Delivery complaints plague Amazon Fresh launch

Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - 09:33 by Mike Price

Ordering groceries on Amazon has only just been made possible in the UK thanks to the introduction of its Fresh service earlier this month. But the US retail giant has already come under fire from customers who have had a less than ideal experience with deliveries of consumable goods, according to the Daily Mail.

The main issue seems to be that Amazon’s delivery scheduling service is still a little basic when compared with competing systems. So rather than being able to change delivery slots after placing an initial order via safe shopping online customers are, instead, being forced to cancel their order altogether.

Furthermore, the orders which are cancelled up to a day before the delivery is due are still being sent out to customers in spite of the fact that they are not going to be at home to receive them.

This wastes a significant amount of Amazon’s resources and means that while refunds are provided to customers, they cannot get their items in a timely fashion.

Other customers have complained that the price of products which are available via Amazon Fresh can vary depending on which part of the site is used to view them.

It is worth remembering that Amazon has never attempted to offer grocery deliveries via safe shopping online in the UK before and so encountering teething troubles like this is inevitable. Meanwhile, its established rivals like Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been doing this for a decade and, thus, have significantly more experience and solid infrastructures underpinning their services.

The cost of delivery via Amazon Fresh remains free, providing customers are already subscribed to Amazon Prime and are also willing to pay £6.99 a month on top of their subscription. However, it may be a few months until customers feel confident that this is a price worth paying.