Amazon Fresh

Since Amazon refused to post my review on their site as it did not adhere to their "guidelines", I'll go ahead and place it here, and probably a few other places as I don't like to be censored for honest reviews.

I've had great experienced with Peapod and Safeway delivery, but I received a coupon from Amazon for Fresh so I decided to give it a go. First, I accidentally thought the delivery option was 9-11am, but it was actually 9-11pm. My fault, but when I called to change it, the only way to modify the order was to cancel it according to the call center rep. So I left it as is. When the delivery was made, there was no notice, no knock on the door, no email or text saying it was there... so the bags ended up sitting out in the rain for 15 minutes before I checked the door again.

One of the bags was missing, the eggs were crushed, and the jar of sauerkraut was not sealed. I called Amazon to see what happened and Amazon Fresh told me one of the bags was lost and they wouldn't be redelivering because of the holiday, so they issued a refund for the missing items. The next morning I let out the dogs and the missing bag was delivered, it had been sitting outside all night I guess. Fortunately it was mostly produce so it was okay, but the blueberries had fallen out of the package and were loose in the bag. The order was still missing the dip, but I wouldn't have eaten it anyway as it would have been sitting out in the heat for hours.

I didn't bother to call back for the refund of the other missing/damaged items as I'm tired of dealing with Fresh at this point. I'll certainly never use them again, especially given the high price of the groceries.

When Amazon Fresh forget or give you the wrong item you really need the most and you've literally spent your last dollar on your grocery run for the week. Their solution... a 7 business day wait back to your account or an instant amazon credit I can't use unless you are going to offer me free delivery on one bottle of iced coffee that lasts me all week and then tell the driver yourself why they are not getting tipped. Not sure why I am tipping if my order is wrong and now I have to go back out anyhow to get the item you forgot. But I can't now, my money is sitting in a useless amazon credit I can't use until I need another $35 worth of groceries.

This was it for me. No more.

Long time Amz shoppers and WF since 1994. Needless to say it's been an adjustment to Amz owning it. Now with delivery I'm just about done. The app is clumped together with regular Amz making it hard to navigate. I have the hardest time finding my shoppers completed list. Amazon Fresh never communicate replacements or ignore requests. I get notified of items out when the person is already checked out. For the entire summer of 100+ heat they did not notify me of delivery completed so perishable groceries say in get for 1.5 hrs one time and 2 hrs another. Not a text, knock or doorbell. I hate shopping WF now. I make a point to not shop here except for very specific items that are just here. It's just too stressful and headache inducing otherwise. Hate it just hate it. They ruined a great company.

I'm not a complainer. I let everything go but this I couldn't shake. 1st Amazon Fresh gave me expired chicken broth didn't complain it's an accident. Meat was dripping blood into other packages of meat. I just threw it out. Second time they gave me moldy strawberries and I am highly allergic to mold. Still didn't complain. Same order My ice cream was melted and dripping. I couldn't complain about that because it hard to tell who's fault it was even though I met my driver down stairs to help them bring up the bags. 3rd times a charm though, my black berries were gooey and coming out of the carton didn't mind that much until I realized my cherries were all brown and damaged as if I was getting old food, to top it all off my meat was put in a bag with my fresh fruit and they were all touching not even individually wrapped all the way. They replaced my order for the next day from 10pm -11pm so I guess that helps…. I'm just over their poor service. Wish I had photos of everything.

Don't order from Amazon fresh. You will never receive the majority of the order and most of the time isn't delivered within the "window." I have never gotten a complete order. I called tonight as my order is over an hour late and talked to 4 different people to be told there was nothing Amazon Fresh could do. This is the worst grocery service I have ever experienced. I could live with the late delivery; it's the fact I never receive so much of what I order, it's like they never stock their stores everything is always out of stock. Really? You are constantly out of milk. Because that is such an odd grocery item. Totally disgusted.

I ordered 15 items on Amazon fresh that were suppose to be delivered between 7 and 9 pm. Amazon Fresh only came around midnight with 4 items out of 15 plus 2 items that I didn't order nor I did to see them in my house because of a strict diet.
Customer service is the worst, I was promised to get the rest of the grocery by 7:00 am but I didn't
When I called again, all they were saying is that they refunded me the money
I am an elderly and don't drive, that is the only reason I'm using them, always missing items or late

