In relation to Order # **************530:

On 18th December I placed an order with Amazon for around £250 worth of items using their Prime 'Guaranteed Next Day' delivery service. The order consisted 11 different items (a range of toys and other gifts bought for Christmas to give to family and friends). Amazon in the past have been a very reliable and reputable company with exemplary customer service so I felt that this was a convenient and safe option to make sure I had everything arrive in time for Christmas. This, however, was the start of my Christmas nightmare.

The following day, nothing arrived. This was not an issue however, as my family were not coming to visit until the following Saturday so there was still another 4 days left before it would present any sort of problem for me. On the Wednesday, 3 of the 11 items turned up. On Thursday, nothing. On Friday morning, I finally receive a phone call from my sister (whose address the parcels were due to arrive at) telling me she was starting to get worried as most of the items had still not arrived and they had to be ready and wrapped for the following day to give to my visiting family members who live in a different part of the country. Given the urgency of the situation, I decided to take a break from work and give Amazon's customer service department a call.

I initially spoke to a member of their team who looked into the situation and found that the items had indeed not been delivered, but that it should be fine and they would most likely arrive later that day. I explained my situation to them and told them that essentially if the items did not turn up I would be stuck with nothing to give to my family to open on Christmas day. I asked this member of staff to look into the situation again so that they could absolutely guarantee this, at which point the line goes quiet and a few seconds later the call terminates. Not being satisfied with the outcome, I decide to call back again at which point I get through to another customer service agent who again appears to hang up the call. By this point I was getting very frustrated but given that I had no choice I decided to call them again.

By this time, it was 3:00pm and I had already wasted around half an hour of my working day trying to sort the situation out. I then get through to customer service agent number 3, who I explain to that I haven't received my items - to which he replies that they will definitely arrive by 9pm that night. I then explain to the agent that I need this absolutely guaranteed as if they do not deliver the items by 9pm I would then not have an opportunity to go out Christmas shopping that day in order to replace the items they had not delivered. After some deliberation he agrees to go and double check for me, and, surprise surprise, he tells me that the parcels won't be arriving after all.

By this point, I was absolutely fuming. I could not believe that after 5 days of waiting on their 'Guaranteed Next Day' delivery and an hour on the phone speaking to 3 different people they were actually telling me they were not able to deliver my parcels. All of this given that they DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE DECENCY to contact me and let me know what was going on. Had my sister not bothered to contact me, I wouldn't have even known until the following day (by which point it would be too late).

Anyway, I continued my conversation with agent number 3 and explained that I was absolutely disgusted by their level of service and that my only option was to finish work early (costing me around £50 in lost pay), travel to the town centre and spend the rest of my afternoon/evening shopping for presents that I didn't have the money for (since I had already spent it with Amazon). The initial response to this was to offer me a £5 Amazon gift card and 1 month free Amazon Prime (frankly an insult given the situation). They then offer me a refund to which I tell the agent it does not compensate me for the situation they have caused and I would be making a complaint and closing down my account (which I have had for over 10 years and spent many thousands of pounds with them on). He then decides to go and speak to his manager, and agrees that they will still fulfill the order and I will receive the items in due course, and they will issue me a full refund (which would instantly arrive in my account) for the items not yet received. Although I was not happy about having to leave work and roam around the town centre buying presents, I felt this was fair compensation and the best they could do given the situation. We then end the call and I head out of work.

I arrive in a very busy town centre and attempt to look for anything which may be suitable given the money I had on my card. I enter Toys R Us and grab some toys for my niece and nephew, head to the counter and get my card out to pay. I enter my PIN and find that my card has been declined. I then try again, but it appears as though there is no money in my account. I then leave Toys R Us (the time is now about 5:00pm) and head to the Cashpoint machine to find that my refund has not yet arrived. I go on Amazon's live chat and the person I speak to tells me that the refund will arrive in 5-7 working days. Desperate, I call one of my friends who agrees to lend me £50 (not exactly enough for 8 gifts but better than nothing). I then spend my evening around town buying anything I can so at least there is something for my family to open for Christmas (aware that the items should arrive later on and I could always try and post them later).

Christmas then comes and goes without too much bother. It comes to my attention in the first week of January however that the items had still not been delivered, so I decide its time to give Amazon another call. I get through to a customer service agent, and after saying a few words the call hangs up, so I call back again. I then get through to another agent who explains to me that my refund has been issued. I tell him that I have received the refund but I was still waiting for the items, for which he says the items had been returned and would not be sent out again. I then explain to them that I was still supposed to receive the items as per the agreement I made with them on the 22nd of December, to which he replies (surprise) that there are no notes on the system to this effect. He agrees to raise the issue with a manager for it to be investigated and I would definitely receive an email back about this in 5-7 days.

