Have you heard of Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program? It ought to be a great way to get goods you use on a regular basis automatically shipped to you. I use it for vitamins and baby diapers, and if they improve their organic selection, I’d add on cereals and granola bars. For subscribing, Amazon adds on a 15% discount to the price of the goods.
I’ve only been using the service briefly and my impressions were good, but I just ran into a silly snafu. I got a notice that my subscription to Huggies Supreme Gentle Care Diapers Step 2 Super Mega (Pack of 80) was about to ship. Great! A week later I got a notice that “Though we are restocking the item, we wanted to inform you that your shipment will be delayed. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.” OK, bummer, but I think my diaper supply will hold out. At this point I was thinking, since I put in this order 2 months ago, didn’t I give Amazon enough notice that at least one customer wanted a pack of those diapers? It seems to defeat the purpose if the Subscribe & Save plan is taking orders for the future, but ignoring those orders in their inventory planning.
Another week after the delay, I got a message that said: “Though we are restocking the item, we have had to cancel a scheduled shipment of your subscription item. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.” So now I’m out of luck. The service totally failed me. I had to go to a competitor (diapers.com) and order the diapers I needed.
Amazon’s Subscribe & Save service has great promise, but someone needs to think through how to use the order information to get the inventory in place. Otherwise, Amazon delivers disappointment and sends customers off to competitors looking for satisfaction.