How in the world did Amazon manage to shit the bed regarding video game releases?

[Deleted member 437]

My Amazon story:

-Preordered Destiny 2 at E3 of this year.
-Monday before game is released, still HAS NOT been shipped. Upgraded to "preparing for shipment"
-Tuesday. Nothing happens. Stuck in same status.
-FUCKING FRIDAY, stuck in same status.
-I get on with support. They say they apologize, and will upgrade my shipping to priority and should have it by the weekend.
-Ask them why in the holy fuck it hasn't been shipped when I've had this game ordered for the past 3 months? "Because you're not with Prime".
-Weekend comes and goes, no game. Finally comes in on Tuesday. Full week after games has been out.

The best part?

I literally live 15 minutes away from TWO of their distribution centres.

So yeah, never again. Never bothering with day 1 games. Unfucking reliable.

 

[Ant78]

It definitely seems to be more of an issue in the last year or so. I've been almost exclusively buying and preordering my games from Amazon since around 2008 and for years never had an issue. Despite ordering Mario Odyssey well in advance of release, it still missed the Friday release date and wasn't delivered until like 7PM on Saturday. I should have known it wouldn't make Friday when the shipment email didn't show up until like 9:30 on Thursday night.

This doesn't just affect release date for games but Prime as a whole. Prime seems to be more of a 3 day delivery with the chance of orders showing up in 2 days. Probably has more to do with the switch to using USPS over UPS for deliveries.

 

[Bakercat]

I only do preorders on amazon due to 20% off and I've never had a game be delivered late. UPS only comes late into the afternoon for me, but that's not amazons fault though. Sucks for those that it happens too though.

Edit: I should say I have prime, so that's probably why they're consistent for me.

 

[mute]

Half the time I preorder something with prime shipping release date delivery isn't even an option. Usually I'll find out later if I get it on release or not, for the more smaller/niche stuff they tend to ship out on release date instead of being delivered on the date.

Moreso than this is their packaging. If I'm lucky I'll get things in a box but more often than not it will be in a bubble envelope and it is a crapshoot the condition of whatever travels in those things.

 

[Deleted member 11421]

Add me to the list of "this year there's suddenly a problem." Never had more than one issue (generally small) for the past decade, then this year I've had a few games miss release day delivery, most notably Shadow of War being sent to the wrong state and to a different distribution center for some reason.

They gave me an extra month of Prime for that, and then last week I received a significantly dented steelbook for a different game. They they refunded me 20% of the cost (nearly $20 in this case), so at least the customer service has been treating me well.

 

[srtrestre]

Yup, Amazon had been THE place to buy games for me, but they dropped the ball hard for several releases this year I've been relying on Best Buy and even freakin' Gamestop of all places. Shame.

 

[VorpalNonsense]

It very much relies on your local carrier employees which causes performance to vary wildly between regions. Some people will frequently receive their packages late, some will receive them early. In my experience, Amazon continues to ship their products within the same time window they always did, it's what happens after that which affects delivery speed.
I don't think their basic procedures have changed, not for my area at least. I'm guessing either Amazon switched carriers in your area, or the carrier they continue to use has gone to shit.

For a couple years in my area, whenever they shipped fedex it would arrive late, ups on time, usps wildcard.

 

[MrLuchador]

I'm from the UK! My sob story must have been good enough...

Click to shrink...

D: Good grief. I need to upgrade my phone tears.

 

[kaospilot]

UK here, I don't pre-order games that much, let alone physical editions, but when I have do Amazon have never let me down.

 

[GSG]

US Customer service is. UK Customer service couldn't care less if they miss a delivery on release day!

Click to shrink...

Same with Canada. The customer support rep I was talking to, in regards to my Odyssey preorder, was a complete moron. He just kept repeating what was already on my order information page, and then when I told him that I couldn't even cancel my order on the morning of Friday(so that I could just buy it locally), he decided, on his own, to put a note on my order saying that I will be refusing the order and sending it back.

 

[DevilPuncher]

Yeah, Amazon's had a tendency to be kind of unreliable for me in the past year or so. That, and the flip flopping they did on the Prime discount for new games was a big reason as to why I didn't renew Prime.

