Prime Day 2023

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

How long until they go the way of past discount store leaders like Korvettes, McCrory, F. W. Woolworth, Grants, K Mart, and a bunch I've forgotten that seemed on the top of the world until they weren't. I've no idea, but discount retail never lasted forever before.

Amazon seems hell bent on getting new customers at the expense of current ones. Deliveries are getting worse and benefits are being chipped away. Meanwhile, they're offering deals that only first time members can take advantage of. Does Amazon even remember what customer loyalty is?

But their biggest problem is customer service. It's getting worse with each passing year. They don't seem to care anymore.

Pity, they used to be very good. Now they're just another massive retailer more interested in their bottom line than they are in their customers.

[tubemonkey]

Target's sale still runs through Saturday. When it's over, I'll unstick this thread.

In about 3 months, I'll start up the Black Friday thread. Last year, retailers kicked things off in mid-October. BF keeps getting pushed back each year and sales keep getting weaker.

My final verdict for this year's Prime Day (aka Black Friday in July) is that it sucked big time. None of the stores had anything decent. I ended up with two Amazon purchases, the GC promo and a Swiss army knife; and that was it.

For BF, I'm looking to get a new Chromebook and phone. Alexa's constant "now connected/ disconnected" announcement every time I use my Echo as a BT speaker is getting on my nerves and driving me to get an AC powered BT speaker.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Target's sale still runs through Saturday. When it's over, I'll unstick this thread.

In about 3 months, I'll start up the Black Friday thread. Last year, retailers kicked things off in mid-October. BF keeps getting pushed back each year and sales keep getting weaker.

My final verdict for this year's Prime Day (aka Black Friday in July) is that it sucked big time. None of the stores had anything decent. I ended up with two Amazon purchases, the GC promo and a Swiss army knife; and that was it.

For BF, I'm looking to get a new Chromebook and phone. Alexa's constant "now connected/ disconnected" announcement every time I use my Echo as a BT speaker is getting on my nerves and driving me to get an AC powered BT speaker.

I did not buy anything for Prime Day this year. They had nothing that even tempted me in the least.
Apache

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

UPS, FedEx, Postal Service, DHL -- all can find our well-marked twin house, which is now about nine months old, and is on a normal public street -- except for Amazon.

We have this same problem with deliveries to where I work. Everybody else sees the address and drops the package at the front desk/mail intake. Amazon's delivery service sends it to another address, just because at one time this whole block used to be one business (with multiple addresses), but has been broken up into multiple businesses for 4 years.

And, unlike FedEx and UPS, there is no easy way to contact Amazon shipping services and get it straightened out. When I finally did manage to make contact, and eventually talk to the guy in charge of my region, and every time he says "it's fixed", it turns out, it isn't.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

How long until they go the way of past discount store leaders like Korvettes, McCrory, F. W. Woolworth, Grants, K Mart, and a bunch I've forgotten that seemed on the top of the world until they weren't. I've no idea, but discount retail never lasted forever before.

I know its fun to believe that these delivery issues might be wider-spread than they actually are. But believing that they're pervasive enough to be indicative of some sort of major "collapse," might be quite a bit premature.

I get that people get frustrated, and are completely justified in weighing whether or not Prime still holds value for them (or whether or not Amazon itself makes sense for them any more), but I think its a mistake to believe the number of customers (or Prime members) who are experiencing similar issues is near great enough to think Amazon could be "in trouble" because of it. I suspect most customers still get the right product, delivered to the right address, in the time-frame indicated. I know I do (with the very rare snafu, of course).

I ordered a couple of completely frivolous things during Prime Day, but I've never really been much of a Prime Day shopper to begin with. I don't really count it it as "perk" of my Prime membership.

[Apache]

The main problem with shipping anything these days is employee shortages. All of the major shippers are shorthanded and hiring any live bodies no matter the qualifications. I use all of the major shipper's both shipping and receiving. I had a $40,000.00 diamond shipped Registered Mail take two months to get to Rochester, NY. USPS kept telling me that the problem was resolved when it wasn't. Fed Ex sent a package of diamonds that were supposed to be delivered to Alaska, to Hong Kong. It is going to get worse if UPS goes on strike August 1st.
Apache

[Catlady]

Amazon created high expectations about customer service and prompt shipping, and it's often not meeting those expectations anymore.

I haven't had any major issues with Amazon getting stuff to me in the time frame indicated, but the time frame has changed from a few days to as long as a week. The delays seem to be at Amazon's end--the item might not actually be shipped until a day or two before the promised delivery date.

Amazon made other retailers step up their game, and now there doesn't seem to be much incentive to choose Amazon over those other retailers. Even something like Amazon Smile was a reason to buy from Amazon, but Amazon killed that program. The Amazon-branded Visa gets me 3 percent cash back at Amazon; the Walmart-branded MasterCard gets me 5 percent cash back at Walmart. Most major retailers participate in Rakuten, but not Amazon.