I planed to go to a Amazon Fresh physical store to buy something but I want to confirm whether it is in stock so I saw this phone number from Google and I called *******4331, after the call was connected, the customer service staff first confirmed my email and them ask my mailing address. I don't know why Amazon Fresh want my address therefore before I confirm my mailing address with the staff I explained again to her that I just want to know if the store I am going to has the stoke I want, but the staff still insisted to check the address with me first. I gave her my address them she ask me what product I am looking for …. I described so hardly finally she found the product …. The whole conversation took me about 25 mins and at the end … you know what, she said she need to transfer my call to other staff …. Finally the phone transfer through…
Another staff repeated the details of the product again with me which is totally incorrect (wrong message from the previous female staff) …. Again, he said he need to transfer to Amazon Fresh …. I told him 「 I thought I dialed Amazon Fresh? He replied「 no, we are Amazon Fresh online」….
Them the male staff said he will transfer me to the physical store ( which he doesn't even ask me which store) and put me on hold for long wait (another 15-20min wait), At the end …. I got nothing but another toll free number …. It took me almost 1 hour for just want to check a local store phone number or local store stock information! I felt bad for Amazon as a royalty prime member, the Amazon fresh destroy customer's good impressions of Amazon :(

Amazon Fresh is not in touch with today's plant base community who doesn't eat meat. When the store first opened up in my neighborhood, Amazon Fresh had a great assortment of plant based products. But now, they rarely have the products I need. They do carry the traditional soy products like Tofu, TufuTirkey, etc but the new products like Beyond Burgers are out of stock at least 35% of the time when I'm looking to purchase them. They dont even have veggie pizza slices available to people who dont want meat on their pizza. Your only choice is a cheese slice. I usually purchase a slice, take it home, and add my own veggies. Overall, I will start taking my time and money back to Trader Joes now that Gestapo has left the building. I will say that was the initial reason for shopping at their new location, It's easier than driving to culver city and they weren't sweating me because I didn't cover up my nose with a mask. I will this, they should be great a delivery because they have a bunch of employees shopping all the time.

Obviously Amazon's service here is limited by their partner, but really Amazon Fresh are letting themselves down badly.
Lots of amazon items are only available on 'fresh' which requires a separate checkout which is not possible to complete because there is no delivery slot available - unlike the main amazon site which is still successfully delivering.
But because the Amazon Fresh products are listed alongside the main amazon products the result is confusion and waste of time.

Amazon Fresh has been very convenient for me during the pandemic but also endlessly frustrating. It was all well in April 2020 when I first ordered. Cold food was delivered refrigerated with frozen water bottles in insulated bubble wrap bags inside paper bags. It looked like care was used in the fulfillment of the orders. Then that stopped abruptly in June 2020. My weekly orders have been delivered in plain paper bags since then. I've received spoiled soy milk, moldy ice cream and thawed frozen fruit. Once, my order was delivered 70 minutes after the end of the 2-hour slot. Quality control is absent in any case. Sweet potatoes are more often than not rotten on delivery (see photo). I've received fresh soy milk that expired 6 months earlier (see photo) and cheese and milk products with no expiration date (see photo). Sometimes I get items that are all about to expire and I have to choose between using/freezing and throwing them away. Coconut water cans come loose in a paper bag with no protection, often severely crushed. I've received generic crackers instead of the more expensive organic whole grain ones I paid for with no questions asked or adjustment made. Leafy greens are wilted or spoiled, apples badly bruised, avocados black inside and bananas take two weeks to ripen. In fact, I've stopped ordering most produce for that reason. It is so unlikely for produce to be fresh and healthy that during lockdown I resorted many times to walking to Safeway (it's a 45-minute walk each way; my bus line to the store was cancelled for over a year).

This state of affairs makes one think about the people who pack your order. Do Amazon Fresh not get paid enough to care? It's a discomforting feeling not to trust your food sources. I want my food to be surrounded by a culture of care.

Yes, you can go to your Amazon order page and "request item refund" but that is no solution when you want good food on the table. Besides, I have to request refunds so often that the feature is blocked for me and need to contact Amazon directly to ask for a refund. And that is not a done deal. They have to transfer the request for approval and then get back to me with a decision. I contact Amazon Fresh to complain about quality control quite often and they always say they're escalating the complaint. My well-documented complaints have made no difference.

‘Fresh' is definitely a misnomer. It looks as if Amazon Fresh has deliberately gone downhill and has no plans to change and recover. Maybe Amazon Fresh is trying to get rid of some customers. The potential and resources for Amazon Fresh to be great are all there. I give it two stars for the convenience, which is relative.

Had an order placed tonight for delivery between 9 - 11 pm. Received an email saying it was packed and prepared for delivery.
Here comes midnight and the rep online said a technical glitch prevented the order from being assigned a driver. Rather than being able to call a driver back to pick up my order. The best he could do was a $10 credit and a redelivery f or tomorrow. Wow, I guess my kids lunches won't be packed since its way too late to reorder somewhere else or find a late night store open. Very very unreliable.

