The problem with Amazon Fresh
I live in London and my office is near an Amazon Fresh store that opened last year. For those that are interested, just around the corner from the Tate Modern.
It is not the biggest of stores, but I like it. They have good offers, and a nice selection of products. It does feel weird when you walk out of the store without going through a checkout, but it seems to work.
The first time I went into the store I needed to use my Amazon App to present a barcode to an instore reader. That was ok, and worked out okay. I then made my selection of products and then walked out of the store. That was scary. It felt like I was shoplifting. It didn’t help that I then had to wait for maybe 30 minutes for my receipt to arrive. I was desperate to make sure that I hadn’t been overcharged. I need not have worried. All was fine, and along with my receipt there was a nice voucher that gave me £10 off my next shop.
Since that first shop, I have returned a couple more times. All was good, until it wasn’t…
So what went wrong? Honestly, I have no idea. All I know is that when I enter the store and present my Amazon App and QR code, I get a nasty message stating that my payment method cannot be validated. There is no reason for this on my side. My accounts are in good standing, and I have no issues shopping on regular Amazon. But, what this means is that I cannot enter the barriers in store. In effect I have been blocked from using a supermarket. If you think about it, that is actually quite scary.
I have tried to resolve this with Amazon Customer Services, but as yet nothing has happened. That was 4 months ago! Since then I have tried multiple times again, and it still doesn’t work. Each time I have called customer services. Each time I am assured that the issue is being worked on and has been escalated. I am not so sure. The worst thing is that there is nobody instore that can help. The supervisor is only able to provide basic guidance. For everything else a call to some call centre is required. At which point you are a nobody that doesn’t really matter.
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For those that are interested, I have tried the following.
- Removed and reinstalled the Amazon App.
- Replaced my whole Phone (I needed an upgrade).
- Removed and readded all my card details.
- Added a completely different card from a different bank.
None of these things helped or resolved the issue. Something is obviously broken somewhere, but as I said earlier, I am a nobody.
When Amazon Fresh worked, it was great. But now that it doesn’t, it has highlighted some serious problems.
Amazon are a very big company and I would have expected better. I don’t like living in a dystopian world where big companies don’t care that little people fall through the cracks. In the grand scheme, they are insignificant.
I truely hope that this technology isn’t used by other company’s. Can you imagine a world where you cannot shop for food because of a software glitch that prevents people from using a supermarket. That is a place I hope we never get too.
Hopefully Amazon will eventually fix the issue with my account. So far I have only been waiting for 4 months!
*Update 30th July 2023: I tried Amazon Fresh again about a month ago. Suddenly my account works again. Thanks for telling me you fixed it Amazon.
