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I do not trust Amazon to ship anything safely and securely anymore. Almost everything I receive is damaged, late, or mis-delivered. Books are especially abused

I do not trust Amazon to ship anything safely and securely anymore. Almost everything I receive is damaged, late, or mis-delivered. Books are especially abused somewhere in Amazon’s fulfillment. (They’re always bent, creased, or dirty.) Items that are supposed to be 1-day shipping typically take >=3, and Amazon’s tracking mostly says “oops! it’ll come trust us”. (Not verbatim, obviously.) Amazon’s return process is becoming incrementally more obtuse as time goes on. While they’re still decently good, it’s getting harder to do easy, no-nonsense returns. Typically—if they don’t just tell me to dispose of the item myself—they demand I drive to Amazon lockers or Whole Foods or Kohl’s to drop stuff off at no charge, and pressure me into just getting Amazon credit. I would never buy a $7,000 item on Amazon under any circumstance.

kevingadd 5y ago
It's genuinely astonishing how bad Amazon is at shipping books now. It used to be their Thing, and now basically any book you buy from them arrives damaged. You can complain and get them to send a replacement and the replacement is damaged too. In my experience Amazon Japan still knows how to pack books correctly, but I haven't ordered from them since the start of COVID... they properly secure books to a bit of backing cardboard (with shrink-wrap and/or rubber bands, usually) and then mount the backing cardboard inside of the packing box so that the books don't slide around and get damaged. I'm sure it costs like an extra 50 cents per package to do this, but presumably their customers demand quality in other countries where Amazon doesn't have a de-facto monopoly.
- chx 5y ago
  Let me emphasize something here: Amazon Japan ships globally. Not just books -- bags too. And that's big because the Japanese bag selection is truly something else. Alas, many are very expensive. However, since I didn't travel for more than a year now (guess why) I have shuffled the travel budget over to the bag budget and bought a bag from Amazon Japan. Here's the most important part, watch just thirty seconds: https://youtu.be/g6uSpuN2uT8?t=346 https://youtu.be/g6uSpuN2uT8?t=346 ideal size for me, incredible flexibility. I combine it with https://youtu.be/oaRyVuLuWOw?t=160 https://youtu.be/oaRyVuLuWOw?t=160 because I like flexibility :) Previously I was buying electronics and I needed to use proxies which are added cost and hassle.
  - noja 5y ago
    > the Japanese bag selection is truly something else. Got any tips?
    - chx 5y ago
      I left a link to a Japanese video but https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/aj6q91/travel_backpacks_japanese_brands/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/aj6q91/travel_... https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/bl1plj/japanese_bags/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/bl1plj/japanes... https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=xpac https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=xpac
- cbmuser 5y ago
  I agree. I don’t books on Amazon anymore here in Germany unless I cannot get the book anywhere else. As for Amazon Japan, their packaging is most often top-notch although that’s more related to Japanese mentality than to Amazon‘s policy.
  - tjpnz 5y ago
    Provided the items are fulfilled locally (as in Japan) the packaging and delivery tends to be pretty much flawless. I'm honestly surprised by the number of English books they stock locally.
- matsemann 5y ago
  Lots of books on Amazon are now printed on demand. In theory a smart and possibly environmentally friendly practice. But you end up with smudgy pages from a bad printer, pages missing, and a book binding not lasting more than a day.
  - erik 5y ago
    This sounds more like you are getting counterfeit books, not print-on-demand.
    - ubercow13 5y ago
      It’s a real thing [1] - although you might think they were counterfeits on arrival if you weren’t aware of this service [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Print-on-Demand-Guide/b?ie=UTF8&node=9534081031 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Print-on-Demand-Guide/b?ie=U...
    - matsemann 5y ago
      Yes, it sounds like it. Which says something about the quality of Amazon's product, heh.
  - techdragon 5y ago
    I find it especially galling when for a document title search, I’ll see public domain reports (NASA NTRS PDFs for instance) ranking higher in Google results for buying a print on demand copy via Amazon at significantly inflated prices, or honestly just what is plain disgustingly greedy, the many charlatans selling them as kindle ebooks, sometimes as multiple skus with different prices, trying to profit from people that don’t know any better.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- reikonomusha 5y ago
  I order lots of printed musical scores. The higher quality scores are $45+ a pop. Amazon frequently renders them completely useless as a work you’re supposed to be able to sight-read with your instrument. After all the folding, bending, and creasing, the books don’t even stay open properly, and the bent pages make for terrible and distracted reading. It’s depressing and an absolute shame.
  - Anther 5y ago
    That is depressing. I suppose it’s a side effect of growing too large. I’d hate to receive scores like that.
- wott 5y ago
  > they properly secure books to a bit of backing cardboard (with shrink-wrap and/or rubber bands, usually) and then mount the backing cardboard inside of the packing box so that the books don't slide around and get damaged. That's how they used to do in France when they started (15-20 years ago): a base cardboard plate at the right size for the box, the stuff stacked on the cardboard, and both united by a shrink wrap. That was both simple and extremely effective, or otherwise said: great. I don't know why they stopped. And I don't know why nobody else copied that system. (I used to order from 2000 miles away, now I don't order books from Amazon no more, except second hand foreign language books I couldn't get otherwise.)
