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My first last and only experience on Amazon Australia.
With how busy our lives get and the lack of products on shelves on local shops (if you are lucky to have a specialty shop nearby that carries what you are looking for) it seems companies such as Amazon have decided to branch out into Australia.
Seeing as Christmas is just around the corner it seems prudent to share my recent Amazon experience for anyone who's looking to do their christmas shopping online this year.
Dont get me wrong, I love e-commerce, having been an active seller and buyer on Ebay for 16 years so far I'm probably guilty of helping the demise of local shops.
I decided for my parts hunt to build a new workstation pc for my business to give Amazon Australia a try so and document my experience on here comparing Amazon to Ebay.
Initially when I signed up using my phone, the Amazon website did not automatically route to the .au site so I got a fair amount of frustration when looking at my options to find most of the sellers do not ship to Australia.
Ok, no problem, route to the .au site and continue.
Looking through the listings, i noted unlike Ebay, I'm not provided the ability to look at the Sellers feedback or location prior to purchase.
I kept looking, and settled on a Gigabyte x399 Aorus Pro board that the seller was bundling with a 2920x cpu for $789 or I could choose the board alone for just over $500. Sellers Amazon name is Global Sales AU. (with a name like that on the .au site, it's a 50/50 hint that the seller is trying to appear to be an Australian seller but is overseas)
Comparing to prices on Ebay, companies like mWave offering the same board at discount for $438. (mWave are an excellent seller, I can attest to that with 4 successful transactions with them)
I'm thinking to myself, the bundle this seller is offering is not too much more than what the cpu is worth so it's either a scam or a refurbished/returned item etc.
Still, I can't write a blog experience if I don't go through with this exercise so I placed the order, ensured with the two options tab which offer i had chosen. I chose the combination for $789.
Checkout process seems the same as purchasing from an online supplier, payment options are more limited than some. No option for paypal.
At this point I now have access to information that my order will come from outside AU.
I also have information on the seller, which to my dismay appears to be a new seller with no feedback to their name.
Here we go, how many weeks will it take to get my money back when no package gets sent?
For the first few day's the order details page say's I can't have tracking information but to ask the seller for Tracking as it's not a requirement on Amazon.
From a buyers prospective, having access to tracking information is an important piece of information, I dislike Amazon's practice of not enforcing tracking details.
The next troubling thing is the email from Amazon after purchase was the Order ID details only referencing the CPU with no mention of the motherboard.
Now considering the CPU is a $600 item, I can cope if they send the cpu but not the motherboard and claim a mistake in their listing.
I emailed the seller asking for tracking information and the reply was "due to a issue with the carrier, we cannot provide a tracking number to you"
Yup, here we go, seller is a crook.
I recieve another email advising tracking will be available on the 6th October
Ok, maybe not so bad.
6th October, Seller provides tracking information. At this point I now finally know who the carrier is. It seems as UPS got the job.
Now, here's a thought. UPS's nearest depot is at Botany in Syd. I wont be home for the delivery so I was hoping I wouldn't have to drive from woy woy to botany to play fetch when it arrives so I created an account ID with UPS so i could provide a alternative delivery address and recieve notifications for the delivery.
UPS attempted a delivery at my address, ignored the alternative address I requested them to deliver to. Attempts to sort out a re-delivery using the phone app and on the pc proved to be a fruitless excercise of being sent into a loop to keep signing up for a UPS ID over and over again.
Ok, guess I'll have to call UPS and arrange a re-delivery.
The lady on the phone for UPS seemed nice and helpful, she gave a excuse regarding my inability to use the App on my phone or the webpage to sort out re-delivery due to not being in their service area.
Ok, seems to me UPS doesn't have enough of a presence in Australia.
It seems though, UPS has no idea what they've done to my package. Turns out, when the delivery attempt failed, it ended up at my local post office via startrack.
UPS still thinks they need to perform a re-delivery and have no idea they gave it to startrack as part of a "final mile agreement"
Funny enough, staff at Aus Post have no idea about any of the above.
Suffice to say, yes the seller actually sent me the item. UPS got it to my LPO (even though they think they are still yet to deliver it)
I open the box to find........
Not what I ordered.
Original order : Gigabyte X399 Aorus Pro Motherboard with a Ryzen Threadripper 2920x cpu. $789 (I took screenshots for my reference during the order and payment process)
Order details from Amazon only reference the 2920x CPU.
What do you think was in the box when I opened it?
Only the Gigabyte X399 motherboard.
Shockingly, the board is brand new, unopened and it arrived with no damage.
I emailed the seller asking where was the CPU, Sellers response was the order was only for the motherboard.
Now I expected to either get ripped off or the order to be wrong as all emails and notifications via Amazon have only referenced the CPU. But to pay for a motherboard and cpu as a bundle for $789 and only recieve a $430 motherboard and be told that's all I'm getting.... Not a good experience so far.
It'd be alot easier to be tempted to let it slide if the seller sent the CPU ($600 ish from that seller) and not the motherboard as it's not to dissimilar in value to what I actually ordered and paid for.
From the email tennis match between the seller and I so far I've come to determine the following:
1. The seller had changed their listing after my order and payment and this allows via Amazon for the seller to change what you will recieve and paid for.
2. The seller admitted to changing their listing after I had ordered and paid for the order so the fact I recieved a $400 motherboard for $789 is pretty much tough luck.
3. Amazon keeps the buyer from critical information untill after the purchase is made thus making informed choices impossible prior to purchase.
i.e. The buyer cannot determine if the seller is in Australia or what their reputation is untill money has changed hands.
4. So far with attempting to resolve this matter, Amazon wont allow me to directly interact with them instead making me argue with the seller in my request to return the item for a refund.
5. Stick with Ebay. There is too little protection on Amazon. Conflict resolution is difficult and Sellers can change willy nilly what you get after you've ordered and paid. In my case, seller could've changed the listing after I ordered to "broken pencil $789" and sent me a broken pencil and still tough luck. (ok probably an exaggeration there but you get my point)
Despite the high fee structure on Paypal, at least with Ebay and Paypal my experience above would've been far easier to resolve and probably would not have occurred on their platforms.
6. UPS appears to have a final mile agreement with startrack but their staff on the phone and the tracking details still think they need to attempt a re-delivery after startrack has left your parcel at the post office. So expect UPS to not have a good track record with successful deliveries here in Australia.
The Staff at my local post office had no idea about UPS deliveries, after speaking to them I expcted a Brown UPS van to arrive with a UPS employee doing the delivery.
Balancing out my thoughts on UPS, the order was placed on the 26th September, UPS it seems had the consignment on the 6th October and it arrived at Woy woy on the 10th of October undamaged and intact. Not the fastest, nor a bad result either
All in all, Amazon can push all they like to grab a slice of the Australian market but I dont see them being successful unless they sort out their process and enforce similar rules on the sellers as Ebay.
Even Aliexpress appears to be safer and more reliable than my experience with Amazon has been.
Hopefully I can sort out a return and refund and cancel my Amazon account and look back with a "nothing ventured, nothing gained" perspective.
Amazon 0-10
Amazon Seller Global Sales AU -10-10
UPS 7-10 (I'd have more confidence if they knew what the hell was going on with their consignments so i feel 7-10 is fair)
Feel free to post your Amazon experiences
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