Amazon. . . Grr.

[Cudedog]

Thought this needed a new thread (sorry for the hijack!):

I ordered some little stuff for Cruiser on Amazon. Prime doesn't mean much here... Ordered Sunday. Delivery won't be till Friday. On the items it showed Wed for Prime. Prime isn't what it used to be.

Although I still order quite a lot from Amazon (because they are, basically, the only game in town) I have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Amazon over the last couple of years.

I had had Amazon Prime for many years, but as of early this year (2017) I dropped Prime. Why? Because of the reason Beth stated, and a few more:

My Prime orders started to arrive slower and slower. For example (and this is not the only example) after looking everywhere else for this item, I ordered a bulb for my Coleman lantern through Prime that should have been to my house in two days (according to Prime). After a month of waiting, I contacted the seller, who (it turned out) was in Asia. I think Hong Kong, but don't remember. Had I known the item was coming from overseas, I would not have ordered. The seller stated that the item had been shipped, but since it had been so long he would refund.

Other deliveries on Prime items (2-day delivery - guaranteed!) just continued to get slower and slower. One week. Two weeks. Three weeks. Ugh.

To make a long story short(er), the bulb never arrived, and the promised refund never materialized. Since it was past the Amazon 30-day "guarantee" period I was out the $19.95 for the bulb. My patience was rewarded by getting screwed. $19.95 will not break me, but it does annoy the heck out of me.

Another reason I had Prime was because of all of the videos they have on tap, for free (supposedly) streaming. On many different occasions I would look up a movie that I wanted to watch (none of these movies was younger than 15 or 20 years old) and Amazon wanted to charge me an additional $4.95 per "rental" (over my $100/year Prime fee - that is advertised to include free streaming) to watch a 15 or 20 year old movie. Really? No thanks.

And, finally this year, no thanks to Amazon Prime too. I dropped Prime this past February.

Have continued to order stuff though Amazon, though, because it is easy to place orders, the stuff I tend to order is not available locally, and the stuff comes - eventually.

Most of the time.

Thanks.

Anne

[Bethers]

I'll probably drop Prime, also. They've screwed up several times. I'll wait and manage the minimum order for free shipping. I've also discovered Amazon often isn't the lowest price.... I've been doing good ordering somethings from WalMart.

[monik7]

I looked back and found I got $58 refunded to me by Amazon since June this year because of problems getting the items from two orders when guaranteed. I think the two of you should have contacted customer service in a timely manner to complain. Maybe you don’t like to take the time to do that, but I take exception when something is guaranteed to arrive on a specific date and it doesn’t. Maybe you don’t feel you have the time to protest. I’ve always said,” Between time and money, I have a lot of time.” I was refunded the $58 for items that did not arrive as guaranteed and I still received those items. I’m fine with receiving my orders free. It didn’t take that much of my time. I just will not roll over and allow myself to be cheated and lose my hard-earned money no matter the amount - large or small.
Sandi

[Bethers]

Sandi, in this case I didn't notice Amazon changed the delivery time in the cart. I did call... Probably didn't argue enough... But last year I called when Prime to my address in Tucson was a week, but if I used one of their new boxes (located at some convenience stores) they'd guarantee the two days. WTH? They are finding ways around meeting their previous expectations. For me, I'll end up dropping Prime and still fighting them when they screw up. Then I'll fight harder.

[MandysMom]

Luckily with rare xception, we continue to have excellent service from Amazon. A year ago Mel ordered a weather station, a pricey one, through Amazon. It didn't arrive as scheduled so he contacted Amazon. So they shipped another which arrived in two days. About a month later the other one arrived. Don't know where it had been, he contacted Amazon and they said keep them both AND refunded the money for the late one! So we got two and paid nothing at about $250 each! Had trouble with a phone case that I ordered from Amazon but which came second party. Case didn't fit.,called seller and they we're to send shipping tags to get it back and replace the case. They never did. I contacted Amazon and Amazon refunded my money and apologized. So here in Sacramento area I can't complain and am happy and we watch a lot of Prime movies for which we have paid nothng but our Prime membership. So for now we stay Amazon customers.
Velda

[monik7]

I agree with you Velda. I love Amazon Prime! The majority of the time everything comes as guaranteed. However, when they screw up, I insist they make things right. I love Prime for the 2-day free shipping and often don’t buy an item unless it’s Prime. If I didn’t have Prime there would be very few things I would buy from Amazon because I absolutely dislike paying exorbitant shipping charges and I like getting my purchases in 2 days.
Sandi

[Colliemom]

I’ve never bothered with Prime and I have to say, I have had excellent service and delivery from Amazon. My last two orders actually arrived pronto. Sometimes they depend on whether they ship from Amazon itself or from an outside supplier. But then I don’t order all the time either.

[OregonLuvr]

I too am happy with Amazon Prime. Most of my orders I get in 2 days depending on the day I order them sometimes. I have had to wait an extra day or two if I order from an outside supplier but it seems to be stated when I order when I will get it.