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    Here in California, I used to get books from Amazon that came in a box with appropriate bubble padding added. This worked. If I try to order a book on Amazon today, it gets shipped in a manila envelope (with bubble padding built into the envelope). The tightness of the envelope damages the book. I have no idea who thought this was a good idea, or even an acceptable idea.
- robotmay 5y ago
  I think the competition from local retailers is important in this. I’ve bought books from other Japanese stores, like CDJapan, and the packaging is excellent. In the UK all retailers seem to ship books poorly now. Waterstones is no better than Amazon sadly.
malwarebytess 5y ago
Anything over a few hundred bucks is playing with fire. I bought an iphone through them (Amazon sold, not 3rd party) last year and had to do the same thing the couple did: chargeback on credit card. They refused to investigate and flat out accused me of fraud. Gee, maybe it's the low paid disgruntled employees from warehouse worker to contracted out Prime delivery guy stealing shit? Nah, it's the guy who spent tens of thousands at your business and you never had a problem with!
- hparadiz 5y ago
  I went with eBay over Amazon for an international edition of a major android flagship for this very reason.
  - distances 5y ago
    In Europe at least the dedicated electronics retailers are clearly cheaper than Amazon, and of course do not commingle. Returns may be a bit more cumbersome, but honestly who returns electronics anyway? Usually you know pretty well what you're getting.
    - t0mas88 5y ago
      Europe also has laws that require a mandatory "No questions asked" minimum 14 day return period after delivery date. Doesn't mandate free return shipping, but for a € 500 piece of electronics paying a € 4.95 shipping fee in the rare case that you return it isn't so bad.
- zerocrates 5y ago
  I wonder actually where this stuff happens typically. Clearly some seems to happen before things even get to Amazon, that whole counterfeit commingling thing you hear about, where the 3rd-party stock gets used even if you buy from Amazon directly. (How this could be worth it to do at all vs. the reputational damage is unclear but I guess they're always chasing the small efficiencies... still you'd think it would be easy for Amazon to track the actual source of fake/nonexistent items even when they're mingled like that.) I'd have to think theft by the warehouse workers is pretty rare, it feels like the kind of thing they'd surveil and police quite zealously. You can tell they're increasing the scrutiny on drivers as well with them having to take photos of the delivered item, and they've clearly always been closely tracked on time and location.
patd 5y ago
I’m in Europe. Earlier this year, I ordered from Amazon Japan, the package arrived quicker than things I had ordered earlier on a European Amazon and it was insanely well packaged.
- 0xfaded 5y ago
  Amazon Japan even in 2013 was amazing. My host family ordered an out of print trail guide to the hiking trail between Osaka and Tokyo after I had failed to find it in every major book shop in Osaka. If memory serves it was delivered in about 6 hours.
- iagovar 5y ago
  I guess a lot depends on who and how they pay to deliver. I got an internal x260 battery (that can't configure properly in Linux, if anyone knows about it) a few days ago and has been a disaster. In the case of Spain their customer support is fine, but it falls flat because delivery is a shitshow.
  - ricardobayes 5y ago
    Even more so in the Canaries where we need to pay a lot of handling fees to receive the packages unless you want to do the customs process yourself. On a 200€ headphones I needed to pay 44€ of taxes and handling fees that was shipped from Valencia.
- rwmj 5y ago
  Amazon Japan is incredible. I ordered a Japanese book from them and it arrived the next afternoon (to the UK!) Another time I was in Japan and I needed a specific bluetooth keyboard for the tablet I was using, delivered to a convenience store pick-up point in the deep north of the country in the middle of winter, ordered with my UK credit card, and no problem, it was there the next day. I can't imagine the amount of organisation both of these things take.
  - robotmay 5y ago
    Delivering in a Hokkaido winter sounds like an epic undertaking considering the amount of snow.
laurent92 5y ago
The winning strategy for Amazon is to segregate by loyalty: Have an absolutely stunning experience until you are addicted, then let you have bad products and focus on newer clients. In fact, nothing tells us we all see the same prices either. I suspect they only show me more expensive items, because I can find my A4 paper at 6€ elsewhere instead of 10€ on Amazon. And same goes for most other stuff. Maybe after a few years, Amazon profits off us with a hefty margin. Price segmentation by (reverse) customer loyalty.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  Maybe we need a service were we can all upload our online merchants screenshots of products and prices, that can then tell us if particular customers have been segmented into the pay more forever bin.
  - pjc50 5y ago
    Camelcamelcamel.com?
- avereveard 5y ago
  never thought of this but this is has been my experience exactly, lot of past bought cheap version of item disappear from the amazon own search and I either have to get them from the reorder interface or straight up use google to search the amazon's item page and buy it coming from the direct link.
- kelnos 5y ago
  Definitely has not been my experience. I've been an Amazon customer since 1999, and I got Prime pretty much as soon as it started (I think they had a promo for students back then). I've spent tens of thousands of dollars with them, easily. I continue to have very few problems with orders or deliveries, and on the rare occasion when I do, it's resolved quickly and easily.
Covzire 5y ago
I bought a new 32" monitor about 2 years ago that when I unpacked it, it was clearly an open box item. The way it had been packed was extremely unprofessional, tape was haphazardly wrapped and twisted around the stand and cords and things that normally come in plastic bags weren't bagged. They've been shipping the wrong items lately too, twice in the last year when I order something that has multiple selections like color, scent or flavor etc I'll sometimes get the wrong item sent. I've done more Amazon returns in the last 2 years than my previous 15 combined.
