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How in the world did Amazon manage to shit the bed regarding video game releases?
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I work for Amazon and the run up to peak is mental. We're opening Fulfilment Centre's left and right because the demand is unprecedented. I know it's a let down when you don't get your game on time but the shipping companies are over loaded big time.
In Japan, Yodobashi is able to ship same day, whereas Amazon isn't. This is a country where everything can more or less arrive within two days.
For anybody complaining about AMZL (Amazon Logistics), contact customer support. I had an issue with them during the first Prime Day. They shipped all my stuff via USPS, UPS, and AMZL. Everything got delivered on time except the AMZL stuff that was in a 2 day loop of being "out for delivery." I called, emailed, and chatted with them until they finally agreed to list USPS and UPS as my preferred shipping method. I haven't had a late OR AMZL shipment since.
Just bug them till they give in, because they made it clear they didn't want to do it. I'm sure they save a decent chunk using their crappy service.
Just bug them till they give in, because they made it clear they didn't want to do it. I'm sure they save a decent chunk using their crappy service.
I have experienced this as well. Mario was a day late and Zelda was three days late. Most of the time they are good about things, but I never had any problems at all until this year.
My Mario never arrived. It showed as delivered, but Amazon contacted the courier and they said they accidentally marked it as delivered but it'd still arrive on Friday. It's Wednesday and it still hasn't shown up, so I refunded. I ended up just buying digital with some gift cards I had on Friday.
Edit: I never had any problems for years and years with Amazon, these issues only started once they began using their own delivery service. 3 packages in the last 6 months have just vanished.
Edit: I never had any problems for years and years with Amazon, these issues only started once they began using their own delivery service. 3 packages in the last 6 months have just vanished.
Amazon's gone really downhill in shipping because they've made new and more profitable deals.
For me it's not just late games. I've had damaged products. Even stuff that was squished into a box too small. A lot of people I know across the NE have had all sorts of problems with Amazon in the last 2 years.
Thankfully I have Prime, so each time they make a mistake I rake em over the coals and get money back. But they have no excuse being so much worse than B&M.
For me it's not just late games. I've had damaged products. Even stuff that was squished into a box too small. A lot of people I know across the NE have had all sorts of problems with Amazon in the last 2 years.
Thankfully I have Prime, so each time they make a mistake I rake em over the coals and get money back. But they have no excuse being so much worse than B&M.
This has been my experience as well.
I got Shadow of War on a friday and it released the following tuesday. It happened to be that Monday was a Holiday which bumped the day early back to friday.
I've pre-ordered 2 games from Amazon (I have Prime) and neither showed up on release. I didn't really give a fuck on either but I knew their policy so hit up the customer service chat just to "enlighten" them.
Street Fighter V - Missed release, or at least, I didn't get a shipping notice by Monday night when the release day was Tuesday. Notified customer service and they refunded the full amount of the game out of nowhere, completely unprompted. Game showed up on Thursday anyways and no mention of sending it back.
Everybody's Golf (PS4) - I ordered this like the Thursday before it came out and they must have had supply issues because my estimated delivery was like 3 weeks after it released. Notified chat and they gave me 10 dollar credit toward my next order. Not bad considering the game was 39.99 and I got the Prime 20% off so the game roughly came to like 22 bucks.
If this is "going to shit" then I'll take it because waiting a few days for something in exchange for a 25-100% discount is a-ok with me.
Street Fighter V - Missed release, or at least, I didn't get a shipping notice by Monday night when the release day was Tuesday. Notified customer service and they refunded the full amount of the game out of nowhere, completely unprompted. Game showed up on Thursday anyways and no mention of sending it back.
Everybody's Golf (PS4) - I ordered this like the Thursday before it came out and they must have had supply issues because my estimated delivery was like 3 weeks after it released. Notified chat and they gave me 10 dollar credit toward my next order. Not bad considering the game was 39.99 and I got the Prime 20% off so the game roughly came to like 22 bucks.
If this is "going to shit" then I'll take it because waiting a few days for something in exchange for a 25-100% discount is a-ok with me.
I hate their shipping speeds, best buy free shipping is better than amazons best paid shipping(in my experience).
I think Amazon wanted to compete with the Best Buy gamer's club unlocked. They tried to treat it like every other area they enter and undercut or match the competition. Best Buy had them beat, though, because GCU drives foot traffic so BB is fine with little to no margin on video games sold via GCU. Amazon finally realized that people who took the 20% prime discount are just looking for the best deal and it didn't really bring them any extra money, so they got out of it. They slowly cut back perks, at first losing the 2 week window after release that the discount still applied, and then removing collector's editions and then by just saying fuck it with the delivery. if you notice, any time they fuck up delivery they just give you free months of prime and don't really give you a refund or do anything else. Extra months of prime just helps them in the long run.
tldr: Wanted to take out BB, decided it costs too much.
tldr: Wanted to take out BB, decided it costs too much.
Amazon becoming a increasingly worse service for game pre-orders is what led me to just letting my Prime membership expire in September. Discount got kneecapped, orders never arrive on time anyway, price increase for ???
