'Amazon Prime is Getting Worse' (fastcompany.com)

Mark Wilson, writing for FastCompany magazine: That little Prime logo used to mean something. Now it feels like a ruse that lulls shoppers into a false sense of security, until they go to checkout and see a shipping arrival date far later than anticipated. This cuts through the greatest promise of Prime. It's not just the free, two-day shipping. It's that it's so reliable, you never have to think for more than a second about buying something. In this sense, Prime was constructed to be great for the consumer (so efficient) and great for businesses (mindless impulse shopping!). I've been a Prime member myself for over a decade, so I've come to expect that the rush of the holiday season will clog the arteries of Amazon's fulfillment centers and delivery services alike and make shipping less than reliable. But anecdotally, to me and many of the people I know and work with, this year, it feels worse than ever.

It doesn't help that we've seen a slow dilution of Prime itself over time, with the rise of Prime Pantry and Add-on Items. They force you to buy a minimum number of items to get the best deal, adding back the very psychic burden Prime had eliminated from the equation of online shopping in the first place. As a result, it can be hard to find true, two-day Prime items that aren't marked up to insane prices by third-party sellers. But Prime was still Prime. This holiday, I've noticed things that are in stock and labeled "Prime" have nonsensical shipping dates. I'm not alone in experiencing Shipping Shock. Complaints about slow Prime shipping abound across the internet. Quora literally has a thread asking, "Has Amazon slowed down their free shipping speed intentionally?" The "top answer" with 22,000 views is a customer rant about late shipments. Many others chime in to confirm the slowdowns, and offer conspiracy theories as to what could be going on.

Comments

Pantry

[mccalli]

Is there anyone on earth who understands their pantry thing? I mean, I can just go to Sainsbury's and order what I want, I don't have to start working out box sizes and filling them up or what have you.

Re: Pantry

[rmdingler]

In the U.S., our local grocers have also developed online ordering, local pickup outside the store, and even grocery delivery for an additional fee.

Amazon's foray into groceries was a natural business evolution from the book company that wants to sell you everything, but it's going to be less successful than some of their other endeavors. I've tried Prime Pantry several times, and it is not without its merits when restocking non-perishables. It's not necessarily a bad outcome, since it typically works to the disadvantage of consumers when too much of the market is in the hands of a single outfit.

Peak Amazon is going to continue to lose market share as other companies imitate their successful business model. This will not, however, speed up product delivery during peak shopping times, since the pipeline will clog with Newegg & Walmart boxes just as readily.

Re: Pantry

[orlanz]

It's not just during peak. I think Amazon scales down during non-peak times and performance is almost just as bad.

I been a Prime customer since the year after it launched. I probably returned an item a year; if that. Today, our ordering has only doubled but we return atleast one package a month; primarily due to delivery issues.

I think we are on some "bad customer" list because every once in a while the rep says "You return a lot..."; implying that we shouldn't do that. We always respond with, look the notes and figure out who is at fault.

If we order blue, we shouldn't get red. If we order something gift wrapped, we probably want it before TK... not two weeks after the dinner. No, we aren't going to go to the other neighborhood or even down the street and pick up the bad delivery. No, we are not going to accept a box with a forklift hole in it. No we don't want another brand automatically substituted and billed to us. You credited us because your tracking number became active. Don't recharge me because you didn't get the return in time!

And all this we find out if we inquire or after delivery. I think Amazon just doesn't care anymore. They are more focused on AWS, warehouse automation, and another HQ.

Re: Pantry

[tysonedwards]

Even if you pay for shipping, they have no guarantees on when it will leave. I ordered a new motherboard on the 14th with overnight shipping - in stock from Amazon proper, not a third party - and despite multiple calls to check on the status, it remains shipping now. It has been charged, canâ(TM)t be cancelled, but is stuck somewhere in the system awaiting going on someones truck. It is Amazon, not just Prime where the quality is slipping.

It's not

[JustOK]

They don't mean two days in a row.

Other Benefits, but Accusations

[crvtec]

Well, screw /. because I just lost my entire post by switching the format to plain text, so here's a summary:

Prime has other benefits, but they keep lowering them.

10+ year Prime member. Been buying since 98 when they sold books. Past 2 months I had packages 'lost' or 'damaged' in transit. Upon the 3rd complaint (I don't regularly complain at all, even when packages are late), they escalated me to a supervisor, at which point I had to explain that all the items that were lost/damaged in transit were the only items in the past few years that I've actually requested 2 day delivery for, and they were supposed to be delivered by *THEIR OWN DELIVERY COMPANY*.

So, I was close to being banned from Amazon for mistakes they made. They couldn't even replace the product (their own 4k Fire TV Box) because when it wasn't delivered, it was $50 than when I ordered it.

Mind you, I do roughly 400-700 orders per year with them (business and personal, and only when they are cheaper), as well as send them referrals through my site.

At my day career, we were (repeatedly) assured by one of their AWS reps that we wouldn't be charged for X services. 2 weeks later, we were billed several K.