 

[LancePrime]

the last year or so has been pretty bad for me in the UK. It seems they can deliver everything next day except games. Almost every time I Preorder a game now it seems to be delivered by royal mail and end up being a day or 2 late. They choice of delivery doesn't make any sense to me though. I preorder Mario and Wolfenstein, within a week of each other I think. Come release day Mario gets delivered by an Amazon carrier at 9am, Wolfenstein turns up the next day delivered by Royal Mail.
Still not as bad as GAME though, they delivered my copy of FF12:TZA 2 weeks late.

 

[Deleted member 26526]

I have been noticing the screwing up with Amazon.
But I just complain about not having it on release day and get a nice voucher and a free month of Amazon Prime.

I'll take a couple of days delay every release for that

 

[onepiecefan]

Every time I've tried to pre-order a game from Amazon (UK) recently it's notified me that the game will arrive the day after unless I pay extra for shipping...I recently pre-ordered DBZF and got a email the day after saying it'll arrive the day after release, so I'll be cancelling that. I rarely pre-order these days anyway but no way would I pre-order knowing the game will arrive late. So yeah, I agree Amazon seem to have really dropped the ball with pre-orders, at least based on personal experience.

 

[Divvy]

I blame their purchase of whole foods

They are like the corporate version of a millenial

Spent all their money on organic avocados and can't afford home delivery

But seriously, they have been really shit this year

 

[Kost2coast]

The only issue I remember having was when I had pre-ordered Fallout 4's collectors edition and was having it delivered home. The company they used for the delivery was OnTrac. I figured it would be delivered because I would always see them manage to deliver to our apartment. On release day though, that was not the case. They totally missed the delivery time and they didn't even try to get through the gate. I called Amazon and complained and also asked them to never used Ontrac for deliveries for me again. So far that has been the case...but currently anything gaming related, I just have sent to where I work because I can be sure it arrives on time. No complaints since.

 

[Fliesen]

Hmmm, i preordered Odyssey, got it on release and got refunded € 11.00, because the market price at release was € 47.99 as opposed to the € 58.99 at the time i placed my preorder.

Honestly, Amazon is the only place i WOULD preorder physical copies of games.

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

Still waiting on Mario, should be here later today. Took them a week to get it to me.

Edit: If I would of known it would take them this long I would of just bought the game at a store.

 

[Dust]

You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

 

[Weebos]

I almost never had a game arrive on time when I was still a Prime member.

I just do store pickup at Best Buy now, I'd rather be in control of when I get the game.

 

[Patch13]

I think that it varies by area. Amazon has really nailed shipping for me with the last few releases I've pre-ordered (Nier Automata, Zelda, Splatoon 2, Odyssey), which almost makes up for that awful weekend that I had to spend once not playing Bayonetta 2. (Note: weekend not actually that awful, though the game was great when I got it.)

I file a complaint every time that a game is late, which means a free month of Prime, plus some poor post office worker probably getting yelled at by a manager who has been yelled at by a manager who has been yelled at by Amazon. It seems to have worked over time, though the haunted look in the faces of the local post office employees does perhaps take some of the joy out of the victory ...

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

I never used to have problems with Amazon and used them for all my preorders before switching almost entirely to Best Buy last December. Never had anything late from them and have even had games come 1-3 days early. Also can pick stuff up if I'm off and don't wanna wait for the mail.
I've had a couple games ordered on Amazon recently because they had price drops that made them cheaper than GCU. They've all come at least a day late.

 

[echofive]

I've never had an issue with Amazon. :/

 

[Starburns]

I stopped pre-ordering from Amazon in the last year because they blew several delivery dates (I have prime, and I live in Phoenix where there are multiple warehouses), and I felt really shallow for ranting on social media about my video game not getting to me on Tuesday, and having to wait until Wednesday. That said, as Tuesday night came and went without a game, I was seething - Tuesday evenings are one of the few times a week I know I'll have a few hours of uninterrupted game play.

To the folks saying that Amazon is now only shipping on the day of release, I believe it. I have a few friends that work for Amazon, one I grew up with and has worked his way up the food chain after being there for about a decade. In conversations with him, it becomes very clear that they are literally at all times trying to find ways to cut costs. If that means a lesser customer experience, so be it. It's kind of like the scene from Fight Club where Ed Norton explains that if a recall costs more than the estimated law suits, they don't issue one, and would rather face the law suits for doing the wrong thing. If they can save $.37 per order, and only have to pay out anything meaningful on 3% of orders, then it is a net gain.