- cmckn 5y ago
  The open box thing is a huge issue. I bought probably 5 things last year >$100 sold as “new” that just weren’t. Returns have always been easy, I live near an Amazon Go and they even have an attendant that helps. But not being able to trust that a new item is actually new is…shitty. I would never buy electronics from Amazon, just get it for the same price at Best Buy and wait a couple more days (plus they often have same-day pickup available, which Amazon can’t compete with). Target is another good option for the same reason. Always keep in mind that everyone will price-match Amazon.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > Always keep in mind that everyone will price-match Amazon. The other side of that coin is that Amazon used to have relatively low prices. Not anymore.
    - cmckn 5y ago
      They do still occasionally have flash sales that I’ve gotten brick-and-mortars to match. But yeah, their business model has shifted away from undercutting everyone; makes sense but it’s disappointing.
  - distances 5y ago
    Is open box always a return for you then? I got a coffee scale with obvious usage stains on it from Amazon, but honestly it works fine and a quick cleanup was much easier than a return.
zerocrates 5y ago
I don't return that much stuff to Amazon, but I've generally found their setup for returns to be about the best and easiest around: typically I have the option to drop off several places or to print a shipping label.
gambiting 5y ago
I'm genuinely surprised that people have such vastly different experiences with Amazon. I made 231 orders with them last year(lockdown....) And haven't had a problem with a single one. Couple times I wanted to return something they just refunded me without asking to send the item back. Everything arrives next day, always(here in UK anyway), and the customer support is stellar compared to literally anywhere else. Anyone who has ever had to contact Currys customer support should know what I'm talking about. Like, I see all of these comments on HN all the time but I have the exact opposite experience - they just have no competition over here. I'm at a point where even if something is slightly more expensive on Amazon I'd rather buy from them as I know their CS Support won't try to screw me over.
- Semaphor 5y ago
  The same for me. I had one damaged product, a pack of pork rinds that opened up because it was too tightly packed next to 5L of olive oil. Because of my experience with their customer service (and delivery service which is second only to DHL for me), other merchants need to be substantially cheaper.
- loldk 5y ago
  You must have a very secure delivery location, and I'm willing to bet that you probably live in a more affluent community, if what you're saying is even true. That and/or you're having stuff delivered to Amazon locations. Not to mention not everything is shipped from seller / manufacturer to you via Amazon.
  - gambiting 5y ago
    Uhm.....I don't see how living in an affluent community has anything to do with that - few years ago I lived in the dodgiest part of town and never had any issues with Amazon either. I'm guessing you have that view because Amazon in US leaves parcels on your doorstep? Literally never heard of that happening in the UK. If you're not in it goes back to the depot, maybe they'll leave it with your neighbour if you're lucky. So....if you count my own front door as a "secure delivery location" then...yeah? Where else would it be delivered? I guess you could have it delivered to a locker, but if it goes back to the depot I just have it redelivered on Saturday or Sunday when I'm definitely at home.
speeder 5y ago
Amazon arrived in force kinda recently in my country. My parents are amazed by it and started making expensive purchases... And now are surprised at how shitty their delivery is. The worst case was when they bought some medicine for their dog and a expensive screen to use in their business. The dog medicine arrived on a friday, I was present and heard a car horn, went to check, and it was a random normal car, a lady climbed out, said it was a delivery. when I said I was son of the person that made the purchase, she just shoved the package through the gate opening and drove away, didn't even said hi or bye or whatever, didn't check my identity properly, didn't take a signature, didn't even tried to deliver the package safely, she almost threw it at me. Then saturday my parents had a meeting with someone, and left, but on that day the city hall sent some workers to do some work on the sidewalk. Seemly Amazon deliverd it to these workers, Amazon claims they delivered, and claims some dude we never heard of accepted the delivery, we believe the dude in question is some random city hall employee that was doing sidewalk maintenance.
- rwmj 5y ago
  Likely to be Amazon Flex (https://flex.amazon.co.uk/ https://flex.amazon.co.uk/). Anyone can download the phone app, go to the Amazon warehouse, and start delivering packages. As you can imagine, quality of delivery is pretty variable. I had an Amazon Flex worker steal a phone that I'd ordered - Amazon refunded with no questions asked and as far as I know didn't bother to investigate the theft.
- thebruce87m 5y ago
  My general rule is: Do not buy anything electrical (plug in or battery) or anything that goes in to your body from Amazon. I would definitely not buy dog medicine.
  - aydwi 5y ago
    I think I could use your rule. Amazon delivery is outrageously atrocious in my (poor) country. As an instance, this was the condition of an assorted pack of fruit juices that got delivered to me just yesterday: https://imgur.com/a/sSMmgot https://imgur.com/a/sSMmgot To top it off, (rather poorly trained) Amazon support encouraged me to consume the contents of the pack with no understanding of what a health hazard means; at which point I hung up and cancelled my Prime membership.
willtim 5y ago
I would never buy anything expensive from Amazon, the customer service is not adequate when things go wrong. I even stopped buying CD's from them as they would almost always arrived with cracked/broken cases. Specialist sellers, e.g. Prestomusic, actually wrap and pack them properly (and often have much better websites for buying music).
- ALittleLight 5y ago
