Amazon Subscribe and Save – Why I quit…

This is really more feedback for Amazon than anything else.  I’m posting it here as I could not find any way of getting this feedback to Amazon without bothering a customer service person for a chat or a phone call.  And chances are probably just as good of my post being seen by someone who cares at Amazon here as if I went through a Chat or Phone call with a customer service person.  Perhaps greater even.

I’ve used Subscribe & Save for many years.  I used to really like the service, but I’ve just cancelled all of the orders I had.  Here’s my list of reasons:

1. Items I was subscribed to kept getting pulled out of the Subscribe & Save program.  Over the years, this has happened numerous times and it’s pretty annoying to have made a commitment to buy a product on a schedule, only to find they they aren’t going to live up to their end of the deal anymore.  Fewer items that I am interested in available for Subscribe & Save makes it hard to maximize any savings through the program, since you save a larger percentage by getting more items delivered in a month.

2. I don’t know exactly when it happened, but I think somewhere in the last 5 years, they changed the way you control when subscriptions get delivered.  I seem to remember it being easier to put off a delivery, setting it to deliver in a specific month, than it is now.

3. With a recent order coming up, I tried to skip the delivery, as I didn’t need any more tea just yet.  I thought I had successfully done it, but it showed up anyhow.  I still have two unopened boxes from the last order, and now I have another six.  We’ll use them eventually, but we’ve probably got enough tea for all of 2019 now.

4. Even with an item has not been pulled from the eligible items, you are not guaranteed to get the item.  I had a subscription in place for an item that I only needed about once every 6 months, as it was a bulk purchase.  I had been running low on this item, and finally ran out.  I wasn’t concerned though, as I had a subscription.  About a week before it should have shipped, I got an Out of Stock email, but “We’ll keep trying”.  Not long after it should have arrived, I got a “Delivery Delayed” email.  I get it, things happen, so you’ll ship it when it’s ready.  Five days later, I got a “Delivery Cancelled” email.  So, they just gave up?

This last point really bugs me.  Perhaps I’m being idealistic here, but it would seem that part of the advantage of the Subscribe & Save program is that Amazon has a pretty good idea of the amount of stock they need to have on-hand for everything customers are subscribing to.  Sure, people delay items, add more items, and remove some items, but there should be a baseline of predictability that a massive data oriented company like Amazon can take advantage of, to make sure they have the bulk of items people want in stock when they want them.  They are scheduled orders.  It shouldn’t be that hard.

Anyhow, I’ve decided that I’m done with Subscribe & Save.  I guess issue #4 was the last straw.