At the time when the competition among online shopping portals in India is at its highest level possible and each player is pooling in millions from fundings and trying to beat each other with never-before discounts and amazing services, Amazon has taken the worst step ever possible.
Yes, Amazon India has chosen India Post as its primary delivery partner and all “Amazon Fulfilled” orders are now being shipped through India Post.
Anyone who lives in India or has some experience with the postal system in India needs no introduction about India Post (commonly known as Post Office in India).
Like any other government agency in India, India post is known too for its lack of professionalism, negligence, prolonged delays in deliveries. It is no more used by any except by other government agencies in India which are similar to India Post in the way they work!
Though this pact was announced long back, Amazon has started using India Post services for its deliveries only since a few weeks back.
As any one can expect, this step by Amazon India has backfired.
The delivery system of Amazon India has been screwed up since the past few weeks after Amazon India started using India Post for its delivery services.
Flipkart labels some products with the ‘Flipkart Advantage’ () stamp. Such products are usually stocked by Flipkart and delivered by its own logistics agency ekart. Though Flipkart has its own share of issues, they have inarguably been the best when it comes to delivering orders on time.
Amazon India too labels the products delivered by them as “Amazon Fulfilled” (). This is supposed to help the buyer choose the product without worrying about stocking or delivery quality. The stamp on any product is supposed to increase its credibility. However it has not turned out to be a thing that Indian buyers are scared of after Amazon India’s recent crush on India Post!
Amazon India’s social media pages are now plagued with its buyers venting out their frustration about the “way too late” delivery of orders with no clues of where their orders are. This has apparently affected most orders of the recent Diwali ‘Flash Deal’ orders as well.
Even their 2-day delivery promises also look to have been broken with this drastic failed attempt of trying out India Post.
With the poor customer support just replying by pasting canned responses, they haven’t been any successful in pacifying the customers with no real action than just saying “We will contact you soon”.
Besides delayed deliveries, Amazon India customers over the past few weeks have been frustrated by the below additional problems:
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India Post tracking system is flawed and rarely updated with the most recent data. While in most of the cases, the tracking number provided by Amazon turns out to show no data on India Post website, it sometimes shows tracking data more than 5 days old
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Ekart or private courier services’ delivery agents usually give you a call before turning up or if the recipient is not available at the address to arrange alternate time for delivery or will deliver it to the watchman or a neighbour after taking permission from the recipient by phone. This is not the case with India post which has drastically increased the rate of missed deliveries.
I have always wanted Amazon India to be successful and be a tough competition to Flipkart, with a healthy competition that benefits Indian customers. But this move by Amazon to associate itself with India Post could be the worst possible step it could possibly take in the current scenario.
Hope Amazon India understands the plight of its customers and comes out of whatever dream it had about providing exceptional delivery services through India Post waking up to the reality!