2 weeks later, I still have no email or items, so I call Amazon again. After calling them three times and being hung up on and spending around 45 minutes on the phone I am finally put through to a supervisor. They tell me again that there is no notes on the system and there has been no investigation into my case. This time, I am promised a call back the following day at 5:00pm once the investigation has been done. I sit next to my phone at 5:00pm the following day but do not receive a call. I then check my Amazon account to find a message sent saying that they 'weren't able to reach me' and they were sorry that I was 'misinformed' that I would still receive the items. They tell me I should call back again for more information about it.

I can tell you I have now given up trying to deal with their shambolic customer service team. The entire experience has been absolutely disgraceful and they should be ashamed of the way they have treated me as a longstanding and loyal customer of 10 years. I am now going to be closing my account with them and I will be posting my experience on every major review site online as well as telling all my friends and family. Amazon has embarrassed me at a supposed happy time of year and they don't seem to give a monkeys about their customers anymore. I will now be reporting them to the Advertising Standards Agency regarding their false advertising claims and I will be speaking to BBC's Watchdog about my case.

I HAVE FULL EVIDENCE FOR ALL OF THIS BUT IF ANYONE ELSE HAS HAD A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE PLEASE LET ME KNOW AS WE CAN POTENTIALLY WORK TOGETHER IN HOLDING AMAZON TO ACCOUNT ON THEIR FALSE CLAIMS AND POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Fast delivery and great value of all sorts of everydaythings

Use all time and very good fas delivery and use easy!

Nice i will use them again. :)

Very good service

I wrote a review BELOW of my past experience with AMAZON.
Like others. I was hooked and was genuinely impressed with their service.
Unfortunately this has changed drastically. ALL AMAZONS DOING.

It's also important to know. I'm still with Amazon.
So no gripes or anything like that. I'm just not hooked or even happy anymore.
I am as a buyer. Just so disapointed with their new attitude towards their customers.
Every single change has been to benefit amazon.
"EVEN IF IT HURTS THE BUYER"
Amazon first."Profit" Buyer can go elsewhere if they don't like it attitude.

I will make it simple and just list the reasons.
1 - They remmoved the facility to see which seller will ship overseas. This is a nightmare now for overseas buyers OR sending gifts to family overseas.It also DIVERTS all buyers to Amazon themselves. Bypassing other cheaper sellers.
2 - Amazon seller charges. I do not sell there so no unhappy seller nonsence. Just a buyer.
Did you know they charge their up to 48% of a sale in fees. Seller provides item. Pays the postage. All vat plus all other costs out of the rest. 52%.
Think carefully about that.
IE. You are paying almost double for amazons greed. Shocking!

3 - They have removed or Basically Hidden or extremely difficult to find icons to purchase from other sellers.
Again forcefully diverting buyers to Amazons own items. I want to clearly see all offers from ALL sellers.To pick the best item or offer. That suits ME.Not Amazon.

4 - They have Increased their fees to all their sellers. By a HUGE MARGIN. 3-400% in some cases. Remember who pays these in the end.It's the buyer. YOU.

5 - Your wish list. This really was a wonderful item for buyers who like to save for later purchases and very enjoyable in the evening after work with a cup of tea and a quick browse for people like myself.Its no longer usable. Deliberately by amazon. They want you to go straight to their buy box and buy.It's still there. But its impossible to use. They put in a scrolling system that makes it unusable. Deliberately.

6 - The delivery times and the quality of items has Degraded to a shocking level.
I could not understand why they let this happen.so i asked a friend in the uk who sells on amazon. WHY?.
It seems their new warehouses that store items for some sellers. Now remove any feedback not praising amazon is REMOVED. Hence sellers can ship anything without worry of losing sales etc. I believe this does not effect private sellers who ship their own items.So if their feedback is good.It is genuine and safer to purchase from.
Shipping times my friend says. HIS OPINION ONLY PLEASE.
That Amazon have overstretched themselves with all these warehouses and can no longer keep control of everything. Items getting lost, broken and basically stuff anything into the package just to get it out of the warehouse.
That is not Amazons old policy of keep everything perfect for buyers.No quality, No care or worry of how buyers feel. Getting your childs christmas present with a sticker on the box.NO PACKAGING. Child collects xmas present from postman etc. This is just one example.

7- A simple one. You can no longer email amazon on 90% of issues as this facility has been remmoved. WHY? This is the age of email communication. Yet they remmoved it.Not everyone CAN or WANTS to talk through a phone or computer!

8 - Their PRIME service is a joke. Too many issues to write. But you can read all about this online. There is lots of horror stories to back up this statement.
You really should read some of them before paying for this service.