  Are you still buying CDs?
  - Anther 5y ago
    It’s rather nice to buy unusual CDs and FLAC them. I like to do it from time to time.
    - MikeDelta 5y ago
      Or vinyl albums, adds an extra dimension to listening to music.
      - Anther 5y ago
        Absolutely. Bought Bowie’s Blackstar on vinyl. Just seemed to fit somehow.
  - __david__ 5y ago
    Where do you get uncompressed, drm free music?
  - willtim 5y ago
    Yes I still do and I FLAC them. I've been collecting CD's for 35 years, so it's difficult to stop. I am sometimes envious of the high-res downloads, but whenever I hear digital clipping in the 16-bit CD version, the clipping has always been present in the 24-bit version too.
randycupertino 5y ago
> Books are especially abused somewhere in Amazon’s fulfillment. (They’re always bent, creased, or dirty.) Interesting that you bring this up- I have noticed over the past year and a half that all my Amazon books have been showing up with damaged corners and smudge marks all over the covers.
- input_sh 5y ago
  I buy directly from the publisher and have never had any issues. They might take a little longer to arrive, but they're always in perfect condition. Sometimes they even throw a free e-book my way, which I appreciate the hell out of. I understand purchasing from other categories on Amazon, but with books it's so easy to avoid Amazon all together. Plus you know you won't receive a counterfeit (https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202 https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202) if you order directly from the publisher.
  - Gene_Parmesan 5y ago
    Soooo many counterfeit books on Amazon, especially textbooks. Nothing quite like dropping > $150 on a big book only to get an obvious inkjet job in the box.
    - tompccs 5y ago
      This might not be foul play - lots of textbooks are formally out of print and printed on demand by the publisher. The quality is lower for that reason.
sackerhews 5y ago
Amazon used to be my #1 shopping place (save for groceries), years ago but I rarely use them anymore. Last hard drive I ordered from them came wrapped in factory issued static plastic bag, and NO padding inside the Amazon issued cardboard box. I of course returned it after confirming it was broken. That's not the only reason I gave up on them. Searching is getting really hard, reviews are meaningless due to fake ones, counterfeit products, ... To me it looks like they've decided to run the business to the ground and cash in a monumental amount of money.
pantalaimon 5y ago
Once you've established a monopoly you can start degrading the service
- missedthecue 5y ago
  Online retail has never been a monopoly. Doesn't matter any way you measure it.
joeberon 5y ago
The dirty book thing is so weird, often covered in some weird kind of glue-like "stuff"...
kar1181 5y ago
Ironically I do not buy books from Amazon due to the atrocious quality of their 'print on demand' titles. These look like they are printed with a 5 year old heavily abused inkjet. Part of the appeal of reading deadtree is the paper feel, smell and type quality. Majority of paper backs from amazon are nigh unreadable.
somehnacct3757 5y ago
Don't forget expired, misleading, or a knock-off. There's so many pitfalls to Amazon orders it reminds me of EBay back in the day. Lots of brick and mortar stores improved their curbside flows during the pandemic, and this is the sweet spot for me. Same day pickup of items you could have grabbed yourself off the shelf, and humans around to dispute problems with.
toss1 5y ago
Yup, ironically, books coming from Amazon are far more likely to arrive damaged - two decades later, and they still can't get it through their heads that they can't just toss a book in a box and expect it to be not crunch the corners every time. I don't think that it is even smart enough to be a scheme to encourage Kindle and Audible sales... For returns, I was surprised to see only drop-off options, but I found that they actually just bury the pick up option on another page. I usually find it now under a small faint "more options" link. Good luck. (And yes, despite being a multi-decade Prime customer, I now avoid Amazon for many categories, including books, & especially batteries)
- _xerces_ 5y ago
  A box? You must be a favorite, premier customer! Most of my stuff comes in a flimsy paper bag these days.
beezle 5y ago
My experience is that books are mostly still OK (US based) but the frequency of getting a new book that is slightly damaged has increased significantly. Even books that are shrink wrapped by the publisher sometimes come with corner or other damage (which may or may not have happened once in Amazon's hands, but I should not have to tolerate). What I can say with certainty is that the attention to shipping the books has plummeted compared to the early years of Amazon. Back then they would put the book(s) on a piece of cardboard and shrink wrap that and then put some of the bubble stuff in the box. Now you are lucky if they even put any filler in the box and best hope its not a rainy day and delivery leaves the package outside your door as boxes are flimsier and not always sealed tightly.
rodgerd 5y ago
> Almost everything I receive is damaged, late, or mis-delivered. Books are especially abused somewhere in Amazon’s fulfillment. (They’re always bent, creased, or dirty.) Strangely enough, a company whose employees have to piss in bottles and use crying booths may have staff that are not especially engaged in the highest quality work.
magnetowasright 5y ago
I always seem to get a boot prints on the books I buy on Amazon. I don’t really buy from Amazon any more but the amount of boot prints I’ve received over the years is a lot! The latest book I ordered came unbelievably spotless. It was about $4 AUD including shipping for a book that would usually cost me $50+ shipping from USA (it was sheet music) so I was very happy. The original delivery date they gave me was delusional so I paid it no mind when it passed. Two days after it, I get an email saying they’re refunding me $3 for the inconvenience, and my spotless book arrived the next day. Three days late is a rounding error in postage delivery timelines where I live. I’m still bewildered by the whole experience to be honest, but hey, almost free expensive sheet music book. Definitely low risk for that purchase.

