Amazon UK

Now let down by couriers consistent "Delivered / signed for by me" but nothing received (we are wasting SO much time chasing things that have simply disappeared / no human contact anymore - almost impossible to know if an order will arrive / frustrating - used to be near Perfect!

To flat for me need more support not very comfortable around toe fabric to thick shame as I really like them

I live in Israel and have been an loyal Amazon customer for many years. I placed an order with Amazon UK on May 29. I paid them an extra amount for shipping which was almost one third the item price. They did not ship my order for five days. I tried to have them call me but they only call a handful of European countries. Their Chat Service is only virtual with no live agent. Finally an Amazon UK representative called me a dozen times but every time I picked up the phone I heard recorded music. When she finally came on the line she interrogated me for about twenty minutes just to "authenticate" me. When she was done authenticating she said that my order would be shipped "soon." When Amazon UK did ship my order, it used the cheapest possible carrier, Australia Post Global, even though I had paid them for fast shipping. My order only reached APG three days after that, eight days after it was placed. Today is June 10, twelve days after I placed my order, and I have not received it. APG gave me information about my shipment that contradicted the information I received from their Israeli agents, Gaash Forwarding. APG at first said my shipment would land on June 8, then said that it had landed on the morning of June 9. Gaash claimed they had not received it. My messages to the Managing Director of Amazon UK, John Boumphrey, were answered by arrogant Amazon reps who said that everything was okay and that they could not give me any information. Gaash finally informed today that they had received my shipment and would deliver it tomorrow, June 11. This kind of "service" gives Amazon a very bad name. APG and Gaash are irresponsible in contradicting one another. Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). Never agree to Amazon using cheap and unknown carriers. Always demand they use FedEx, UPS or DHL Express.

Amazon in the United Kingdom is very different from Amazon in the USA. The latter is governed by consumer protection laws, whereas the former is not. For example, I ordered a package of surgical masks for £21. After the order was placed, Amazon changed the seller of my order to a different seller that was selling an inferior version of the mask for less than half the price. My price didn't change, I was still charged £21 even though Amazon substituted an inferior product and they were getting it for a lower cost. When I confronted customer service, they told me I was getting what I asked for at the price I agreed to pay. They wouldn't accept the fact that the product wasn't the same. They told me if I didn't like it, then send it back. I did. I tried to buy masks again, figuring it was an isolated incident. It wasn't. The exact same thing happened. So I sent those back as well. I finally ordered from eBay. I got exactly what I asked for and wasn't scammed so they could keep more of my money.
The search engine... or lack of... Amazon's search engine is basically useless. Amazon isn't interested in helping you find what you want. They are only interested in trying to sell you as much useless rubbish as possible. The industry standard search operators do not work. For example, adding quotes before and after a search term is supposed to show you only the results that contain that particular term... nope doesn't work. Adding a hyphen before a keyword means exclude any results that contain that particular keyword... once again, nope doesn't work. For example, I search for "iPhone 11." I get a few iPhones and thousands of cases. So I add -case to the search, to exclude phone cases from the results. Now I get ZERO phones and all cases. Second... I searched for an iPhone 12 case. Now, if someone is searching for a case that fits a particular phone, it means they own that particular phone. So why is Amazon showing me a few cases for the iPhone 12 and hundreds of cases for iPhones I don't own? Like the iPhone X, the iPhone 11, the iPhone 8... none of these cases fit the 12, so why the EFF are you showing them to me?. A complete and total waste of my time. This is why I do not even bother searching for anything on Amazon and just shop elsewhere. Saves time and total frustration, which is much more important to me than saving a few pennies on a purchase.

This has nothing to do with their service but the fact they don't have half the. Com has! I am not satisfied with that fact. Wanted to order bunch of stuff but wasn't able to simpy because it was not available.

I wrote a review BELOW of my past experience with AMAZON.
Like others. I was hooked and was genuinely impressed with their service.
Unfortunately this has changed drastically. ALL AMAZONS DOING.

It's also important to know. I'm still with Amazon.
So no gripes or anything like that. I'm just not hooked or even happy anymore.
I am as a buyer. Just so disapointed with their new attitude towards their customers.
Every single change has been to benefit amazon.
"EVEN IF IT HURTS THE BUYER"
Amazon first."Profit" Buyer can go elsewhere if they don't like it attitude.

I will make it simple and just list the reasons.
1 - They remmoved the facility to see which seller will ship overseas. This is a nightmare now for overseas buyers OR sending gifts to family overseas.It also DIVERTS all buyers to Amazon themselves. Bypassing other cheaper sellers.
2 - Amazon seller charges. I do not sell there so no unhappy seller nonsence. Just a buyer.
Did you know they charge their up to 48% of a sale in fees. Seller provides item. Pays the postage. All vat plus all other costs out of the rest. 52%.
Think carefully about that.
IE. You are paying almost double for amazons greed. Shocking!

3 - They have removed or Basically Hidden or extremely difficult to find icons to purchase from other sellers.
Again forcefully diverting buyers to Amazons own items. I want to clearly see all offers from ALL sellers.To pick the best item or offer. That suits ME.Not Amazon.

4 - They have Increased their fees to all their sellers. By a HUGE MARGIN. 3-400% in some cases. Remember who pays these in the end.It's the buyer. YOU.

5 - Your wish list. This really was a wonderful item for buyers who like to save for later purchases and very enjoyable in the evening after work with a cup of tea and a quick browse for people like myself.Its no longer usable. Deliberately by amazon. They want you to go straight to their buy box and buy.It's still there. But its impossible to use. They put in a scrolling system that makes it unusable. Deliberately.