I also watch movies and get books for free. Now none are the latest and greatest but they have enough titles to keep me busy for years LOL So far I am very happy with them.

[Cudedog]

I don't do Amazon Prime. I did a spreadsheet of the shipping charges that I paid in a year's time not using Prime (less than $10.00 for the entire year) by using their "free shipping for orders over $25.00". I also tallied up all of the free videos that I watched/streamed on Amazon Prime - exactly "0".

Pausing this post here for a brief commercial:

Speaking of movies, as a Christmas present to myself, I recently signed up for Hallmark Movies for $5.99/mo. There are two Hallmark channels for Roku, I chose the movie one. I don't have cable, I stream the movies through my Roku box. Thus far I have been very pleased with the movie selection - happy to send a list of titles should anyone be interested - and have watched a nice movie every night since signing up. I will probably keep this channel through the Holidays, as I tend to get the Holiday Blues, and these Hallmark type films put me in a better mood. After the holidays, I may cancel. I am doing month-to-month - a year's subscription is $59.00)

Now, back to my regular scheduled diatribe:

So, for me, the $100/year "Prime Membership" just isn't worth the price. This would work out to about $10.00 shipping per order, had I paid the $100 membership fee. I think it is kind of disingenuous of Amazon to advertise "Free two-day shipping with Prime". The shipping isn't "free". One is technically paying for shipping in advance, before anything is actually ordered, by paying the Prime membership.

If one wants stuff to arrive quickly, I guess Prime is a way to go. I'm patient, and prefer to keep my $$ in my pocket.

I did place a new Amazon order for Solar Christmas lights and a couple of other items on November 10, after running around all over town looking for them (and not finding any).

My order totaled over $25, so I checked the box for free shipping, "items to arrive in 5 to 7 days".

As of this afternoon at 3:30 p.m., after checking (again) on Amazon, my items (four days since I placed the order) still have not yet shipped, but their arrival date still shows "November 15 - 17". Like that's gonna happen (not). They will not arrive tomorrow (Wednesday) if they haven't even yet been shipped. Even Friday (which will be seven days) is iffy.

If the items are not here by Monday I will cancel the order. Can I cancel an undelivered order that is (maybe) in transit? I dunno. Does anyone know?

I'll keep everyone updated. I was interested to learn that several of you seem to get your deliveries quickly, and on time. Not sure why mine seem to always be delayed.

Anne

[JudyJB]

Anne, I just had a similar experience with Amazon. I ordered something about 10 days ago, and I kept watching because it never shipped. It was free shipping 5-7 days--and it said it would arrive November 8 - 14th, which I thought was a strange range of dates. It kept saying it was due to arrive today, but it has still not shipped--Ha!

Well, I finally called yesterday and was told it was being packaged for shipping and that it would indeed arrive today. There were three items, and I was really surprised that it did arrive at my son's house today. This means they had to send it overnight, if they just packaged it up yesterday!!!!!! It was not light stuff, either.

Very strange. I dumped Prime also since I save items up to meet the minimum anyway and always have stuff sent to one of my kids or a cousin if I am in Florida. Some times I do not get stuff a month later when I am at that person's house to pick it up.

[Colliemom]

Annie, that’s the exact reason Idon’t use Prime either. Aded up the 2 plus 2 and for what I order, not worth it. I too have orders out right now, two of which are shipped, but shiiping info has not been updated since last Friday. Geting the UPS tracking numbers off the shipment innfo, I have tracked them that way and they should be here Friday. I have recieved no notice of my other order being shipped, but that happened before and next thing I know, it’s on my door step.. i think they do a liisy job of notification.

[asirimarco]

There is Amazon MX - we are thinking about ordering something to see how it works - says we can use our prime too If we do I'll let you know.

[Colliemom]

That 5-7 days shipping mean 5-7 BUSINESS days. If your order arrives to the shipper on a weekend, it might not starting transit till Monday and same goes for when an order arrived at it's destination. If it's a weekend, it will be there on Monday, so in all actuality, it can easily take more than 5 to 7 days to get to you. And weather conditions can slow it up to. I just got the last of mine on Monday. It arrived on Friday at UPS here, but since they are closed and don't deliver on weekends, It sat up there for 2 days.

Annie, I had an order from Amazon that didn't ship for a few days after I ordered it, with one of those arrival dates about 3 days away and it did get here. If it's to be shipped from an Amazon facility or independent source closer to you, it can still get there within two days. I have also noticed that they aren't great at keeping their notices of stuff shipped up to date. I've used the UPS shipping code and checked directly on the UPS site on more than once occasion to see where my package is.

[Cudedog]

I am happy to report that two out of the three items arrived as promised on the Friday. I got a notice that the third item had been delayed, and did I still want it. I said yes because it wasn't something I needed right away. Not sure when it is coming. Kinda wish now I had declined it, because I will need to watch my credit card statement to be sure I am not charged.

The two items were solar Xmas lights that I couldn't find locally. I have tested them, they seem to work well. Will probably put them on the house Sunday. Obviously Chinese made, but I think I will like them.

Anne