Community Chat

[Spurt]

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@reviewer from sc wrote:

This is the e-mail that I received:

Dear Customer:

In 2013, we launched AmazonSmile to make it easier for customers to support their favorite charities. However, after almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped. With so many eligible organizations—more than 1 million globally—our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.

We are writing to let you know that we plan to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. We will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change—from building affordable housing to providing access to computer science education for students in underserved communities to using our logistics infrastructure and technology to assist broad communities impacted by natural disasters.

To help charities that have been a part of the AmazonSmile program with this transition, we will be providing them with a one-time donation equivalent to three months of what they earned in 2022 through the program, and they will also be able to accrue additional donations until the program officially closes in February. Once AmazonSmile closes, charities will still be able to seek support from Amazon customers by creating their own wish lists.

As a company, we will continue supporting a wide range of other programs that help thousands of charities and communities across the U.S. For instance:

Housing Equity Fund: We’re investing $2 billion to build and preserve affordable housing in our hometown communities. In just two years, we’ve provided funding to create more than 14,000 affordable homes—and we expect to build at least 6,000 more in the coming months. These units will host more than 18,000 moderate- to low-income families, many of them with children. In one year alone, our investments have been able to increase the affordable housing stock in communities like Bellevue, Washington and Arlington, Virginia by at least 20%

Amazon Future Engineer: We’ve funded computer science curriculum for more than 600,000 students across over 5,000 schools—all in underserved communities. We have plans to reach an additional 1 million students this year. We’ve also provided immediate assistance to 55,000 students in our hometown communities by giving them warm clothes for the winter, food, and school supplies.

Community Delivery Program: We’ve partnered with food banks in 35 U.S. cities to deliver more than 23 million meals, using our logistics infrastructure to help families in need access healthy food – and we plan to deliver 12 million more meals this year alone. In addition to our delivery services, we’ve also donated 30 million meals in communities across the country.

Amazon Disaster Relief: We’re using our logistics capabilities, inventory, and cloud technology to provide fast aid to communities affected by natural disasters. For example, we’ve created a Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta with more than 1 million relief items ready for deployment, our Disaster Relief team has responded to more than 95 natural disasters, and we’ve donated more than 20 million relief products to nonprofits assisting communities on the ground.

Community Giving: We support hundreds of local nonprofits doing meaningful work in cities where our employees and their families live. For example, each year we donate hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations working to build stronger communities, from youth sport leagues, to local community colleges, to shelters for families experiencing homelessness.

We’ll continue working to make a difference in many ways, and our long-term commitment to our communities remains the same—we’re determined to do every day better for our customers, our employees, and the world at large.

Thank you for being an Amazon customer.

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@reviewer from sc 

What a bunch of 🐂

[Imaoldhippie]

With the recent large hike in Prime rate, we are considering dropping Prime next year.  Our Smile donation goes to our county animal shelter, now they will be loosing that.  Yet another incentive to drop Prime.

[Goodie2shoes]

I also got the email and it's very disappointing. My smile purchase donations went to my church.  Hope maybe at some point they will reinstate it

[bikerbabe]

I call bull on it. It makes a big difference for very small charities for whom every dollar matters and several small animal rescues I support have said so on their social media. I’m not happy.

[Catlady Nicole]

I am also disappointed to learn this, got the email last night.  It's just another reason I'm reconsidering my relationship with Amazon.  First they quietly do away with two day shipping as a Prime benefit (odd since two warehouses opened within 50 miles of me last year), and now this.  I'm not renewing my Prime membership next week when it's due, I don't utilize many of the other benefits that come with it so I'm going to see how I fare without it.  A friend and I were chatting about it, how long before Amazon becomes a memory and a meme!

[Meowingkitty]

Mine went to the Arizona Humane Society. All those puppies, kitties, bunnies were really helped by that money. So sad. Maybe they should just ask if you would like to round up your purchases for charity like other places do.

[MamaWick]

Ours went to our local animal shelter who receives no tax dollars and relies solely on donations.  This is so very sad..

[PA Mom-mom]

@MorningLover  I also received and email yesterday about this sad news. My chosen charity is Williams Syndrome Association. My granddaughter was born with Williams Syndrome, and I always felt my purchases from Amazon had a special meaning. I contribute in other ways, but to me this feature of Amazon gave me the feeling that the retailer was doing something special for my family. I answered the email from Amazon and told them I am disappointed. 

ETA: Don't just reply to the email you were sent. It well get returned. I'm going to do the following as quoted from @stevieb 

The below is listed as their email address, but I have no idea what it'll net anyone wanting to contact them. Phoning with complaints has become a waste of time, it seems to me, as they promise the moon but don't deliver, and chat is pretty much the same. Their 'virtual agent' is completely worthless, as most of them are.

cs-reply@amazon.com

[stevieb]

@Spurt  Hey there, I'm hanging in as the saying goes. Hoping all is well with you. Indeed, Amazon is a shadow of the company they once were, but no, I don't think they've fallen quite to the depths that has the Once Mighty, who still owns the BS crown in my book, you know, despite changes in alleged leadership...

No matter how many times I call them, Amazon's drivers now almost never deliver to apartment doors, preferring the ease of leaving everything, no matter how cumbersome, in the lobby... Food ordered from Fresh often has mere days before the Best By date, and calling CS nets difficult to understand agents who are usually very nice and promise to take care of one's concerns, but they persist. Then, a few days later, you get an email from 'logisitics' asking you do update delivery instructions, when your instructions have been clear and complete all along. Then there's the forced choice format of virtually anything they ask you to complete, and often none of the choices apply. The pricing games have become legion and increasingly they want you to order multiples to net any savings... Just no... Their 'Smile' program was one of the few remaining points of light and if they take that away in favor of them donating to the charities they choose, you know, that push all the right and PC button, well, they can just stuff their Prime, especially given what are now seeming like annual increases...

As for the Commandos (insert eyeroll)... I have, as you know, NO interest and as for Little Danny, I wouldn't wish him on England... There are far better places for the likes of him, you know, like the inner circle of hades... What a slimy little third (and yes, the h is silent... ) he turned out to be, but then many of us knew it all along... I do hope whoever buys them rethinks that ridiculous name and returns them to the proud franchise they once were... Though I was not a big fan, they were never a regional embarassment on so many levels until he got hold of them... 

Take care...

[mimomof4]

I was sad to read that Amazon made this change.  I was even more sad to read where they wanted to spend money instead as those were not areas which met my values.  I was more willing to make purchases using Amazon because my purchase made an impact to a local charity.