How reliable are Amazon please?

*again

I've purchased about a dozen items from them without much problem.

My main gripe would be slightly underhand tactics in trying to get folks to sign up for Amazon Prime, you have to remain vigilant to guard against registering by mistake.

Prime does now give you the option of a refund for the rest of your billing period but of course if you don't notice until the second payment round, it doesn't help

of a refund if you cancel*

I only use them if I can use local collect. Unless I'm certain they will be sending Royal Mail.

I buy direct from Amazon if I can. I'm very careful when using Market Place sellers.

I find the delivery companies are often worse than useless. Although to be fair we are hidden away somewhat.

That should be the delivery companies that Amazon use.

Make sure the delivery company used is NOT DPD (Does Pretend Deliveries)!

Thanks for the replies. I'm just after some books and a couple of DVD collections. Are there any alternatives?

Amazon are great for books, condition is important to me and their packaging is second to none.

It doesn't matter about the book but here is my concern from their website...


Hardcover
from £6.89
8 Used from £6.89
1 New from £972.66

Paperback
from £9.94
6 Used from £9.94
1 New from £1,094.51



Can someone explain that please?

Shurely shome mishtake.

They are brilliant.

Excellent for books and all sorts of things.

Payment details are the price you pay but so much of your stuff is probably on the web already! Just get a new or even an Amazon Credit Card with a small limit exclusively for Amazon.

Any problems with satisfaction about the product and Amazon usually arrange a refund or exchange postage paid.

Can't speak too highly of them in providing what I want as I hate shopping. I just wish they would pay their fair share of tax here.

Incidentally I tried to purchase 6 Nations tickets for Italy V England in Rome this year with ViaGoGo. Paid nearly 20 Euros over face value. Didn't get the tickets. Got no help from them. Luckily paid by Credit card and got a refund from them!

WARNING

Do not buy tickets from Viagogo!

Warnings from other sources regarding said company.

Amazon are fine in my experience. They do a lot of deliveries now with "amazon logistics" which is there own bunch and can come wierd times (like evening).

Amazon marketplace is largely them taking on ebay, indeed a huge amount of sellers on it are also on ebay, you can compare prices and ebay can be cheaper.

Jul 2, 2018 -- 5:09PM, Whisperingdeath wrote:

Incidentally I tried to purchase 6 Nations tickets for Italy V England in Rome this year with ViaGoGo. Paid nearly 20 Euros over face value. Didn't get the tickets. Got no help from them. Luckily paid by Credit card and got a refund from them!WARNINGDo not buy tickets from Viagogo!

Twickets is the best ticket resale site, can't sell for above face value (+fees + delivery) on there.

most people out there who regularly buy tickets to things aren't out there to rip you off

Viagogo have a horrendous reputation, I looked at them once and they ... smelled wrong.

i've been buying from amazon for years, honestly think they are the best there is in the online shopping world (aside the tax issue already mentioned). on the odd occasion something hasn't been delivered, it's been refunded or replaced without quibble. they make returns easy as well, you can pre print a label and take to post office

that's when you buy direct from them though, the market place sellers is different, not that i've had a bad experience there either but that's different individuals or businesses selling on there, much like ebay.

RE the queston about

Paperback
from £9.94
6 Used from £9.94
1 New from £1,094.51

you can always click on the link and look, it;s either someone having a laugh or it will be a rare mint first edition or something

I've been using Amazon for years too... can't fault them, seldom use anyone else

Yes I've had to return a couple things and they were good about it, sent me the label pdf or whatever to print out.

Amazon Prime is great. They are showing some Premier games live this year to subscribers. And if you like American Football, you get the Monday Night game live on Prime.

People used to change the price on ebay to something exorbitant if they were out of stock, to avoid having to remove it and relist it later, perhaps it is similar on amazon?

Delivery -- for most but not all things there is also the option of delivery to an Amazon locker (often at stations) or shops. You can also send it to your work address if (a) you have one and (b) your work address will accept delivery (check in advance).

If you are using a third-party seller, check what country they are in. It can easily add a week to the delivery time if they are abroad, and can complicate returns, I imagine.

Thanks again for the replies. I don't want to get involved with 'Prime' just a simple pay them and get my goods delivered. I haven't explored their website fully but apart from books and DVD's are there more any other items they specialise in?

