Amazon is circling the drain: My experiences over the past 60 days compared to the previous 8 years

To set the back story, I have been a full-price paying Prime member since mid-2011, over 8 years ago. In those previous 8 years, I experienced very few problems with anything involving Amazon, and on the rare occasion something did go sideways, they made it right with minimal effort on my part. I felt like a valued customer, and I rewarded that with my wallet buying everything from actual books to car parts, hobby items, computer parts, and even large shop tools. As they added on benefits, I expanded my usage and purchasing with services like music, their streaming service, a Kindle e-reader, a Kindle tablet, and the STEM toy subscription (which I do recommend). I have traditionally had little to no issues with any of it. On top of that, I am/was an AMZN stock owner for years. My shares are currently undergoing a market sell, because of these experiences.

Within the last 60 days, I have had more headaches, knock-off products, and dishonest sellers than my entire 20-year eBay career combined. (Note - do not buy any of the crap I linked, it's just linked so you can see what item it is precisely.)

First up was a fake CF shorty Mazdaspeed antenna for the 5. Not only was it not licensed, it wasn't even an antenna! It's hollow inside. Okay, my bad, returned and moved on.

The same order included a universal fake CF front splitter that turned out to literally be a roll of garden edging. Again, my bad, used to this cheap stuff on eBay, not Amazon, but returned it as well.

The same order also included what might actually be a good product, a set of Mazda valve stem caps except they never arrived. In fact, I was so stymied by the other items, that it took me a week to realize that they hadn't arrived, and checking the tracking information showed that they never made it past the label generation. Amazon wants Prime to be next-day and they can't even figure out next week. It took, I kid you not, over two hours of live chat and phone calls to get them to issue a refund on these, which became strike 1.

Next came a cataloging issue. I looked up oil and a filter for the 2006 Audi A4 Quattro 2.0T on Amazon and ordered the Liqui-Moly oil and MANN filter recommended. In mid-oil-change late on a week night I figure out that the filter isn't even close. They sent the right one that I ordered, it just doesn't fit an Audi A4 at all according to MANN. So I had to drive to the FLAPS and overpay for a Wix XP that they had in stock and send a contaminated filter back for a refund, which was strike 2..

Next came a hobby item (a Warhammer 40K  Tau Vanguard box set if you must know). The item arrived and on time, except it had been opened. And ransacked. There is supposed to be 8 giant robot things in the box, and mine had 7. It was missing the biggest, most expensive one. Not to mention the rules inserts, decals, and some of the more fragile pieces were all gone. It's not like they couldn't tell, it wasn't shrink-wrapped and was covered in Amazon return stickers. This time the independent seller actually made it right by sending out a replacement kit for the missing one and refunding a bit, but the fullfillment snafu left me upset.

Then came some car part fun. I wanted to replace the outer tie rod ends on the 5, and ordered up some AC Delco Professionals. One of them came sealed, with a 555 part inside, which is what it should be. The other side came as again, an obviously returned (oily opened box covered in return labels, loose part without bag, filled with grease, tool marks) MOOG part (which is about half the cost of the AC Delco). Once again, a hassle to return that and get a replacement, only to get a new AC Delco box, with a new MOOG greasable part inside. Once again, gave up and overpaid for one at the FLAPS (that wonder of wonders was a sealed 555 unit). This was strike 3...

Then came the most ridiculous part of this whole saga. I had ordered a pretty nice pair of made in the USA oil-eating sponge turtles (part number 4332694308 for $7.99) earlier that worked great! They came in retail packing marked Made in the USA, were sturdy, and worked as advertised. Couldn't be happier! So I ordered another pair. What arrived was a generic gray plastic baggy marked with a different part number (X002902JKT, which comes up as made in China and available on Amazon for $1.99). Fulfillment was by Amazon, so I figured it was a mis-pick and had them send a replacement. What came was the same knock-off again. The knock offs are 1mm shorter, have much larger and more porous holes, and weigh half (0.2 oz versus 0.4 oz) and don't work at all. Once more around the rodeo, I try to order directly from the supplier and what do I get? The knock-off again! I give up and order a 3-pack of stars from a competitor (that came correctly and work the business) and spend hours over email and chat trying to get resolution. The vendor and Amazon are blocking my 1-star reviews, despite complete facts and photographic evidence. Strikes 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8....

