Please make it easier for me to not order from Amazon!

[andrewducker]

I keep wanting to use a supplier that's not Amazon, because I'm not a fan of some of their business practices.

And then when I order a Christmas present from someone else on the 13th, I don't get a "We've shipped it!" email for *5 days* and it's being sent "3-5 business days delivery". So something I ordered 12 days before Christmas may not arrive until after it.

Amazon, meanwhile, are delivering next-day if I order in the morning.

I know that back in the olden days of ordering by post from catalogues it was fine to take weeks to deliver things, but if you're still operating like it's the 90s then you're not going to last long out there...

Comments

[channelpenguin]

Tough one. I imagine that to perform like Amazon, you kinda need to be pretty big. I have sympathy for smaller opertations that may simply not be able to match that.

Everyone selling to customers should have their typical processing and dispatch / delivery times prominent at the time of ordering, though!

[andrewducker]

You don't need to be Amazon scale to get a thing into a box in less than 5 days.

(You'll need to outsource delivery, I agree)

[channelpenguin]

Depends on how many things you have to get into a box in those 5 days as well as doing everything else you need to do. Which means you are understaffed or have supply chain issues or can't afford to / have space to hold sufficient stock. Spiky or unpredictable demand could also complicate it for small outfits. Maybe you shouldn't be in business...

Not telling people it'll take 5 days is the dick move here though. If you do something unique or have better prices, or folks prefer to support small biz, people may happily wait.

[andrewducker]

Absolutely.

(This was a major high-street shop, so should be more competent than that.)

[cellio]

Not telling people it'll take 5 days is the dick move here though.

Yes. The bigger problem here is the poor/absent communication, not the delivery time. Don't surprise people! I don't need next-day delivery and will order from slower places and especially small businesses whenever possible, but tell me what to expect.

[vereybowring]

Yeah, this is a big problem. While they are the evil retail empire they've massively improved delivery due to their sheer size.

Sadly outside some of the chinese owned efforts, no one else seems to be trying to compete in any noticeable way (although said chinese efforts tend to have only lower quality items and few big brands).

I tried for a long time to avoid using amazon wherever possible but its only got harder. When I do order from non amazon I restrict myself to companies that use royal mail 24/48, UPS or DPD for delivery since the classic telling me 3-5 days often means the package will be handled by one of the useless package firms (many used to tell you they were using crap firm X for delivery but with complaints they now say "3-5 days" or other courier to try to hide the problem) that I have had many issues with (the worst was one that took 6 months to show up, but some that simply vanished into the package void).

Someone with money and the will to compete needs to come along and be ready to lose a bit of money until they can get a foothold or amazon will just dominate for the forseeable future.

[coth]

For us Argos is good, for their relatively limited ranges. So is espares.co.uk.

The building and fitting supplies companies I've been using have been very good - either next day delivery or beating the delivery dates they promised.

The real (unachievable solution) is to consume less. But that is not always an option.

[andrewducker]

Trades stuff, delivered locally, is usually very prompt. Because they know they need to be for their buyers most of the time.

[agoodwinsmith]

Don't make your moral decision someone else's responsibility. Big River doesn't deserve your business under any circumstances. If you shop with them, the complicity is all yours.

That said, this close to festive giving time, five days is a long time, but not unexpected. And if a business is new, they may not have experienced the shopping frenzy, and not be staffed for increased box stuffing, and trotting down to the post office several times a day. I'd say that if a website doesn't have information about festive season shipping, they are going to be wobbly during times of pressure.

[andrewducker]

I'm not saying it's someone else's responsibility. I'm a total Amazon shopper. I have Prime. I'm morally culpable all of the way. I'm not switching unless someone else offers me the same level of service.

[ninetydegrees]

I don't mind longer delays; I canceled my Prime subscription because I saw how horrible and nonsensical it made work for delivery drivers, but I don't understand poor communication or false promises. Tell me it may take up to x days to get shipped, more during busy times, tell me it'll arrive between this date and that date, keep me informed and I don't mind if it'll take a month or more. My biggest issue, though, is that Amazon has products I can't find elsewhere, including basic stuff that should be in supermarkets.

[andrewducker]

Yes. If they'd told me when it would arrive then that would have been much better.

What things can you only get through Amazon? My issue is that lots of the things I'm left not being sure which shop I might be able to get them in.

[ninetydegrees]

Tampons, lots of hygiene-related products, organic stuff, plus size basic clothing,... Supermarkets will only sell their own brand, only have certain sizes, regularly have stuff be out of stock, etc. I can no longer find something as simple as organic applesauce at my local supermarket. My local organic shop/supermarket only sells their own brand too.

[andrewducker]

Oh yeah, definitely much smaller ranges locally, unless you live near lots of major shops.

[ninetydegrees]

Bigger shops means taking your car to go to big lifeless commercial centres where you'll spend 2 hours walking around the bigger supermarket (belonging to the same company as the local one BTW) just trying to find ordinary stuff. People here no longer want that.

[bens_dad]

I have found this too.

Nearly 30 years ago I tried a larger store of a major grocery chain (I don't now remember which one), hoping for a wider range, but discovered it was mostly about bigger (family size?) boxes of the same things. Higher stocking levels made the walk longer too.

[vivdunstan]

I've ordered a lot of things from other sellers in the run up to Christmas, but if it's time critical will only order from ones who send Tracked 24 if using the post. Those have arrived in the height of the Christmas post 1-2 days after sending. And I can track them all the way. Or they have to use a next day courier like DPD (not Evri!). It really helps when the retailer spells out their posting policy on their website. If they don't I assume the worst and won't buy if it's time critical. Good luck getting your package!

[andrewducker]

It's going to my parents (which is where we're going to be). Fingers crossed it arrives there before we all leave again!

[armiphlage]

Prices too. I prefer to shop local. But when you charge me three times the price of Evil Rainforest Rover Company for the exact same item, I suspect your markup greatly exceeds your costs.

[threemeninaboat]

We switched to Target for most things.

[mtbc]

Yes, just recently I checked Hive for books I was ordering from Amazon and they didn't have any of them in stock, sigh.

[anna_wing]

I buy most of my books from Blackwell's these days, except really niche things, which I usually just order from the publisher. But I also order things like Christmas presents early, remembering that you only get two out of the triad of cheap, good and fast.

[melchar]

In general, I've noticed that the delivery time for Amazon is about 2 days longer for non-prime than Prime. So I make sure my order is enough to qualify for 'free delivery' and don't sweat the extra couple days.

A small shop I've ordered from a couple times has very MUCH impressed me of late. Due to a friend wanting to get back into a game [Dragonstorm] we played 15 years ago, I dredged up one of 'Ye Olde Suppliers', made one order from him & got the order in 3 days. Made another order and - yes - also got that one in 3 days. So the 'little guys' can still make it look easy, even now.

[andrewducker]

That's excellent. If you've found someone reliable then stick with them!