Amazon discriminating Irish customers?

sok2005

What's the use of looking for a couple euro refund back each month when the bigger picture of discrimination against Irish customers is the thing we should be fighting here. I refuse to order with them until they change this. I contacted them about this issue many times now and each time they have offered me free months Prime membership or credit added to my account. I've not engaged with them with their offerings that amounts to pittance in the long run.

The system needs to be fixed within a reasonable time or we walk away from them as a company.

Decoda

I understand that my purchase is not an essential item but why should it take an additional 11 days to have an item delivered to ireland?

I ordered a set of roof bars yesterday and with prime delivery is scheduled to arrive Tuesday the 23rd June. Went back in and ordered it again but put in a range of UK postcodes and can get it delivered by Friday. Went onto chat with 3 different advisors and all 3 gave different reasons for the disparity with the delivery dates, one saying that there is apparent weather issues with the fulfillment center where the roof bars are being sent from, another said that my nearest fulfillment centre did not have the roof bars in stock and that it would take an additional 10 days to have it delivered because of this.

"There was nothing they can do"

GinSoaked

Decoda wrote: »

I understand that my purchase is not an essential item but why should it take an additional 11 days to have an item delivered to ireland?

I ordered a set of roof bars yesterday and with prime delivery is scheduled to arrive Tuesday the 23rd June. Went back in and ordered it again but put in a range of UK postcodes and can get it delivered by Friday. Went onto chat with 3 different advisors and all 3 gave different reasons for the disparity with the delivery dates, one saying that there is apparent weather issues with the fulfillment center where the roof bars are being sent from, another said that my nearest fulfillment centre did not have the roof bars in stock and that it would take an additional 10 days to have it delivered because of this.

"There was nothing they can do"

I'm beginning to think that there is one Fulfillment Center of Ireland and if stuff isn't in it tough luck, but I still don't think that is the reason for the 11 days. It looks more like Amazon have just removed the priority delivery option for Ireland leaving standard delivery which no Prime member would normally be stupid enough to pick.

AnSliabhCorcra

Bit long - but correspondence with amazong customer service. Joke really.

Hi Sruthy. I have a question. Why is delivery of my goods to ireland taking a very long time. I'm a prime member and have been ordering goods, yet today I ordered a pair of shoes with a 12 day delivery time. I'm a prime member.
3:28 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
I am sorry to hear that you have not received the order

