<p>A couple of years ago in late November, I ordered from Amazon a Christmas gift for my daughter and a few other items. They came within the week, but since it was a Christmas gift I did not bother to inspect the item for my daughter carefully. Two days before Christmas when I went to wrap the gift I discovered it was damaged. Called Amazon, they shipped me a new one which I got the next day. </p>
<p>I have also noticed several times that the item is still not labelled shipped with only a few days to go and then magically it is marked shipped and arrives the next day. If you are really concerned - call Amazon (actually do the thing where you ask customer service to call you - the phone usually rings immediately after you hit enter) and check on thye delivery status.</p>
<p>I placed an order for like 4-5 things weekend after Thanksgiving. Then I went and placed another order on Cyber Monday also from Amazon. One item from Saturday’s order arrived in a package rather quickly. Then the rest of Saturday’s order AND Monday’s order both arrived in the same box. Quite surprised when I opened it up…</p>
<p>Amazon has designs for both buyers and suppliers that are bad for both. Amazon wants to do what HomeDepot did to the builder supply industry and the Mom & Pop hardware store. I.E. destroy the competition through ruthless price competition, then command the market at prices of their making. Jeff Bezos went to school on Ken Langone in this regard.</p>
<p>Amazon’s next grand move will be to eliminate UPS, FedEx and USPS from the delivery game. We need to apply state sales taxes for online purchases to level the playing field BEFORE Amazon eliminates all their competition. This may seem counter to “free trade” attitudes but it is not. We need to level the playing field for the consumers own good.</p>
<p>I don’t normally mind them… but I just don’t find this acceptable. If I buy something that has free 5-8 day shipping, and 5 days later the item still hasn’t left the building, that’s not OK. The person that wrote back to my inquiry about the drop in price told me the price at the time it was shipped is the price and that prices change from time to time and they can’t do anything about it - I am assuming they meant the price at the time it was purchased as opposed to shipped. At the rate they were going it will go down another 4 bucks by the time they get around to shipping it! Ordinarily i wouldn’t even care about the drop in price but don’t hold on to something for 5 days then lower the price then mail it. Oh well, cost them a sale.</p>
<p>There is no parallel between Home Depot and Amazon. You can go back to the creation of supermarkets, hypermarts, and the Walmart of this world to find more destructive impacts.</p>
<p>Have you thought how Amazon actually helps small businesses by offering its logistical backbone via FBA or associate sales? </p>
<p>And do you really think Amazon is attempting to duplicate the infrastructure of FedEx or UPS? Seriously?</p>
<p>The sales taxes are an issue not worth addressing further than saying it did benefit the customers. And that is something that Amazon has done since it was created. Our society is ever evolving and the fittest survives.</p>
<p>I ordered a couple things over the weekend that were scheduled to arrive 2 days ago. One of the items was canceled due to lack of stock and the other I canceled. Its surprising that 6 days after I placed my order, I could still cancel my order without any problems. That means it wasn’t any where near being shipped. Amazon said guaranteed arrival for Christmas, if its not shipped by the weekend right before Christmas, UPS isn’t going to get it here in 12 hours.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what i said. I canceled mine five days after the order was placed. I then ordered it at best buy and within hours a got notification that it shipped and will be here Friday.</p>
<p>I almost always get things from Amazon within two to three days from when i order them. This is not acceptable and I’ll be remembering it.</p>
<p>I had an amazon fulfilled purchase from a 3rd party vendor, and the product came damaged. I sent amazon what was probably a very sad sounding email as this is the third item I have ordered this year to arrive damaged, and this purchase was actually my second attempt at replacing something that had arrived broken. Amazon refunded my purchase without making me deal with shipping the item back, which was much appreciated.</p>
Amazon isn’t trying to duplicate all of their infrastructure, but they will be attempting to capture the “last mile” in many places. </p>
<p>They are opening warehouses everywhere (and collecting sales tax in those states, my state will be soon) with the eventual goal of “same day delivery” in many places.</p>
<p>I haven’t had any issues with delivery times, but two gift items arrived in without being shipped in separate boxes. In other words, the item contents were visible on the outside of the box when they arrived. One was a TV for my mom, which is fine because she doesn’t live here and I’ll wrap it anyway, but my DH thought he’d surprise me with a
digital printer–I was surprised, but a week before Christmas, which isn’t what he had in mind.
So beware—</p>
<p>One thing I have found is that I am a prime member and am seriously considering canceling because amazon uses this “prestige” shipping company maybe 75% of the time now, and they NEVER get my packages to me and I end up having to pick them up instead. When we lived in the apartment we lived in a gated community and I assumed they were just too dumb/lazy to go into the office when they realized they couldn’t get to our door, but they’re still terrible even now that we’ve moved. There’s no point in paying for prime if their shipping company is too incompetent to get it to me in 2 days anyway.</p>
<p>I had a lot of problems last year with orders being canceled due to lack of stock… I had that same issue at Lowes this year and the item I wanted will apparently now not be available until next winter, so I informed them I will not be shopping on their website again. You’d think if every store in the state is out of stock for the YEAR they’d take “In Stock” off their stupid webpage. I always do my online christmas shopping a month in advance and it’s always the week before christmas that I find out I won’t be getting any of my gifts after all.</p>
<p>I’ve had success with Amazon prime and Ontrac. Shipped a book to DS a couple of months ago; since Ontrac doesn’t have access to the mail boxes, I called and left instructions to either call DS’s cell or leave at management office. Package was delivered timely. I just sent another package and they kept the instructions on file so it was also delivered timely (as was a separate package they sent UPS).</p>
<p>These stories are surprising. I’ve never had any item get here later than expected, and I’ve shipped to 4 different addresses. And I think the number of orders I’ve had with them is north of 600 (conservative estimate). YMMV, I guess.</p>
<p>We buy from Amazon all year long. Gifts, electronics, K cups, appliance parts, everything.
Usually group items for free ‘super saver’ shipping.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, I signed up for a free 30 day prime membership. Shared with DH who has a separate amazon acct. We’ve placed maybe 15 orders in the last few weeks, sometimes several on same day. It’s almost too easy since amazon prices are usually the best when I compare and no shipping=spending a bunch of money.</p>
<p>Which is their plan I guess.<br>
We’ll be cancelling the prime after trial and go back to super saver which always was good enough for our family.</p>
<p>We did the same thing, Musicmom. It is a thirty minute drive to any store except for grocery for me so I am enjoying the convenience of shopping this way. I am rather scared to see the credit card bill; but I am saving on gas and time!</p>
<p>I have never had a bad experience with Amazon…I do agree things are arriving slower than they used to…but still within the time they project…it’s just that in the earlier days they were arriving earlier than expected, now they are on time. I feel they are one of the companies that should be held up as an example to others…where customers really do matter. Amongst the hundreds of things I purchased from them was an unlocked motorola razr; it had issues about 9 months after I purchased it and there was no warranty. They shipped me a new one express, the next day and just asked me to send back my old one within 30 days so there would be no charge.</p>