Amazon's become just one of many comparable shopping options.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Amazon created high expectations about customer service and prompt shipping, and it's often not meeting those expectations anymore.

Are you certain you can state this for the majority of customers?

I can only speak for my Prime experience. And that experience is mostly next-day delivery. That's next-day after the order was placed.

Were non-Prime orders ever guaranteed any kind delivery expectations?

As I said, I don't begrudge any one deciding Prime/Amazon is not for them. But if the people I speak to in meat-space are anything to go by, the notion of everyone getting fed up with Amazon's service is somewhat premature.

Remember that satisfied customers don't share their experiences nearly as often (or as loudly) as unsatisfied ones tend to do.

[haertig]

My Prime orders from Amazon vary. Many arrive in less than 24 hours - I have three huge Amazon distribution centers in my area, one of them is only about 5 miles from my house. Sometimes I can order something at 9:00pm and it's on my doorstep at 4:00am, seven hours later. But other Prime orders take several days for delivery. When I place my orders, the webpage does tell me the estimated delivery date. If that estimate is "next day", then that's when delivery is. When the estimate is a few days, about 1/4 to 1/3 of the time I find the delivery gets delayed by an extra day. I think the longer delivery estimates are when Amazon is partnering with USPS or other carriers. That seems to slow things down markedly. I also think this is when things are being shipped in from a different distribution center, not one of the three in my immediate area.

I rarely order anything from Amazon that is not "offered and shipped from Amazon, with free returns". Once you start getting into third party sellers and their own return policies - these sellers are much more prevalent these days than in the past - things start getting a bit dicey at times. I do my best to stay away from them, because I'm finding more and more shipments, from any merchant, are poorly packed and arrived damaged - thus needing to be returned. With Amazon free returns it's still a hassle, but I just drive two miles to the Kohl's store and they take care of everything, boxing it up included. And they give me a coupon for 20% off (is that percentage correct?) on merchandise I buy in their store.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Manabi

Both of you should contact support and complain. You're likely to get some free store credit if you do. I know it's a pain, but don't let them get away with that shit!

Just got off the phone with Amazon (9 minute call) and got them to change my delivery date back to the date I originally requested. CS didn't know why it was changed. No store credit was offered. I still have to reply about my experience over this.

Was I in a hurry to get this item? Nope. But I am quite ticked off that Amazon would change my order from Prime delivery to no-rush shipping without my permission. What good is Prime if they're gonna ship my stuff by Snail Express?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Amazon created high expectations about customer service and prompt shipping, and it's often not meeting those expectations anymore.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Are you certain you can state this for the majority of customers?

Not the majority, but she does speak for me.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Not the majority, but she does speak for me.

That's fine. I'm just not sure several people on Mobileread == "Amazon's service has gone down the tubes and everybody knows it."

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's fine. I'm just not sure several people on Mobileread == "Amazon's service has gone down the tubes and everybody knows it."

But it's not just people on MobileRead's forums. I see people complaining about Prime degrading on many different websites and there's no denying they keep making Prime worse, by taking away benefits or making them less useful than they were at the start. People are definitely noticing that, and I think their increasing focus on getting new Prime members at all costs may be desperation on their part. Even if there's a lot of churn, they can keep their Prime subscription numbers up that way and keep Wall Street happy.

It's also a fact that Amazon is focusing on new Prime members over existing ones. People do notice that. Are enough noticing it to hurt Amazon yet? I don't know, none of us do. But they have competition they didn't have before. For example Walmart+ has 90 days for returns (30 for Amazon, except during Christmas sales season) and you can return packages at any Walmart brick & mortar location. There's a Walmart about five minutes from my house, but the closest place I can take an Amazon return is fifteen minutes away. Since I have doctor's appointments once a month I'm able to drop off returns at a UPS store while out, without extra driving. If it wasn't for that, I'd probably have already switched to Walmart+.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's fine. I'm just not sure several people on Mobileread == "Amazon's service has gone down the tubes and everybody knows it."

I'm one of the several. They've gone down hill, here, since they opened a shipping facility and now have contracted delivery drivers instead of using UPS+USPS.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Are you certain you can state this for the majority of customers?

I can only speak for my Prime experience. And that experience is mostly next-day delivery. That's next-day after the order was placed.

Were non-Prime orders ever guaranteed any kind delivery expectations?

As I said, I don't begrudge any one deciding Prime/Amazon is not for them. But if the people I speak to in meat-space are anything to go by, the notion of everyone getting fed up with Amazon's service is somewhat premature.

Remember that satisfied customers don't share their experiences nearly as often (or as loudly) as unsatisfied ones tend to do.

Of course I don't speak for the majority of customers, nor have I ever claimed to. I offered my experience and my opinion. And yes, non-Prime orders do indicate a delivery date. Which is, of course, later than the Prime delivery date. Which also slowed to three or four days from two FOR ME before I canceled Prime earlier this year.

In future, I will try to remember to add a disclaimer that I speak only for myself. And thank you so much for not begrudging my decision to drop Amazon Prime. That's certainly a worry off my mind.