Posting complaints, but there are many positives to Amazon for me, so will continue with my Prime.
Drivers:
1-My town home community has our street number over the garage and the front door in large numbers; is it that hard to look at the address before leaving a package? Almost every day a neighbor is posting to our group that their package shows delivered, but the photo is not their door or garage.
2-Is it necessary to leave the package in front of the garage door, instead of to the side? It is always fun having to get out of the car in the pouring rain to move the package so I can get into the garage.
3-You have to code to get into the community gate, so why dump a ton of packages outside the walk in gate? Luckily a neighbor found this and brought them into the clubhouse; I don’t know if there was a delivery photo taken of them sitting outside the gate. This has only happened a few time, and I wonder if it is an independent delivery person.
4- Always love seeing the drivers throwing packages off the truck; I guess time is more important that a safe delivery.
Amazon packers:
1-How do you decide how to pack an order? I have had a book packed in a very large box. Then I get something fragile packed in the paper or mylar sleeves. Just this week I have had 2 different plastic computer cases come in the sleeves with no padding; both arrived ripped, but luckily not damaged.
Right now Amazon is on my hate list. We bought a package deal smart bulb/echo deviece about 3 years ago. The bulb was made by a third party. Amazon about a month ago decided to stop supporting that brand of smart bulb on their alexa devices. We have already spent about 2 1/2 hours on the phone with 6 different customer service reps, trying to get them to give us a refund for the bulb (to buy a compatible amazon brand bulb to work with the echo device).
We ended the first call being told we would be getting the refund in 7-10 days. No follow up email or refund and so we called again. They had no record of our first call of over 1 1/2 hours speaking with 3 different people.
One day when we have time to kill, we will call again. There is no email to reach them and no chat (which every other retailer has on their website) - you have to waste time on the phone to get anything done.
I ordered some (not cheap) body wash, and it came yesterday just thrown in an Amazon box. Of course it leaked everywhere and it’s an oil-enriched body wash, so yuk! A replacement is coming today, and they expect me to send back this leaky mess somehow. I guess I’ll put it in a big Ziplock bag. Usually when I order something liquid, they wrap it in a shrink wrap plastic. Not sure why a packer would think that just throwing a bottle of liquid in a box would turn out well.
I’m interested to see if today’s shipment is similarly packaged.
I hate that Amazon now uses independent contractors to deliver their products
That the pay for the workers and drivers is substandard when the postal workers and UPS employees are unionized and make a living wage.
It’s definitely a love/hate relationship. Because it’s so convenient for things I literally could not find in my small town and that things appear at my door. Or I can send my mom things when she’s not driving and can’t shop.
I can’t speak to delivery issues as mine are good I live in a small town where jobs are hard to find and I think we get a good quality worker to work for pennies basically
Amazon Prime has numerous benefits, but it’s by no means worth $15/month for me. I’d rather just do the free trials 1-2 months per year and catch up on my Prime shows during those periods. I schedule these free trials during either Christmas or Prime Day (if there happen to be useful deals). During other months I rarely place orders from Amazon, and when I do place orders, I generally plan them to be above the threshold for no shipping fee.
I haven’t noticed any major problems with drivers or packaging in my area. I like how they have more detailed delivery tracking than with other delivery services, including being able to view the driver location. My only complaint is some drivers park in ways that makes walking with my dog awkward, such as in back of driveway, blocking sidewalk.
I am a hater after selling on the platform. I clearly had a 30 day warranty, but they refunded a customer after 35 days because she “thought I was ordering 4 items, not 1”. They didn’t make her return the $100 item, which was the worst.
I usually order from Amazon when I have enough to qualify for free shipping. I have to be careful as a non-Prime member. I hate that Amazon check-out defaults to expedited shipping. You have to choose free shipping. I was charged for next day shipping on my last Amazon order because I didn’t manually choose free shipping.
