Amazon launched 24 years ago and has a tight grip on Christmas. It sold over $60bn of product in the Christmas period last year.
Since launching in the UK in 1998 as a bookstore, it rapidly moved into CDs & DVDs (remember them?). By 2001 it was selling toys and games.
My first order was in 2006. A book about keeping a fish tank, and a 2nd hand Wham! Album (don't ask).
Since then my love affair with Amazon has blossomed through homewares, sports & leisure, DIY, clothing... I imagine that aside from food, petrol and coffee, Amazon gets me almost everything else.
As a long time Prime member, I'm so delightfully happy to shell out the £79 annual fee, just to save money on Christmas postage. The fact that Amazon Prime Video and Twitch are bundled makes me and my clan extra happy.
But the rot has set in, and Amazon seems to be going the way of most big companies, and losing the long held trust of its fan base.
There have been two recent rulings against Amazon by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) to reel in the marketing exuberance at Amazon.
In April 2018 Amazon were found to have misled consumers in four different ways relating to the use of claimed savings against RRP and retail price, as well as misleading customers about savings promised to customers who sign up for Prime. So far, so sneaky.
In August 2018 Amazon were found to have misled customers regarding their "One-Day Delivery for Christmas" advertising.
The ASA upheld the complaint on the grounds that an advert promising "get unlimited One-Day Delivery with Amazon Prime" was likely to be interpreted as One-Day delivery on any Prime labelled item. In fact, the ASA found that a "significant proportion of Prime labelled items were not available for delivery by the subsequent day.
Here is the current wording of the 'Prime' sign-up advert. Still a little unclear, I think.
On top of this, we have the frustrating scenario where items don't arrive within the estimated time window. Sometimes a full week later than agreed to at the moment of purchase. So when my Samsung headphones, which I rely on for 4-6 hours daily went missing, a next day replacement was what sent me to Amazon for my replacement. That was on November 9th. We're at the 13th now, and according to Amazon I should expect the delivery sometime before the 17th.
That's not next day delivery. And since then I've walked past at least 3 high street stores stocking the same headphones at a slightly higher price.
Christmas is very nearly here again, and so are 3 birthdays before that. I'm going to continue to use Amazon and the lovely free postage. But I'm sure as heck going to give Amazon an extra week of contingency, to make sure items arrive on time to be wrapped and presented.
'Prime' is just starting to feel a little .. sub-prime.
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