They are really doing a great job of shooting themselves in the foot lately.

Re:Other Benefits, but Accusations

[drinkypoo]

"Well, screw /. because I just lost my entire post by switching the format to plain text,"

If you are using anything but the classic view, shame on you, you should know better. If your browser doesn't restore form contents on back navigation, shame on you, you picked a crap browser.

Are we really this spoiled?

[Kwirl]

I mean, anyone who gets mad that a package takes 3 days instead of 2 during the busiest shopping period in the western world needs to step back and acknowledge their own role in waiting until the last minute trying to get a 35 cent discount on a 400 dollar talking toy or something. Also, there isn't any company trying to 'compete' with Amazon so where are complaining subscribers going to take their business?

Re:News??

[infolation]

If slashdot is 'tech news', and the subject is Amazon Prime, then we should really be discussing UX design and Dark Patterns. EG

Amazon dark patterns force people to fill up their Amazon pantry

Then when they don't like this, Amazon dark patterns make it more difficult to leave low-rated rather than high-rated reviews

Then if the user wishes to leave Amazon, the user must navigate a complex, non-intuitive chain of commands that do not start with 'close my account'. This chain changes regularly, to ensure that current 'close your amazon account' instructions found on google do not work for more than a few days. I closed my account in March 2018. At that time, this was the process:

1. select 'let us help you'...
2. select 'help'...
3. select 'need more help'...
4. select 'contact us'...
5. choose 'prime or something else'...
6. dropdown, choose 'update account information'...
7. dropdown, choose 'close my account'...
8. user is put into 'chat'...
As soon as the phrase 'I need to close my amazon account' is typed into the chat input, the user is logged out of chat and must repeat the above (I found this 'bug' was repeatable)

At that time, I had to find a way to communicate that I wanted to close my account without using the phrase 'close my account' in chat.

Seriously?

[dromgodis]

Someone crying that they can't spend their hard-earned money fast enough?

Hope of humanity: Low and declining.

"Prime"

[DrXym]

Amazon's "Prime" is like an express lane in a theme park to skip the queue. Except that so many people have paid for it that it has become its own queue. The sane thing to do would be to stop paying Amazon this money - if you're going to get a shitty service it may as well be for free. Better yet, shop somewhere else where they value the customer experience a little bit more.

Consum(er)ism

[vikingpower]

This is bitching and griping at a high level. You're a member of an affluent, Western society, with an income you can spend online; you can actually spend it on worthless gadgets like IoT ovens with a videocamera inside and an app, or dildos - or on valuable items like books. You'll get those items, worthless or valuable, delivered to your doorstep. Within days. What the fuck are you complaining about ?

The world is on fire and immersed in ignorance, but hey - dildo delivery delay must be two days, not an hour more.

Re: Consum(er)ism

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolutely right this is complaining. That's what normal people do when they pay extra for a service but it is not delivered, repeatedly. Or did you forget that Prime is not free?

Re:Consum(er)ism

[Rob Lister]

Well said. From a historical perspective, we live in fucking utopia. I suppose there's nothing so perfect it can't still be bitched about.

Re: Consum(er)ism

[jemmyw]

I lived in the US for a short while, and I've lived in other affluent countries. In all those places people have way too much stuff, but Americans have more shit they don't use than anyone else. Who knows why. And it's imperative that it turns up as quickly as humanly possible so they can use it once and then consign it to live forever in a kitchen cupboard.

if you want it fast, Try Main street

[Dusanyu]

All this worry about fast delivery confuses me. how many of thees items can be bought at a Physical location in your city. Mail order is something that takes time if your in a rush go to a store. even better go to a Store that is locally owned. Granted you may pay a bit more but you in the long run are helping your community.

Re:if you want it fast, Try Main street

[Rob Lister]

how many of thees items can be bought at a Physical location in your city.

For me, some of them but not many. Just finding a store that sells a particular brand item can be more trouble than it's worth. At the same price? Almost never. Brick and Mortars have to cover the cost of Brick and Mortar.

Granted you may pay a bit more but you in the long run are helping your community.

Best Buy and Walmart are only marginally 'my community'. And no more than Amazon, really. The odds of a Mom and Pop having what I'm looking for is pretty low. And at less than twice the price? Absolute zero.

And search is so gamified it's useless.

[Myself]

Prime has become worse than useless, and it's impossible to find what I want in the search anymore. It's dominated by endless clones of the same item with scarcely-distinguishable gibberish all-caps "names" that all white-label the same FBA and import products.

I've taken to shopping at eBay, which oddly enough, seems to have a more reliable experience and better dispute resolution. I've never had eBay threaten me when I open several disputes within a short time span, because they can look at my transaction history.

eBay has their own issues (shopping cart keeps getting slower, and slower, and slower...) but at least the rest of their offering is improving. They actually added a "group similar items" feature to combat the clones that're clogging Amazon.

Thanks for the reminder. I need to cancel Prime.

