Amazon and their Merchants
Friday, January 11th, 2008When you visit amazon.co.uk, you can buy things that are supplied by Amazon, but you can also buy things that are supplied by their associated Merchants. Amazon keeps track of the process, but it can cause you to receive a lot of confusing emails.
I bought a tap recently, and received these emails (greatly abridged here, with my annotations in green):
11 December – Thanks for ordering from Amazon.co.uk. Your purchase information appears below … Dispatch estimate for these items: 12 Dec 2007 – 13 Dec 2007 … Sold by: S.N.H. Tradecentre …
11 December – … Thank you for your order … Payment Method: Amazon Checkout … Sincerely, S.N.H. Trade
11 December – … Thank you for your purchase from S.N.H. Trade. Please note that your payment has been received today and your order will be processed as quickly as possible … We will let you know shortly, when your order has been moved to the packing dpt. (sounds like my order will be on its way soon then) … If you don’t receive an Email to confirm this in the next 3 days, please call us to let us know (Hmmm, maybe they don’t sound so confident) … so we can chase your order up (you mean their own systems can’t prompt them to chase it up?) … Payment Method: Amazon Checkout. Payment Status: Payment Received … (so I’ve paid, then)
12 December – … Please note that your Order … is being prepared to be shipped shortly (sounds like my order will be on its way soon then) … We will inform you the day before delivery (but not very soon) …
13 December – Hi, thankyou for your order,unfortunately the BE307 will not be available until approx 11.8.07. We will keep this on order for you (hmm, 11.8.07 is four months ago!) …
16 December – We have tried to dispatch your goods within our normal 2-3 day delivery time. Delivery on the outset for your goods will be within 14 working day from order, unless we contact you to let you know we may have a problem. If you have recieved this e mail it usually means that we have had a lot of orders and has a small back log. Usually this will delay your delivery by a couple of days. We apologise in advance for this dalay and are working hard to deliver all items as quickly as possable. (all these spelling and grammar errors were theirs, by the way) … If you are in a real hurry for your goods, and this is to long, please call 01843 842727 … and our sales team will do everything thay can to dispatch your goods as quickly as possible. (how will they speed it up? And why should I need to nag them for this to happen? Again, all the spelling and grammar errors are theirs.)
7 January – The following order, placed on 11-Dec-2007 with S.N.H Tradecentre, will be canceled if the order is not ship-confirmed by 12-Jan-2008. (Merchants on Amazon must ship products within 30 days from the date when the order was placed; otherwise, the order is automatically canceled.) … Your credit card has not been charged for the order. (S.N.H. already told me that they had received payment, and now Amazon tells me that I haven’t yet paid?) …
9 January – Thank you for your purchase from S.N.H Trade. Please note that your Order 150524276 has been shipped today …
9 January – Today S.N.H Tradecentre shipped item(s) in your order, placed on 11-December-2007.
10 January – (The parcel arrived, and was correct. Yay!)
A good eventual outcome, but not a smooth transaction.