kevingadd 5y ago

It's genuinely astonishing how bad Amazon is at shipping books now. It used to be their Thing, and now basically any book you buy from them arrives damaged. You can complain and get them to send a replacement and the replacement is damaged too. In my experience Amazon Japan still knows how to pack books correctly, but I haven't ordered from them since the start of COVID... they properly secure books to a bit of backing cardboard (with shrink-wrap and/or rubber bands, usually) and then mount the backing cardboard inside of the packing box so that the books don't slide around and get damaged. I'm sure it costs like an extra 50 cents per package to do this, but presumably their customers demand quality in other countries where Amazon doesn't have a de-facto monopoly.

chx 5y ago
Let me emphasize something here: Amazon Japan ships globally. Not just books -- bags too. And that's big because the Japanese bag selection is truly something else. Alas, many are very expensive. However, since I didn't travel for more than a year now (guess why) I have shuffled the travel budget over to the bag budget and bought a bag from Amazon Japan. Here's the most important part, watch just thirty seconds: https://youtu.be/g6uSpuN2uT8?t=346 https://youtu.be/g6uSpuN2uT8?t=346 ideal size for me, incredible flexibility. I combine it with https://youtu.be/oaRyVuLuWOw?t=160 https://youtu.be/oaRyVuLuWOw?t=160 because I like flexibility :) Previously I was buying electronics and I needed to use proxies which are added cost and hassle.
- noja 5y ago
  > the Japanese bag selection is truly something else. Got any tips?
  - chx 5y ago
    I left a link to a Japanese video but https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/aj6q91/travel_backpacks_japanese_brands/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/aj6q91/travel_... https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/bl1plj/japanese_bags/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ManyBaggers/comments/bl1plj/japanes... https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=xpac https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=xpac
cbmuser 5y ago
I agree. I don’t books on Amazon anymore here in Germany unless I cannot get the book anywhere else. As for Amazon Japan, their packaging is most often top-notch although that’s more related to Japanese mentality than to Amazon‘s policy.
- tjpnz 5y ago
  Provided the items are fulfilled locally (as in Japan) the packaging and delivery tends to be pretty much flawless. I'm honestly surprised by the number of English books they stock locally.
matsemann 5y ago
Lots of books on Amazon are now printed on demand. In theory a smart and possibly environmentally friendly practice. But you end up with smudgy pages from a bad printer, pages missing, and a book binding not lasting more than a day.
- erik 5y ago
  This sounds more like you are getting counterfeit books, not print-on-demand.
  - ubercow13 5y ago
    It’s a real thing [1] - although you might think they were counterfeits on arrival if you weren’t aware of this service [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Print-on-Demand-Guide/b?ie=UTF8&node=9534081031 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Print-on-Demand-Guide/b?ie=U...
  - matsemann 5y ago
    Yes, it sounds like it. Which says something about the quality of Amazon's product, heh.
- techdragon 5y ago
  I find it especially galling when for a document title search, I’ll see public domain reports (NASA NTRS PDFs for instance) ranking higher in Google results for buying a print on demand copy via Amazon at significantly inflated prices, or honestly just what is plain disgustingly greedy, the many charlatans selling them as kindle ebooks, sometimes as multiple skus with different prices, trying to profit from people that don’t know any better.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
reikonomusha 5y ago
I order lots of printed musical scores. The higher quality scores are $45+ a pop. Amazon frequently renders them completely useless as a work you’re supposed to be able to sight-read with your instrument. After all the folding, bending, and creasing, the books don’t even stay open properly, and the bent pages make for terrible and distracted reading. It’s depressing and an absolute shame.
- Anther 5y ago
  That is depressing. I suppose it’s a side effect of growing too large. I’d hate to receive scores like that.
wott 5y ago
> they properly secure books to a bit of backing cardboard (with shrink-wrap and/or rubber bands, usually) and then mount the backing cardboard inside of the packing box so that the books don't slide around and get damaged. That's how they used to do in France when they started (15-20 years ago): a base cardboard plate at the right size for the box, the stuff stacked on the cardboard, and both united by a shrink wrap. That was both simple and extremely effective, or otherwise said: great. I don't know why they stopped. And I don't know why nobody else copied that system. (I used to order from 2000 miles away, now I don't order books from Amazon no more, except second hand foreign language books I couldn't get otherwise.)
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  Here in California, I used to get books from Amazon that came in a box with appropriate bubble padding added. This worked. If I try to order a book on Amazon today, it gets shipped in a manila envelope (with bubble padding built into the envelope). The tightness of the envelope damages the book. I have no idea who thought this was a good idea, or even an acceptable idea.
robotmay 5y ago
I think the competition from local retailers is important in this. I’ve bought books from other Japanese stores, like CDJapan, and the packaging is excellent. In the UK all retailers seem to ship books poorly now. Waterstones is no better than Amazon sadly.

