Amazon Prime for small parts: Fail^2
 

I have had Amazon Prime for about 10 years, but every year I feel less good about this.

However, it does sometimes come in handy if you need a small part that cannot be obtained locally.

For the second time in two weeks, I have ordered (two different) $7 parts. The latest was simply a bleed cup adaptor, for the newer road brakes.

The envelope arrived empty. Sealed, delivered by USPS. But empty. Gives a new meaning to the term air-mail.

Is anyone else encountering this? I realize accidents happen, but twice in a week, with two separate small parts orders, makes me wonder.

We use them more than I would like especially this time of year and have had zero issues with timeliness or missing items. Just received cycling parts yesterday and today - no problemo.

You'll have that during Holiday shipping volume levels

Amazon delivers to my house a minimum of 3 days a week every week. Sometimes even more. Have never received an empty box or envelope.

I usually receive my stuff within 2 days of ordering. There was a small window during the peak of covid that things were taking a little longer, but that doesn't seem to be happening anymore.

I find if its something thats convenient but not critical it arrives in 2 days. Anything crucial seems to take about ten days to arrive. But with all the crud going around I cant imagine not having Prime. And they readily accept returns.

Sort of. I ordered a Planet Bike headlight earlier this year. Light, mounting bracket and charging cable. The Amazon packaging was sealed. Inside the package was the manufacturer's packaging. Inside the manufacturer's packaging were the mounting bracket and the cable, but not the light. Called Amazon and it rushed me a replacement. Inside the manufacturer's packaging were the mounting bracket and the cable, but not the light. Deja vu all over again. I thought someone was pranking me. Rather chance a third disappointment, I asked for a refund.

The main reason I am a Prime member is because of the Whole Foods discounts. I am pretty sure I at least break even every month.

Only issue I've had: recently ordered (through a third-party seller) an Ultegra 11sp chain, and received an apparently counterfeit Dura Ace chain instead. With free returns, it's no big deal.

Living in a rural area, without access to many large stores, we probably order at least $15k-$20k from Amazon each year. On the few occasions when I've had to call their CS, they've been very accomodating.

I ordered a watch on Amazon Prime.
The seller shipped via UPS a slip of paper stating “the watch is out of stock and discontinued. Please request a refund”.

This way the seller can supply Amazon with the tracking number by the shipping deadline and not have to pay a penalty.
I posted this in feedback and it was deleted!

It’s not usually a scam against the buyer, it’s against Amazon.

Barry

Prime is a good enough deal just for the TV streaming, IMO. Haven't found a deal on bike components yet on Amazon that I can't find a better deal with one of several online sellers that are dedicated to bike stuff. I seldom look for itty bitty parts of a component though. Many times my LBS has stuff at the same low price I can find online.

I have had an empty box shipped to me before. What I can't get over is the multi-pack of TP we ordered during the first part of COVID that was shipped in a huge box and wrapped up in bubble wrap!

That was my prior experience until very recently, when I returned an ~$120 Apple TV streamer box to them (Rouvy videos skipped, and then the newer one was announced). It took well over a month, and repeated "chat" appeals (well over an hour wasted at each end). I had the UPS delivery record, but they wouldn't credit my account or acknowledge its receipt. Finally someone sane prevailed, but it is still listed as processing.

Maybe I am on their bad list now.

How much does Overlord Bezos charge for the privilege of giving him your business? I heard Prime was $180 a year.

It went up a lot. It was $80/yr when I started. We live 15 miles from the nearest bike shop, and most other "local" businesses are further away. Along with the TV streaming, etc, it makes some degree of sense, at least when it is reliable. But bike stuff in particular is now more expensive than most on-line options, so I tend to use it as a last resort for those kinds of purchases.

It's $140/year. 2 day free shipping, Free music from Amazon Music, A decent selection of movies and series on Amazon Prime Video.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...4TCHHFTXXX328Y

As much as I order from Amazon it more or less pays for itself and then some. If I ordered the same items from somewhere else throughout the year the shipping alone would exceed the $140 membership fee and I wouldn't get them in 2 days. Sometimes I even receive stuff in one day.

Plus I rarely have to run to the store anymore so lots of wear and tear on the vehicle saved and gas money saved by not running to the store and standing in line next to some lady and her screaming kid. That makes it worth it alone. The only running to the store I do these days is for groceries once every two weeks.

I just looked -- it's 14.99 a month, plus tax. I completely understand the convenience, but if you order from Amazon Prime 10 times a year, you're paying an additional $18.00 per purchase -- no matter how small the purchase is. I guess streaming makes up for some of it, but I have an equally hard time paying to watch TV as I do paying for "free" shipping.

I must be old. :50:

Hold my beer.

I once ordered a roll of bubble wrap from Amazon. It came wrapped in bubble wrap.

Your initial comment is phrased in a very skewed manner, presumably on purpose. A consumer is not charged anything for buying from Amazon. A consumer can CHOOSE to join Prime and pay a fee that provides many features, if the consumer finds those features to be worth the cost. That is no different than countless other companies and pricing schemes.

If a person orders 10 things from Amazon each year and uses no other services, then it is probably not a good deal to belong to Prime. Again- the person is not forced to belong to Prime in order to buy those 10 things.

We use Prime for a lot of movies, some shows, a lot of purchases, and a ton of music. We actually have the music subscription too, which costs a monthly rate in addition to Prime, but it allows multiple people to listen at the same time and opens up the library to infinitely more music. Again, we do this because we find value in it. Bezos doesnt make us do it.
We could rent all the movies for a cost, pay shipping for all the purchases, join other music services...and pay more in the end.

You arent old, you just struggle to accept that your preferences and priorities arent the same as everyone else's.

I am still developing a conspiracy theory to explain this, but the essence is that Amazon has an AI bot that detects too many small item Prime purchases, and then auto-punishes you with a plausibly-deniable mechanism like sending empty packages. It will have the effect of discouraging me from buying $7 doohickies as individual purchases, which for them is probably a significant loss. (They used to have a Prime add-on escape clause, which basically required you to buy the $7 item as part of a larger purchase, so they could ship them all together. My conspiracy theory is that they are replacing that with this.)

Not sharing others' preferences and priorities isn't the same as "struggling to accept" them. Apologies if my post was somehow threatening to yours.

They recently made some "improvements" there that are not to my liking.

It used to be that the basic, included-with-Prime Amazon Music allowed full access to a modest fraction of their library. That included the ability to play that content "on-demand".

Now, the included-with-Prime Amazon Music includes access to EVERYTHING - but only in "shuffle-play mode"; no "on-demand". So, much like what one gets with Spotify on mobile without a subscription.

No thanks; not interested in listening to what Amazon decides to feed me.

It's not that you're old -- it's that you're not in Amazon Prime's target market.

Since January 1st of this year, my wife and I have ordered 303 items from Amazon in 158 shipments. We've also streamed more movies and TV shows on Prime than I can recall. For us (and over 150 million other subscribers), Prime makes sense.

I average about 75 orders/year it looks like. My wife makes heavy use of their free-to-Prime movie/TV streaming. I use Qobuz for music streaming.

Lack of local customer service and product selection, then just convenience, makes my Amazon Prime membership a good deal. I would prefer to support locally owned businesses. Most have been shut down due to competition from big box national chains. If I call Lowes or Home Depot to ask about an item in stock, I either get an incorrect answer or the call is disconnected. My time is worth something to avoid driving around the city to look for some product that will show up on my porch tomorrow from Amazon.

Have you seen the relatively recent thread in Road about fake Shimano chains?