Team-BHP - The Online Shopping Thread
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Quote:

Originally Posted by hrman
My last two orders from Amazon have been sent by India post. ..
I think they are as good or as bad as any of the private players. Just their reach is much wider than most private couriers.

Though I use India Post for anything I send, Today I got an item (off Amazon) via SpeedPost. Delivery was completed with 40% time left in the delivery schedule.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdp1975 (Post 4073586)
IMHO , Flipkart still remains the king when it comes to deliveries. We had ordered for a washing machine and it was delivered in less than 3 days.

I disagree. It's not king anymore. I ordered a TV on 1st and it took 7 days, 2 days later than expected delivery date. Ordered another product on 4th. They still haven't shipped it. It's already 8 days.

During the same period, I ordered 2 products from Amazon and got both of them in less than 2 days. One of them came from Hyderabad to Bangalore & got delivered in less than 40hours.

Since both these happened during same time period, we cannot give benefit of doubt to flipkart saying it's because of surge due to big billion sales.

Sad to see India's own company losing out to Amazon in almost every aspect.

I got used to rather too much information on courier tracking reports. You know the sort of thing...

12.15am: arrived at Sanjay's unit.
12.17am: Sanjay returned from lunch, passed package to Ram


But there is a package on its way to me from Amazon.uk, which the Amazon page says "arriving Friday [oct 14th]" but the UPS i-parcel tracking reference has been stuck on "in transit" for past five days. Oh well... will see what happens on Friday!

As others have mentioned, Amazon.in's delivery schedules have gone to hell unless you're ordering to the metros. I ordered a case for my phone and it took 6 days to be delivered with 'Free Prime delivery'. I've sent them an email telling them that anything that takes six days to deliver should not be considered as Prime delivery, in any event. Everyone who is facing an issue should email in and complain as well. Sad that they used to deliver in 1-2 days before when I was willing to pay ₹ 50-100 per delivery for expedited shipping and now that I'm a 'Prime' member I have to wait six days for their useless Free Prime delivery.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kbk_75 (Post 4074055)
Sad that they used to deliver in 1-2 days before when I was willing to pay ₹ 50-100 per delivery for expedited shipping and now that I'm a 'Prime' member I have to wait six days for their useless Free Prime delivery.

+1 to this.

For a few of my orders which are not sourced from their local Hoskote/Bangalore warehouse, I too have noticed this pattern - free Prime delivery seems to be worse than paid expedited delivery, despite Prime delivery supposedly offering free one-day and two-day delivery.

I've not ordered too many items to conclusively detect a pattern, but my gut instinct is telling me the same as you. Anyway, I have signed up for a year's membership, and I will use that year to assess whether Amazon.in pulls their socks up or not. That also gives them time to launch Amazon Prime Video, and fingers crossed if they ever get around to launching Amazon Music Unlimited (though this is not confirmed for India, it happened in the US just this week).

I went through a similar process for Flipkart Advantage - when I found that the number of Flipkart fulfilled items had come down, I didn't bother renewing that subscription.

Quote:

Originally Posted by binand (Post 4073628)
Let me get this straight. You ordered something that was scheduled to be delivered on 13/10. It was well on its way to be delivered on 13/10. Around noon of 10/10, you figured you wanted early delivery. You called up Amazon and they bent over backwards to accommodate you. And when they did attempt to deliver on your chosen early delivery date, you had already called it a day and had left office.

What exactly is Amazon's, or the courier service's, fault here?

I never said it is a fault or anything such. I pointed out that service is very slow. Takes 6-7 days or more usually to deliver a parcel which is well below industry average. In this case, they received parcel on 9th, updated in tracking system as well, still didn't want to deliver on 10th despite next 2 days being holidays as they already had 10 days cushion.

If you check my post I clearly mentioned that now parcel will be delivered "on schedule".

I just received my Amazon Prime Welcome Kit, and am trying to figure out just what this is and what I'm to do with it! stupid: Circular filing seems the best option.

It seems to consist of:
  1. What appears to be a large rectangular keychain (I think?) made of plastic. I first thought it was one of those musical card type thingies.
  2. A loop for this keychain.
  3. A circular "I am Prime" sticker.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by poloman (Post 4073930)
You have this habit of always giving benefit of doubt to Amazon. Hope you don't work for them.

Oh no. Actually from what I read I don't think it is even a place I'd enjoy working.

Quote:

Originally Posted by poloman (Post 4073930)
13/10 is the outer extreme given by the vendor, that does not mean they cannot deliver ahead of that. When an item reached your city on 9th, what is stopping them from delivering on 10th.

But in the case we are discussing they did. Just that the recipient was not available to collect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by poloman (Post 4073930)
mind you they don't deliver at doorstep anymore in places like EPIP. You have to personally go to their vehicle to pick up.