Re:And search is so gamified it's useless.

[Solandri]

I really think this is Amazon's biggest weakness. If some competing online shopping site comes around with a more effective search, I'd switch. It's why I still buy most of my computer components from Newegg instead of Amazon. Newegg's search works, and helps you easily eliminate products you're not looking for. (You just have to make sure to set Newegg as the seller to filter out all the crap reseller offerings.)

Re: Don't shop there

[prefec2]

s/their/there

I hate auto correct. Its inventor should go to hello. Also why is there no edit button /.?

Re:News??

[Rob Lister]

You certainly went around your ass to get to your elbow.

To close your account, go to Your Account from the top drop down on the main page:
Select 'Prime'
Select 'End Membership and Benefits' from the list on the left.
Confirm

No chat, no hassle.

Re:News??

[Anonymous Coward]

the parent poster was talking about closing an amazon account, not ending prime membership. I just checked and the way you have to do it now is almost the same as the parent posters method. It is-
> select 'let us help you'...
> select 'help'...
> select 'need more help'...
> select 'contact us'...
> choose 'prime and more'...
> select section 'tell us more about your issue'
> choose dropdown 'select issue > update account information'
> choose dropdown 'select issue details > close my account'
> message: How would you like to contact us?
- options:
- 'email' button is greyed out and non-functional
- 'chat' button has text 'recommended' underneath

Works fine for me

[JBMcB]

My wife bought a few of the kid's Christmas presents and they showed up on time. Last-minute I bought a heating pad for my mom that showed up right on time, and that was on Saturday. Beyond that my wife likes the shows on Prime Video, and I've been watching Mr Robot and Endeavor.

Last year I ordered a set of knives (that apparently you can ONLY find on Amazon for some weird reason) for Christmas but used the cheapo shipping to get a few Amazon gift cards. They all showed up well before Christmas.

I'm sure there have been problems but I haven't seen any.

Re:It's the success

[Dogtanian]

Amazon has now 50! planes itself

Amazon has 3 x 10^64 planes?! That's... rather a lot.

Re:Amazon's website sucks

[drinkypoo]

You have to use both native and Google search to find stuff on most sites, including Amazon. Let's face it, even eBay has this problem, and they have more filterable metadata on products than almost anyone else. I regularly find eBay items with Google instead of the native search. If it happens there, you know if happens everywhere

Re:News??

[Dogtanian]

Thanks for the links; haven't had time to do any more than skim them at present, but it does remind me of a comment I read recently that I felt just put its finger on Amazon's recent direction:-

" Amazon is not the same company they were 10 years ago. You can feel the skeeviness is creeping in."

Re:News??

[grumbel]

I don't really see how that "fill up the box" with Pantry is a dark pattern, that's just a result of how they handle shipping and you can save $5.99 by filling the box instead of ordering twice. It's not really much different than the "Spend X more to get free shipping" when you don't have Prime. I'd much rather have that shipping price information made explicitly visible than having it only shown at checkout like in some other shops. And yes, it does gamify things, but as long as shipping is paid by the box, that's hard to avoid.

The different units are annoying when comparing items, but that might not be a dark pattern, but a result of how they collect that data. I have never seen an online shop that made compare different items easy, it's always a lot of clicking and back and forth.

When it comes to dark pattern at Amazon I am more annoyed by how they don't allow you to filter Pantry items out of your search, when you don't even have Prime and can't make use of it. It just deliberately clutters up search with garbage. The way they handle discounts is also rather scummy, as the discount price is often the normal one and stays forever, the higher price is just there to make it look cheaper. Having "Promoted" items show up in search is also no fun.

My experience

[mapkinase]

My motto is: never subscribe to anything if there is an alternative way, so I always pick the Free Shipping option (usually arrives in 1-2 weeks).

Half of the time a very expected thing happens: it arrives significantly earlier.

The reason for that is that the delivery times for Free Shipping are artificially exaggerated to cover potential delays further than required by business.

Nobody is going to store your items longer than necessary because as Quentin Tarantino said: "This ain't storage for Amazon items"

Ditch Prime. Use free shipping when offered, use cheapest shipping always.

Re:Prime is idiotic from an consumer economics pov

[rtb61]

Just like Amazon monitors, controls and manipulates it employees, so it does the same to customers. So they launched prime and did all the thing they 'KNEW' customers wanted. Now that they have you signed up on prime and paying, they will start taking stuff away, until the cost of losing customers of prime exceeds the cost savings achieved by cutting back prime. They will not stop there but continue to push that boundary, how cheap and crappy can they make the service, whilst charging more and more for the service, infinite greed, infinite profits, seriously, that's all it is.

Many people will wake up and simply stop dealing with Amazon if they can buy the product elsewhere, they continual yoyo, of raising prices, reducing price, increasing services, reducing services, will piss people off and they will simply get of the bullshit ride. Amazon is truly an awful company, just really, really shitty management, pretty much becoming psychopath incorporated.