Last was a set of Pagid brake pads for the Audi. I looked up the part number on Rock Auto beforehand to make sure I was getting the correct item this time, and fulfillment was by Hella themselves. What arrived was a ginormous Amazon box and inside was the oldest and most beat-up looking brake pad box ever and... NOTHING else! No packaging at all, not even a token air bubble. I opened the pad box and found that the pads were not bound (unknown if Pagid uses rubber bands or cellophane, but these had nothing) and they had bounced around so the metal fingers on the backside had impacted the facing material and pulverized it to dust. Needless to say they were junk and returned. I ordered the replacement from FCP Euro (thanks GRM!)

So that's it, the end. I am going to find other resources for all of my needs and stop using Amazon entirely, including the other services. Like I opened with, I am also selling my stock holdings. I have had to make 9 trips to the UPS store, spend more than 6 hours in total dealing with customer service, have my credit card rung up and returns held hostage, and I can't even leave product or seller reviews to warn others. Amazon has taken a loyal 8+ year customer and conversted them to a loudly agitated ex-customer.

Thank you for listening to my rant.

Yea I've had more problems lately too. The most frustrating was probably the incorrect brakes for swmbo's Scion. 

And I’m over here getting a random $120 foot massager that I never ordered and am told to just keep it because it isn’t worth shipping back. 

I've already chronicled my randomly delivered refrigerator that I didn't order, and they wouldn't deliver to the correct house.

They also have been losing packages, and lately, the "One Day" delivery has taken two, three days, and sometimes more, with little recourse available, unlike the past.  I am getting items with damage, or small missing pieces- not enough to return, but enough to aggravate me.  I consider it to be growing pains, but if they don't get it straightened out soon, they are gong to lose some longtime customers.

I bought a $500 computer display which arrived in a box 5 times the size of the product and no packing. Fortunately the manufacturer put actual HDF boards in the display box to protect it. That's the value of free shipping. I try to avoid Amazon for anything but books and I pay for shipping if necessary.

Amazon.ca has still been good to me...

Im tired of things listed as PRIME and they dont deliver in 2 days or less, or maybe it delivers in 2 days, but it wont be in stock for a month. 

Thursday evening i see im out of dish soap. Hop on amazon, order within 4 hours and get it friday, sweet! Friday comes and goes. Package never even began to ship, its due to deliver monday. 

And amazons delivery has some issues. My co-worker has had a TON of shipping issues, ive only had amazon delivery a few times but have already had a package go missing during delivery. Not porch pirates, they lost it in transit.

but i also bought my son a toy saturday afternoon and had it in my hand Sunday mid morning. 

And amazon music may replace pandora for me soon, and ive been a hardcore pandora listener for many years. 

Its kinda become a necessity. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. 

TLDR all of it, never had one problem and I order an absurd amount of things. 

Why is anyone surprised by this?  They have grown from nothing to be the world's largest retailer.  They are now the 800-lb. gorilla.  They have achieved world domination.  They have driven much of their competition into bankruptcy.  They don't care.

Not happy with Amazon?  Buy from somewhere else!

Disclaimer:  I'm as guilty as the rest of you.  I have become addicted to low prices and near-instantaneous delivery.  Getting this monkey off your back is not going to be easy....

Cooter said:

I've already chronicled my randomly delivered refrigerator that I didn't order, and they wouldn't deliver to the correct house.

 

They also have been losing packages, and lately, the "One Day" delivery has taken two, three days, and sometimes more, with little recourse available, unlike the past.  I am getting items with damage, or small missing pieces- not enough to return, but enough to aggravate me.  I consider it to be growing pains, but if they don't get it straightened out soon, they are gong to lose some longtime customers.

Yeah your situation was so bizarre. 