6 - The delivery times and the quality of items has Degraded to a shocking level.
I could not understand why they let this happen.so i asked a friend in the uk who sells on amazon. WHY?.
It seems their new warehouses that store items for some sellers. Now remove any feedback not praising amazon is REMOVED. Hence sellers can ship anything without worry of losing sales etc. I believe this does not effect private sellers who ship their own items.So if their feedback is good.It is genuine and safer to purchase from.
Shipping times my friend says. HIS OPINION ONLY PLEASE.
That Amazon have overstretched themselves with all these warehouses and can no longer keep control of everything. Items getting lost, broken and basically stuff anything into the package just to get it out of the warehouse.
That is not Amazons old policy of keep everything perfect for buyers.No quality, No care or worry of how buyers feel. Getting your childs christmas present with a sticker on the box.NO PACKAGING. Child collects xmas present from postman etc. This is just one example.

7- A simple one. You can no longer email amazon on 90% of issues as this facility has been remmoved. WHY? This is the age of email communication. Yet they remmoved it.Not everyone CAN or WANTS to talk through a phone or computer!

8 - Their PRIME service is a joke. Too many issues to write. But you can read all about this online. There is lots of horror stories to back up this statement.
You really should read some of them before paying for this service.

9 - Their catalogue. You can't find anything anymore.If you do. You really need to study it and try to find connnnections to other items and sellers. What your shown.IF you can get that far.IS what amazon want you to see.Not neseccarily what you want.
OR worse. Search for say example a book. You will see every book in the catalogue. Except the one you actually want.Or a million chinese items not even related to the item your searching for.ETC. ETC.

10 - This one is more of a question than a statement.
On most selling sites they have FORUMS.
Places on the site where BUYERS and sellers can go to see about problems, issues, price hikes and a host of different problems OR improvements on the site. This can be a great help to buyers. Asking sellers advice etc.
AMAZON deliberately BLOCK all buyers from seeing these forums.
WHY. Simple really.On the forums you can see ALL the different problems.
PRICE HIKES. Warehouse muck ups, sneaky site changes to benefit AMAZON.
Amazon seller fees,(They definately don't want buyers too see these) and Thousands of different issues on the site That they PREFER buyers didn't know about.On these forums you really do see what amazon thinks of buyers and their Take it or go away attitude about YOU. Their customers.
I only got to read them for about 90mins and even in that short time. What i read was an eye oppener.

There is dozens more issues that have risen in the last few years. I can't list them all.
But i left my original review on the bottom.
You can see. I loved amazon. I truly did appreciate it's service and customer care.
The change between both reviews is extreme and so disapointing.
I want my old amazon back.

OLD REVIEW
This review is based on my experience with amazon uk and may differ from others experience on the site.
In short
The good
1- You only have to give amazon your details, Credit card no.etc once.
After that everything is automatic.
2 - Their cusomer service is very efficent. Problems are sorted hassle free. They are Quick to reply to problems and any queries you might have.
3 - Prices are mostly Excellent, You get the odd item thats a bit overpriced, But in general if your looking for a Good price on anything, Amazon will Nearly always equal or better their competitors prices.
4 - Delivery is (Nearly always) very fast and Efficent. Although you may have to wait for some items. Items are well packed and Easy to open.(A bit over protected in some cases.ie a large box for a small item)If your an Enviromentalist then you might be a bit Concious of the fact that some items have far too much packaging, which is usually just thrown in the bin.
5 - They have on occasions some very good deals and sales.
6 - If you have a problem with any of their private sellers. They take responsibility for the order. They will sort any problems out if possible OR they will refund you for the item Themselves and then deal with the seller themselves without bothering you.
The Bad
1 - Their Quality of the item checking before shipping is not the best. I have personally been shipped a few very poor quality, damaged etc items. They will always sort it for you afterwards, refunds etc. But I would prefer if they put the extra effort into their quality checks in the first place, rather than have to go through the hassle of contacting them and having to complain.It's very Uncomfortable for buyers to do this. Especially if you have to do it a few times.
2 - As all amazon buyers know. Their shipping times on a small number of orders.Not always. 5-10% Can sometimes take days or even weeks for an item even to be dispatched. I don't care how well an item is packed if they are going to make me wait weeks for Simple orders.
3 - Some of the private sellers on amazon (90% are excellent)are not fit to sell online.
You may get the item cheap. But you will wait weeks to receive it and Some of the items you eventually receive are Really and truly not fit for anything but the bin. Horendous condition items. Their Largest dvd, games seller is liable to ship you any sort of rubbish just to fulfill their orders. They are also notorious for selling items they don't have in stock. This is a selling ploy to get every sale before every other seller can. Too keep all the business for themselves. Even if it means Upsetting any potential buyers. Buyers and service don't matter. All that matters is grabbing every sale and their profits. This is definately not the type of seller to be on a quality and supreme service site like Amazon.
4 - truthfully. You have to be carefull with their sales. Items are not always fairly priced.
You can purchase an item in a sale. Then find the same item 24hrs later in no sale at a much better price. This is misleading and unethical and not what i expect from amazon.
5 - Amazon Warehouse deals can be a bit of a gamble. Some of the items shipped are to say the least, poorly described.Or to be honest, Definately not as described. Avoid if possible. They don't actually give you much of a saving from the original price.So pay the bit extra and save on the returns hassle.
To Sum it all up
I personally find Amazon to be Excellent.As long as you understand beforehand that you may have to wait a bit for your items and avoid the few appalling private sellers.(As i said. 90% of them are excellent and provide an excellent service). You Can't beat the prices and service anywhere.
For Me.It is by far the best online shoppig site i have found online and i do a lot of my shopping online. 90% out of 100 for everything.

Have not purchased from this site HOWEVER I have purchased from King of Software before, twice to be exact. I have never had issues with them and am confident they are not run by this supposed scammer.