How are online retailers able to survive in todays delivery climate?
Posted by Scarred_fish@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 25 comments
We are just one family, but looking back at the start of this year we alone have recieved hundreds of pounds of refunds from companies because of the lack of, or just poor delivery services, and from talking to friend and workmates, and the general stuff you see in the news, it's very common.
Among the big items were a robot vaccum directly from Honiture, ordered in November for Christmas, never arrived, tracking just stopped the day after it was sent. Company refunded us in full. Then in February it arrived. Conatcted company and they said the order was closed.
Similar thing with Amazon, ordered some birthday booze to the tune of £200ish. It arrived quickly, but I got a message from Amazon apologising for the lack of delivery and with a refund. Checked the tracking and sure enough, it had stopped in Glasgow a week or so before. Contacted them and they assured me it was not delivered!
Garden Trolley from Temu (yes, I know!) was similar. Waited, waited, nothing. Turned up in a busted box missing two wheels. Wouldn;t accept a return and just refunded in full with £4 extra because it was late!
Final one was a bed ordered from "The Bed Shed" via amazon. Arrived but damaged. TRied to contact them and Amazon directed me to "The Bed Shed" - click the link and you will see it says "Please note that we are not affiliated with a shop on Amazon.co.uk with a similar name. We do not sell on Amazon and only deliver in Spain."
Contacted Amazon about it and they just refunded me!
Don't get me wrong, it's great, but if this is what is happening all the time, how can it be sustainable?
Forsaken1741@reddit
I haven't ordered anything online in months. I just can't be bothered with it anymore, it's just so much easier and more peace of mind just going to a shop.
FornyHucker22@reddit
I do wonder when I hear about some people just taking the piss like ordering cloths just to return them.
i dare say they are a minority tho. Cost of doing business like shoplifters i guess
FreeBogwoppits@reddit
I was the accountant for a medium sized online firm.
They operated on the basis that 60% of orders would require refunds or compensation of some sort.
The stock they sold was purchased by container load from China. Make-up items that cost 10 pence were being sold for £6.99 + postage. Clothes were an enormous money spinner, dressing gowns/bath robes cost £1 each and were sold for at least £18.99 + postage.
There was also a heck of a lot of stacked loans going on, loan A to pay off loan B right down to loan Z. The owners though they were multi- millionaires and they lived that lifestyle, and by some calculations they were. But if you closed the business down, the final accounts would have shown them at least £2 million in debt.
Scarred_fish@reddit (OP)
Wow.
That's - pretty mind blowing!
AprilTheEleventh@reddit
On the contrary, I receive 100s of packages from Amazon, Argos, Currys, Tesco etc every day, every week, every year - and don't remember many that don't make it to me. I think the stories you're referencing is the exception, not the rule.
feetflatontheground@reddit
I used to be like you. Have had so many deliveries where nothing went wrong. . .
But this week has made me rethink. 2 parcels delivered to the wrong address by Evri. One of them I contacted the shop and have been given a refund. The 2nd one, I'm just waiting for Evri to respond before I chase up a refund.
Scarred_fish@reddit (OP)
I guess that's how it works, bulk deliveries will be more reliable and where they make the big money. I guess the few personal things like my orders are minimal by comparison.
Separate-Frame-7038@reddit
Return rate on online goods is about 20% according to this site, interesting data actually.
dbxp@reddit
A lot of that is clothing which is why Primark has avoided selling online. It's fairly common for people to order a bunch of things knowing they'll return half of it, those returns then end up getting shredded
liluniqueme@reddit
The Works recently stopped allowing you to order items online because the delivery company they used were messing up so much it was costing them too much money.
FakeNordicAlien@reddit
You’ve had a lot of bad luck - or maybe good luck if you’re getting refunded more than you paid.
Is your house particularly out of the way, in the country or a village? Or a block of flats where deliverypersons can’t be bothered? Or maybe not marked well?
I live in a very average semi-detached house in a very average suburb of a mid-sized town in the south, and between my roommate and I, we order a minimum of dozens of things a month (mobile mechanic in his case, disabled over-consumer who doesn’t get out much in mine), and over the last ten years I can think of maybe 5-10 deliveries out of thousands that didn’t go exactly as expected.
bars_and_plates@reddit
It just increases the cost they have to charge.
It's obvious when you use Amazon for low value items, you can clearly see that something you could get in the pound shop is £7 or whatever.
dbxp@reddit
It's factored into the price of the products. You'd be surprised how cheap it is to manufacture goods. Sales, marketing and logistics make up the majority of the cost of most items.
TellMeManyStories@reddit
These companies would fix these issues if they could.
But deliveries going missing in the system is super hard to track down. It's a combination of deliberate theft by employees, theft by strangers, incompetence, and a bunch of other factors - and it's really hard to pinpoint and solve every case, especially when a package goes through so many peoples hands, and good chunk of the workers are short term and couldn't care less if they get fired for stealing a PS5 from a package and replacing it with rocks.
continentaldreams@reddit
Temu and Amazon are two huge companies that shit on their customers, surprise surprise. Stop buying from them
luxford2@reddit
Really? I’ve found that Amazon are amazing customer service wise. They very often let you have a refund AND keep the product to make life easier for you and because it’s cheaper for them.
Temu are also really quite good. They somehow deliver from China to the UK, in about a week, free of charge (minimum spend might apply). The biggest holdback for websites like Aliexpress is everything to 4-6 weeks to turn up and Temu seemed to have solved that somehow. They also let you refund and keep products. Posting back to China makes no sense for either side.
ResplendentBear@reddit
Person with agenda spotted.
Scarred_fish@reddit (OP)
I mean, they keep giving me free stuff, so why not!
Separate-Frame-7038@reddit
And mine, amazon customer service is phenomenal, actually. They're quick to respond, never not took my side in a dispute, and make an effort to make it right.
continentaldreams@reddit
Just adding shit to landfills more lke
Scarred_fish@reddit (OP)
What on earth do you mean? I think you need to read my post again lol
Illustrious_Bus8440@reddit
On the flip side I once ordered two pretty hefty and expensive text books from Amazon. The tracking stopped and eventually they offered a refund or replacement.
As I needed them I ordered a replacement, the replacement arrived and then very next day the 1st set arrived. Moments later messages saying if I didn't return the copies immediately they would charge me. Heres your return barcode you thief!
ResplendentBear@reddit
They're just transactions costs to these companies. They probably reclaim a lot of it from the delivery firms too.
CrazyCake69@reddit
It's a cost of business, in alot of cases the company will have insurance cover from the delivery companies they can use to recoup some of the lose.
AutoModerator@reddit
Please help keep AskUK welcoming!
When replying to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc. If a post is marked 'Serious Answers Only' you may receive a ban for violating this rule.
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.