Amazon and couriers...

GMac11 · 14 Oct 2019 at 20:54

I know another courier thread :rolleyes:

I've read my fair share of them over the years.
I'd say 80-90% of the items I buy from Amazon come via Royal Mail but the remainder tend be to between DPD and Hermes.
Anyhow, I ordered a phone from Amazon after much deliberation (as I could have purchased from elsewhere) but I chose Amazon for the relatively easier returns service. The problem is you don't know until you get the dispatch email who the courier is and by that stage it's too late to cancel. Had I known Hermes were the chosen courier I'd have ordered elsewhere. My issue is not with the delivery drivers as the ones in my area have usually been very helpful and polite, I've just had one mis-delivery due to a package being delivered to a house in the neighbouring park with a similar address. My issue is that the Hermes delivery process itself is extremely slow and seems to be slower still when it's combined with Amazon.
The other issue is when you get the dispatch email they give a massive window for delivery so there's little to no recourse with Amazon. Case in point, my order (from Amazon's Warehouse) was placed on Saturday and 'dispatched' on Sunday with a delivery before date of 22nd October! And I'm an Amazon prime subscriber which makes it worse.
How do they get away with that?

Dirk Diggler · 14 Oct 2019 at 20:59

You must have received a confirmation email when you placed the order, what was the estimated delivery date stated in that email?

BananaDunka · 14 Oct 2019 at 21:07

You're not paying for a guaranteed delivery service so they provide you with an estimate window. If you want a fixed time of delivery you use Prime/paid option.

Everything I've ordered via Prime delivery has always arrived next day by 1PM latest if I ordered during the daytime the day before.

wndsr · 14 Oct 2019 at 21:12

Surprised to read this as I've never once had an issue with Amazon Prime. Only issues (slower delivery, but perceived as 'issues' because I'm so used to Prime Next Day) are when I buy something that isn't sold and dispatched by Amazon.

GMac11 · 14 Oct 2019 at 21:18

The order confirmation email gave a delivery window of 16th-22nd October - how many other retailers can offer a delivery window that wide?

And I am a prime subscriber so I should get prime delivery by default should I not?

I'm not expecting a miraculous next day delivery or anything but as a prime subscriber (in fact even with super saver delivery or whatever it is) you would expect it before 9 days!?

xb8browney · 14 Oct 2019 at 21:24

Must depend on may factors what courier they use, for me it's Amazon logistics 95% of the time

Dirk Diggler · 14 Oct 2019 at 21:27

GMac11 said:
The order confirmation email gave a delivery window of 16th-22nd October - how many other retailers can offer a delivery window that wide?

You had the opportunity to cancel at that point.

Scotteh · 14 Oct 2019 at 21:29

I'm not sure I've ever bought anything from Amazon Warehouse, but I imagine like everything else it'll give you the estimated delivery date on both the product page and again before final confirmation?

GMac11 · 14 Oct 2019 at 22:01

Again if you go in to the item now as if to place an order it states between 17th and 22nd.
As mentioned above yes I could have cancelled when I got confirmation email with the window but you'd think when you get the dispatch email not even 24 hours later that you would receive said item fairly soon. I could see past it if it still hadn't been dispatched 3 or 4 days later. If I had got to tomorrow or Wednesday with no dispatch I would have cancelled.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is when Amazon use Royal Mail you can be fairly sure you will receive your order 2-3 days after dispatch at the latest. But when they use Hermes there's a massive disparity between dispatch and receiving it.
It begs the question, what takes so long after 'dispatch'?

Puzzled · 14 Oct 2019 at 23:18

Everything from Amazon Prime arrives via their own couriers for me but then we live fairly close to an Amazon warehouse. I wouldn't bother paying for Prime if thats the sort of delivery times you get from it, thought the whole point of it was next day delivery.

I do find it annoying that they don't clearly state where sellers are based though, so many Chinese sellers on there now and I can't see a way to filter them out. At least on ebay you can set to UK only which gets rid of some of them.

G J · 15 Oct 2019 at 11:46

Just do what everyone else does with Amazon Prime complain about the delivery times/courier's to the customer service get a extra month or so free prime, customer is happy and the bad service continues.

Liquidfox · 15 Oct 2019 at 12:16

GMac11 said:
The order confirmation email gave a delivery window of 16th-22nd October - how many other retailers can offer a delivery window that wide?

And I am a prime subscriber so I should get prime delivery by default should I not?

Was the item actually eligible for prime delivery though? There's plenty of items on there which aren't, and are subject to regular delivery times as they're coming from 3rd party sellers. It's likely that this has nothing to do with Amazon themselves.

Blackjack Davy · 15 Oct 2019 at 13:06

GMac11 said:
The order confirmation email gave a delivery window of 16th-22nd October - how many other retailers can offer a delivery window that wide?

And I am a prime subscriber so I should get prime delivery by default should I not?

I'm not expecting a miraculous next day delivery or anything but as a prime subscriber (in fact even with super saver delivery or whatever it is) you would expect it before 9 days!?

Thats the same delivery window I was offered and I'm not even Prime. Makes you wonder what its for lol. It was free though so I'm not complaining.

GMac11 · 15 Oct 2019 at 14:35

Liquidfox said:
Was the item actually eligible for prime delivery though? There's plenty of items on there which aren't, and are subject to regular delivery times as they're coming from 3rd party sellers. It's likely that this has nothing to do with Amazon themselves.

It was from Amazon Warehouse (Amazon Used stock so was 100% an Amazon item being sold and shipped by Amazon UK). If you look up the item it says eligible for Prime delivery and my confirmation email says the same.

Blackjack Davy said:
Thats the same delivery window I was offered and I'm not even Prime. Makes you wonder what its for lol. It was free though so I'm not complaining.

It does make you wonder about why to bother with the subscription. A similar thing happened before and I complained on the chat and they were of no help at all. Their Get Out Clause is the latest shipping date. So as mentioned they gave a window between 16th and 22nd. So I know if I go onto a chat the first thing they'll say is wait until the 22nd and if it hasn't arrived then come back us. Now I have no doubt it will arrive by 22nd so there's not much I can do. My gripe is it shouldn't be taking that long in the first place.
It would be great if I could do that as an ebay or Amazon Marketplace seller. "Thank you for your order, it will arrive between 48 hours and 2 months!"