Amazon delivery drivers put me off making high value purchases from Amazon

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I’m planning to buy a MacBook. It’s 10% cheaper if I buy it from Amazon. It would be a pain to have to travel to the nearest Apple Store or to John Lewis.

But Amazon don’t employ their own drivers and the white van guys that make the deliveries seem sketchy. I appreciate it’s a terrible job for them too, maybe that’s another reason why the company shouldn’t be supported.

They also often leave items outside the house where anyone can see them. Some Amazon items don’t come packaged either which makes theft more likely.

There have been stories of delivery drivers stealing high value items or replacing them with printer paper etc. Amazon or the credit card company will eventually refund but it can take weeks.

It might also increase your chance of being burgled as these sketchy randoms will now know what you’ve purchased.

AIBU for this to put me off Amazon for high value items? Am I better off paying the extra £150 and buying in person from John Lewis or the Apple Store?

Do JL still price-match with online retailers?

I thought the dawn of Internet shopping had pretty much put paid to their 'never knowingly undersold' guarantee now?

They've recently redirected the 'not knowingly undersold' thing, with limited retailers. Amazon is one of them

https://www.johnlewis.com/customer-services/prices-and-payment/price-promise

But it seems it's a refund thing, rather than being able to ask them to match a price before you buy.

DS ordered a PS5. When it was delivered and the driver left he opened it and it was a house brick wrapped in bubble wrap.

Amazon refunded but it had put us off.

That’s a great point about the John Lewis price match!! They say that they will match Amazon prices so long as it’s sold direct by
Amazon. It’s Amazon themselves offering the discount eg £1549 rather than £1699.

So that means I could buy it in store from John Lewis and still get the 10% discounts.

And not need to worry about all the things that ever gone wrong for anyone, ever, however unlikely, with Amazon delivery :)

Happened to me. Ordered an iPad. Gave Amazon guy the code. Thought it seemed awfully heavy. Inside was a bottle of detergent. Also I had to escalate at customer services because the chat man wanted me to send them the detergent back

My husband bought an Apple Mac from Amazon, imagine his disappointment upon opening the box to see that it contained 2 boxes of soap powder. He had to return the 2 boxes of soap powder and then go through the tortuous process of claiming his refund.

He was successful in receiving it within 10 days, he was originally told it would take up to a month. He was insistent and perserved but many people would not have the time or the patience to pursue the refund which means that they would be out of pocket of a substantial amount of money whilst it sits in the Amazon bank account.

Yes and I imagine if a driver is opening up the electronics box and filling it with a brick or printer paper, he’s doing that in the back of the van, not on the doorstep!

Sorry to hear that but thanks for your story, and that’s exactly what I’d fear happening.

The codes have actually been causing huge issues. Somewhere in the supply chain, someone will swap the laptop for something similar in weight, the parcel is handed to the recipient who gives the OTP, driver drives off and when the parcel is opened there’s a few books in there. Amazon won’t refund because it’s been securely delivered, credit card providers won’t authorise a chargeback because Amazon provide proof of secure delivery and it takes weeks or months of continuous emails to get anywhere with a refund.

Here’s an article about the issue. Not saying all delivery drivers are unscrupulous or that the OP should be concerned they know she has an expensive laptop, but this personally puts me off ordering expensive items from Amazon.

There are many things about Amazon I don't like. But I have never had an issue in getting a refund or in them believing me if an item hasn't turned up.
If you are concerned I would get it delivered to somewhere nearby that accepts Amazon deliveries and then open your package while you are there.
Or if it is delivered open it in front of the delivery driver
Also I presume you will pay with your credit card? If so that also gives you a degree of protection

I'm not sure you can actually buy expensive things from JL and take them away as they warehouse alot of stock.

We had a nightmare though with delivery from JL who lied through their back teeth that a very large mat costing £600 had 'been delivered yo a neighbour who had subsequently requested they take it back as she had no room to store it' ... wtf?? I know all the neighbours in our small street and this did not happen. They had to apologise in the end saying they actually shouldn't have said that.

I've had phones, computers, tv etc from Amazon and never had an issue with delivery or returning faulty items x

Ah, thanks - that's good to know.

I presume they don't rely on the old trick of having their own 'exclusive' models (i.e. slightly different colour knobs or an additional tiny logo) with an extra letter on the end of the product code, so they can claim that the cheaper retailer is not selling exactly the same item as them?

Why single out Amazon?

