I've had crappy service on UK high streets long before Amazon. A keyboard I got from Tottenham Court Road stopped working within a week so I took it back in person. The shop manager tried to tell me I had to send it to the manufacturer. He backed down when I put the phrase "contractual relationship" into a sentence.
It was one of the many independent shops on that street. Curiously, the place is lately like a physical version of how Doctorow describes Amazon search results in the article: the same narrow selection of products, repeated at different prices.
yeah, the UK high street was definitely ripe for the taking. And Amazon with its cheap prices, no-nonsense customer service and return policy was miles better. The point is that it's no longer really the case.