No need to worry, let me look into this for you and help you with this
S3:29 PM
It's not that I haven't received it, I just don't understand why the delviery date is 12 days from now.
3:30 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
Just to make it confirm, are you referring to this item :
Skechers Men's 65370 Trainers, Blue (Navy), 9 UK 43 EU
S3:30 PM
yes
3:30 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
Please give me a minute while I check this for you
S3:30 PM
ok
3:32 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
I have checked and see that the item needed to source the item from foreign fulfillment center due to some unseen fluctuation in the item stock at nearest fulfillment center which leads to the delay in dispatching the order.
S3:33 PM
What I don't understand however is that if i order this today and send it to a UK address, it takes 2-3 days for Prime Members but over 12 days for Prime members in Ireland.
I'm not happy about that unfortunately, as I have been paying for Prime for a long time.
3:34 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
You may receive the item before Monday, 22 June 2020 , its the maximum time frame calculated by the system after checking the availability on the nearest fulfillment center
S3:35 PM
Look at any product. For example, Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual LED Power Switches (HB-UM43)
Next day delivery to UK customers with Prime, but 12 days for Irish customers with prime.
3:36 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
I really apologize for the inconveniences caused.
If you find that it takes too long for your order to be fulfilled, you may cancel it at any time before it enters the dispatch process and you won't be charged.
S3:37 PM
I just want to know why Irish customers are being discriminated against when we are also paying for the same Prime membership? Will Amazon be refunding Prime customers in Ireland?
I want my order - but I want to know why I am paying for Prime and getting NO benefit.
3:38 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
As I said above, When your place the order, the item might have been listed as less in number of quantities at our local dispatch center, hence we have requested our neighboring fulfillment center to dispatch the items on the order.
S3:38 PM
Okay. So, please tell me the EXPECTED delivery for Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub with Individual LED Power Switches (HB-UM43) to the UK and then to Ireland?
3:38 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
Just to make it confirm, are you referring to this item :
S3:39 PM
I understand it's not you who sets the delivery dates, but please udnerstand from my side that I am paying a subscription for a service and this service is not being provided.
3:39 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-4-Port-Individual-Switches-HB-UM43/dp/B00JX1ZS5O/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Sabrent+4-Port+USB+3.0+Hub&qid=1591799974&sr=8-1
?
S3:39 PM
yes
What would be the delivery for a prime member in the UK and a prime member in Ireland for that item?
3:40 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
The delivery date can be seen on the checkout
Its mentioned as - "Want it delivered by Monday, 22 June? Choose Priority Delivery at checkout"
S3:41 PM
I know. 22nd of June for Irish addresses, and TOMORROW for UK
3:41 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
I'm sorry Scott, its according to the availability of the item to your area, we'll do everything we can to get the item for you. Can you please for the delivery ?
S3:44 PM
I want to know why the availability to Ireland is so different from UK? I know that these goods come from the same centre. I've had prime for a long time. One day extra, fine. 12 days? That is ridiculous.
Can you either refund me for 3 months of my subscription or cancel it.
3:45 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
I'm sorry Scott , we don't have the option to refund the Prime.
S3:45 PM
Okay, cancel it then please.
3:46 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
Are you sure you want to cancel your Prime ?
S3:46 PM
I know you do, because many others in Ireland have the same problem andhave been refunded. But that is fine. Cancel my prime subscription please
Yes, because you are lying to me about the delivery methods and times.
3:46 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
Please give me a minute while I check this for you
S3:47 PM
thank you
3:47 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
Thanks for waiting.
I've checked with my Supervisor, and we will be able t issue a refund of prime 7.99 GBP for you , Is that okay for you ?
S3:51 PM
Thanks for checking. But no. i don't accept that. I want a refund for 3 months minimum or to cancel. Please udnerstand that I have ordered on the 10.06.20, 09.05.20, 22.04.20, 21.04.20, 19.04.20, 16.04.20, 11.04.20 and have had no 'prime service'.
So either the three months to cover the period when Amazon failed to give any prime service, or cancel the account.
Appreciate it.
3:53 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
I'm sorry Scott, only one month is possible.
S3:53 PM
That's fine. I'll take no months then and cancel the subscription. You should let your supervisor know however that a lot of people will be contacting about this issue because it has started to become big news here in Ireland how subscribers to Prime are being treated.
Can you confirm the subscription is cancelled?
3:54 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
I'll cancel the Prime for you.
S3:55 PM
Thank you.
3:55 PM
Sruthy | Customer Service
I've cancelled the membership and issued a refund of 7.99 GBP
Please allow your bank between 5-7 business days to process it.
S3:56 PM
Thank you for your help

MuffinsDa

I spoke to them on the chat with similar complaints last week and all I gor was "you're free to cancel prime if you want".
I wonder if they are actually trying to actively get rid of Irish Prime customers (maybe in prep for Brexit) and this is how they are going about it?

sunbeam

They offered me a free trial of Prime when I placed an order yesterday.

I'm having similar issues with customer care. They seem to be making it up as they go along, vanishing from chat when the cannot answer my questions and one blatantly lied about processing a refund for me a couple of days ago.

When I queried why there were two pending charges on my account for every item of a large subscribe and save order the response was 'do you want me to charge your card again?'

Honestly at this stage unless Amazon is my only option, I'll be buying elsewhere even if it costs more.

Cazale

I cancelled last week for the reasons outlined in this thread. Half the time I was just buying stuff out of boredom anyway and because I felt I had to order something because I had prime. Their contempt for Irish customers and the delays I experienced has put me off them for good. I'll stick to buying local even if it's just the local argos or tesco. I've actually found a lot of stuff I wanted could be bought for the same price or cheaper locally anyway.

