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? :(

[dontknowwhat2callmyself]

Haven't rtft but wanted to say even with Amazon prime I have been let down a couple of times when items haven't been delivered the next day. Amazon's answer was to offer me Prime free for a month .

[Hulababy]

We have Prime and it is rare for things not to come next day tbh. Maybe it is down to delivery areas perhaps??

Ought to add too. We don't pay for Prime - my brother does but he gets to add 3 people to his account who can then use it.

[WizzardHat]

I gave up on them after I had to sue them to get a refund on damaged stuff they'd sold me. I use ebay and play.com (now something else I forget the name of). I'll have a look at Wordery too. I do look t Amazon for the reviews, and once or twice I've bought something I really cannot find anywhere else but that's it. I used to spend thousands there.

[KittyLovesPaintingOhYes]

Have gone cold on them since the new 20 quid minimum came in, last thing I bought was some cheap swimming goggles for my ds, only postage option was first class, item then took 7 days to arrive ( in stock, in UK) and the 6 quid p&p was a bloody envelope! Talk about rip off.

Bye bye Amazon

[MomOfTwoGirls2]

Well, I'm still am Amazon fan. Books are still £10 order for free delivery.
And loads of secondhand books available for fullfillment by Amazon so count for free delivery.
Still my Go To place for books

[Schnullerbacke]

In Germany all books costs the same, no matter where you buy them from. I stopped using Amazon - why should I throw money at a big company when the small, local bookshops offer the same. I have gone right off big greedy companies.

AndrewofFrog - try Mayerische Buchhandlung (family owned and fab).

[Redglitter]

dontknow They've possibly meant an extra free month. Check your Prime account and see when it expires. I phone if anything is at all late and their usual reply is to apologise and extend my membership another month. I got a total of 18 months from one years membership. I was willing them to be delayed as my renewal date approached

[Stratter5]

I've got Prime, and I've no problem with orders. Bought something late Friday evening, and it arrived Sunday. I find them to be really reliable, the only time I've had an issue was with a third party seller. I find anything bought via Prime always arrives within the specified time.

[sunflower49]

The 'trickery' of prime got me. So many people having signed up to it not knowing they had.

I saw so many people on their fb page begging for refunds. I've been skint myself, £70 to some people is LOT of money, how dare they take it without making it clear that they are-they managed to take it from me without my knowing I had. Awful company. Will NEVER use them again.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

People weren't tricked into joining Amazon Prime. Either they didn't read the terms & conditions or they read them and then promptly forgot they needed to cancel. Not Amazon's fault.

[ThomasinaCoverly]

I've given up on them too - they used to be good, and now they're crap (and they use crap delivery companies and take no responsibility when parcels get damaged). I'm buying elsewhere now.

[WankerDeAsalWipe]

They automatically signed me up for prime since I was a Lovefilm member. There was no way to decline or cancel, you just got sent round in a continuous loop of web pages, so yes people were tricked into joining. I did eventually get hold of someone to cancel at no charge though.

[WankerDeAsalWipe]

The thing that annoys me at the moment is that everything gets put in a box regardless. This necessitates trips to the PO to pick up items that would otherwise fit through the letterbox. E.g. a tin whistle in a massive box, a child's t shirt that would have fitted in a small bag, 2 pairs of socks.

[Allwayslookingforanswers]

I used to use prime and got a fab service but now it's gone up to £79 a year And I no longer buy nappies I cancelled it and the service is so bad I don't use it except for Kindle.

[cuphat]

I've been finding the super saver delivery very hit and miss lately.

Sometimes they dispatch the same day and I receive the order the next day via their courier. But other times (and more frequently recently) the order stays as 'not yet dispatched' past the dispatch estimate and I end up having to contact them before they dispatch the order. And yes, I am only talking about items where Amazon is the seller.

I have ordered quite a bit which should arrive before my c-section date next week but as half of it is stuck on 'not yet dispatched' it's looking unlikely. I'm kicking myself for not taking up my second Prime trial. I'd cancel and reorder if it didn't mean double authorising the funds from my account.