9 - Their catalogue. You can't find anything anymore.If you do. You really need to study it and try to find connnnections to other items and sellers. What your shown.IF you can get that far.IS what amazon want you to see.Not neseccarily what you want.
OR worse. Search for say example a book. You will see every book in the catalogue. Except the one you actually want.Or a million chinese items not even related to the item your searching for.ETC. ETC.

10 - This one is more of a question than a statement.
On most selling sites they have FORUMS.
Places on the site where BUYERS and sellers can go to see about problems, issues, price hikes and a host of different problems OR improvements on the site. This can be a great help to buyers. Asking sellers advice etc.
AMAZON deliberately BLOCK all buyers from seeing these forums.
WHY. Simple really.On the forums you can see ALL the different problems.
PRICE HIKES. Warehouse muck ups, sneaky site changes to benefit AMAZON.
Amazon seller fees,(They definately don't want buyers too see these) and Thousands of different issues on the site That they PREFER buyers didn't know about.On these forums you really do see what amazon thinks of buyers and their Take it or go away attitude about YOU. Their customers.
I only got to read them for about 90mins and even in that short time. What i read was an eye oppener.

There is dozens more issues that have risen in the last few years. I can't list them all.
But i left my original review on the bottom.
You can see. I loved amazon. I truly did appreciate it's service and customer care.
The change between both reviews is extreme and so disapointing.
I want my old amazon back.

OLD REVIEW
This review is based on my experience with amazon uk and may differ from others experience on the site.
In short
The good
1- You only have to give amazon your details, Credit card no.etc once.
After that everything is automatic.
2 - Their cusomer service is very efficent. Problems are sorted hassle free. They are Quick to reply to problems and any queries you might have.
3 - Prices are mostly Excellent, You get the odd item thats a bit overpriced, But in general if your looking for a Good price on anything, Amazon will Nearly always equal or better their competitors prices.
4 - Delivery is (Nearly always) very fast and Efficent. Although you may have to wait for some items. Items are well packed and Easy to open.(A bit over protected in some cases.ie a large box for a small item)If your an Enviromentalist then you might be a bit Concious of the fact that some items have far too much packaging, which is usually just thrown in the bin.
5 - They have on occasions some very good deals and sales.
6 - If you have a problem with any of their private sellers. They take responsibility for the order. They will sort any problems out if possible OR they will refund you for the item Themselves and then deal with the seller themselves without bothering you.
The Bad
1 - Their Quality of the item checking before shipping is not the best. I have personally been shipped a few very poor quality, damaged etc items. They will always sort it for you afterwards, refunds etc. But I would prefer if they put the extra effort into their quality checks in the first place, rather than have to go through the hassle of contacting them and having to complain.It's very Uncomfortable for buyers to do this. Especially if you have to do it a few times.
2 - As all amazon buyers know. Their shipping times on a small number of orders.Not always. 5-10% Can sometimes take days or even weeks for an item even to be dispatched. I don't care how well an item is packed if they are going to make me wait weeks for Simple orders.
3 - Some of the private sellers on amazon (90% are excellent)are not fit to sell online.
You may get the item cheap. But you will wait weeks to receive it and Some of the items you eventually receive are Really and truly not fit for anything but the bin. Horendous condition items. Their Largest dvd, games seller is liable to ship you any sort of rubbish just to fulfill their orders. They are also notorious for selling items they don't have in stock. This is a selling ploy to get every sale before every other seller can. Too keep all the business for themselves. Even if it means Upsetting any potential buyers. Buyers and service don't matter. All that matters is grabbing every sale and their profits. This is definately not the type of seller to be on a quality and supreme service site like Amazon.
4 - truthfully. You have to be carefull with their sales. Items are not always fairly priced.
You can purchase an item in a sale. Then find the same item 24hrs later in no sale at a much better price. This is misleading and unethical and not what i expect from amazon.
5 - Amazon Warehouse deals can be a bit of a gamble. Some of the items shipped are to say the least, poorly described.Or to be honest, Definately not as described. Avoid if possible. They don't actually give you much of a saving from the original price.So pay the bit extra and save on the returns hassle.
To Sum it all up
I personally find Amazon to be Excellent.As long as you understand beforehand that you may have to wait a bit for your items and avoid the few appalling private sellers.(As i said. 90% of them are excellent and provide an excellent service). You Can't beat the prices and service anywhere.
For Me.It is by far the best online shoppig site i have found online and i do a lot of my shopping online. 90% out of 100 for everything.

Safe and reliable

Fabulous service

Nothing bad to say. This site is good!

Never have problems good site!