Amazon’s ‘bait & switch’ on delivery dates - Annoying

[Mont Blanc]

I’m paying £95 a year to have Prime delivery, but recently it seems to be getting worse for delivery dates slipping beyond next-day, and sometimes into 3+ days.

Worse than that, is the rise of their ‘bait and switch’ delivery date misbehaviour. You see a something you wish to purchase advertised as next day delivery if you order in the next 4 hours or whatever. Sold and shipped by Amazon.

You click to purchase it, and as soon as you do, it appears in your orders with delivery date of several days from now.

It just happened to me now, yet again. Wanted a new Echo Dot speaker for the kids bedroom, and there it was promised as delivery tomorrow. I order it, and it instantly showed up in my orders with a delivery date of Thursday.

Cancelled it. Then went back and found the item advertised again, and sure enough it is promised next day. Ordered again, and the date given is Thursday yet again.

This is totally unacceptable IMO, would surely fall foul of Trades Description Act or something?

I appreciate this is a rubbish rant, with not enough swearing, but I had to get it off my chest.

[The Rotrex Kid]

Try a different address.

I find that sometimes if I choose my home address it’s next day, my work address (3 miles away) is 2+ days, sometimes vice versa.

[Spare tyre]

Get rid of prime, you only use it more because you have it

I got rid of it and stopped buying nonsense

[Mont Blanc]

The Rotrex Kid said:

Try a different address.

I find that sometimes if I choose my home address it’s next day, my work address (3 miles away) is 2+ days, sometimes vice versa.

I shall try that and see what happens!

[Dolf Stoppard]

I’ve never had this problem and we buy loads of stuff. Always turns up next or the same day. You’re not selecting an Amazon delivery day by any chance, where it encourages you to have stuff delivered on one particular day?

[MitchT]

I've not had a problem with delivery times in recent years, but I do remember a bait-and-switch back in the day where the item listing would say "two days delivery", but the item wouldn't dispatch for several days and then it would be two days from the point of dispatch to actually transport it.

[snuffy]

I sometimes have to wait several hours for my stuff to be delivered. But then living under 5 miles from a massive Amazon centre might have some bearing on that !

[Mandat]

Mont Blanc said:

I’m paying £95 a year to have Prime delivery, but recently it seems to be getting worse for delivery dates slipping beyond next-day, and sometimes into 3+ days.

Worse than that, is the rise of their ‘bait and switch’ delivery date misbehaviour. You see a something you wish to purchase advertised as next day delivery if you order in the next 4 hours or whatever. Sold and shipped by Amazon.

You click to purchase it, and as soon as you do, it appears in your orders with delivery date of several days from now.

It just happened to me now, yet again. Wanted a new Echo Dot speaker for the kids bedroom, and there it was promised as delivery tomorrow. I order it, and it instantly showed up in my orders with a delivery date of Thursday.

Cancelled it. Then went back and found the item advertised again, and sure enough it is promised next day. Ordered again, and the date given is Thursday yet again.

This is totally unacceptable IMO, would surely fall foul of Trades Description Act or something?

I appreciate this is a rubbish rant, with not enough swearing, but I had to get it off my chest.

I use Amazon & Prime on a regular basis, and have not encountered this "bait & switch" that you describe.

Also, the delivery date is always displayed on the last page before clicking to buy, therefore you should see confirmation of the delivery date before committing to buy.

Finally, check that you have not set your amazon delivery day as a Thursday.

[CoolHands]

It’s completely st now. I binned them off a few months ago. Most of their items are now not sold by them, (hence anything like batteries will be counterfeit) just random ‘A1 electronics’ type non-entities. The search is st too - search for a specific brand of <whatever > and you will still be offered up SHANGBO electronic pencil sharpener instead of the brand you actually want.

Their delivery turned to st too. And their prices aren’t any better either. I enjoy using ebay again now for many cheaper things that I perhaps would have got from amazon as I had prime.

I’m a big fan, can you tell

[tommobot]

Had this before. A few times tbh.

Battle through their customer service bot, speak to a person on the Web chat, theyll say they can't refund. Keep pushing, say not good enough. Keep going etc.. they always seem to get fed up and issue full refund.

[snuffy]

Are there two Amazons then?

Because the one I buy and the missus buys from is not the one being described here.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Happens frequently to me, order something from them specifically as it says delivery tomorrow and i need it urgently for work, make payment , delivery date tomorrow at buy now page then a few minutes later it is in my orders page as delivery in 2-3 days.
Getting sick of them.

[Alex Z]

I stopped using Amazon after an abysmal experience when my account was stolen, other than for a very small number of book purchases where they seem to be the only stockist.

No prime, and everything ordered turns up as scheduled or faster.

[Whataguy]

I have this too, but after ordering sometimes the actual delivery day is closer.

Ordered something last week, was supposed to be delivered next Monday but actually arrived last Wednesday.

The thing I don’t like is all the adverts/sponsored listing now.

If I search for something I want the top sellers/highest rated products first not a big list of ones that the sellers have paid to promote.

[2HFL]

Spare tyre said:

Get rid of prime, you only use it more because you have it

I got rid of it and stopped buying nonsense

This!

I also got fed up deliveries not arriving as quickly as I was lead to believe they would. Didn’t renew my Prime and don’t miss it one bit.

Mostly use eBay now, same retailers on there and often cheaper, plus I don’t expect next day delivery and that’s cool, as postage is often FOC.

[james6546]

CoolHands said:

It’s completely st now. I binned them off a few months ago. Most of their items are now not sold by them, (hence anything like batteries will be counterfeit) just random ‘A1 electronics’ type non-entities. The search is st too - search for a specific brand of <whatever > and you will still be offered up SHANGBO electronic pencil sharpener instead of the brand you actually want.

Their delivery turned to st too. And their prices aren’t any better either. I enjoy using ebay again now for many cheaper things that I perhaps would have got from amazon as I had prime.

I’m a big fan, can you tell

These are the same reasons I cancelled it.

It had saved us loads of money since I did, now if I need a tool I actually look for it in the mess of my garage rather than just buying it again!

[shirt]

It’s more annoying when you get a notification saying they couldn’t deliver as the address is incomplete, especially when you’ve already had umpteen parcels delivered with no issues. It’s always the item you’re the most in need of!

[Acorn1]

Quite the opposite I find, as mentioned it displays what dare it will be delivered before you purchase it.

I bought a new winter coat and delivery date stated 3 days when I bought it, it arrived next day.

[Sheepshanks]

Mont Blanc said:

You click to purchase it, and as soon as you do, it appears in your orders with delivery date of several days from now.

It’s never occurred to me to look in ‘your orders’ after purchasing, but I can’t recall anything not turning up next day when it was supposed to.

And between me, wife, and our adult kids, who still have stuff delivered here, it can feel like we’re getting stuff from Amazon almost every day. If stuff is late from others sources my wife gets very uppity about it so I’m sure I’d hear about it.

[davek_964]

Definitely check your address.

I had similar recently - but we have multiple people in the house. If I selected one of them as delivery address, it was next day. For me (on some items) it was 3-4 days in the future even though the item said next day.

In the addresses, I was the only one who'd entered the county (Hampshire). This had confused the Amazon system which - based on the postcode - chooses 'Hants'.
When I deleted the county from my address entry, the problem went away