Amazon: 'We're not just for Christmas'

Amazon founder and chief Jeff Bezos is sending out a message to the company's customers, and indeed anyone who goes to its homepage today: like goodwill to men, driving sober and puppies, it's not just for Christmas.

His open letter trumpets the virtues of Amazon's new 'Prime' membership programme. The idea, he avers, is simple: 'for a flat annual membership fee, you get free unlimited One-Day delivery on millions of eligible items'. The fee? Fifty quid a year. Well, £49, but let's add on the interest.

'If you're inclined to do the maths [yes, Jeff, I am],' continues Mr Bezos, 'that's less than the cost of 6 Express Deliveries (£8.99 each), making it a great value [sic].' If you're daft enough to use Express delivery six times a year, it just might be Jeff.

Apart from the irony that the world's biggest online bookseller really should be able to afford a decent ad-copy proofreader, there's a few things that don't add up.

Express 'One-Day' delivery is emphatically not great value at £8.99 a pop. Not in a country where first-class post should arrive in one day. But then, the only reason Amazon ever got away with charging for its 'first-class delivery', having initially sold itself on free delivery, was that it made the latter so excruciatingly slow, by waiting days and days to dispatch orders, that everyone got fed up with it.

So who knows, perhaps now it will do the same to 'first-class delivery', which is already frequently delayed by slow dispatch, in order to encourage its loyal customers on to Express delivery.

But what would really irritate me if I was gullible or wealthy enough to sign up for Amazon Prime is what appears to be reduced stocking levels. I seem to remember a few years ago there were few items that were not in stock and available immediately (and I have some obscure musical and literary inclinations).

I just scrapped an order for a handful of not-that-obscure CDs, because two of them 'will not ship for 1 to 3 weeks' and one is not available at all. This is really poor, as it's the new album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - a major release. I'd feel a bit cheated out of my fifty quid, personally speaking.

It appears to me that each of the virtues upon which Amazon promoted itself as a newcomer many years ago (low prices, free delivery and quick availability), has been gradually dispensed with. Then again, if the state of High Street CD retailing is anything to go by (RIP Fopp), the format is doomed - even if some people want to buy them, no one wants to sell them.

Downloads it is then!

- Adrian Lowery, News editor, This is Money

Comments

[chris]

At last someone is taking amazon to task for the most important issues-stock availability and slow dispatch. I spend approx £1500 pa with them but proportionally this is declining month on month for the reasons Adrian highlights.

But there is an even more serious issue here and that is the loss of competition on the high street caused by predatory pricing. If amazon is massaging its margins via stock management, exploitative delivery charges, and our choice of alternative 'instant gratification' on the high street is diminishing because of their initial pricing, then everyone will have lost-especially the original creators of the works we wish to listen to or read.

Doing deals with amazon is short term gain for long term risk for music and book publishers. Falling for the post prepayment is simple caveat emptor.

[Clive Woody]

Sites such as Play.com include delivery charges in the price shown for items and often delivery is next day if ordered in the morning. No doubt other sites offer equally good service. The range of goods on offer at Amazon often trumps other smaller internet set-ups, but as the author of this article states often there is a long wait for availability and the tiered cost of delivery is comical considering the real cost of delivery.

It's a shame really because I have always been pleased with the goods from Amazon, but now with prices creeping up, I and most likely many others, will be looking elsewhere on the internet. Sites such as www.Kelkoo.co.uk allow shoppers to compare the cost of goods on the internet, and often Amazon does not top the lists for best value.

[val]

I ordered a 2007 calendar from Amazon in early November 2006. It arrived at the end of February.It was to have been a Christmas present for someone. Nearly 2 months of "time" lost. Plus frustration and disappointment. I haven't used them since and never will again. Friends have had similar experiences.

What it all boils down to is that Amazon is unreliable and inefficient. This has caused them to lose my custom.

[Lorf]

Val, you do realise that you can actually check the status of your order on your account? Why wait 2 months for a calendar? If it was such an urgent Xmas pressie then why didnt you just cancel it and order elsewhere?