Jo G.
From Almost-Perfect to the Absolute Worst
It seems that Amazon can launch manned spacecraft while dominating the world in Online Services, but they can't master basic E-Commerce technology on the grocery site they've had over 15 years to mold. Fresh used to be a close-to-perfect choice for me. When the stuff arrived, sure the Ice Cream was a little melted and they rarely had their store brand OJ when I needed it, but eventually I got everything for a fair price and pretty quickly. Then, one day, the minimum order required for free delivery rocketed from $35 to $150. An increase of over 425%. I'm a proud single parent of one. At least thousands of others out there like me. Sorry, Amazon, if my family's too small for you. After a month of traveling, I came home and ordered a bunch of lesser-needed stuff to eek up a $150 order, but I can't do that every few weeks, especially if you don't stock enough basic items like OJ, milk, yogurt, coffee, bread, cereal, etc. etc. Even when the delivery minimum was $35, its was tricky. Fresh was always out-of-stock even with their own brand! Now that I'm expected to order about 5 times more, their shelves are even emptier. It might be different if they actually provided enough items so to fill my cart, but they don't. I've been trying to reach the $150 minimum for 3 weeks, but by the time I add another 3 items, 4 others are now OOS and I need to invent more needs. It's like rock climbing with new dress shoes. When something's out of stock, it just doesn't exist... You can't put it on a "Wish List" like regular Amazon because, if it's out-of-stock, it won't come up in a search. You'll only see it if you look at your previous order and click on that (now in gray). This means they don't even have a feature that notifies you when something's available. Talk all you want about fresh produce (I tried, but they got it wrong every time) or Happy Belly (Amazon brand) affordability... None of it's any good if you don't have it when I need it. It's Supermarket 101. Speaking of which, what sense does it make, for example to have the HB "Oreo" type cookies available on Fresh, but to make the chocolate chip ones available only on regular Amazon? Same with other HB items... One variety's available on Fresh, the other OOS or only available on regular Amazon. Forget about the Ice Cream or other perishables. Why have your own brand if you can't stock it? Another problem we still have: Amazon's Nicauraguan coffee...Amazing coffee I had a monthly subscription for, suddenly gone for months in bean form on regular Amazon, available in ground form only on Fresh. I see the same problem happening with their other items like their own coffee... Not available at all, available only in ground, unavailable on Fresh, unavailable on both platforms, or only available on Fresh so you need a $150 total (impossible so far for me) to avoid delivery fees on your Amazon brand cookies, coffee or Ice Cream even if you pay for Prime... If this was a street business, you'd have shut down long ago. So... Still can't gather my $150 order. Hundreds of grocery products OOS on Fresh that are in-stock on regular, hundreds OOS on both, etc. This was all bad enough, but now you increase the minimum order *FIVE-fold* when you don't have enough to sell in the first place?? You don't even give consideration to paying Prime customers? I'm a huge Amazon fan, guys, but you suck at groceries. What's worse, is that you could be so much better, but instead of improving you increased the fee, not just $5 or $10 with improved or maintained service... **$150** for infinitely lousier service.