Let my PS+ membership expire for similar reasons. Paying more for an objectively shittier service = yeah, nah.
Let my PS+ membership expire for similar reasons. Paying more for an objectively shittier service = yeah, nah.
I've had issues with preorders not shipping until maybe a week after the release date. And a friend who preordered an SNES Classic from Amazon cancelled when he not only didn't get it shipped in time for release, he had to sit and fume while Amazon was selling SNES Classics from Treasure Trucks. The delay was so severe that he ended up cancelling when another friend of his was fortunate enough to grab an extra for him from elsewhere.
Anyway, yeah. It's gotten to the point tor me where if I want to preorder a game and have it in my hands on the day of release, I no longer go through Amazon. They have become strangely unreliable, and I say this living in Seattle, where they're headquartered! The shipping service used to be a LOT better here.
Anyway, yeah. It's gotten to the point tor me where if I want to preorder a game and have it in my hands on the day of release, I no longer go through Amazon. They have become strangely unreliable, and I say this living in Seattle, where they're headquartered! The shipping service used to be a LOT better here.
this has more to do with where you land in the mailstream OP, than anything related to Amazon.
[now, FUCK Amazon for literally being the end of all small business, but that is a completely different story]
[now, FUCK Amazon for literally being the end of all small business, but that is a completely different story]
With Amazon, I witnessed something contradictory: when I order outside of Premium (with 2 or 3 days delay), I usually get my copy a day early or the release's day. However, each time I used the premium option (ie. delivery on day one), I got my copy 2 or 3 days late. One day, the mailman didn't even bother coming at my place, despite his claim that "nobody was home" (I was waiting for the game all day long, and there was no notice in my mailbox, so don't take me for a fool): he just left the package at the nearest mail office/relay. After that incident, I never used any Premium service again.
Amazon Canada is pretty bad with release day stuff and I had a pretty bad experience dealing with their customer support as well. Probably never preordering a game from Amazon again.
It seems like they're removing new features and deals from Prime every year as well, really close to the point of just canceling it.
It seems like they're removing new features and deals from Prime every year as well, really close to the point of just canceling it.
They did the same for me with Dragon's Dogma on the PS4. Preordered a week before release then all of a sudden it didn't ship. Emailed customer service. Got the credit within minutes.
I've noticed a significant drop in on-time deliveries since they switched away from UPS. I ordered a fucking CD (gasp!) 4 days ago but it's still not here. Went "out for delivery" yesterday via their own AMZL delivery service but never showed up. My Wolfenstein II CE was a day late too despite being ordered months ago.
Probably consider cancelling Prime if this keeps up.
Probably consider cancelling Prime if this keeps up.
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I never had an issue with Amazon in years, UNTIL they started shipping using Amazon Logistics instead of FedEx, USPS, etc. If I see Amazon logistics as the carrier, with the stupid TBD tracking number, I might as well just cancel the order. It is basically just drivers who couldn't cut it on uber. I had a package show up a week late, and the driver litteraly sat parked in front of my house and ate lunch.
Obviously I was referring to games.
On a console that doesn't have any actual exclusives to it specifically when it launches you shouldn't lose sleep waiting a day or two. It isn't like waiting for a OG Xbox one .
If getting it right away is key, then avoid having it ship to you and get physical pick up instead. That means don't get it through Amazon and go to a retail chain.
Patience is a virtue.
Patience is a virtue for people who don't have things to get done (in my personal opinion anyway).
As to Amazon, lesson learned with this XOne X nonsense. I've never had issues getting items via Amazon Prime before. My launch PS4 came from Amazon and arrived properly on launch day for instance.
Clearly they have missed a step in the last 4 years.
Edit: also, what are you doing here with your "On a console that doesn't have any actual exclusives to it specifically when it launches you shouldn't lose sleep waiting a day or two." statement?
Seriously? Who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn't lose sleep over? This "no actual exclusives" nonsense is pure console war bullshit and has no place here.
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I've been wondering that as well. They've been getting worse and worse. So much so that I went to Best Buy with their Gamers Club Unlocked now instead.
Sure Best Buy isn't immune to issues. But with discounts not just during the preorder period and the chance at Gift Cards or credit from certain preorders (Along with disocunts on Amiibos). They've already cemented all of my gaming business over amazon. At this point I only use amazon for games on price error or some sort of odd super clearance.
Another factor was the customer service for me on Amazon has just been getting worse as well. A lot of "We can't do anything go away" from them whenever I have an issue.
Sure Best Buy isn't immune to issues. But with discounts not just during the preorder period and the chance at Gift Cards or credit from certain preorders (Along with disocunts on Amiibos). They've already cemented all of my gaming business over amazon. At this point I only use amazon for games on price error or some sort of odd super clearance.
Another factor was the customer service for me on Amazon has just been getting worse as well. A lot of "We can't do anything go away" from them whenever I have an issue.
Amazon in the UK have been better this year for me than usual, Switch, Zelda, ME Andromeda, Rabbids, MK8 and Odyssey all arrived on release date. Previous two years though were a farce especially at holiday time. I have a guildie who works in the largest fulfilment centre, he says it's bedlam from now right through January so i use prime now until it settles down. I know how frustrating it can be for everyone, so i hope everyone gets sorted or some compensation for delays.
