To wonder what the hell has happened to Amazon?

[CanisSapiens]

I used to love them. I have spent thousands with them over the years, and they never let me down before. But they seem to have lost the plot.

May 6th, I ordered 2 childrens books for a school project. popular, mainstream, buy them anywhere books.

May 14th, I check my orders, and see that they are scheduled to be delivered sometime in June - bollocks to that, I need them for the project - I get onto live chat, who have previously always sorted any problem out for me straight away. They apologise, and promise to despatch that day for delivery Friday 15th.

Today (well, yesterday now), Monday 18th, still no books, not despatched. I contact live chat again, who promise to despatch today. Very sorry for the inconvenience and all. I've been checking my orders all day, at 8.00 pm the order was still not despatched, not even 'preparing for despatch'. I have spent the whole evening in increasingly desperate live chats, and they are just lying to me now. At 11:30 pm, an operator was still swearing that the order would be sent that day, and they despatch up til midnight (really?). I pointed out that there was only 30 minutes left, and the item wasn't even preparing for despatch. He still swore up and down that it would happen. At midnight, the date of dispatch changed over to the 19th. The next operator cheerily quoted this to me, and refused to respond when I said I'd been promised despatch the day before. He then cut me off. The next operator did the same.

Do Amazon still deliver books? I feel like I could scream. 12 days! and the project won't get done.

Have Amazon gone crap? :(

I still love Amazon, I have Prime, which gives me the option of free next day delivery (which it always is, even on Sundays) or a no-rush delivery and £1 digital credit. I order each item separately to capitalise on the credit . Yesterday, I ordered one item for £4.19 on no-rush delivery. I've just had an e-mail to say it will be delivered today, and I'll get the £1 credit. What's not to like!

My ipad case has a small crack in it due to overuse on mn so i ordered a replacement friday. Told delivery week tuesday. Arrived through letter box yesterday. Amazon still working for me.

I accidentally signed up to the free trial of Prime last year so thought I'd give it a go for a month. Rarely got next day delivery and was extremely disappointed by the limited streaming catalogue (the really recent stuff, they then charge you extra for!) Needless to say, the trial was cancelled and I'll stick with Netflix and Lovefilm by Post for a fraction of the price.

Haven't ordered from Amazon for ages as their prices aren't competitive any more. Didn't know about the £20 minimum for free delivery - that certainly puts me off even more! I also don't like being told I have to pay for Prime just to access certain services. That pissed me right off!

This article published in Forbes magazine may explain a number of issues discussed on this thread.

"Amazon fell short on both counts. Its 20% revenue rise to $25.59 billion was $470 million light and its 21% spike in EPS to $0.51 was a whopping 15 cents less than what analysts expected to see.

...investors have long believed that Amazon would use its low prices to wipe out competitors in many product categories. And having vanquished those competitors, Amazon would be in a position to reap the rewards of its huge market share — by raising its prices with impunity.

And thanks to Amazon’s announcement that it may raise prices on its Amazon Prime shipping program, investors will get a look at just how much a price increase will boost Amazon’s bottom line."

Tanith - the £100 baby's bibs etc (on ebay anyway) are all to do with best match order - the longer a buy it now is up for, the higher up the best match list it goes. When a seller runs out of stock, if they cancel the listing, they go back to the bottom of the pile, whereas if they put the price ridiculously high until stock comes back in, noone will buy it, and they can put the price back to normal when they have stock, and keep their place in the best match queue.

I have Prime and generally my orders get delivered on time, but I've had a couple of things go AWOL recently with no reason given, they just changed the arrival date after saying originally I'd get it next day. I have now cancelled my Prime, because I don't use the Prime Instant Video and I'm fed up of paying for it. From what you all have said about non-Prime customers it looks like I could be abandoning Amazon come Oct, when my Prime runs out.

nousernamesleft: thank you for that explanation - I was imagining money laundering drug cartels

Sounds most complicated!

