Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE - 10/20/2019: I AM GOING TO TOSS THIS WORTHLESS PIECE OF JUNK INTO THE GARBAGE. Actually, I'm debating over whether to just toss it into the dumpster, or to set up a video I could take wherein I will bash this piece of junk into a million pieces with a sledge hammer, and share it with "the Amazon community." ALL I WANT IS A FREAKING CLOCK THAT SHOWS THE OUTDOOR TEMPERATURE -- any link to one of the usual online weather sites will provide a temperature that's close enough for me. And, occasionally, this thing will show that to me. However, a few weekends ago, it utterly would not show the clock. Over the following week, it appeared that Amazon had "fixed something," and the clock showed properly again. But this weekend, my carefully-chosen color scheme (a simple blue background with white characters) was gone, replaced by a hideous black background with orange digits. Is this Amazon's way of "sharing the Halloween season" with me? WELL, WHERE IS THE "TURN ALL OF THE AMAZON BULL---- OFF" SETTING, SO I CAN MAKE THIS THING DO WHAT =I= WANT IT TO DO, INSTEAD OF AMAZON DECIDING WHAT TO DO WITH IT???? Of course, there is no such thing, and the way Amazon "works," THERE NEVER WILL BE ANY SUCH THING. That's it -- I'm done. Not just with the Echo Show 5, but for any "Amazon connected" product. There is no way in ---- that I'm going to let Amazon or anyone else decide what some device in my home will or will not do. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, how difficult can it possibly be to just LEAVE ME THE HECK ALONE, or to include some kind of setting to "not allow Amazon to change the screen layout" and so on? I'll replace this piece of crap with a simple clock that will show me the time, and be done with it. THIS WAS A MASSIVE, MISERABLE MISTAKE. And make absolutely no mistake about it, people: YOU DO NOT CONTROL THIS DEVICE. AMAZON DOES. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE - 9/30/2019: Well, I kept the relatively useless thing. The alarm setting is so nonsensical that I have never, ever used this as an "alarm" clock. But over the weekend, apparently Amazon has screwed up its servers or something, and now THE THING WON'T EVEN WORK AS A "CLOCK." Nope, I absolutely cannot get it to show a simple "clock" face for more than a minute or two, and then it wanders off and shows something else. I have reached out on a customer forum, and apparently this has been happening to plenty of other folks. BEWARE, PEOPLE: This thing is controlled by Amazon. IT IS NOT CONTROLLED BY YOU. Amazon does not give you the controls, or the power, to make it do what YOU want it to do. It will only do what AMAZON decides it shall do. So, useless as an "alarm" clock, and now useless as a "clock." I'm unplugging it and throwing it into the dumpster right after submitting this. USELESS. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have a rather old-fashioned Sony digital alarm "clock radio," which does the one thing I want to do with "alarms" -- you know, THE REASON WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO PURCHASE AN "ALARM CLOCK?" You see, I want an alarm to ring at 4:30 AM on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I SURE AS HECK DON'T WANT TO WAKE UP THAT EARLY ON ANY OTHER DAYS. Gosh golly gee, you might think that with this INTERNET-ENABLED, VOICE-CONTROLLED, NINETY DOLLAR PAPERWEIGHT, you could control alarms with pin-point precision, with any setup configuration you could POSSIBLY CONJURE UP, right? FOR CRYING OUT FREAKING LOUD. Heck, YOU CAN'T EVEN CHOOSE TO REPEAT AN ALARM ON ANY GIVEN DAY OF THE WEEK, at least via the device, or via the "Alexa app" they want you to use. THERE ISN'T EVEN THIS SIMPLE OPTION, ANYWHERE WITHIN EITHER OF THOSE MEANS OF "CONTROLLING" THIS WORTHLESS PILE OF GARBAGE. However, you CAN go to an "Alexa" web page, and finally, find an option to choose ONE day of the week for an alarm. Oh, but I want the alarm to go off on THREE different days. No problem, right? NOT WITH THIS NINETY-DOLLAR WORTHLESS PILE OF GARBAGE! After stumbling around to find ANY means of assigning an alarm to a day of the week, only to find it on some web page THAT MIGHT NOT BE AROUND THE NEXT TIME YOU WANT TO USE IT, you will find that, no, you can't assign it to multiple days of the week. OK, fine. So, after making my 4:30 AM alarm that will go off every Tuesday, I'll just make another 4:30 AM alarm that will go off every Thursday. Right? OF COURSE, THIS NINETY-DOLLAR WORTHLESS PILE OF GARBAGE WON'T LET YOU DO THAT. What part of "YOU ONLY GET ONE ALARM FOR ANY GIVEN TIME" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? OH, FOR CRYING OUT FREAKING LOUD!! This is sheer, utter, moronic incompetence. THIS DANG PIECE OF GARBAGE IS CONTROLLED BY A COMPUTER. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MAKE IT DO ANYTHING YOU WANT IT TO DO. I can't even comprehend the utter, dripping incompetence of some group of twenty-something "programmers" who couldn't even think of why and how ordinary human beings might use "an alarm clock." ABSOLUTELY UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLE. I won't just return this to Kohl's -- I'll warn them as I walk in the door to duck, as I hurl it at them, as hard as I can. Amazon, you are an incompetent pack of imbeciles.