I've had payment problems with them recently too; a few items were supposed to be delivered directly by Amazon in one order. They sent an email confirmation that it was one order (sometimes it's split if it's in different warehouses) and they authorised the amount. On the order section they kept splitting the order (under the same order number) so some items were preparing for dispatch and others were not yet dispatched, yet it was never dispatched. I contacted them and they said the payment hadn't been authorised (when it had - it came off my balance and my bank confirmed it had) so they applied for a second authorisation which meant that two lots of money were held from my account. I did then receive the order eventually. I notice that they've split a current outstanding order (coming from one warehouse)to two statuses so I hope I don't have the same problem again when I won't be available to sort it out.

[Celeriacacaca]

I order less too these days because of the minimum charge and now try Ebay as many sellers sell their stuff there too. I used to take in loads of Amazon deliveries for neighbours etc but have hardly taken in any since the start of the year. Having said that, they have been brilliant for big Christmas shops in the past few years.

[AyMamita]

YANBU, Amazon are crap these days. I placed an order of 4 things on Sunday (including 2 small things I don't really need but can use, to hit the £20 minimum) and as soon as I checked out it Amazon split it into 2 orders! If they are going to process it like that what is the point of the £20 minimum?! And it should all have dispatched yesterday but it isn't even preparing for dispatch yet.

[smallpaperbag]

I've not found it getting much worse tbh and I use it a few times a month. I've don't bother with Prime any more as I'm happy enough getting it within a few days and not next day (tend not to buy things I need urgently, if I want something that quickly I can go out and get it pretty easily - am in London so can get hold of most things).

The delivery service is far better than most other online stores - Amazon has a box on the website where I can enter the security code of my apartment building, so if I'm not at home the courier can just leave it safely outside my flat door. With other companies I end up having to chase things up all the time and couriers claiming not to find my building at all - this hasn't been an issue with Amazon.

I really liked their Amazon locker service though which allowed me to pick up parcels from my local Co-op - it was free delivery for some time but now they're charging £1.99 for it so I've stopped using it.

[TheIronGnome]

I don't think I've ever had a problem with them, and their customer service has always been excella to when there's been a problem they've sorted it out really quickly etc.

[firesidechat]

I use Amazon a lot and still love it.

I used the Prime trial for the first time last week and it arrived the next day as promised. It is perfectly clear on the website that you are signing up to Amazon Prime and that you need to cancel to avoid charges. I don't see how they can make it any more obvious.

The only time something failed to arrive, they sorted it straight away with no arguments.

It's a great service.

[BigRedBall]

£20 minimum order for free delivery on some products! F that! I've been using Amazon for years and years. Yesterday I was going to order something for £10 and p&p was £6!! They were asking me to buy more to get free delivery. Ridiculous.

And it's funny when I use the free super saver delivery the products arrive the same day as they would if I paid for 1st class delivery. .

[maggiethemagpie]

I have prime and am happy with it. I've heard that their marketing model/strategy is to make people buy prime so that they will then buy stuff on amazon in order to justify spending £80 on prime in the first place. So they get the £80 and they have created a way to make you use them in order to get your money's worth. It's very clever!

[maggiethemagpie]

Yesterday for example I saw a book in waterstones at £10.99. I was going to buy it but instead bought it on amazon via prime for £7.50. It was waiting for me when I got in tonight.

I think amazon is only worth using with Prime, it saves me money in the long run as I buy things cheaper from there than the high st.

Then again maybe I have just fallen for all their marketing con tricks.

[orangutanhihio]

Amazon are tax evading thugs who bring no benefit to anyone except themselves. I'd rather use a local bookshop.

[carbolicsoaprocked]

I stopped using them after the tax evading thing. I'm skint and have to pay tax so why shouldn't they? I was also put off by they way they treat their staff. I use Waterstones for books, the service I get there is always great (love the recommendations I get from the staff) and I use their loyalty cards, the stamp one is great.
My sister got caught out with the automatic Lovefilm - Prime switch too.