the water...