Was trying to order some birthday presents the other day

Every single one was free delivery over £20. I ordered £23 worth but by the time I got to checkout it was charging p&p

Stupid site would not tell me which item was not free and therefore throwing my delivery charge out

I got very irritated (homicidal) and bought it all through separate sites, it ended up being quicker and free delivery

I blame prime to be honest, MIL was sat there saying "well I don't get any problems" yes...because you pay not to have any problems

The last book I ordered from them had a three week delivery date, which then then put back for another there weeks, then another week, and then sent a message to say they had cancelled my order.

No explanation was ever given.

Been a loyal member for years and had Prime for about 3 years now. It is rubbish.

Prime used to be next day delivery but now it is very hit and miss - I have ordered several Prime things and now it has started taking 2 or 3 days for delivery. I have a Kindle and have no problem with that but can't see me paying for Prime again when it runs out in Dec.

Also had problems with orders and it is seriously hit and miss to how good the response is from Amazon sellars - 1 Christmas present came and just the box was damaged - I contacted seller and asked for just replacement box - they refunded and sent new gift free of charge for next day, I was really impressed. Ordered snow boots - the sent them as 1 size 5 and 1 size 4 - I returned them using the returns label they provided and the seller denies all knowledge of ever having received them back. Amazon were of no help in the dispute and I still haven't been refunded.

I was just thinking this a few days ago when I ordered a few things from them.

My order totalled about £40 for 3 items but by the time I got to the checkout the delivery was £11. It didn't show you the individual delivery costs for each item so I had to go back onto each item's page to check. They seem to have changed the layout of their checkout so it's much less transparent (coupled with the blatant pushing of their Prime service).

I ended only ordering a few bits and got the other things I wanted cheaper elsewhere. I hope other people vote with their feet ( or mouse I suppose) too. We cancelled our Lovefilm subscription too as that went downhill once it was run through Amazon.

Minimum £20 is irritating. I do like to use the marketplace for secondhand books though. Yesterday I received a hardback copy of Nigella's Feast for £2.81. Hard to beat that.

I live abroad and used to order loads through amazon when they did free super saver delivery if you spend £25. About a year ago (maybe longer) they got rid of that, so now I hardly ever order anything from them as is just not worth it once you've paid teh postage (and the additional VAT as where I live the rate is different).

Doesn't everyone have the prime trial over Christmas and the cancellation it in the new year?

The £20 limit has stopped me buying from amazon twice in the last couple of weeks. Hooray for eBay.

Well, I gave up on my books. By 4:45 the status of the delivery hadn't changed, it wasn't even preparing for despatch. The live chatters still promised it would go out today - just like they did yesterday. Finally I got one who admitted that the order seemed to have got 'stuck' and we would have to cancel it and start again. HaHaHaHa. I cancelled it alright, and have sent Dh to WH smiths instead. I am bloody RAGING with Amazon. They were quite happy to promise me a delivery every day that would never have come. They don't give a shit. They are unrecognizable as the company I have used for years.

I shop from them and either get stuff sent to my office in London, or to my home (way outside London). Stuff is delivered to London fast. Home - not so much...

I used Amazon to do all my Christmas present shopping last November. In March I tried to buy something else, but my account got frozen. It turned out Amazon hadn't charged me for any of my past orders and presented me with a huge unexpected bill. I really should check bank statements. I won't be using them again.

I don't use them because of tax avoidance issue.

I'm thinking of stopping using them for the same reason Betty.

Plus they treat their staff like crap!
Everyone should boycott them imo

nousernamesleft thank you! That's always perplexed me!

I go onto Amazon to read the reviews, then onto Ebay to buy the product. If I can't find it on Ebay, I go elsewhere.

I have bought God knows how many hundreds of pounds worth of stuff from Amazon over the years. The £20 new free posting limit has saved me a bloody fortune. Haven't bought a thing since it started. I keep listlessly trying to add stuff to my basket, can't be arsed to keep looking for bits I don't need to bump up the value, then just bugger off again having spent nothing, because it's too annoyingly time-consuming.

Before the £20 limit, I would have bought loads as I didn't need to try so hard before hitting 'buy'.

So I'm a bit lazy it seems. Lazy, but slightly richer.

Their pricing is very misleading too. And hate the marketplace sneaking in products. It has definitely gone downhill.