I have found them to be brilliant and have bought 192 items since 2010...

Not one single issue and, btw, have found DPD to be totally reliable, and have live tracking where you can see where the van is at any particular time,
and never more than 30 mins either side of target time!

I inadvertantly bought "Prime", but it was cancelled and refunded, as I hadn't used it!

Delivery -- for most but not all things there is also the option of delivery to an Amazon locker (often at stations) or shops. You can also send it to your work address if (a) you have one and (b) your work address will accept delivery (check in advance).



I don't work but miss stew does and I would feel safer any goods being delivered to her workplace tbh.

Honestly stewarty there is nothing to concern yourself over except putting on weight where we're too lazy to go out and buy it

One of the few online companies I would recommend without hesitation

One thing I use them for extensively is online streaming (films). Almost daily they have offers to purchase films for as low as 99p although most of my purchases have been circa £3.99. I just hold them in my 'watch list' until they reach a price where I'm happy to purchase.

I hold them all on their site and then click and play them whenever I'm in the mood, which saves having countless DVD's at home. I am building up quite a library on there.

Oh and you can do the same with Kindle... you won't believe the books that are FREE!!!

Thanks Aspro. I'm techy clueless and don't want to join them, only the odd purchase.

Re workplace delivery -- check first because a lot of firms now refuse because people were taking the michael having their weekly shop delivered or claiming their new Rolex has gone missing.

It's not really joining them. Just register and purchase at your own desire but be careful, I too started Prime inadvertently but it is very (and I mean VERY) easy to cancel.

The good thing with Prime (£7.99 per month / £79.00 per annum) is that you get loads of movies to watch for free including TV series etc. Deliveries are more often than not the next day (if on Prime, which is clearly marked), loads of music to listen to, free books and countless offers not forgetting that Prime members will soon benefit from Premiership highlights too!

Personally, for me, it is worth the cost (I pay annually) but for the odd purchase all you need to do is register.

Prime is terrific value, especially if you buy of Amazon a lot. DVDs and Books are extremely cheap on Amazon from private sellers. Streaming is very good quality too.

I don't want any streaming mac. Just a simple buy.

stewarty; I've just re-read your OP and you may wish to consider what I do. I have one credit card solely for online spending. I asked the company to restrict it to £300 so if I were ever caught out, my liability wouldn't be a major hit. I've since increased this to £500 but I don't use any other card online. Now if I want to purchase something higher than £500 I just transfer it onto my card beforehand as it is an instant clearance. Gives me great peace of mind.

Amazon ashley do a card with rewards so there is your answer to that. Sage advice. Bank fraud is back en vogue. So many Millie's and Genex's tapping tapping tapping and now the olds are doing it too. I don't even use mine at the Petrol Station!

Amazon is great the only problem I have is being home for collection so sometimes I have to collect from the Post Office and I hate that but hey it's not like when Engerland go out of the World Cup!

Amazon seem to have their grubby fingers into almost everything so I should think they would be very reliable as they slowly take over the world

I don't understand the OPs fears. He wants to know if a company that has over 90% market share in major categories is trustworthy enough? Does he keep his bank card in the vault? Surely he never pays with his card anywhere and goes to the counter personally to withdraw any money? Does he even trust his employer or get his pay in hand?

ffs of course you can trust Amazon.

Also if you really need to avoid prime fees, you can create a new account every month, signup for free prime and cancel immediately. You can use the same bank details for every account, Amazon don't mind. They'll let you know when they catch you.

Prime has no financial value in terms of shipping. Prime products are always expensive so you are just paying for a timely delivery, not for free delivery.

detraveller, hold on a second. Explain this and with many other books...



stewarty b
Date Joined:    02 Aug 02
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02 Jul 18 16:52 Joined: 02 Aug 02 | Topic/replies: 16,749 | Blogger: stewarty b's blog
It doesn't matter about the book but here is my concern from their website...


Hardcover
from £6.89
8 Used from £6.89
1 New from £972.66

Paperback
from £9.94
6 Used from £9.94
1 New from £1,094.51



Can someone explain that please?

can you send me the link to that?

This book is not what I need for a friend but the same author....


