Arrrggh Amazon using First Class Post for Prime Deliveries

visidigi

vikingaero wrote: »

I think the success of First Class Post depends on where you live. Where I currently live, 1st Class arrives next day 99% of the time. I've lived in places where 1st Class always took 2 days minimum to arrive.

Agreed, to my office is next day, to my home is two day. Suspect its down the to the capacity to deliver at the local sorting office (the one near my office is twice the size, 150ft away from my office, the one at home is 4 miles away).

mr_sharma wrote: »

From memory there's next day, first class and another premium service (for Prime customers). I'd rather have Royal Mail deliver than my local DPD man. My first and last next day order went missing from them. The driver ended up putting it through the wrong letterbox and the neighbour eventually delivered the item themselves!

You cannot choose the type of delivery you get on Amazon, sometimes the supplying location dictates the product service (e.g. some products only have 1st class - expedited for example when its currently out of stock)

My DPD driver is an absolute legend - does everything I've asked him to do without a problem - and the text to tell you when to expect them is very handy.

kimbyanne wrote: »

I am having the same issues with Amazon. Example being recently had a game pre-ordered with them and used Amazon prime so it was guaranteed to arrive on the release date - they sent it via RM Standard and it never arrived. I order a tiny benefit make up compact worth about £10 around 4pm on a Thursday and it arrived via DPD Couriers the next day.....

From my recent experience they kept sending me cheap stuff via couriers and anything expensive via RM.

I ordered a £5 item the other day, was meant to arrive Saturday via CityLink, never turned up. According to CityLink Amazon didn't get it to them on time......

My trial of Prime ends in January and I don't think I will bother signing up seeing as out of about 15 orders maybe four or five have arrive the next day

Might not be next day sometimes, but 1) have a look how much expedited postage actually costs on Amazon now and 2) bear in mind how long Super Saver delivery takes for the majority of small items (not to mention there's no guarantee how quickly it arrives and prime very quickly becomes excellent value for money.

e.g. We get our dog food on Amazon, next day postage on three bags for Saturday delivery is £21!! So our annual dog food bill alone covers our prime membership (not to mention you can use it to mail stuff anywhere in the UK, used it for plenty presents and its fantastic given how much posting something yourself now costs...)

visidigi

Azari wrote: »

It's true that they may get a somewhat better price but in terms of what custardy was talking about it's irrelevant.

You are talking about a service that costs many times the standard first class price and that is not going to change because of a 'quantity discount'.

Oh dear.

A mate of mine runs a company that uses express couriers, he has two services he can use, express and economy. Economy is half the price of Express.

Due to volume he pays less per kilo for express than he would for economy.

Economies of scale, ship more, get it cheaper. You can get premium services cheaper than economy versions based on quantity discounts.

Azari

visidigi wrote: »

Oh dear.

A mate of mine runs a company that uses express couriers, he has two services he can use, express and economy. Economy is half the price of Express.

Due to volume he pays less per kilo for express than he would for economy.

Economies of scale, ship more, get it cheaper. You can get premium services cheaper than economy versions based on quantity discounts.

I'm afraid that unless you can provide a credible link to confirm that I'm calling bullshit!

A service is a premium service because it costs more to provide. Why would any sane company provide (other than as a promotion) that service for a lower price than one that costs them less. It would be a commercial nonsense.

I suspect you have got hold of the wrong end of the stick and what your friend means is that he gets the premium service at a lower cost that a one time user would pay for a single shipment. This would make sense because the courier saves a lot of money by doing a single trip for a mass pickup.

That economy would not apply to RM because they could never close the gap in cost between providing an untracked service without any guarantee (1st Class) and a fully tracked service with delivery guarantee.

Azari

visidigi wrote: »

Might not be next day sometimes, but 1) have a look how much expedited postage actually costs on Amazon now and 2) bear in mind how long Super Saver delivery takes for the majority of small items (not to mention there's no guarantee how quickly it arrives and prime very quickly becomes excellent value for money.

I always use SuperSaver and almost invariably get my items the day after next day. The only time that doesn't happen is close to Christmas.

pinkteapot

I still think Amazon Prime is a good service, and worth it for us with the number of orders we place. Still, I get irked by them calling it "guaranteed" next day delivery when it isn't. False advertising!

MamaMoo_2

I ordered an item at 1am Saturday morning. It arrived an hour ago, and that was using SuperSaver delivery. First time I have used Amazon and I'm rather impressed!

Scarpacci

pinkteapot wrote: »

The annoying thing is I can't see the logic to how they choose a delivery method. Last week I had a small £5 book arrive by Parcelforce! There's no consistency to the value or size of item which they'll choose to send by post rather than courier so no way of knowing how it will be sent until you get the dispatch email.

Timing plays a key part in this. Order later on Saturday (after all the Royal Mail pick-up) or on Sunday with one-day and your order will be delivered by a courier. Orders placed towards the cut-off point for items, assuming the item doesn't have an early cut-off, will also come by courier.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I've had a few chats with Amazon about this, their claim is that mail for Prime sent 1st Class is prioritised to your local depot (there should be a barcode with the first part of a post code on the parcel) which increases the chance of next day delivery.

The guarantee refers to them giving you a month's Prime if it's late and I pointed out I'd be dead before Prime expires on that basis...

The issue here is what does the word "guarantee" mean, no one can really guarantee anything, even RM Special Delivery works the same, if it's late the guarantee is the refund of the cost of the service.

banger9365

Scarpacci wrote: »

Timing plays a key part in this. Order later on Saturday (after all the Royal Mail pick-up) or on Sunday with one-day and your order will be delivered by a courier. Orders placed towards the cut-off point for items, assuming the item doesn't have an early cut-off, will also come by courier.

timing has nothing to do with it guaranteed is guaranteed
i am waiting for two today both guaranteed by 17th ,so if its not here at 5 they get a ear bending ,like they did the other week


this is a first they turned up on the right day

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Just to add on the price of tracked, Amazon must have deals on all RM's services and from my experience tend to use 1st Class on LL items and it must come down to cost, particularly in media where margin is slim.