A Letter To Amazon

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Alan57, Oct 13, 2018.

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  1. Alan57

    Alan57 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    After the last week's events people on the forum have suggested emailing [email protected] is mine.Will probably never hear back but it should act as a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of doing business with Amazon Australia.
    -I am writing to express my anger and extreme frustration with dealing with Amazon Australia.
    For over 20 years I was a loyal and frequent Amazon customer.When the geoblock was announced all goodwill I had disappeared.The Australian subsidiary was mostly overpriced and had limited range.The GST compliance argument you mounted was transparently false and no other retailer used it as a pretence to block Australian shoppers.
    There have been a few items I have ordered from .com.au and it is my experience with these culminating in the Loving The Alien farce that has "inspired" me to write.
    First item was the Tom Petty box set An American Treasure.For 8 days after release it was shown as in stock and shipping soon on my order page.After the first 5 days when it didn't ship I contacted the Help people and was assured it would ship straight away.After another 2 days it still hadn't shipped and I had to go through the contact process again to get it shipped.
    At least I got it eventually but now we come to the crunch.One week later the John Lennon Imagine box was released.I didn't order it from you as I was able to get it $50 cheaper from another retailer(received from Germany 6 days after release by the way).This would be part of approximately $650 worth of music bought from other retailers since July that I once would have bought from you.
    The people who did preorder Imagine were informed on release day that they would have no stock for at least 6 weeks.At that time some of those who had also preordered the Bowie box Loving The Alien from them made enquiries about whether those preorders would be sent on release date of 12 October and were told that sufficient stock existed to honour preorders.
    Now we come to 12 October.The Bowie box which I preordered within hours of it going up on the site on 21 July was shown as shipping today on my order page(it still is!).Then late afternoon an email was sent saying that the supplier had informed them they couldn't supply stock for 5 weeks.Hard to believe as they would use the same supplier as JB Hi Fi who do have stock.
    Obvious questions
    1Why couldn't you get enough stock to fill a preorder that had been made on July 21?
    2Why were people told a week before that stock would be available?
    3What is the purpose of Amazon.com.au even existing when it trashes your corporate reputation on pricing,range and customer service?
    This clown Amazon parody that exists in Australia is deservedly copping a hammering on the Internet.It is up to you whether you remove the geoblock although newspaper reports about tumbling Amazon turnover in Australia should have made you realise by now it was a bad decision.
    Either way after I get the orders I have in the system at the moment I think I am done with Amazon after 20 years as your Australian operation is incapable of supplying product and cannot be trusted.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2018
    iloveguitars, Frightwig, Dave and 4 others like this.
  2. SoundDoctor

    SoundDoctor Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I have a thread in Off Topic called "Complaints about Amazon." Comment more there if you want to throw dirt on Amazon.
     
  3. E.Baba

    E.Baba Forum Resident

    Didn't read the lot mate but being the only Amazon in the world that's Geo blocked has pissed me right off.

    I'm not buying anything from them and I suggest no one else in Oz does either.
     
    Frightwig likes this.
  4. Alan57

    Alan57 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Just wanted to put it somewhere where it would be seen more often.Judging by the number of Likes I've received in the last few minutes it's definitely being seen.
     
    E.Baba likes this.
  5. dance_hall_keeper

    dance_hall_keeper Forum Resident

    SoundDoctor likes this.
  6. Glennza

    Glennza Londoner, lost in the back of beyond

    It's easy to avoid using Amazon Australia. They either don't have what I want or the prices are ridiculous. I'm guessing that the geoblock will be lifted before too long (unless there is some political reason we don't know about).
     
    E.Baba likes this.
  7. E.Baba

    E.Baba Forum Resident

    Thanks. I have expressed my displeasure there too.
     
    SoundDoctor likes this.
  8. dance_hall_keeper

    dance_hall_keeper Forum Resident

    A story.
    I preordered Art of Doubt, along with one other back album, from amazon dot c'eh on 05 September 2018, long before its release date of 21 September 2018, at a price of seventeen-plus dollars and being sold by Amazon.

    I didn't check every day, but when I did check I saw that least three secondary market sellers in succession were involved stating... "Ships from and sold by...". It seemed amazon dot c'eh dropped out this race very early, after first stating that it "Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca".

    I then visited Metric's website. The prices are excellent, but it first appeared that I had to sign-up for the newsletter, then start an account and so-on. A lotta unnecessary hoops to jump through.

    Yesterday, I received the perfunctory email from amazon dot c'eh: "We're still trying to obtain the following item you ordered on September 05, 2018"

    My initial observation: This is nonsense. Canadian band, Canadian Amazon website, what am I missing here? You would think that this album would be readily available on the date of release from a Canadian website, wouldn't you?