malwarebytess 5y ago

Anything over a few hundred bucks is playing with fire. I bought an iphone through them (Amazon sold, not 3rd party) last year and had to do the same thing the couple did: chargeback on credit card. They refused to investigate and flat out accused me of fraud. Gee, maybe it's the low paid disgruntled employees from warehouse worker to contracted out Prime delivery guy stealing shit? Nah, it's the guy who spent tens of thousands at your business and you never had a problem with!

hparadiz 5y ago
I went with eBay over Amazon for an international edition of a major android flagship for this very reason.
- distances 5y ago
  In Europe at least the dedicated electronics retailers are clearly cheaper than Amazon, and of course do not commingle. Returns may be a bit more cumbersome, but honestly who returns electronics anyway? Usually you know pretty well what you're getting.
  - t0mas88 5y ago
    Europe also has laws that require a mandatory "No questions asked" minimum 14 day return period after delivery date. Doesn't mandate free return shipping, but for a € 500 piece of electronics paying a € 4.95 shipping fee in the rare case that you return it isn't so bad.
zerocrates 5y ago
I wonder actually where this stuff happens typically. Clearly some seems to happen before things even get to Amazon, that whole counterfeit commingling thing you hear about, where the 3rd-party stock gets used even if you buy from Amazon directly. (How this could be worth it to do at all vs. the reputational damage is unclear but I guess they're always chasing the small efficiencies... still you'd think it would be easy for Amazon to track the actual source of fake/nonexistent items even when they're mingled like that.) I'd have to think theft by the warehouse workers is pretty rare, it feels like the kind of thing they'd surveil and police quite zealously. You can tell they're increasing the scrutiny on drivers as well with them having to take photos of the delivered item, and they've clearly always been closely tracked on time and location.

patd 5y ago

I’m in Europe. Earlier this year, I ordered from Amazon Japan, the package arrived quicker than things I had ordered earlier on a European Amazon and it was insanely well packaged.

0xfaded 5y ago
Amazon Japan even in 2013 was amazing. My host family ordered an out of print trail guide to the hiking trail between Osaka and Tokyo after I had failed to find it in every major book shop in Osaka. If memory serves it was delivered in about 6 hours.
iagovar 5y ago
I guess a lot depends on who and how they pay to deliver. I got an internal x260 battery (that can't configure properly in Linux, if anyone knows about it) a few days ago and has been a disaster. In the case of Spain their customer support is fine, but it falls flat because delivery is a shitshow.
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  Even more so in the Canaries where we need to pay a lot of handling fees to receive the packages unless you want to do the customs process yourself. On a 200€ headphones I needed to pay 44€ of taxes and handling fees that was shipped from Valencia.
rwmj 5y ago
Amazon Japan is incredible. I ordered a Japanese book from them and it arrived the next afternoon (to the UK!) Another time I was in Japan and I needed a specific bluetooth keyboard for the tablet I was using, delivered to a convenience store pick-up point in the deep north of the country in the middle of winter, ordered with my UK credit card, and no problem, it was there the next day. I can't imagine the amount of organisation both of these things take.
- robotmay 5y ago
  Delivering in a Hokkaido winter sounds like an epic undertaking considering the amount of snow.

laurent92 5y ago

The winning strategy for Amazon is to segregate by loyalty: Have an absolutely stunning experience until you are addicted, then let you have bad products and focus on newer clients. In fact, nothing tells us we all see the same prices either. I suspect they only show me more expensive items, because I can find my A4 paper at 6€ elsewhere instead of 10€ on Amazon. And same goes for most other stuff. Maybe after a few years, Amazon profits off us with a hefty margin. Price segmentation by (reverse) customer loyalty.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
Maybe we need a service were we can all upload our online merchants screenshots of products and prices, that can then tell us if particular customers have been segmented into the pay more forever bin.
- pjc50 5y ago
  Camelcamelcamel.com?
avereveard 5y ago
never thought of this but this is has been my experience exactly, lot of past bought cheap version of item disappear from the amazon own search and I either have to get them from the reorder interface or straight up use google to search the amazon's item page and buy it coming from the direct link.
kelnos 5y ago
Definitely has not been my experience. I've been an Amazon customer since 1999, and I got Prime pretty much as soon as it started (I think they had a promo for students back then). I've spent tens of thousands of dollars with them, easily. I continue to have very few problems with orders or deliveries, and on the rare occasion when I do, it's resolved quickly and easily.

