Deliveries from Amazon UK

[Devil]

Please allow me to make a first post with a complaint. I've just sent the following message to Amazon UK:

Order: Tuesday, 27 December 2016 / xxx

I am absolutely furious. I specifically asked that this be sent by UPS and now I find you have sent it by DHL

This is unacceptable.

Firstly, I am 84 and severely physically handicapped
Secondly, DHL NEVER deliver in Cyprus outside the major cities and are uncooperative
Thirdly, UPS are the only major transit company that do deliver to domicile here (outside the major cities)
Fourthly, I live 20 km from the nearest DHL office
Fifthly, I am always reluctant to order from Amazon because of your stupid policy of ignoring customer requests for delivery; I have ordered several items elsewhere from companies that do listen to our delivery requests. You are losing business.
Sixthly, I know several other people here who don't like ordering from Amazon, because of your insisting on DHL and this also appears regularly on local forums. When will you listen to what customers tell you?

[admin]

When we moved to Cyprus, we told our daughter that we would get her another trampoline for the garden. I noticed that Amazon would deliver a 12 foot one to Cyprus for only £25, and as it was half the price of trampolines in Cyprus, this was too good to miss.

So we ordered, and waited for it to arrive. It never did. To cut a very long story short, we were lied to on numerous occasions, forced to reorder, and probably had about 6 months extended to our prime membership as a result of apologies for incompetence etc. Which was nice, but our daughter couldn't bounce on a 6 month Prime extension.

In desperation, I googled Jeff Bezos, the head of Amazon. He has a public email address and he actually reads it.

So I emailed him at jeff@amazon.com

A couple of days later, I got a reply from somebody in his team. It apologised for everything, admitted that they don't ship these to Cyprus, and gave me a £30 gift voucher for my trouble.

So, try emailing Jeff. You have nothing to lose.

[Dominic]

Funnily enough, we collected our trampoline from him about a month ago!

[Houdinibun]

Yup we have used lhukcy successfully for items we cannot get sent direct. There is a container once per month and they are great and cheaper than many for bulky items.

[Devil]

I've received the following reply:

Message From Customer Service
Hello,

I'm very sorry to hear that you aren't satisfied with the service that you have received from DHL.

From your e-mail, I completely understand that you don't want your order to be dispatched via DHL as they aren't delivering outside of the major cities and are uncooperative. I can certainly understand this is not acceptable.

We use carriers that are proven to provide the best service for our customers when handling our different delivery options.

I'm afraid that we don't have the ability to assign certain carriers to a specific customer or address but we’ll continue working with all of our carriers to drive improvements for our customers.

Our ordering system automatically assigns the most appropriate carrier to your order when it’s ready to be sent. You can find a list of the carriers we use for domestic UK and international deliveries here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/custome ... Id=3330451

We’re constantly working with our carriers to improve the quality of our service, and please be assured that I've passed your feedback to our transportation department, and ensure that parcels are successfully delivered.

We continually monitor the service provided by our carriers and take complaints of this nature very seriously. We’ll replace any items lost or damaged during delivery at no extra charge and monitor our carriers very closely.

We realise this incident reflects negatively upon Amazon.co.uk and the feedback you've provided will be used in reviewing the service provided by DHL.

Also, from your e-mail, I completely understand that you need to collect your package from DHL depot which is 20 km far from your address.

I would like to confirm that we advise all the carrier to deliver the package to your delivery address and should not advise the customer to collect the package from depot unless delivery was attempted.

I've contacted DHL and asked them to deliver your package to your address rather than held in depot for customer to collect it.

I can see that your order is in transit and I’m confident that it’ll arrive by the estimated delivery date. You can confirm the estimated delivery date by visiting the “Your Orders” section of Your Account or by clicking on the following link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/css/history ... /view.html

To view your tracking details at any time, please visit Your Account:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/youraccount

You can find information and watch a short video about tracking orders, here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/help/trackyourorder

Thank you for your understanding. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Did I solve your problem?
Yes No

Warmest regards,
Sudalaimuthu

[PW in Polemi]

Let us know if your parcel is actually delivered to your house, Devil. It's very irritating that a so-called door to door delivery only works as far as the carriers' depot for most of us in Cyprus. OH's passport was returned via DHL to the Paphos depot - but we had been charged for door to door delivery. When OH arrived at the depot to collect his new passport, the staff there told him "We're busy, passports are over there, help yourself"!!! Complained to UK about this and got the delivery charge refunded. Hasn't made any difference to the (non) delivery system though.

[panoscouse]

I've seen that reply from Amazon before. It's a standard letter. Earlier this month I ordered about 10 items from Amazon and paid extra for the expedited delivery which has always been via UPS previously. All of the items except 1 was sent UPS and the other via DHL. When I had the phone call from ACS in Paphos I told them that I would not be collecting if they couldn't deliver and that they can send it back to Amazon. ACS told me that they don't have delivery drivers. It was only a £6 item that I bought as an 'add-on' item but I wasn't going to spend €6 on fuel to collect it.
I made Amazon aware and they credited my account for the item cost and the delivery charge.

[aphrodite]

I've seen that reply from Amazon before. It's a standard letter. Earlier this month I ordered about 10 items from Amazon and paid extra for the expedited delivery which has always been via UPS previously. All of the items except 1 was sent UPS and the other via DHL. When I had the phone call from ACS in Paphos I told them that I would not be collecting if they couldn't deliver and that they can send it back to Amazon. ACS told me that they don't have delivery drivers. It was only a £6 item that I bought as an 'add-on' item but I wasn't going to spend €6 on fuel to collect it.
I made Amazon aware and they credited my account for the item cost and the delivery charge.

