topic Re: Amazon Au up and runing in Community Spirit

Amazon Au up and runing

maranock — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 22:12:37 GMT

Well I see that Amazon Australia has opened for business, and already Gerry Harvey is complaining. Can't wait to see what happens with Australias online shopping scene now.

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

kopenhagen5 — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 23:14:54 GMT

First headlines - https://finance.nine.com.au/2017/12/05/09/32/australians-react-to-underwhelming-amazon-launch

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

brerrabbit585 — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:04:47 GMT

All I can say is that ebay must be REALLY worried about Amazon because they seem to be doing all that can to copy Amazon in some areas, eg. the new Q&A at the bottom of every listing.

Why are they so worried about Amazon here when it hasn't affected them in other countries?

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

davidc4430 — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 03:15:27 GMT

ive had a quick look at the new amazon site.

for me it all comes down to dollars and cents, whats a thing cost me? totally?

once you take an items price then add delivery. if amazon can get the total right id buy from them.

the last time i bought from amazon USA i bought a DVD about 15 years ago, once all the prices were added up i wound up paying aprox $40 for a single dvd. i never bought anything off amazon again. delivery costs were rediculous, the dvd was like $12us.

i dont know why companys dont do deals with delivery companys to offer low delivery costs. people like harvey norman advertise stuff at good prices sometimes but delivery costs kill him, so does lack of stock.

so mr harvey, stop complaining and make your business attractive to online buyers!

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

lyndal1838 — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 05:49:36 GMT

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
All I can say is that ebay must be REALLY worried about Amazon because they seem to be doing all that can to copy Amazon in some areas, eg. the new Q&A at the bottom of every listing.

Why are they so worried about Amazon here when it hasn't affected them in other countries?

Maybe they have been reading the boards and have taken notice of all the members who are threatening to leave.
How often have we seen "roll on Amazon so I can leave ebay"?

I will now remove my tongue from my cheek before it drills a hole right through.

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

ecar3483 — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 06:50:01 GMT

🙂

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

springyzone — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 13:23:27 GMT

Saw a news report that said quite a few of their items are a lot dearer than the exact items elsewhere eg Harvey Norman's.

In one case, $500 dearer.

Amazon might underwhelm us. Sort of discovered that a week or so ago. I saw Donald Trump toilet paper on sale here through Groupon. 2 rolls for $12 & cheaper if you bought 4 or 6 rolls etc

Not that i wanted any, mind you, but as a joke I told an American on another forum. He wanted some for his sisters for Xmas & bought it on Amazon USA, $10 a roll he had to pay.

Pity it is so close to Xmas really as it is only about $2.60 a roll delivered from aliexpress.

Pays to shop around. Amazon isn't going to be the answer to everything.

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

lyndal1838 — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 14:37:04 GMT

Most of us have been warning that Amazon was not going to be the answer to everyone's prayers.

Seems we were right to be cautious.

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

davidc4430 — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 22:11:57 GMT

Amazon's arrival: What will it mean for workers' rights and industrial relations?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-06/amazon-in-australia-what-will-it-mean-for-workers-rights/9228446

Re: Amazon Au up and runing

twyngwyn — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 01:03:11 GMT

First Amazon Australia package arrived in 2 days, despite teething problems

Posted by Jason Cartwrighton December 7, 2017

Amazon launched in Australia on Tuesday and both needing networking cables and wanting to try out their newly established systems, I made a purchase and that arrived today.

Given I live in a regional city of Wodonga, I expected a few days for the package to be delivered, as that’s what the initial confirmation email suggested. Despite the estimate of a 3-day deliver, today the parcel was delivered in just 2.

My first order from Amazon Australia was 6x Cat 6 Ethernet cables from the Amazon Basics range. For those unfamiliar with this branding, its basically Amazon’s house brand, products shipped under their own label, while most goods on their site are from 3rd party providers. Despite the AmazonBasics products being available in Australia, the labelling and the .com.au version clearly hasn’t yet been updated.

As you can see in the packaging, the international nature means the lengths of the cables are printed in both imperial and metric numbers. The primary number is clearly measured in feet, with them being nice round numbers, 5 and 25 feet, with our meter lengths being a little weird as 1.52m and 7.62m. This is a little awkward given Aussies are used to buying in whole numbers like 1, 3, 5, 10 meter lengths. Behind my home theatre setup, this isn’t a problem for me personally, but it is worth noting if you’re buying from Amazon in Australia today.

Now for the delivery detail. After submitting the order through Amazon.com.au, I received an email confirmation shortly after, on Tuesday morning. This morning (Thursday) I received an email from Amazon to inform me the package was arriving today. Much to my delight, a 2-day to the door turn around is the service I had hoped for (again regional area), this gives me confidence in ordering products in the future.

It was in this email that I spotted something that gave rise for concern.

The supposedly highly automated Amazon distrobution system seems to have at least some component of humans entering data. The reason I know that is that my address is registered on Amazon as Killara, VIC 3691. So how does the tracking email arrive with ‘Delivering to NSW 3691’, that can’t have come from the same database field I submitted. It may be a result of some step in the process still containing an element of data entry by a human, that got it wrong.

The only other explanation is an API connection between Amazon and Australia Post failed to match my address and failed badly. There is a Killara in NSW, but not with the same postcode. After reading this, I fully expected the package to be sent to the wrong location, but thankfully the distribution points in the system, relied on the postcode, not the state field and my package arrived safely.

At the end of the day, the first experience with Amazon Australia was a good one, so I’ll be using Amazon in the future to buy goods, but I’ll still be price matching with other sites, at least until Amazon Prime arrives.