Covzire 5y ago

I bought a new 32" monitor about 2 years ago that when I unpacked it, it was clearly an open box item. The way it had been packed was extremely unprofessional, tape was haphazardly wrapped and twisted around the stand and cords and things that normally come in plastic bags weren't bagged. They've been shipping the wrong items lately too, twice in the last year when I order something that has multiple selections like color, scent or flavor etc I'll sometimes get the wrong item sent. I've done more Amazon returns in the last 2 years than my previous 15 combined.

cmckn 5y ago
The open box thing is a huge issue. I bought probably 5 things last year >$100 sold as “new” that just weren’t. Returns have always been easy, I live near an Amazon Go and they even have an attendant that helps. But not being able to trust that a new item is actually new is…shitty. I would never buy electronics from Amazon, just get it for the same price at Best Buy and wait a couple more days (plus they often have same-day pickup available, which Amazon can’t compete with). Target is another good option for the same reason. Always keep in mind that everyone will price-match Amazon.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > Always keep in mind that everyone will price-match Amazon. The other side of that coin is that Amazon used to have relatively low prices. Not anymore.
  - cmckn 5y ago
    They do still occasionally have flash sales that I’ve gotten brick-and-mortars to match. But yeah, their business model has shifted away from undercutting everyone; makes sense but it’s disappointing.
- distances 5y ago
  Is open box always a return for you then? I got a coffee scale with obvious usage stains on it from Amazon, but honestly it works fine and a quick cleanup was much easier than a return.

zerocrates 5y ago

I don't return that much stuff to Amazon, but I've generally found their setup for returns to be about the best and easiest around: typically I have the option to drop off several places or to print a shipping label.

gambiting 5y ago

I'm genuinely surprised that people have such vastly different experiences with Amazon. I made 231 orders with them last year(lockdown....) And haven't had a problem with a single one. Couple times I wanted to return something they just refunded me without asking to send the item back. Everything arrives next day, always(here in UK anyway), and the customer support is stellar compared to literally anywhere else. Anyone who has ever had to contact Currys customer support should know what I'm talking about. Like, I see all of these comments on HN all the time but I have the exact opposite experience - they just have no competition over here. I'm at a point where even if something is slightly more expensive on Amazon I'd rather buy from them as I know their CS Support won't try to screw me over.

Semaphor 5y ago
The same for me. I had one damaged product, a pack of pork rinds that opened up because it was too tightly packed next to 5L of olive oil. Because of my experience with their customer service (and delivery service which is second only to DHL for me), other merchants need to be substantially cheaper.
loldk 5y ago
You must have a very secure delivery location, and I'm willing to bet that you probably live in a more affluent community, if what you're saying is even true. That and/or you're having stuff delivered to Amazon locations. Not to mention not everything is shipped from seller / manufacturer to you via Amazon.
- gambiting 5y ago
  Uhm.....I don't see how living in an affluent community has anything to do with that - few years ago I lived in the dodgiest part of town and never had any issues with Amazon either. I'm guessing you have that view because Amazon in US leaves parcels on your doorstep? Literally never heard of that happening in the UK. If you're not in it goes back to the depot, maybe they'll leave it with your neighbour if you're lucky. So....if you count my own front door as a "secure delivery location" then...yeah? Where else would it be delivered? I guess you could have it delivered to a locker, but if it goes back to the depot I just have it redelivered on Saturday or Sunday when I'm definitely at home.

speeder 5y ago

Amazon arrived in force kinda recently in my country. My parents are amazed by it and started making expensive purchases... And now are surprised at how shitty their delivery is. The worst case was when they bought some medicine for their dog and a expensive screen to use in their business. The dog medicine arrived on a friday, I was present and heard a car horn, went to check, and it was a random normal car, a lady climbed out, said it was a delivery. when I said I was son of the person that made the purchase, she just shoved the package through the gate opening and drove away, didn't even said hi or bye or whatever, didn't check my identity properly, didn't take a signature, didn't even tried to deliver the package safely, she almost threw it at me. Then saturday my parents had a meeting with someone, and left, but on that day the city hall sent some workers to do some work on the sidewalk. Seemly Amazon deliverd it to these workers, Amazon claims they delivered, and claims some dude we never heard of accepted the delivery, we believe the dude in question is some random city hall employee that was doing sidewalk maintenance.

rwmj 5y ago
Likely to be Amazon Flex (https://flex.amazon.co.uk/ https://flex.amazon.co.uk/). Anyone can download the phone app, go to the Amazon warehouse, and start delivering packages. As you can imagine, quality of delivery is pretty variable. I had an Amazon Flex worker steal a phone that I'd ordered - Amazon refunded with no questions asked and as far as I know didn't bother to investigate the theft.
thebruce87m 5y ago
My general rule is: Do not buy anything electrical (plug in or battery) or anything that goes in to your body from Amazon. I would definitely not buy dog medicine.
- aydwi 5y ago
  I think I could use your rule. Amazon delivery is outrageously atrocious in my (poor) country. As an instance, this was the condition of an assorted pack of fruit juices that got delivered to me just yesterday: https://imgur.com/a/sSMmgot https://imgur.com/a/sSMmgot To top it off, (rather poorly trained) Amazon support encouraged me to consume the contents of the pack with no understanding of what a health hazard means; at which point I hung up and cancelled my Prime membership.

willtim 5y ago

I would never buy anything expensive from Amazon, the customer service is not adequate when things go wrong. I even stopped buying CD's from them as they would almost always arrived with cracked/broken cases. Specialist sellers, e.g. Prestomusic, actually wrap and pack them properly (and often have much better websites for buying music).