I've had high value items stolen by Royal Mail, Hermes, DPD, Evri, etc. Basically it's a risk with any courier/delivery firm.

Worst was maybe 10-15 years ago, I ordered a top of the range iphone from Asda. Empty jiffy bag arrived! Delivered by some dodgy looking bloke in a clapped out old Nissan Micra. I ran after him up the drive, but he drove off. Luckily I got his number plate. Took A LOT of phone calls and complaints before Asda took it seriously and sent a replacement - they kept trying to fob me off saying it was the delivery firm who were liable, then saying it was my fault for signing it without opening and checking the contents, etc.

Another was Royal Mail. Claimed they'd delivered a laptop, tracking showed it had been delivered, but I'd been in all day, and the post man hadn't been near (I have a view of my drive and outside roadway from my front office window). After weeks of complaints/phone calls to RM, they pinged over a photo allegedly showing it was half way through my letter box. Very impressive trying to say a laptop computer could fit through a letter box - it looked more like a small box of chocolates and was clearly not even my letter box! Finally got fed up with RM and just claimed directly against the seller who, again, tried to argue it wasn't their problem and my claim was against RM, but soon saw sense when I started the small claims court case against them!

If at all possible, it's far safer just to buy from a store. These days I tend to get high tech stuff from Currys - yes, choice is poor and prices usually a bit more, but at least I can collect in person so don't have the stress and time wasting of arguing with dodgy delivery firms and online sellers who don't understand the law.

Thanks, that’s an important distinction! However it does look like they’ll price match at the point of sale if you buy in store:

“We can also price match before you buy if you visit us in one of our shops. Find your nearest John Lewis.”

This is part of what you are agreeing to by supporting a company that doesn't pay it's taxes and treats it's staff like dirt.

That's why it's cheap.

Better is subjective. I’ve always used MacBooks and love them, but part of that is that it’s what I’m used to, I’m fully in the Apple ecosystem and it works for me. For light usage, just browsing, emails, a bit of word processing etc, I doubt it makes much different to be honest. I said above but I’ll say it again here, I’ve always bought AppleCare for my MacBooks and would really advise it. I’ve had three MacBooks since 2010 and two have needed expensive repair work which was done free by Apple because it was covered - one was very close to the end of the three year period. Most recent was about 2018 so could have changed since then but always been painless. Not sure if they sell AppleCare through third party retailers - I buy direct because I customise mine.

I thought they only know the rough idea of the contents of the packages if they have a lithium battery - this includes a £15 power bank or alcohol as they need to seek ID, regardless of the age of the person.

Unless laptops and iPads are only sent in certain boxes which are coded.

DH ordered an apple watch from Amazon a couple of years ago. Had to give a code to get the parcel delivered. When he opened it it was a packet of biscuits. Took months to get the money back from Amazon who were incredibly unhelpful. Has put me off ever using them again.

I bought one off eBay and Royal Mail left it outside, no packaging, and it was supposed to be signed for....Amazon are actually pretty good in comparison

I wouldn’t order high purchases from Amazon because if it goes wrong, you can’t take it back. For example, I love Argos as they seem to be really good of products are faulty and their deliveries are often signed.

I’m grateful I live in a flat as my Amazon driver never knocks and they always leave it in the communal hallway. My neighbours are all great and don’t touch each others parcels and it’s safe from the elements in the hallway inside but that’s not the point - I could be home and get a notification stating it’s been delivered.

Just order from Apple refurbished. My refurb macbook is entering its second decade, still works as good as new and it was at least 20% cheaper than buying new.

Meh. Bought all my big tech items from Amazon, a few laptops, a tv, etc, never had a problem. Speedy delivery, wasn't dumped by the door, no one burgled me.

Found amazon customer care to be very quick and immediate-problem-solving. Had some issues with a few purchases, they refunded me without any quibbles before the stuff even reached them (not £1000+ stuff).

Bought my daughter's laptop from John Lewis, nothing horrible, but it took them absolute ages to deliver, more than two weeks, so no thanks. Prefer amazon (no, I don't work for them and they don't pay me, ha).

I've bought thousands of pounds worth of laptops and tech equipment from Amazon - at least 20k this year alone across multiple deliveries - and never had a problem.

On the rare occasion I do get an Amazon parcel not show up, I've had a couple of books not show up this year, I get on their live chat and it's refunded immediately.

Nothing to worry about. They are much stricter on the drivers for purchases over around £500.