F34

I got a 50% refund on my yearly prime when I kicked up about it.

Car99

Got a reply from my email to Mr Gurr and Jeff. Below is the main part of it apparently a solution to the issue will be reached soon.

'I'm sorry to learn of your experience with Prime delivery times to Ireland, and thank you for taking the time to get in touch. Many of my colleagues are based in Cork and are experiencing very much the same issue.

Amazon and its carriers are following all applicable guidance, in particular from public health officials for each country as we work to deliver customer orders during a quickly evolving situation. In some instances this may impact where, when, and how packages can be delivered. In some regions, air-travel has been restricted, which impacts our ability to deliver products as quickly and efficiently as we do during normal times. Whilst our network to and in Ireland has been adversely impacted, we are hopeful that changes in the coming weeks will restore services to within both of our expectations.

The Executive Customer Relations team advocates on behalf of our customers, and I'd like to reassure you that I have forwarded your comments to the relevant team, to let them know if your experience and that of many Irish Prime members.'

Caranica

So still focusing on delivery (no delays) as opposed to the actual problem ie dispatch.

TimHorton

Caranica wrote: »

So still focusing on delivery (no delays) as opposed to the actual problem ie dispatch.

Correct , Once Item is Dispatched it is delivered quickly...

In 2018 I had 95 Amazon Orders via Prime all delivered within 2 to 3 days.

In 2019 I had 198 yes 198 Amazon Orders via Prime all delivered within 2 to 3 days.

So far In 2020 I have had 78 Amazon Orders via Prime , Since Covid the average wait is 10 days , Not good.

machiavellianme

donnyvegas wrote: »

You are completely missing the point.

The fact is is that Irish Prime customers pay the same amount for Prime (which you seemingly don’t have) as UK customers and we pay for 2 day delivery. Amazon can still dispatch a product to the UK within in hours but to Ireland it takes 2 weeks. I know when it is dispatched that it is up to the delivery companies. My gripe is that Amazon are not shipping products equally to Ireland and UK.

This is it in a nutshell. I contacted Amazon asking if they were going to refund my Prime as there is no value if everything takes at least 2 weeks to dispatch to Ireland, regardless of Prime status. They told me to cancel my Prime account as there's nothing they can do.

SouthWesterly

MBSnr wrote: »

^^^
I have Prime. Just selected an item I need.
Delivery to England arriving before 10pm today if I order it before midday.
Delivery to NI 9th June
Delivery to Ireland 18th June

The last order I placed that arrived within two days to Ireland was at the begining of March.
The it slipped to 5 days, then 10 to 14 days...

Definitely getting inferior treatment, being as I can get it by 10pm tonight if I send it to an English address.

So it's being sent to a local address by that night they can't get it to a foreigner country in the same time period. Are you for real?

I know times have slipped.. Badly but delivery is, free with prime for everything so worth the money.
I had something recently. Ship to NI 2 days. Ship to ROI, 10 days and no reasonable explanation from Amazon

machiavellianme

Gru wrote: »

Just got a refund of 3 months prime off of them to the card that paid it also, i had to ask them for it as initially they were offering a £5 credit, and then a £10 credit and then i just asked straight out for the refund after 3 months of delayed prime deliveries...

i also showed them proof that an order made by my wife's non prime account was delivered the same day as my prime account order, both ordered at the same time, both dispatched from the same fulfilment centre and both to the same address...

Why don't you share your Prime with your wife? It's free to do so.

Ultimanemo

donnyvegas wrote: »

The problem is clearly Amazon prioritising their UK customers over Irish.

If their warehouses are in the UK that is what you expect, with very little air traffic happening deliveries will be very slow, a lot of stuff is stuffed into the belly of airliners when they have capacity, but if the warehouse is in the uk you load the stuff in a truck and off you go.