A far cry from their former customer centric approach. When I placed my first order at Amazon it was for a few books, because that was 95% of what they carried on the time. I lived in Hawaii, and after 2 weeks of no books, I sent them an email. A replacement package was sent immediately, and I received it in less than 24 hours from when I emailed support, along with a very apologetic email. The original package showed up nearly 3 weeks later, very abused. It looked like it got stuck in a conveyer belt somewhere.

I don't think that company still exists.

 

[LiK]

They treat anything gaming related like shit. Poor packaging for LEs, delays for releases and letting too many people preorder something when they don't have enough. It's not just games but accessories etc. I barely buy games from them unless it's cheap now. GCU with BB is all I need.

 

[Itaremustbedangeres]

I never had any issues with pre-orders, like ever. With third party sellers? Sure, but amazon itself has always been on point with release day delivery for me.

 

[JORMBO]

Everything is late or arrives broken from Amazon. I moved all my preorders to Gamestop down the road.

 

[JJH]

I pre-ordered Odyssey and actually got it on Thursday instead of Friday and not to mention the prime discount. YMMV (literally and figuratively) on these issues.

 

[TheOmegaSpartan]

Ever since Amazon started relying on their own personal shipping service, AMZL, for release day and same day/next day delivery, I've had constantly bad experiences from having to wait multiple days after release to shipping wayblaye into the evening (making release day shipping pointless to me), and this annoying habit of not knocking when they drop off packages, on my stoop, for the neighborhood to see. They've also messed up a fair bit of my Fresh deliveries but that's a topic for another day.

I've opted to sign up for Best Buy's Gamers Club for new game releases which has the same discount as Amazon plus the 20% off seemingly last forever for new purchases. Plus they're more efficient and sometimes ship a day early.

 

[Cadette]

I can't remember... do they do their pre-order shipments with their internal delivery team? The only time I consistently have delivery issues with Amazon is when Amazon Logistics is the one delivering it. I have no idea what the hell goes on between Amazon and AMZL but it's like they only communicate via carrier pigeon or something as I swear it's constantly a struggle to figure out wtf is going on with the delivery and it seems like there is a gigantic communication delay between the two of them.

 

[BaraSailey]

I had Amazon mess up my Dishonored 2: Death of the Outsider order; it was out for delivery after they shipped it late and never showed. They sent me another and by the time it arrived it was a week past release. They did compensate me with extended prime and such but I was a little annoyed by it all. That being said, that's the only time they've messed up an order for me, and my other games since then have all come on time.

 

[Jacknapes]

If Amazon miss the release window or mess up a delivery on an order, i usually get a months free Prime or something. It's only happened twice, one was my copy of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. Due to a mess-up with their system, i got it 2 days later (on an updated shipping order and a months free Prime to compensate). The other was my Xbox 360 Elite, they sent it to the wrong address.

 

[Risky_Bigness]

I gave up doing pre-orders on Amazon and just started picking them up at Best Buy on the way home from work. Not as convenient of course but with GCU it is cheaper.

 

[Beje]

Release date-wise they're still good in Spain. They've gone to absolute shit with their prices though. They went from being the no-brainer option to preorder games at a competitive price to being constantly more expensive than Fnac (that now can also do free release-day deliveries), Media Markt or even freaking GAME. The fact that there's the constant talk about raising their Prime prices doesn't help AT ALL (and they already doubled the minimum order to get free delivery in Prime Now from 20€ to 40€)

For comparison, the Fnac member card that grants you free delivery in their website among many other things is 15€ for 2 years (though it's easy to get it for 10€ during promotions) compared to Prime's 20€/year, and for a long time if you preorder a game at Fnac, you get a 10€ discount code that you can put towards the next preorder and start chaining them to get games for 10€ off. The fact that Amazon is not even attempting to fight against that is disheartening.

 

[Metanoia Prime]

Protip: Get Best Buy GCU. Buy it from BB.

Order it from Amazon as well.

When it inevitably arrives late, raise hell and get some sort of credit or gift.

Return it to either BB or Amazon.

Boom. Winning.

Protip: I'm kidding. But yea, Amazon gets a lot of other stuff right. It was only a matter of time until they dropped the ball somewhere.