I've noticed this trend with Best Buy lately - I've always received pre-order items on release day shipped (Amazon Prime too), but lately they are 1-4 days late.
I don't know if this is a trend for Amazon or not. But this is the first time I have worried about not getting something on release day. I ordered my Xbox One X Scorpio on Amazon 3 hours after the announcement, and it is NOT showing any shipping details yet. Obviously I will SURVIVE if I don't get my Xbox next Tuesday but I am gonna be pretty sad.
Amazon somewhat recently put a distribution center in my area and as a result my experience ordering anything from Amazon has suffered dramatically. I had more bad experiences with their in-house shipping within the space of three weeks than I've had in a decade of service from UPS. I canceled my Prime membership and now avoid shopping from Amazon whenever I can.
Yep this is no doubt a scenario where ymmv. 98% of my release day orders arrive on release day from Amazon. And I am including more than just video games. Movies. Books. Vinyl. Anything that has a release day, I get it on said release day.
Best Buy as others have pointed out is a whole other ball game. I maybe get 50% of the stuff from them on release day, although they have gotten much better with it as of late and the last 3 games I preordered from them have arrived on release day. If COD arrives on time tomorrow from Best Buy they will be 4 for 4. And I have used Best Buy almost exclusively recently as that Gamers Club Unlocked combined with $10 certificate deal they offered was to good to pass up. I am currently sitting on $40 worth of certificates, will be $50 once Star Wars ships, and a good amount of them expire in December, so I plan on basically getting the new Assassins Creed for a few bucks at the end of November.
EDIT - I should add to the above, I always have the option of in store pick up for Best Buy as well. I am just lazy.
Best Buy as others have pointed out is a whole other ball game. I maybe get 50% of the stuff from them on release day, although they have gotten much better with it as of late and the last 3 games I preordered from them have arrived on release day. If COD arrives on time tomorrow from Best Buy they will be 4 for 4. And I have used Best Buy almost exclusively recently as that Gamers Club Unlocked combined with $10 certificate deal they offered was to good to pass up. I am currently sitting on $40 worth of certificates, will be $50 once Star Wars ships, and a good amount of them expire in December, so I plan on basically getting the new Assassins Creed for a few bucks at the end of November.
EDIT - I should add to the above, I always have the option of in store pick up for Best Buy as well. I am just lazy.
I stopped using Amazon UK as they kept failing to get the game to me on release day via posting (even being a Prime member which adds nothing to preorders). I switched to Shopto and they've never failed to get the game to me BEFORE release date!
Amazon Logistics is the worst thing ever.
Amazon Logistics is the worst thing ever.
I am in the UK and I have never had an Amazon pre-order not show up on launch day, yet. They are by far the best service to use, other than walking into a retail store.
I have an Amazon DC about 30 miles from where I live (western Chicago suburbs) and Amazon has been amazing for me. Same day delivery for most things I order and 2 day shipping is almost always overnight. Granted, I've only ordered a handful of games from them (Wii-U and 3DS for my son) but the PC parts have been great. My 1150 mobo shat the bed last week and they were able to get me a new one same day even though I ordered it at noon.
Amazon used to be very reliable for me, maybe 1 out of 10 pre-orders would arrive a day or two late. This changed about 2 years ago when Prime became their focus. Now It's very hit or miss. I'd say 50/50.
I pre-ordered 2 games with Wal-Mart this fall. One that should be shipping out today and arriving tomorrow, but so far no updates on any of that, we'll see how they do in comparison.
I pre-ordered 2 games with Wal-Mart this fall. One that should be shipping out today and arriving tomorrow, but so far no updates on any of that, we'll see how they do in comparison.
In Canada here with Amazon Prime and I have never received a game on release day. I just order from Best Buy now, I sometimes get the games a day or two earlier from them.
My Mario order from Amazon was not going to arrive until late this week. I just cancelled and picked up from somewhere else.
My Mario order from Amazon was not going to arrive until late this week. I just cancelled and picked up from somewhere else.
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US Customer service is. UK Customer service couldn't care less if they miss a delivery on release day!
Living in the Canary Islands they always ship it like 1-2 days after release for some reason. It's like "oh, so games take longer to get there? Then we'll also ship them later so they arrive even later because fuck you".
At least we still get free shipping with prime and they remove the taxes (We literally have 0% taxes for online orders under 150€. Tax in mainland Spain is 21%. So take any item in amazon.es, discount 21% from the price and that's the price I get.). But I don't understand the shipping thing. Like, you know it's gonna take longer, either ship it together with the mainland Spain orders, or before, but why after?
At least we still get free shipping with prime and they remove the taxes (We literally have 0% taxes for online orders under 150€. Tax in mainland Spain is 21%. So take any item in amazon.es, discount 21% from the price and that's the price I get.). But I don't understand the shipping thing. Like, you know it's gonna take longer, either ship it together with the mainland Spain orders, or before, but why after?