If you read the Sunday Papers this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Amazon struggling to deliver and keep up with demand is a big problem this Christmas. Several papers have reported that the Advertising Standards Authority have opened up an investigation as delivery promised aren’t met.
The main issue appears to be for people who have signed up to Amazon Prime and been promised next day delivery and the item doesn’t arrive. Either the items arrives several days later, or it gets lost never to be seen again.
The Independent were a little less strident reporting that the Advertising Standards Authority have received a handful of complaints but no official investigation has been opened thus far.
It is of course an incredibly busy time of year for all couriers and it’s not surprising that the odd parcel is delayed, either being misdirected to the wrong depot or the local courier simply running out of time and it being held over for the next day’s delivery round. At this time of year however a missed delivery is a lot more emotional than your printer toner being a day late in July. As soon as a delivery is missed there is the knee-jerk reaction that Christmas is ruined even though it’s still a week away with plenty of time to put things right.
Anecdotally and personally I’ve had a few shockers from Amazon lately with parcels destined for Berkshire ending up lost in France, lost, or just late. What’s your experience? Are Amazon struggling to deliver and keep up with demand or in general are your deliveries being carried out on time?
17 Responses
I think Amazon’s problem these days is over-promising. The marketing department wants you to believe they are fantastic in every department, but that isn’t the experience of most regular customers. A realistic slogan they might like to consider adopting would be: “Sometimes we’re really good, usually OK, now and then a bit iffy”.
Ordered a laptop (kids one), for my nephew that was supposed to be there on Thursday, we have one of those messages, still not there.
Couriers are clearly busy, however it is a week till Christmas they need to build more confidence with consumers. Actually plan properly, we hit a wall tonight with sales, and it is because customers do not have confidence in getting a delivery in time for Christmas and we send 24 hour post. Some people still think it is 2004….we’re losing business, because they promise and can’t deliver. 24 should mean 24 not 1-3 days
We have actually noticed a lot of issues with FBA delivery this year, we have a fair few scores crossed out by Amazon for bad feedback for failed delivery.
I’ve had a string of terrible experiences with Amazon. Delays happen but each time it was made worse by Amazon support lying or being unhelpful.
1) First order arrived four days late. Amazon blamed Royal Mail but it’s clear from the tracking that the delay was with Amazon Logistics before it was injected into Royal Mail’s system.
2) Second order they shipped with no packaging and the box came apart in transit and some of the contents were lost. It was fulfilled by Amazon but they said it’s not their responsibility and only gave me a £5 credit. The seller had to cover the rest of the losses.
3) Third order lost by Hermes but Hermes blamed Amazon Logistics. This time it’s not obvious from the tracking who is telling the truth. From the get-go Hermes admitted it looked lost and to ask for a replacement but it took a week to squeeze one out of Amazon. What was most frustrating about this experience was how Amazon CS was blatantly lying all the time. Every day they promised it’d arrive tomorrow and if not they’d personally take care of it and send me a replacement.
When are the ASA. Advertising Standards Authority going to show some teeth and demand Amazon display their own feedback scores
Yes they are struggling.
They are issuing a large number of refunds for ‘item not received’ and ‘missed delivery promise’ for our FBA items.
On parcels we are supposed to receive we regularly get ‘delivery was attempted’ emails at 4.55pm which are supposed to be delivered by 5pm being commercial premises. No attempt was made it is just the Amazon Logistics driver scanning it as attempted rather than bothering to deliver.
How long will the myth continue that Amazon has excellent customer service, since it was all out sourced to India it has become increasingly dire.
Have bought exclusively on Ebay this year for all the online stuff.
Eight items ordered from eight different sellers.
All arrived on time, even with the snow disruption last week.
Six sellers hit the item despatched button within an hour of purchasing.
All were despatched on the day of purchase.
There are still some very good sellers on Ebay.
Who needs Amazon?
PS – wife still waiting for Amazon purchases. Ha!
I placed an order with eBAY Saturday PM. It was delivered Sunday from AMAZON.
Can’t fault that for speed
More than on Amazon? no, it was only a £6 item, same price on both sites.
As an experienced courier with over 12 years in the job for various firms it’s easy to see why people are getting orders delivered late, or not at all. I’ve been working for Amazon now for 3 years and they are the worst firm I’ve ever worked for in every single way. They speak to you like garbage, the amount of deliveries per day far exceeds what is achievable and the pay is ludicrously bad for the volume of work. This Christmas has been the worst in my 12 years.
We are taking out just under 300 parcels per day, to give you an idea, the rest of the year we take a max out of around 150-170 and sometimes less than that in our own vans. Our wages remain the same, one of the lowest in the industry to add! They offer a bonus which is performance related depending on how many you deliver and how many you bring back if people are out. The bonus equates to £15 per day. Son that’s almost double the work for an extra £15 IF you meet the criteria. We try and help people by hiding parcels on their property and leaving a card to say where, unfortunately more and more people are becoming dishonest and saying it wasn’t where we said. I’ve left things behind pad locked gates which were reported missing and even several that I physically handed to customer which they then reported as never received. The more of these we get the more trouble we get in which can affect the amount of days work we get offered in the quieter periods. So to combat this we have to bring more back if people are out which then means we risk losing our performance bonus, so we are in a no win situation. The amount of work is not achievable in business hours. So sadly if our pre planned route has your office or school at the end, you won’t be receiving your parcel. Thats the way it is and thats what we’re up against. I take pride in what i do so therefore i always attempt every delivery on my van. A lot of drivers couldn’t care less as moral is so low so if they don’t fancy going to an address or if they think your office is shut they will “card it” from whatever place they are parked in.
For a company which makes the level of money that Amazon do the conditions are beyond a joke. The pay can be less than minimum wage after expenses are taken out. What they fail to realise is if they ease the pressure, pay a little more and actually respect the people who deliver their items they will get a vastly improved service and thus happy customers! Without drivers their parcels get don’t get delivered. If we all walked out tomorrow there will be 70,000 parcels on the floor in our depot alone woth no one to deliver them. It’s ridiculous that they can’t see that!
Why are companies putting this fast delivery pressure onto our systems and roads. Are customers really bothered if their parcel arrives within 4 hours. I certainly do not mind if its 2 days. I can never work out why we are put under more and more pressure when many people are already stressed. Is it companies wanting more quick profits or is it customer demand as we are led to believe
Better visibility on expected delivery times during peak periods would help keep customers happier
Amazon grocery delivery on 24/12 missing several items that had to be refunded
Additionally, 3 out of 5 items for 1 day delivery ordered on 23/12 came several days later with some still waiting coming into the new year)