ALittleLight 5y ago
Are you still buying CDs?
- Anther 5y ago
  It’s rather nice to buy unusual CDs and FLAC them. I like to do it from time to time.
  - MikeDelta 5y ago
    Or vinyl albums, adds an extra dimension to listening to music.
    - Anther 5y ago
      Absolutely. Bought Bowie’s Blackstar on vinyl. Just seemed to fit somehow.
- __david__ 5y ago
  Where do you get uncompressed, drm free music?
- willtim 5y ago
  Yes I still do and I FLAC them. I've been collecting CD's for 35 years, so it's difficult to stop. I am sometimes envious of the high-res downloads, but whenever I hear digital clipping in the 16-bit CD version, the clipping has always been present in the 24-bit version too.

randycupertino 5y ago

> Books are especially abused somewhere in Amazon’s fulfillment. (They’re always bent, creased, or dirty.) Interesting that you bring this up- I have noticed over the past year and a half that all my Amazon books have been showing up with damaged corners and smudge marks all over the covers.

input_sh 5y ago
I buy directly from the publisher and have never had any issues. They might take a little longer to arrive, but they're always in perfect condition. Sometimes they even throw a free e-book my way, which I appreciate the hell out of. I understand purchasing from other categories on Amazon, but with books it's so easy to avoid Amazon all together. Plus you know you won't receive a counterfeit (https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202 https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202) if you order directly from the publisher.
- Gene_Parmesan 5y ago
  Soooo many counterfeit books on Amazon, especially textbooks. Nothing quite like dropping > $150 on a big book only to get an obvious inkjet job in the box.
  - tompccs 5y ago
    This might not be foul play - lots of textbooks are formally out of print and printed on demand by the publisher. The quality is lower for that reason.

sackerhews 5y ago

Amazon used to be my #1 shopping place (save for groceries), years ago but I rarely use them anymore. Last hard drive I ordered from them came wrapped in factory issued static plastic bag, and NO padding inside the Amazon issued cardboard box. I of course returned it after confirming it was broken. That's not the only reason I gave up on them. Searching is getting really hard, reviews are meaningless due to fake ones, counterfeit products, ... To me it looks like they've decided to run the business to the ground and cash in a monumental amount of money.

pantalaimon 5y ago

Once you've established a monopoly you can start degrading the service

missedthecue 5y ago
Online retail has never been a monopoly. Doesn't matter any way you measure it.

joeberon 5y ago

The dirty book thing is so weird, often covered in some weird kind of glue-like "stuff"...

kar1181 5y ago

Ironically I do not buy books from Amazon due to the atrocious quality of their 'print on demand' titles. These look like they are printed with a 5 year old heavily abused inkjet. Part of the appeal of reading deadtree is the paper feel, smell and type quality. Majority of paper backs from amazon are nigh unreadable.

somehnacct3757 5y ago

Don't forget expired, misleading, or a knock-off. There's so many pitfalls to Amazon orders it reminds me of EBay back in the day. Lots of brick and mortar stores improved their curbside flows during the pandemic, and this is the sweet spot for me. Same day pickup of items you could have grabbed yourself off the shelf, and humans around to dispute problems with.

toss1 5y ago

Yup, ironically, books coming from Amazon are far more likely to arrive damaged - two decades later, and they still can't get it through their heads that they can't just toss a book in a box and expect it to be not crunch the corners every time. I don't think that it is even smart enough to be a scheme to encourage Kindle and Audible sales... For returns, I was surprised to see only drop-off options, but I found that they actually just bury the pick up option on another page. I usually find it now under a small faint "more options" link. Good luck. (And yes, despite being a multi-decade Prime customer, I now avoid Amazon for many categories, including books, & especially batteries)

_xerces_ 5y ago
A box? You must be a favorite, premier customer! Most of my stuff comes in a flimsy paper bag these days.

beezle 5y ago

My experience is that books are mostly still OK (US based) but the frequency of getting a new book that is slightly damaged has increased significantly. Even books that are shrink wrapped by the publisher sometimes come with corner or other damage (which may or may not have happened once in Amazon's hands, but I should not have to tolerate). What I can say with certainty is that the attention to shipping the books has plummeted compared to the early years of Amazon. Back then they would put the book(s) on a piece of cardboard and shrink wrap that and then put some of the bubble stuff in the box. Now you are lucky if they even put any filler in the box and best hope its not a rainy day and delivery leaves the package outside your door as boxes are flimsier and not always sealed tightly.

rodgerd 5y ago

> Almost everything I receive is damaged, late, or mis-delivered. Books are especially abused somewhere in Amazon’s fulfillment. (They’re always bent, creased, or dirty.) Strangely enough, a company whose employees have to piss in bottles and use crying booths may have staff that are not especially engaged in the highest quality work.

magnetowasright 5y ago

I always seem to get a boot prints on the books I buy on Amazon. I don’t really buy from Amazon any more but the amount of boot prints I’ve received over the years is a lot! The latest book I ordered came unbelievably spotless. It was about $4 AUD including shipping for a book that would usually cost me $50+ shipping from USA (it was sheet music) so I was very happy. The original delivery date they gave me was delusional so I paid it no mind when it passed. Two days after it, I get an email saying they’re refunding me $3 for the inconvenience, and my spotless book arrived the next day. Three days late is a rounding error in postage delivery timelines where I live. I’m still bewildered by the whole experience to be honest, but hey, almost free expensive sheet music book. Definitely low risk for that purchase.