    I went to the band's website again to see what was still available. Amazingly both of the desired albums, as well as their total discography, were available at prices that were a lot less than what I was originally going to be paying at amazon dot c'eh and ordering was easier than I imagined. The bonus (maybe not, since this was the first time it's happened to me and it possibly happens quite often): Just before I received my order confirmation email, I received an email with download links for both of the cds I've just bought, so I could listen to them prior to the arrival of the cds, which by the way are shipped from Montréal QC.
    Update: Shipped on Tuesday (because of our Thanksgiving Day) and arrival (as promised) was on Friday, 12 October 2018.

    Thirteen minutes after receiving my order confirmation email for my cds from the Metric website, I received an email from my good friends from amazon dot e'eh, advising me that:
    Metric "Art of Doubt"
    "We now have delivery date(s) for the order you placed on September 05, 2018 (Order#X). We've listed the item(s) listed below with the expected delivery date(s):
    Metric "Art of Doubt"
    Estimated arrival date: October 15, 2018 - October 18, 2018.


    I checked again this morning and amazon dot c'eh now badly claims...
    "In stock on October 16, 2018.
    Order it now.

    CDN$ 21.24".

    Moral of the story.
    I've now learned to check band's websites before going immediately to "The Big A". Sometimes, musical nirvana is only a few keystrokes away on The Interweb™️.

    And in the End...
    Soon there will be a reacquaintance with a group I have long overlooked, in the form a discology immersion of a great Canadian Indie group!
     
    Dave likes this.
  9. Alan57

    Alan57 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Got the reply from them.The standard automated lie about GST compliance.Then them saying they were going to look at my problems as a "learning experience" for their staff.What a joke(multiple obscenities)!
     
  10. Alan57

    Alan57 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    The final experience
    Thursday.Email saying they have contacted their suppliers and confirmed they would receive stock by 26 October with delivery by 30 October
    Friday.Email saying they had no definite date when they would have supplies
    Friday.Email saying they would check out which of these emails was correct
    Saturday.Email cancelling my order because they would get no more stock of the Star Wars comic which was my order(WTF!)
    Order gone.Promotional credits which applied to order cancelled.
    Have estimated it will now cost me $50 more to get the box than if I had preordered it from Importscd.
     
  11. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    There was a recent experience with the 6-CD Eddie and the Hot Rods box set. Eddie are/were a British pub rock band who hitched a ride on punk rock. Never truly big, they're lots of fun.

    Anyway - the box set had, and still has, a price on amazon UK of £25. On every other euro Amazon site, it's £15.

    It really does pay to check around.
     
  12. Glennza

    Glennza Londoner, lost in the back of beyond

    Hey guys, I am currently logged into the US Amazon site and it's telling me that things are shipping to Australia!!!

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    This item ships to Bundaberg South, Australia

    I tried a couple of random items and get the same

    Does someone else want to check, to see if they've changed their policy or if there's something weird going on?
     
  13. Quark1134

    Quark1134 Forum Resident

    Try adding it to your cart and checking out. You'll suddenly see that it doesn't ship to Oz. :(

    Probably just some exceptionally lazy programming.
     
  14. Quark1134

    Quark1134 Forum Resident

    I should add that Amazon is clearly no longer the hungry upstart business, they're now just another lazy, arrogant incumbent.
     
    Dave likes this.
  15. Glennza

    Glennza Londoner, lost in the back of beyond

    Yep, you're right :(
     
  16. Alan57

    Alan57 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Amazon.com are now blocking Australians viewing items on their site that they are not listing on Amazon.com.au as a third party seller.North Korean Internet censorship Amazon style.
     
  17. Vaughan

    Vaughan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex, UK
    Honestly, it's time for a lawsuit over there. The government is over-stepping the bounds massively if they're including third-party sales in this ridiculous cash grab. It's one thing to nail a business, by person-to-person sales as well? Madness.

    It's a hugely retrograde step in the Internet age. Are they trying to destroy Aussie?
     
  18. Alan57

    Alan57 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    And of course the Amazon.com price available to Australians as a third party seller on Amazon.com.au is usually considerably higher than the price on that item for the rest of the world on Amazon.com
    The mark up is often around 25%
    None of this is the fault of the government.Every other retailer in the world including Book Depository owned by Amazon has been able to comply.This is entirely about Amazon trying to prop up their pathetic Australian subsidiary.
    Ebay has had no difficulty complying and they have a more complex market place model than Amazon.
     
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