I'm a little confused by the fact your DHL delivery was via ACS. I order quite a bit of stuff from Amazon that comes via DHL and it's always the main post office in Paphos who sends a text for me to go and collect?

[cyprusgrump]

I've seen that reply from Amazon before. It's a standard letter. Earlier this month I ordered about 10 items from Amazon and paid extra for the expedited delivery which has always been via UPS previously. All of the items except 1 was sent UPS and the other via DHL. When I had the phone call from ACS in Paphos I told them that I would not be collecting if they couldn't deliver and that they can send it back to Amazon. ACS told me that they don't have delivery drivers. It was only a £6 item that I bought as an 'add-on' item but I wasn't going to spend €6 on fuel to collect it.
I made Amazon aware and they credited my account for the item cost and the delivery charge.

I'm a little confused by the fact your DHL delivery was via ACS. I order quite a bit of stuff from Amazon that comes via DHL and it's always the main post office in Paphos who sends a text for me to go and collect?

I think that is Deutsche Post DHL as opposed to the DHL courier service.

If I have stuff couriered from DHL I have to collect from their office in Limassol.

If it goes via Deutsche Post DHL I get a message and have to collect from Limassol post office...

[panoscouse]

Correct cg it was sent DHL (uk) not DHL (DP). Confusing isn't it?

[aphrodite]

Thank you, I understand. Mine has always been sent Deutsche DHL, in what circumstance do deliveries go DHL to ACS?

[panoscouse]

I think it's sometimes when it's a market place seller and not Amazon. As it was with my particular item (but there may be other factors).
99% of the time I buy from Amazon (sold and dispatched) and that gives me piece of mind re the guarantee. Otherwise if a problem occurs Amazon refer you to deal with the actual seller (after 30 days) if it's a marketplace sold item.
If you don't pay the extra for expedited shipping then it's usually (for me anyway) sent via Deutsche DHL (post office to post office). Being up in the hills I'm somewhat reluctant to have to go and collect due to the distance and time involved.

[aphrodite]

I think it's sometimes when it's a market place seller and not Amazon. As it was with my particular item (but there may be other factors).
99% of the time I buy from Amazon (sold and dispatched) and that gives me piece of mind re the guarantee. Otherwise if a problem occurs Amazon refer you to deal with the actual seller (after 30 days) if it's a marketplace sold item.
If you don't pay the extra for expedited shipping then it's usually (for me anyway) sent via Deutsche DHL (post office to post office). Being up in the hills I'm somewhat reluctant to have to go and collect due to the distance and time involved.

Thank you so much for that explanation panoscouse, it all makes sense now. I mainly buy 'sold and despatched by Amazon' products to keep the cost of postage down and, like you, to give me piece of mind. On the odd occasion when I have purchased from a market place seller, it has been sent Royal Mail.

[Devil]

The saga continues! The packet arrived at DHL CY on Thursday. No sign of life from them other than 'I had to go and collect it' on Thursday afternoon. I explained that, no!, they had to deliver it. Friday late a.m. I phoned them. Charming female on t'other end who said she would arrange delivery: Fine! No news by 16:30, phoned again, aggressive male at t'other end this time and he said I had to come and collect it but they had asked DHL Italy (???) whether they could deliver. I blew my top (wrong thing to do) and finally asked to speak to someone in authority. A lady phoned me back a few minutes later and I had to repeat the spiel. She said they would exceptionally deliver it by taxi this one time on Monday BUT I'm being blacklisted and they will NEVER again deliver to Mosfiloti. We shall see whether it will arrive on Monday.

The people who suffer from this are Amazon who are bending over backwards to help.

[MacManiac]

This beggars belief. One pays for door-to-door delivery and the people who are being paid to deliver it want you to do their job (and at your expense). Now I don't mind popping into the courier's office in Polis, as we are in Polis all the time but the principle still rankles.

What I suspect may happen is that Amazon will get fed up with all of this and sort out another courier, or they will stop delivering to Cyprus altogether. I wanted to buy an Amazon Fire TV box from them this morning, as it was on offer at a very affordable price. But no, they do not deliver this item to Cyprus. I feel a rant coming on, in the same way that they stopped delivery (after three years) of the moisturiser for my electric razor. The reason ... it had been classified as "hazardous material".

[Devil]

I don't suppose it will be of any use, but I've also complained to DHL Corporate HQ. Amazon is not at fault except their system does not permit 'don't use DHL to Cyprus'. The problem is entirely DHL and it is no better in the USA or elsewhere http://www.corporateofficeheadquarters. ... rters.html

[AlanGW]

Having been living here for 15 years and an Amazon customer since 2001, a little bit of history IMHO is worth recalling in the hope that Amazon does not revert to the old days due to complaints about delivery.
Until 2009 Amazon would only ship Books, Cd's and DVD's to Cyprus and in late2009 they started shipping electronics etc via Royal Mail for home delivery or DHL which had to be collected and signed for from the local Post Office.
On 1st May 2015 they introduced Expedited delivery for an extra fee with delivery by UPS for home delivery or DHL Express for collection from the nearest DHL office. Prior to Christmas I placed 4 orders with expedited delivery and two of those orders were split for delivery resulting in three packages being delivered to my door and three for collection from DHL.
I cannot find anywhere on the Amazon site that says that delivery will be to the door.
With Amazon 3rd party suppliers you take pot luck with delivery and many will not deliver here.
Alan