Fed Up With Amazon Prime?

Anyone else here fed up with Amazon Prime and their late shipping/decline in customer service?

I have been an Amazon Prime member for many years. They used to deliver to my residence in 3 days or less. I haven't moved; been at the same address for years. Now (since before the pandemic), Amazon packages now take 6 to 8 days to arrive at my residence! Again, this problem started BEFORE the pandemic, so they can't use the pandemic as an excuse for their slower-than-promised shipping.

I have purchased several photography items from Amazon including cameras and lenses. They used to ship lenses well packaged, however the last lenses have been sent either in a box with no extra padding or simply in an envelope!! Yes, they sent my Canon 17-40mm f4.0L in an envelope!!!! The lens box had smashed corners, but the lens itself was ok. This lens was sold and shipped by Amazon, so I couldn't leave any feedback regarding their terrible lack of packaging.

Regarding other items, of the last 15 items I have ordered from Amazon, 5 have either been lost or delayed for several days past the promised arrival date.

Calling Amazon customer service has become as frustrating as calling cable tv customer service. Their chat option is useless as you rarely get any assistance (they bounce you from customer rep to customer rep until they cut you off completely forcing you to call). Calling customer service is hit or miss (heavy, ininteligible accents, ir no help at all).

To top it off, I have noticed the prices have spiked up considerably. These same items are offered by the SAME 3rd party vendors at a much lower price if you visit the vendor's website. Fir example, I recently purchased two books from a 3rd party vendor using the Amazon site. Both were priced at around $50 with "free shipping" via Amazon Prime. I went to the same vendor's website and saw them listed for 29.99 and 38.99, shipping was $6.00 for each!!! So, they jacked up the prices for Amazon Prime customers. Sane with several other items I researched.

My Amazon Prime renewal is coming up soon. I'm planning on not renewing as I really don't think it's worth it any more. Amazon has gotten sloppy and careless in my opinion.

Anyone else fed up with Amazon?

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Last spring I placed three separate orders from Amazon, over the course of two weeks.

Two of the orders never arrived. . Just didn't come. . No explanation. . No shipping notifications. . Amazon never called or emailed me to tell me that they couldn't fill the orders. . They just never came. . How horrifically irresponsible of Amazon.

The other item I ordered from Amazon at that time did come, but it was the wrong item - NOT exactly what I had ordered. . Amazon was effing sloppy and/or unethical with their order fulfillment, and that pissed me off. . If the exact item I ordered was not available, then the ethical thing to do would have been for them to notify me and ask if I want a similar-but-different item, or if I want my money refunded. . But instead they just sent the similar-but-different item, which simply does not and could not work for my application.

Yes, the orders were from Amazon directly, not from Amazon affiliate vendors.

I made reports and got my money refunded. . But I really wanted and needed the products - things that were not available any other way. . Pissed me off, and now that's been 10 months ago and I haven't ordered anything from Amazon since.* . I don't know if I'll ever order from them again.

When I order something I need absolute certainty that I will receive the product that I order. . I don't mind something coming late, because it's my responsibility to order far enough ahead of time to ensure that I get it by the time I need it. . It is my responsibility to allow time for moderate shipping delays. . But for items to just never come at all is inexcusable, regardless of supply chain issues, manpower shortages, etc. . I don't want excuses. . I want my items. . Period.

All of the things I ordered from eBay and from independent vendors last spring came when they were supposed to, even during the height of the pandemic issues. . No excuse is acceptable for Amazon to do any less than all of the other suppliers did.

If every single other vendor could get me exactly what I ordered, right in the midst of all the pandemic issues, then Amazon should have done so, too.

* except for something I ordered for another POTN member a month ago ... that item was delivered to that person on time, with no issues

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I’ve had prime orders arrive in seven days.

Delicate items are poorly packaged.

They started charging shipping for returns.

I’m done. Canceled

Bezos needs to go to Mars already.

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Another reason I dropped Amazon Prime is because the movies sucked.

One of the main reasons I signed up for Prime in the first place is because I thought that if I subscribed to Prime, not only would I get free shipping from Amazon, but I could save money by dropping Netflix and watching movies on Prime instead.

But any time I would browse available titles on Prime, the movies I wanted to watch were ones that I would have to pay extra for. . The free movies that are included with the Prime membership were almost all bad movies that I had no interest in watching. . I kept waiting for them to add good movies, but after several months it never happened. . No way in effing hell I was going to pay them $15 or $16 a month or whatever it was, and then pay them even more on top of that to watch a movie! . That is ludicrous!