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Agoraphobia-Effective-Treatment-Claire-Weekes/dp/0207148775/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530641735&sr=1-17&keywords=claire+we

I think its just an anomaly. That 972 pounds book is being shipped from the US and i think the cheaper ones from UK. Its possible the american store doesnt have the book so they list it so expensive no one buys or if some idiot does, they win. Amazon should be able to filter that out though.

Are you seeing this often? If yes, the expensive one is from the same store every time?

have tried to look around but cant find a good reason for this.

Totally reliable, for me.  Been using them for years - never had a problem getting things delivered.  Sent things back twice - sorted all without any problems at all.  Prime is worth taking out around Christmas for the free & fast deliveries - cancel in the new year.

Amazon should be able to filter that out though



Here's my concern detraveller. Why do they allow this practise? Surely any filtering should be done beforehand and not put on their site?

We are still not sure if that's the reason for the ridiculous price. If it is, can amazon stop people from setting their own prices?  don't think so. What I meant by filter was to show a UK customer that the book isn't available as new in UK. And that his next best chance is buying from the US.

There could well be some other reason for that price, such as the edition of the book on offer being rare etc.

Amazon are great, sometimes they deliver things twice and sometimes you receive goods that are not for you. I received 25kg of dog biscuits once. phoned amazon and they said to keep it - sold it to my neighbour for a tenner

"Prime products are always expensive so you are just paying for a timely delivery,"

This is total nonsense? Prime is a deal where you get some TV stuff/kindle Stuff and free delivery for like a year. The stuff they'd normally send on a slower free delivery etc becomes free. Obviously they have to proected against having the p1ss taken but I just checked right now and can plenty of stuff on prime delivery for like 5-6 quid.

becomes faster is what I meant to say.

One thing to add, re third party sellers, is that they are afraid of bad reviews, which adversly affects their rating,
and are at risk of having their accounts closed!

I have found that they go to great lengths to give satisfaction!

I bought some lightweight summer loafers, which in fact came from China.

Didn't take too long to receive them but, unfortunately, they were too large and I wasn't going to suffer the cost of returning them.

I e-mailed the seller, and the response was same day.

He said to keep them, and they would send out a smaller pair.

I bought some beer glasses, and they sent the wrong ones. Same response, to keep them, and they sent the correct ones.

There you have it; the weight of chit chat confirming that Amazon is most definitely a worthy outlet

Next?

Jul 5, 2018 -- 12:28PM, Just Checking wrote:

"Prime products are always expensive so you are just paying for a timely delivery,"This is total nonsense? Prime is a deal where you get some TV stuff/kindle Stuff and free delivery for like a year. The stuff they'd normally send on a slower free delivery etc becomes free. Obviously they have to proected against having the p1ss taken but I just checked right now and can plenty of stuff on prime delivery for like 5-6 quid.

It is total nonsense if you remove the sentence before it and quote it completely out of context. The sentence before was:
Prime has no financial value in terms of shipping

I was only referring to its value in shipping, where I have ALWAYS seen similar products sold by someone else for lesser price. Basically other stores prices + shipping costs = Prime prices. Of course this might not always be true but for all the shopping I have done on Amazon, it holds true.

Of course there are other things that come with prime and they might have great value, but if you are buying Prime only because of free shipping then you are an idiot because its not free shipping. The only advantage is that the delivery is timely.

Whenever I need to buy something from amazon, I just create a new account, signup for trial prime, cancel it immediately, connect to the same bank account and enjoy timely deliveries for my products for the whole month. Sometimes amazon are nice and they offer me a trial on my main account anyways.

As i said, the worst thing that can happen is they catch you and ban you. That's where your wife comes in.

Stewarty - some info on that here:

http://mebfaber.com/2018/04/18/how-to-launder-money-with-amazon-aka-why-all-my-books-are-now-free/


One reader forwarded this article on Amazon Money Laundering written by Brian Krebs.  He argues that serious money laundering is going on with stolen credit cards:

“Reames said he suspects someone has been buying the book using stolen credit and/or debit cards, and pocketing the 60 percent that Amazon gives to authors. At $555 a pop, it would only take approximately 70 sales over three months to rack up the earnings that Amazon said he made.”

