Amazon going downhill?

norm · 8 May 2015 at 13:27

Ordered a monitor from them early Tuesday morning, found it cheaper elsewhere 10 minutes later (as is always the case).

Contacted Live Chat to see if they'd price match it (heard people successfully doing this), they wouldn't. So I decided to cancel the order, given it was within about 15 mins of placing it I thought it would be no big deal, how wrong.

They wouldn't let me cancel it because it immediately went to preparing for dispatch, even though Supersaver delivery was chosen. As of the time of writing this post it still hasn't been despatched and Amazon say there is nothing they can do until it's sent. :confused:

In the past Supersaver items never took *that* long to send, and cancelling orders never proved this problematic before. I think this and their new £20 minimum order is a change of direction for the company.

Redgie · 8 May 2015 at 13:30

Your item was booked onto the delivery system very quickly (good on Amazon for getting it ready to dispatch within 15 minutes). It may have been passed to the courier with a "low priority" note on it, or it may be in Amazon's dispatch warehouse but at a point of no return.

In this situation, I don't think Amazon have really done anything wrong, albeit aside from having a point of no return that exists prior to dispatch (which is fairly common).

tom_e · 8 May 2015 at 13:35

Too efficient is now a problem?

dirtychinchilla · 8 May 2015 at 13:39

Hah, only if it doesn't work in your favour. Sounds like they're doing a good job, although the ability to cancel is important.

Redgie · 8 May 2015 at 13:39

tom_e said:
Too efficient is now a problem?

He's not complaining that it was made ready for dispatch too quickly, he's complaining that he can't recall it from being dispatched even though it has not yet been dispatched.

FoxEye · 8 May 2015 at 13:41

Their website is bloody awful. That you can't properly sort by price in 2015 tells you all you need to know.

Since the advent of the marketplace Amazon has been ****. And it continues to get worse with free shipping being more and more restricted, etc.

DaleTheWhale · 8 May 2015 at 13:43

Just refuse delivery and get a refund from Amazon, I don't see how this equals Amazon going downhill?

spoffle · 8 May 2015 at 13:46

You should try a few times to get them to price match, even try calling them over it.

Haggisman · 8 May 2015 at 13:49

ThaReaperGuy said:
Just refuse delivery and get a refund from Amazon

This - although do your research before buying in future

Have to agree with the OP though, Amazon is becoming less and less attractive for purchases these days - it's rapidly becoming the last place I turn to unless I am unable to find what I want elsewhere.

FoxEye · 8 May 2015 at 13:51

Haggisman said:
This - although do your research before buying in future

Have to agree with the OP though, Amazon is becoming less and less attractive for purchases these days - it's rapidly becoming the last place I turn to unless I am unable to find what I want elsewhere.

With Marketplace sellers I've found that they often have their own sites/shops, and that if you buy direct you often get the item cheaper and with better T&C's than going through Amazon.

So Marketplace seems to be nothing but a huge con, really.

Redgie · 8 May 2015 at 13:53

FoxEye said:
Their website is bloody awful. That you can't properly sort by price in 2015 tells you all you need to know.

Ehh, what do you mean? I seem to be able to sort by price fine?

spoffle · 8 May 2015 at 13:55

Redgie said:
Ehh, what do you mean? I seem to be able to sort by price fine?

Not without having to select a category first.

tom_e · 8 May 2015 at 13:55

Redgie said:
He's not complaining that it was made ready for dispatch too quickly, he's complaining that he can't recall it from being dispatched even though it has not yet been dispatched.

To be fair they've got to draw a line somewhere, imagine the madness it would cause if you could cancel things that had been picked, packed and moved to their dispatch area whether they were about to be loaded onto the couriers van then or not.

spoffle · 8 May 2015 at 13:56

FoxEye said:
With Marketplace sellers I've found that they often have their own sites/shops, and that if you buy direct you often get the item cheaper and with better T&C's than going through Amazon.

So Marketplace seems to be nothing but a huge con, really.

It's an effective means of advertising though! Sometimes good deals crop up too. I got some stuff from My Protein on Amazon Market place that was more than half off!

spoffle · 8 May 2015 at 13:57

tom_e said:
To be fair they've got to draw a line somewhere, imagine the madness it would cause if you could cancel things that had been picked, packed and moved to their dispatch area whether they were about to be loaded onto the couriers van then or not.

The problem here though is that if you just then refuse the order, they have to refund you anyway and even more time and resources have been wasted.

Redgie · 8 May 2015 at 13:57

spoffle said:
Not without having to select a category first.

Ah, yes that does bother me. There used to be a workaround but they seem to have fixed it

antijoke · 8 May 2015 at 13:57

#ThanksCameron

esoteric · 8 May 2015 at 13:57

Had a similar situation on, Adidas' website last week. I forgot to put in the discount code and there was no option to cancel the order. I phoned straight away and said I don't want it, don't bother sending it and the reply was "We can't do that". Even worse is that they came from, Germany.

Waste of time and money all because we can't cancel orders anymore.

FoxEye · 8 May 2015 at 14:00

spoffle said:
Not without having to select a category first.

And then filtering out used/refurbished items, and then having to put up with listings that under charge for the item but put that in the delivery charge...

MooMoo444 · 8 May 2015 at 14:04

Amazon have been pretty bad for pricing in my experience. I can find places in stock and cheaper in about 2/3 of cases.