I have nothing specific to add that isn't already mentioned above other than I also have been less satisfied with Amazon recently. Not sure if I'll keep Prime or not when it's due for renewal next time.

who gets oil in their hot tub water?  Wait.  Don't answer.  

So you bought things from other sellers, other than Amazon and were surprised it was junk?

If it isn't sold by Amazon themselves, then its anyone on the web and you're back in the bad old days of eBay and Chinesium.

Thay said, things have taken a turn over there and if they don't right the ship, it will sunk quickly.  Especially with Walmart and other vendors stepping up to challenge them.

TJL said:

Im tired of things listed as PRIME and they dont deliver in 2 days or less, or maybe it delivers in 2 days, but it wont be in stock for a month. 

 

That really bugs me, I'm almost positive the listing changes after I order sometimes. 

Andy Neuman said:

TJL said:

Im tired of things listed as PRIME and they dont deliver in 2 days or less, or maybe it delivers in 2 days, but it wont be in stock for a month. 

 

That really bugs me, I'm almost positive the listing changes after I order sometimes. 

I complained about that happening to one of their chatbots(not convinced live chat is people). After being a prime member for 5 years I was told "that's only saying it will SHIP in 2 days, not be delivered". I said "WTF, so i've had 2000 flukes of getting my stuff in 2 days and they're only supposed to ship in 2 days?". It told me to shutup and have a free month added on to my prime subscription, but my stuff has for the most part been showing up on time since. 

Although I did go through a stretch where it would say on the ad "order in the next 12 hours for delivery on XX", but then after paying for it, the delivery date magically moved to 4 days later. I started screenshotting when I added to cart, in the cart, and after payment. WHen I asked how to show them the screenshots, they got REALLY apologetic like they got found out, and gave me some amazon credit. 

I still take 3 screenshots per order, but I'm getting pickier, because the more I look into running an amazon store, I'm seeing lots of dsicrepancies amongst policies and ways things are handled. 

But yes, any idiot with a debit card can start an amazon store these days. More expensive than a dropshipping site, since you have to buy inventory and have it sent to their warehouses to be "fulfilled by amazon", but pretty freaking easy to do. 

So double check that what you're buying is "fulfilled by amazon" or actually sold by amazon. "fulfilled by" is just a pallet of E36 M3 someone bought to resell through amazon, so no real quality control and lots of chinese randomness. 

I would guess that the fact that Amazon is terrible to work for may be a factor.

nutherjrfan said:

who gets oil in their hot tub water?  Wait.  Don't answer.  

Boom chicka wow wow...

Actually it's the natural oils in your skin and hair. One floater saves the filters and keeps the water cleaner for longer.

Stefan said:

So you bought things from other sellers, other than Amazon and were surprised it was junk?

If it isn't sold by Amazon themselves, then its anyone on the web and you're back in the bad old days of eBay and Chinesium.

Thay said, things have taken a turn over there and if they don't right the ship, it will sunk quickly.  Especially with Walmart and other vendors stepping up to challenge them.

All were "fulfilled by Amazon" or sold by Amazon.

I've never bought a thing from Amazon.  I feel pretty good about that. 

It's an amazing amount of product that gets returned , 

Our local swap meet has pallets of this stuff that is sold for $2 - $5 each .

And it's all worked into the price you pay , 

So they're finally starting to treat the customers the way they treat their employees, I see.

I'm letting my PRIME die this year. Like you, I had reviews that Amazon didn't allow me to post simply because they were so bad.

Let's face it- ordering anything from Amazon now starts a Rube Goldberg machine of human suffering, where people's bathroom breaks are timed and metrics are held on everything down to the most absurd minutiae (if reports can be believed, but with the number that exist now...). I have almost completely stopped buying things from amazon, and I hope more consider it. 

Try abebooks for better pricing on the more expensive books. 

This is a problem with Amazon and other large retailers. It's not the scale that's inherently bad, it's that the majority of the employees don't care about the products they sell or the customer's wants/needs.

This is also why owning some sports cars is awesome, because you have 5 specialty stores who want to go above and beyond to provide you with quality car parts and good service. Of course it comes at a price, a price that is well worth it.

I have thoughts. Will post later.