Fulfilled by Amazon

Alun

I always thought that 'fulfilled by Amazon' meant that Amazon themselves held stock on behalf of their sellers in their own warehouse, and as a result shipping of an item marked as in stock would be pretty quick.

However, I ordered a pair of speakers on Saturday, and the only tracking information I have is along the lines of "We'll send you an email when we have an estimated delivery date", that's it.

I'll give it another day or two, but pretty annoyed at the lack of progress on this.

ShayNanigan

I thought so too. I even thought they might be at their UK warehouse. I have began to wonder why am I even ordering from Amazon UK when all the things I've ordered lately come from Germany.

I have one order made this Monday, which they annoyingly split in half, that should be arriving at the beginning of next week. Half of it was somewhere in Hannover the last I checked today (updated yesterday) and the other one has not even left yet. Both were supposed to be "fulfilled by Amazon" which I've thought means it's not coming from China and taking weeks and weeks to arrive.

I'm starting to think the one that has left is coming late next week the earliest and not even sure the other item will arrive if it hasn't even left yet. Are they backordering it from China anyway even though it's still in stock and supposedly handled by Amazon? I've been waiting for an update for four days now and it's just so annoying to get no updates at all.

It will be interesting to see how things will change after New Year's. So many things now unavailable for delivery in Ireland and things you thought would come from the UK actually shipping from Germany.

Alun

Yes, what's even worse is that you can't even chat to a real life Amazon agent any more, just some useless annoying bot. The company selling the speakers is actually in the UK. I'm tempted to just cancel the order while I can and try and order it directly from them instead.

ShayNanigan

Not to mention the fact that 99% of stuff they sell these days is cheap, Chinese stuff with brands created by smashing a QWERTY keyboard randomly (they've even got a brand called Qwerty). I would much rather buy stuff made elsewhere, even if it was slightly more expensive. The delivery times would be shorter too.

ED E

Alun wrote: »

However, I ordered a pair of speakers on Saturday, and the only tracking information I have is along the lines of "We'll send you an email when we have an estimated delivery date", that's it.

That isnt in stock. It should dispatch at very similar speeds to Amzns own stock if it were in stock.

Cancel and use another seller IMO.

Alun

ED E wrote: »

That isnt in stock. It should dispatch at very similar speeds to Amzns own stock if it were in stock.

They're pulling a fast one if that's the case then. Stock was showing as 7 when I ordered mine and is now down to 4.

Cancel and use another seller IMO.

There isn't one that I can find that will ship to Ireland unfortunately, including the seller themselves in the UK.

Alun

Alun wrote: »

Yes, what's even worse is that you can't even chat to a real life Amazon agent any more, just some useless annoying bot.

That's not true in fairness. I was talking to someone on live chat a couple of days ago, and i talked to someone over the phone today.

Alun

[Deleted User] wrote: »

That's not true in fairness. I was talking to someone on live chat a couple of days ago, and i talked to someone over the phone today.

Well, again in fairness, they don't make it easy. The chat bot is designed primarily to answer predefined questions with canned answers, and you have to go to some effort to get a live agent. I got one yesterday for an unrelated matter but had to actually type in "I want to talk to a real human being" before that happened.

If they just had a straightforward option to chat with an agent rather than go through the chat bot rigmarole first it'd be a lot better.

Peregrinus

Alun wrote: »

I always thought that 'fulfilled by Amazon' meant that Amazon themselves held stock on behalf of their sellers in their own warehouse, and as a result shipping of an item marked as in stock would be pretty quick.

Fulfilment by Amazon ("FBA") It does mean that. But there's always a "but".

The "but" is that, in Europe, Amazon has two FBA models.

There's pan-European FBA, in which sellers send stock to Amazon to hold at Amazon warehouses in different European countries. Orders are then fulfilled from the appropriate warehouse, with the benefit (to the seller) of local delivery costs and (to the buyer) of local delivery times. The drawback is that the seller has to provide more stock (raising inventory costs) and pay more to Amazon for the service. Plus the seller has to register for and account for VAT in all the countries in which stock is stored.

And there's European Fulfilment Network, in which stock is held in just one Amazon warehouse, and all deliveries are from there. Simpler and cheaper for the seller, with lower upfront cost and lower overheads, but orders to be delivered outside the country of storage will cost more/take longer.

SFAIK the purchaser cannot tell from the Amazon page offering the goods which FBA model applies to the goods they are thinking of ordering. So "Fulfilled by Amazon" offers a prospect of speedy delivery, but not necessarily a guarantee.

horse7

I can't understand why some items sold and fulfilled by Amazon will not allow delivery to Ireland.

Alun

Alun wrote: »

Well, again in fairness, they don't make it easy. The chat bot is designed primarily to answer predefined questions with canned answers, and you have to go to some effort to get a live agent. I got one yesterday for an unrelated matter but had to actually type in "I want to talk to a real human being" before that happened.

If they just had a straightforward option to chat with an agent rather than go through the chat bot rigmarole first it'd be a lot better.

I don't know if maybe I'm just lucky, but I can get a human fairly swiftly.

Just go to My Account, pick the 'Help' bubble, then 'contact us', press "start chatting now", and you'll start a live chat with the bot.

Pick "an item I ordered" and it will list all your recent purchases. but on top of the list, is a search bar, and a little X. Press the X, and it removes the list of items, and the bot asks do you want a real person.


Only takes a minute.