In my office, it is the building security that do not let e-commerce delivery guys inside. I expect this is the case even in EPIP.

I get my e-commerce deliveries at my home. My apartment security is not that picky (they even collect the packages if I'm not home). For others Amazon has this system where they deliver to neighbourhood stores. There are a lot of options.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arunphilip (Post 4074316)
I just received my Amazon Prime Welcome Kit, and am trying to figure out just what this is and what I'm to do with it! stupid: Circular filing seems the best option.

It seems to consist of:
  1. What appears to be a large rectangular keychain (I think?) made of plastic. I first thought it was one of those musical card type thingies.
  2. A loop for this keychain.
  3. A circular "I am Prime" sticker.


Free fast delivery! What a total joke! My experience with Prime in the USA and U.K. has been great but, here in India, it's been a joke! I complained to them by email and they replied asking me to give them 1-2 business days to revert to me on why these delays were taking place. Ten days later still no reply. Their customer service is as crap as their so-called free fast, 'Prime' delivery, here.

I tweeted Jeff Bezos yesterday to tell him they were taking six, seven or more days to deliver to Prime customers here. Let's see if anything comes of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by binand (Post 4074373)

I get my e-commerce deliveries at my home. My apartment security is not that picky (they even collect the packages if I'm not home). For others Amazon has this system where they deliver to neighbourhood stores. There are a lot of options.

No way atleast in my office. I have seen big TVs being received by office security on employee behalf. These guys sit at a concourse of two three offices and call the customers to come and collect the items. You can see in this thread itself many incidents where Cloudretail themselves jacked up the MRP and then gave discounts fooling the customers. Amazon has become an American company with Indian mindset like many other companies.
Can you tell me the idea behind 'Prime' if it has same service level as the normal customers?

During the sale period, I ordered many items on Amazon and an water RO purifier from Flipkart. The water purifier was delivered the next day. I ended up cancelling all but 1 item-mi band2 in amazon. As said by others, the amazon prime is a joke. I cancelled my membership too after renewing it for Rs499. Got back Rs454 refund. Amazon's delivery levels are coming down. Snapdeal is a joke in terms of delivery!

Quote:

Originally Posted by poloman (Post 4074588)
Can you tell me the idea behind 'Prime' if it has same service level as the normal customers?

If you are genuinely asking, a quick Google search brought up this page:

https://www.amazon.in/gp/help/custom...deId=202044310

I personally am waiting for Prime Video (I am a cord cutter).

If you are not: please remember that I am not a representative of Amazon. I am just someone who's quite satisfied with their service levels. I don't particularly care for discounts and deals; for me the USP of e-commerce is convenience and only that. It seems in 2016 so far I have placed 84 orders; I don't recall a single time where I was dissatisfied with the service.

Quote:

Originally Posted by binand (Post 4074603)
If you are genuinely asking, a quick Google search brought up this page:

https://www.amazon.in/gp/help/custom...deId=202044310

I personally am waiting for Prime Video (I am a cord cutter).

If you are not: please remember that I am not a representative of Amazon. I am just someone who's quite satisfied with their service levels. I don't particularly care for discounts and deals; for me the USP of e-commerce is convenience and only that. It seems in 2016 so far I have placed 84 orders; I don't recall a single time where I was dissatisfied with the service.

Complete agree with that. Though I would be happy with Prime Video - I don't see it happening quickly. My motivation for the Prime membership is pretty simple - I almost only shop with Amazon - very rarely I would use Flipkart, I have found their return policies pathetic, plus I do not want to keep adding items to my cart, just to see it go to 499. Sometimes I like something that is just 100 bucks! A quick check tells me I have made 64 orders this year so far - so about 6 a month, I have very rarely been disappointed with them. Returns too have been hassle free. And yes, I also get things delivered at home, not at office.

Sometimes the complaints I see are just wishes really. Amazon gives you a delivery timeline, if you are happy with it, proceed, else don't.

Quote:

Originally Posted by poloman (Post 4074588)
Can you tell me the idea behind 'Prime' if it has same service level as the normal customers?

They list many points as potential benefits, NONE of which has any true value to the vast majority of buyers. Most people opt for the service because they want fast, free delivery on all their orders. The sad part is that the service level is WORSE than being a non-Prime customer. Before Prime came along I had the choice of paying for 1-2 day delivery from the vast majority of sellers on Amazon. After paying for this garbage Prime service, the ONLY option I get is 'Free Prime Delivery' and the delivery typically takes 5-10 days. This is a massive step backwards and a complete misrepresentation of facts by Amazon.

Amazon has launched global store in India and the prices look to be inclusive of import fees. Nice.


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