Detraveller you are talking nonsense? Pretty mucy EVERYTHING they stock that's theirs can be sold prime, they do not change the price of the article dependent on you ordering prime or not. Given they are notoriously hated by other people for undercutting them, given their prices ARE cheap, and given prime doesn't change price at all how can you possibly argue prime is factored in?

The only other thing to say about prime, as others have noted, is they try to push it on you, so be careful when checking out that you haven't put that as the delivery option if you don't want it (free month trial then will auto debit your account at end of month for a year if you don't cancel). It's incredibly easy to do as they put that as the prominent option.

@JC, As i mentioned, all products that I have bought that were worth saving some bucks on, I have found that others are selling similar stuff, and when I choose to buy prime, I get higher prices which make up for the difference. So in the end I don't get any big advantage. I usually am only buying computer related stuff or small household gadgets. It is quite possible that I am completely wrong, but prime, speaking in terms of shipping only, does not give me any advantage personally.

prime doesn't change price at all how can you possibly argue prime is factored in
I am not saying that they increase the price of the 'same product' when i choose prime. What i am saying is that the same product is available with some other seller for a cheaper price.

And I am also not implying that Amazon is cheating by doing it this way. Im just saying I don't see any advantage of prime in terms of shipping. So basically if you were buying prime because you think you can save shipping costs, you are wrong.

Here's an example:

I bought a VGA cable recently.
The cheapest cable I see now on amazon is 3.29 + 5 Euro for shipping.  Total 8.29
The cheapest with prime is 6.3. The same product, if i refuse prime, is 10.3 Euros.

Yes I do save 2 Euros here, so you aren't wrong in what you are saying. If I were to look harder I could easily find someone shipping it cheaper, and thus reduce the 2 euro difference as well that prime is offering me. This is what I usually do and therefore i said I have never seen any financial benefit of prime shipping whenever ive had to buy something, especially things like the cable above. I don't buy too often which is why signing up for prime for cheaper shipping doesn't suit me.

And though this was not my point, I do see now that prime is telling me on the checkout that I am saving 4 euros on shipping when actually im not becasue I can buy the same product from the first seller for 8.29. At best, I am saving 2 Euros. Prime wants me to sign up for a year with them so I can save 2 Euros.

Again, im not saying they are doing anything wrong. Im just saying if you shop smart, you don't need prime for shipping.

And I must add that I had to look around to look for that cable for 6.3 with prime. The first results I got from amazon, despite arranging according to price, was a cable for 13 Euros. This is what I usually observe with prime products.

So if i checkout with that product, I'd still be told on checkout im saving 4 euros with prime, but that means fk all. I am not saving anything. I am just buying a more expensive product plus a membership fee.

There's apparently a big sale on 16th july I think for amazon prime people only. The chosen ones.
As Jesus said:
"Blessed are the Amazon Prime subscribers, for they shall inherit the gadgets they don't really need that will gather dust in a cupboard".

They are legit but use a multitude of different delivery companies. No delivery company has the geographical knowledge and reliability of Royal Mail. If you live out of the way or in a tricky area (new build gated flats etc) rest assured whoever is delivering it will put you as not in or leave it somewhere daft for it to be lost/stolen.

It's no longer fashionable to use eBay but a lot of sellers are still on both sites. If I see something I like on Amazon I look for the duplicate on eBay and check if they are using RM.

They used to always use all sort of people but recently for me it's much amazon logistics.
I like them but do what you do, if it's a marketplace item (I'm careful to check of course) I'll check for it on ebay.
It's sometimes cheaper on there but I sometimes use ebay anyway as I instinctively think they'll be more likely to care about it due to the importance of feedback.

Also the delivery on ebay etc .. you get more control. Amazon it tends to be "buy and thats it" with often a ridiculously overestimated delivery time in a hard to read layout. Ebay you can often chose different delivery types, leave a note about it when ordering, ask questions, have more reliable feedback to read, ask for a tracking ID up front, chase it easier etc.

But for non marketplace I've been happy with amazon direct. EVen BIG shops can surprisingly use amazon marketplace, a while ago I saw something from a big shop then ordered it direct from their website, I think it was a bit cheaper and their website had something else I wanted. So their amazon listing got a direct sale :)