Received an empty box from Amazon Warehouse

Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
As I have said it is a crap business model. OK for smallish scale but when a significant criminal element work out the angles some people are going to be ripped off. Either amazon control all the dispatch and delIvery to your door ie no amazon warehouse, no third party couriers or the system will continue but just get worse for the customer. With luck it will eventually implode.

That doesn't work either.

So if I order an item I need to wait 3 weeks for it to be delivered from the manufacturer?

Amazon makes billions they will have security and insurance in place or maybe they don't care.

What I don't like already about Amazon is they sell stuff they clearly don't have and don't even have in back order.

I ordered a £300 car seat which tested highly in the German crash tests. It said delivery within 4-8 weeks. I ordered it 4-5 months in advance of when I needed it. After 8 weeks it was coming up to the final deadline and I called Amazon the day before and their staff confirmed I would be getting it tomorrow as that's what their system says. Roll on the day and I get an email saying delivery due in 4-6 weeks. So I call and they say they will escalate to the product team to see when they will be getting stock in.

I said I can see you have the same seat in a different colour albeit was now more expensive. Can you send me that instead for the same price and no can do.

I managed to order accessories to go with that specific car seat which wouldn't work with any other so I needed that specific model otherwise I'd wasted £50 on a newborn insert and a protector, etc.

I managed to track down an alternate website which had stock so I kept calling Amazon to escalate to their stock team to see when they would be getting more and only by doing this did they actually get more in and 2 weeks later it arrived. Otherwise I was going to order from elsewhere and return the Amazon if I couldn't cancel before it arrived.

They shouldn't be selling something if they have no stock and haven't placed an order with the manufacturer with a guaranteed delivery date. They hope enough people order before placing a new order with the manufacturer. Which isn't right especially if it's an essential purchase.

If John Lewis don't have stock you have to set up an email alert. Amazon need to revert to that instead of letting me place an order and taking the money with no stock and none on the way.

So by removing their warehouses would make their whole system worse and people would shop elsewhere. The warehouses guarantee next day delivery and ensure they have enough stock to support this model.
 
Joined
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Location
Wilds of suffolk
When amazon don't have stock it says "typically" in the delivery timescale, they don't give a specific timeline, eg typically available in 4-6 weeks

When they have no idea on timeline they allow you to place an order but it says "temporarily out of stock"

Items out of stock but they know are incoming have a specific date on when it will arrive, they often arrive before this
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
When amazon don't have stock it says "typically" in the delivery timescale, they don't give a specific timeline, eg typically available in 4-6 weeks

When they have no idea on timeline they allow you to place an order but it says "temporarily out of stock"

Items out of stock but they know are incoming have a specific date on when it will arrive, they often arrive before this

I wouldn't have kicked up a fuss if it wasn't an essential purchase.

But it did say delivery within 4-8 weeks and no later than x date.

On X date I got an email saying delivery now within the next 4-6 weeks. A 3-4 month lead time isn't correct. It's clear that they were selling something and promising a timeframe they had no intention of keeping to.

However they hadn't placed an order until I got them to escalate it to the stock team and then after that happened it arrived within a few days or so maybe a week or so later.

I even had copies of chats with their staff saying it would definitely be delivered by X date and I would get it tomorrow etc. However that never happened.

So even their own employees don't even know how their system works. It wasn't until it was escalated was it resolved. They must have realised it's an essential item and therefore they cannot just keep customers hanging by a thread of the promise of it eventually arriving.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,056
I had the opposite problem to you guys, Amazon delivered a new toaster which was meant to be a gift. The box was battered so they sent me a new one and arranged a return of the old one. Hermes would collect within 2 days.

I slapped the returns label on and parked it by the front door. Checked the Hermes tracking a few days later wondering where they were and they said they had collected it already. Funny as it's still next to my front door...

That was a couple of weeks ago, suppose I'd better get on the chat but its a painful experience at the moment and I keep putting it off :p.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Apr 2011
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14,761
Location
Barnet, London
Is it a crazy idea to have clear packaging? If it's an item that cannot be left in a safe space and must be handed to the actual person? No-one could swap out a phone box or laptop, as it would be clearly obvious. It would then be down to each person at each stage to check it's the right item? I'm sure there are reasons this wouldn't work, just kind of thinking aloud, so to speak...
 
Man of Honour
Joined
16 Jul 2009
Posts
7,896
Location
Edinburgh
I ordered a laptop (Huawei Matebook X Pro) earlier this year from warehouse; "As new" - arrived with a huge chunk out the corner of the screen and a crack across the glass; wasn't happy - especially as it was at the time the last one!
 
Soldato
Joined
22 May 2010
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Minibotpc
The amount of times i've received products from amazon that were faulty or just didn't need in the end and had to return it.. only to be told to keep it, we'll refund you anyway! It's ridiculous, i don't know how they make money.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 May 2010
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11,686
Location
Minibotpc
Also the amount of times i've arranged collections for returns only for them to turn up randomly and not on the specified day! It once took me nearly 2 weeks for them to collect an item as i wasn't in every single time they came.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2010
Posts
21,949
The amount of times i've received products from amazon that were faulty or just didn't need in the end and had to return it.. only to be told to keep it, we'll refund you anyway! It's ridiculous, i don't know how they make money.
Probably by not wasting a fortune processing random returns on odd products :cry::o
 
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