Amazon has undeniably become a crucial source for many people when purchasing DVDs and Blu-rays.
The Seattle-based company, established in 1994, has significantly affected traditional bookstores and retail stores that negatively sell home video software due to its success.
However, this impact has been balanced by Amazon’s competitive pricing and the convenience it offers consumers.
Read the article to learn about the perils that Amazon poses to shoppers.
Perils of the Amazon
For buyers living in Japan, Amazon has become indispensable for accessing unavailable movies and cinema-related books.
Despite its initial appeal, Amazon’s convenience has diminished recently. The shipping estimates the company provided appear arbitrary and increasingly unreliable.
Deliveries are not arriving on time, so buyers spend more time communicating with Amazon’s customer service representatives to locate and resolve missing packages.
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The issues experienced by the buyers are primarily related to Amazon’s U.S. branch, contrasting with the efficient services provided by Amazon Japan, where same-day delivery without any additional charges and reliable next-day delivery are the standard.
Similarly, the buyers frequently order from Amazon’s branches in the U.K. and Spain and occasionally from France, Italy, and Germany.
Usually, products ordered from these European Amazon sites are shipped within 48 hours and delivered within 7-10 days.
Amazon U.K. sometimes delivers within four or five days and occasionally even as quickly as three days after placing the order.
However, the experiences with Amazon’s U.S. branch paint a different picture.
For instance, an order from Amazon Germany, estimated to arrive between November 22 and 27, arrived in Kyoto on November 20, two days earlier than expected.
Conversely, an order from Amazon USA for two Blu-rays indicated an “estimated delivery date” of December 26 despite initially being given a range of December 5-26.
This unexpected delay of six weeks and four days was particularly frustrating for the buyers, who had anticipated receiving the items well before Christmas.
The disparities in delivery times and inconsistent estimates from Amazon’s U.S. branch have left the buyer perplexed, especially considering the efficient services provided by other international Amazon sites.
Living in Japan, the standard shipping duration for items from the U.S. typically takes 7-12 days via airmail.
In contrast, packages sent by cargo ships across the Pacific usually take about a month, even factoring in potential customs inspections and delays.
It’s unusual for items to take six weeks to arrive.
Despite ordering well in advance and relying on Amazon’s estimates, the buyer’s Blu-ray order didn’t arrive by the specified date, contradicting Amazon’s Christmas ordering deadlines for international destinations.
The buyer’s frustration led them to inquire about the delayed delivery with Amazon’s customer service.
Despite the lack of tracking information available to the buyer, Amazon’s representative assured them the package would be delivered on or before December 30, 2014.
This discrepancy in estimated delivery times and the lack of tracking information for the package caused frustration for the buyer, highlighting the challenges of international shipping and tracking with Amazon.
As anticipated, the package did not arrive by December 30 or appear on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, or January 2.
Frustrated by the prolonged delay, the buyer contacted Amazon again and received a full refund. The discs eventually arrived on January 6, a staggering 57 days after they were purportedly shipped.
The absence of a date stamp from the United States Post Office on the package raised doubts about the accuracy of Amazon’s shipping notifications, particularly for their “Standard International Shipping” orders, leaving consumers uncertain about the actual shipping timeline and the truthfulness of Amazon’s notifications.
The buyer’s experience raised several concerns and unanswered questions regarding Amazon’s shipping practices.
The inconsistency in estimated delivery dates for similar orders, the lack of access to tracking information for consumers, and the frequent failure to meet delivery estimates have perplexed consumers.
The buyers likened this to the deliberate discomfort created by airlines in economy class to encourage passengers to pay for upgrades, suggesting that Amazon may not intentionally delay packages but appears indifferent to untimely service.
The buyers speculated that while Amazon readily complies with refund requests when consumers assertively complain, they might not be overly concerned about frequent delivery delays, knowing that only a tiny percentage of customers will hold them accountable.
Encouraging readers to share their experiences and questions, the buyer invited them to use the “Contact Us” form on the “About Us” page to share some of the emails they received over the following weeks.
This call to action aimed to gather and highlight similar experiences and concerns shared by other consumers.
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