Timely! This is not exactly love or hate, but a head scratcher that just happened to me today. This morning, I ordered something, and Amazon let me know that if I ordered $25 worth, I could get same day delivery. So I found a couple other things I needed, but it was still a little short. So I looked at the eligible items and threw in a loaf of bread. I figured that was what it took to make the trip worthwhile for them. Well, turns out the bread arrived in a couple hours, from a distribution center three cities away. The rest of the items didn’t arrive until evening.
So what was the point of reaching some arbitrary dollar total? It sure didn’t save Amazon anything to deliver me a single item. Oh well.
I bought sneakers - 2 pairs because the one I wear is on annual there’s few left so I thought load up at half price.
One pair came but they said both delivered. So the wife reached out to say both didn’t deliver and they credited both back and said to keep. Not what we wanted but they said that’s how it works.
In the meantime she ordered a third pair, thinking it would be pair #2. So the original second pair showed up 3 days later and the third, which is the only one I paid for a week after that.
i was looking to get and pay for two. Instead I got 3, paid for one. It’s not my intent and I’d have gladly settled at 2 and pay for both.
But they deal in such volume that it’s how they do stuff. Cheaper to write off or hit their vendor.
We bought stuff at target on line - took back to the store to return and they didn’t want it. So we donated.
What seems illogical to us is operationally efficient to them.
Ugh, I remembered one that’s more of a “hate”. I ordered three possible MOB outfits and returned two of them. UPS confirmed delivery, got my credits as expected. All good. Then several weeks later, I got an email saying my card was going to be charged if I didn’t make things right by a certain date, because they expected “outfit A” but received “outfit B”. I was quite sure I hadn’t switched the return labels, but even if I had, I should have gotten a similar message for the other returned outfit, right?
So after several levels of AI chat bot hell, I finally reached a real person who spent a good bit of time looking into things, and assured me we were good now, my card wouldn’t be charged.
Of course, the deadline date arrives and I have a charge on my card. Repeat the chat bot/customer service ordeal. Starting from scratch, of course, because apparently there’s no record of my previous contact. Arrgh! I think it’s all straightened out now but who knows!
I don’t return that many things, but I think this was the only time things went so sideways.
I love in a rural area about an hour from any big box store (which I love). However most of the Mom and Pop stores have gone out of business, so Amazon is a godsend.
Ordered 2 boxes of pen needles for the kitty insulin because I realized I was running out! Made sure to go over $25 to have same day delivery. Nothing showed up. Today I checked the status and it showed as being delivery pending, but gave me an option to cancel. I placed a second identical order, and it was delivered within a couple of hours… Cancelled the first one. That is my Amazon gripe of the day. Between my cats and grands, I spend sufficient to justify Prime. But if I can find stuff elsewhere, I go there first.
Definitely a love/hate thing. I don’t like the founder of Amazon ( the one who ruined the Washington Post). I don’t like the monopoly that is Amazon. I don’t like the way they sell books ( I like real bookstores and D worked for a major publishing house).
But I do like the convenience. I try very hard to give my business to my small locally owned businesses. However there are certain things I can not get from the small businesses and sometimes I order from Amazon.
The replacement bottle was also thrown in the box without any wrapping, so it also leaked - but less so than the other one. I’ll keep it and send the other back. I’m tempted to just throw it in the box like they did and let them deal with the leaky mess.
I love Amazon for the convenience and selection. I have a monthly delivery set up (which gets an additional discount on each item) where I receive household items on the schedule I want (laundry detergent every three months, cat food every month, etc.) With this system, I never have to go to a place like Target, or buy cleaning supplies at the grocery store. I definitely save money and time with this system.
Initially I did buy books from Amazon and then the impact on publishing and bookstores became apparent. Ultimately, I realized there’s no reason at all to buy books when we have a great library system (physical and digital), so don’t buy books at all anymore…which obviously doesn’t really help bookstores and publishers.
I rely on the public library but do make a point of buying several books each year from my local independent bookstore. It supports the authors, the publishers and a small business which helps promote community in the neighborhood.
But…we had too many books! I’ve donated several thousand over the last year as part of a decluttering effort. No way we wanted to move that many books (again, lol)
Between my cats and grands, I spend sufficient to justify Prime. But if I can find stuff elsewhere, I go there first.