TimHorton

TimHorton wrote: »

Correct , Once Item is Dispatched it is delivered quickly...

In 2018 I had 95 Amazon Orders via Prime all delivered within 2 to 3 days.

In 2019 I had 198 yes 198 Amazon Orders via Prime all delivered within 2 to 3 days.

So far In 2020 I have had 78 Amazon Orders via Prime , Since Covid the average wait is 10 days , Not good.

Just looking my orders , In the last couple of weeks the average delay is 11/12 days , Back in April it was 8/9 days so its getting progressively worse.

ted1

GBX wrote: »

Because it's not routed through An Post. Likely the agreement they have with An Post is not priority hence the delays. All down to costs. They probably pay less to An Post than the likes of DPD/Nightline. Nothing discriminatory about it.

OP - have you priced around? Other retailers probably have them at a higher price + delivery cost. But some people won't pay higher prices to local shops and then complain when delays happen.

No that’s not it. It just doesn’t dispatch.

_Kaiser_

It's annoying, but the idea of reporting a foreign company (to who exactly?) because they don't deliver to Ireland as quickly as they do domestically... come on! :rolleyes:

I've ordered a fair bit from them in the last few months. I have Prime too. Anything I'm in a rush for I route via PM/PW/AP and it's arrived within 2/3 days generally. Anything else I'm happy to let work through An Post.

Things will get back to normal as restrictions continue to ease and logistics ramp back up. Don't see the issue to be honest. If anything I'm impressed that all the random tech and other stuff HAS been delivered in days (via the above) if I wanted it.

TimHorton

ted1 wrote: »

No that’s not it. It just doesn’t dispatch.

The Amazon Price is always way better , Recently I ordered a Service Kit for my Lawnmower from Amazon , The kit contained 3 parts - Air Filter/Oil and Spark Plug and was 13.55 UK Pounds , There was no sign of it shipping and i needed the new filter , I went to a Lawnmower main dealer near me and was charged 14.50 Euro for the the Air Filter on its own !!!

begbysback

Same experience here using amazon last few weeks. Delivery is a joke, have used parcel motel and received within a couple of days, have purchased from other suppliers in uk and delivered within a couple of days also.

Delivery direct from amazon, non prime, some stuff gets cancelled, some stuff is in nomansland, and some stuff seemed to end up in Germany.

j8wk2feszrnpao

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

It's annoying, but the idea of reporting a foreign company (to who exactly?) because they don't deliver to Ireland as quickly as they do domestically... come on! :rolleyes:

Did you read the thread? It's the dispatch times, not the delivery times.

I quit Amazon Prime some time back. Found some of the their pricing was more expensive, huge increase of Chinese items, and even before Covid their delivery was hit/miss.

richardw001

The issue is 100% within the control of Amazon.co.uk

As an example In the past month - order from Amazon.de - I can see the dispatch time was 2 days.

Amazon.co.uk I see the orders literally sitting there for a week or more if its a Republic of Ireland Address.

What seems to be missed by some people is Amazon have advertised 2 day delivery with Prime to the Republic of Ireland - and have taken our money for this service. They are meant to be providing Amazon services to Ireland.

While I dont expect them to deliver in 2 days - I do expect them (like Amazon in Germany) to treat our orders with the same urgency/importance as Prime deliveries to UK and Northern Ireland addresses.

GinSoaked

There seems to be no logic to leaving stock for Irish customers sat in the warehouse for and extra 7 days? It doesn't in fact help prioritise UK sales because after 7 days it all catches up with them. If this was a case of prioritising some deliveries over others then the time that Irish customers goods were being left in the warehouse would vary and not be this constant 7 days.

Panrich

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

It's annoying, but the idea of reporting a foreign company (to who exactly?) because they don't deliver to Ireland as quickly as they do domestically... come on! :rolleyes:

I've ordered a fair bit from them in the last few months. I have Prime too. Anything I'm in a rush for I route via PM/PW/AP and it's arrived within 2/3 days generally. Anything else I'm happy to let work through An Post.