And so I am back to Netflix for $9 a month. . And Netflix doesn't try to nickel and dime me and suck a few extra dollars from me here and there for this and that. . Just $9 a month and they don't try to get more.

Good riddance, Amazon!


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I logged into Netflix just last night for Cobra Kai season 4 and they wanted me to upgrade to UHD resolution streaming for an additional $6/month.

They all do it.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #19337592
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And so I am back to Netflix for $9 a month. . And Netflix doesn't try to nickel and dime me and suck a few extra dollars from me here and there for this and that. . Just $9 a month and they don't try to get more.

Good riddance, Amazon!


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And I just got the expected notification from Netflix (after recent info in the news) about increase of monthly fee from Netflix, effective end February...will be ranging from basic $9.99 to premium $19.99

Wilt wrote in post #19337621
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And I just got the expected notification from Netflix (after recent info in the news) about increase of monthly fee from Netflix, effective end February.
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Darn!

In that case I'll probably start cancelling Netflix any time I go away for a month or more. . When I am away from home, I rarely log in to Netflix, because I'm either camping, where there's no computer to watch on, or staying somewhere that already has television. . Plus, when I'm away from home I'm usually working or adventuring to the hilt, and too tired at the end of each day to watch anything, anyway.

So, the price increase won't affect this cheapskate too much, because I am only home for 6 or 7 months a year, and I will only pay for Netflix during those months then cancel and renew whenever I leave and come back, respectively.

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Tom Reichner wrote in post #19337592
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Another reason I dropped Amazon Prime is because the movies sucked.

And so I am back to Netflix for $9 a month. . And Netflix doesn't try to nickel and dime me and suck a few extra dollars from me here and there for this and that. . Just $9 a month and they don't try to get more.


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Gave up Amazon Prime for the same reason, but my goodness, Netflix here costs me £15 per month, a shade over $20!

Im sick of them more frequently using USPS over UPS. A good portion of the problems are directly related to USPS who sooooo don't give a crap about your package. Fly like an eagle?.....more like fly like a chicken!

grimlock361 wrote in post #19337906
Im sick of them more frequently using USPS over UPS. A good portion of the problems are directly related to USPS who sooooo don't give a crap about your package. Fly like an eagle?.....more like fly like a chicken!

The times my packages have been misdelivered (delevered at some other random address instead of mine), or lost have been when Amazon used USPS.

However, most of my delayed packages have been delivered by Amazon vans.

I guess it depends where you are. And what you are buying. I won’t buy photo gear like L lens from Amazon. We have camera stores for it. Because our location is not remote and not kind of special. We have at least one Amazon distribution centre not far. And we are buying only if it comes from Amazon. Too much shady third parties are involved which selling knockoffs.

I live in a suburb of Los Angeles and my experience with Amazon Prime has been excellent.
Shipping is always fast and on-time. Perhaps because Amazon has a distribution center near LA.

It's been a long time since I bought any photo gear from them so I can't comment on the quality
of packaging, except that all other non-photo items have been well packaged.

But LA has seen a shipping problem, with cargo trains being looted. Not just a few packages being
stolen, but thousands. This video is almost hard to believe.

https://www.cnn.com …railroad-theft/index.html

That is absolutely disgusting. Wow!

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That could explain why I never received two packages ordered from Amazon last spring. . However, Amazon still should have notified me that the packages were missing and given me a choice of a refund or re-shipping an identical item. . The fact that they never contacted me at all is inexcusable, regardless of what happened to my packages.


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Tom Reichner wrote in post #19338451
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That could explain why I never received two packages ordered from Amazon last spring. . However, Amazon still should have notified me that the packages were missing and given me a choice of a refund or re-shipping an identical item. . The fact that they never contacted me at all is inexcusable, regardless of what happened to my packages.


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Have you checked the order status in your Amazon account? If it says 'on the way' that's all it might ever say...I have a number of orders which show that status (for years!) even though I received the item! The order status will stay that way forever, it seems. And if the order is truly 'on the way' and never arrived, you can contact Amazon to initiate a new delivery...I have done that once for an order which truly never arrived. It is up to the buyer to defend your rights, with millions of orders we cannot assume Amazon will detect and initiate resolution if the buyer does not first bring it to their attention.