Things will get back to normal as restrictions continue to ease and logistics ramp back up. Don't see the issue to be honest. If anything I'm impressed that all the random tech and other stuff HAS been delivered in days (via the above) if I wanted it.

I have cancelled Prime and will be using Amazon far less from now on if at all. They are/were taking our subscriptions for a Prime service that advertises unlimited one day delivery etc.

Now I understand that this may be 2-3 days for the ROI but to see that they can get deliveries to NI in 2-3 days but taking 12-14 days (based on several samples that I have taken), shows that as Prime customers, we are being taken for mugs here. If you are happy to put up with that, as you indicate, then fair enough.

L1011

GinSoaked wrote: »

There seems to be no logic to leaving stock for Irish customers sat in the warehouse for and extra 7 days? It doesn't in fact help prioritise UK sales because after 7 days it all catches up with them. If this was a case of prioritising some deliveries over others then the time that Irish customers goods were being left in the warehouse would vary and not be this constant 7 days.

As far as anyone can tell the delivery capacity to An Post (notice stuff comes Dublin post marked) is at capacity and they aren't adding to it. So its a first in first out system where your stuff goes to the end of the queue and waits until there's space. No prioritisation being applied at all.

begbysback

#irishparcelsmatter

GinSoaked

L1011 wrote: »

As far as anyone can tell the delivery capacity to An Post (notice stuff comes Dublin post marked) is at capacity and they aren't adding to it. So its a first in first out system where your stuff goes to the end of the queue and waits until there's space. No prioritisation being applied at all.

An Post are doing fine once its dispatched then stuff is arriving in 3 days,

The problem is that Amazon aren't dispatching stuff to Irish addresses for a week after the order has been made.

Do you have an Amazon Prime account and have you ordered anything in the last month?

H3llR4iser

L1011 wrote: »

As far as anyone can tell the delivery capacity to An Post (notice stuff comes Dublin post marked) is at capacity and they aren't adding to it. So its a first in first out system where your stuff goes to the end of the queue and waits until there's space. No prioritisation being applied at all.

This is probably the first reply in 12 pages that makes sense and is actually useful - it might indeed be an issue of queuing where Amazon simply doesn't dispatch until they have a "slot" with the delivery service, in this case AnPost.

GinSoaked wrote: »

An Post are doing fine once its dispatched then stuff is arriving in 3 days,
The problem is that Amazon aren't dispatching stuff to Irish addresses for a week after the order has been made.
Do you have an Amazon Prime account and have you ordered anything in the last month?

Yes - once AnPost has the parcel, it's business as usual; Actually, I got a delivery on May Bank holiday, I was utterly surprised when it showed up.

But it might be an issue where they have "quantity limited slots", and Amazon has to way to even dispatch as the schedule is full for days.

Then again, it might just be a royal ef-up, or even a strategy to try and discourage Irish customers from ordering via Amazon.co.uk in preparation for Brexit, but usually the easiest scenario turns out to be the correct one.

whiterebel

Ultimanemo wrote: »

If their warehouses are in the UK that is what you expect, with very little air traffic happening deliveries will be very slow, a lot of stuff is stuffed into the belly of airliners when they have capacity, but if the warehouse is in the uk you load the stuff in a truck and off you go.

Amazon don't ship by air into Ireland anyway. Postal packets use the planes normally.

whiterebel

L1011 wrote: »

As far as anyone can tell the delivery capacity to An Post (notice stuff comes Dublin post marked) is at capacity and they aren't adding to it. So its a first in first out system where your stuff goes to the end of the queue and waits until there's space. No prioritisation being applied at all.

Interesting theory put forward in a similar post in the courier/Online buying forum: Are An Post requesting Amazon to slow down the dispatch into Ireland? otherwise they would be completely swamped.
If you think about it, Amazon would probably be going mad at AN Post, but there isn't really an alternative. All the other couriers are also past capacity, so they wouldn't have an option.