Wasted so much time trying to tell them I got extra stuff delivered I didn't order. Thought it would help them out. Thought it would be easy. Didn't call --said phone lines too busy... OK. Used chat app auto program. App limited ability to understand anything other than something wrong with item you ordered. App couldn't grasp comment about something extra you didn't order. My grip is me spending lots of time that probably doesn't matter. Trying to find way to contact them. Know now --just skip it. Delivery OK for everything else.

Amazon fresh is a super convenient way to get groceries delivered but that convenience comes at a cost to food safety. It's fine for dry items but bread doesn't always fare so well. However the delivery model is broken. The drivers are taking a large number of households at once and so if you are unlucky to be near the end of the delivery line, your food is no longer frozen. Skip any frozen or temperature sensitive foods.
Luckily amazon is good about refunds but comes at a huge cost of food waste.

I've been using Amazon Fresh since the start of the pandemic. Super easy to order and delivery has been great. Well except the one time the delivery person trapped me in my apartment by stacking all the heavy bags and water against my door! I was not happy.:-(
The one thing I think Amazon MUST do is text me when my order has been delivered. How hard is that? Instead I get an email. Who is checking their email every minute? Amazon does send a delivery Notification to my phone but it's ONE hour after delivery. Meanwhile all my perishables have been sitting outside the whole time. I still recommend. Just let me know delivery has occurred when it occurs.

Fresh deliveries have a two hour window. That should take care of internal issues at Amazon. But no, well past delivery windows, Amazon will say that Amazon Fresh cannot deliver, no reason given. And that is if you are lucky. Sometimes they just don't deliver letting the customer scramble trying to find out where there items are. Customer service for Fresh is basically useless. They have no ability to contact the actual point of service to find out problems. They usually counsel patience. Amazon has holes in its Fresh product. And need to perform better and they absolutely need to improve customer service. Customers should not have to put up with ineptitude. Having said all of this, sometimes they get it right.

Be aware that when ordering from amazon fresh, the delivery drivers do not follow instructions or can not read. I'm disabled and have complained many times to Amazon fresh that delivery drivers are not following delivery instructions. I have a trach that is a hole in my throat with tubbing that allows me to breath. When I bend down to pick up delivery items off floor I can not breath because my trach is closed off. I have put in instructions to put deliveries in 1 of 3 places on my porch: grey cart, black table or chair. After making numerous complaints to Amazon, I designed a big sign and had it printed to put beside my door. And still the driver today placed delivery on the floor right in front of the sign and blocking my door where I can not get my wheelchair out for doctor appointment in the morning. It took me 3hrs to clear and I felt like I was going to pass out and end up in hospital again.

Today 09-05-2021 at Washington DC 14th Street Store after I entered the store customer service lady said " You have to go back meet me around the gate if you not Prime you can't shop here this store is for select customer" please let me know your policy? " If you have cash you can shop you can't use your debit or credit card" As a financial advisor we educate customers not to cary cash this's digital age online banking mobile banking. I have noticed when Amazon Fresh allow a lot of WHITE customers
Very disappointing

I have had to use amazon fresh over the last couple of months so I can have food shopping delivered, as I can't leave the house. My main complaint is the utter lack of care for the perishable items, especially the frozen ones, which have almost always arrived melted. Amazon Fresh have repeatedly shown no concern for food safety. They don't use dry ice or ice packs or anything else. The refrigerated and frozen items are put into bags that look like they are made of foil, and that is all. They pack these items at least several hours in advance of delivery, and the worst was when I got an email 9 1/2 hours before the delivery window that the items had been 'shipped'. The delivery window was supposed to be 5 - 7 am, and the ice cream sandwiches I had bought on that occasion were 2 wafers and some completely melted to a liquid ice cream that didn't refreeze to be anything resembling ice cream sandwiches and were virtually inedible.

I don't know where the deliveries start from, but I have followed part of the tracking, and they are quite a long distance away, many, many miles. I have seen a couple of the drivers leaving, and they are driving ordinary cars, so it's not as though they even use refrigerated vans or anything.

I have had English muffins from them that had expiration dates that had passed several days earlier. There is a possibility that they may freeze these and then thaw them before they deliver them, but if they do, that is not really acceptable food handling if you don't know how old they are or what has been done to them.

I bought some decaffeinated tea that was a box of 50 teabags with an expiration date just a few weeks away when I just wanted an occasional cup and wouldn't have used many by then. The ordinary tea had a much farther away date, next year sometime.

On one occasion they left out all of the blackberries I'd ordered that was what I most wanted from that order. They refunded the money, but I had to reorder them and wait longer for them, not to mention that most of the time except for in the very beginning I have had to make a great many attempts around the clock for a delivery window to open up, and there have been several times when there was one but before I could finish checking out it was gone, and I mean gone in a matter of seconds, the time it took to click a couple of times.

I ordered red grapes a few times, 2 lbs, and the first time I only got 1 lb 4 oz, visibly less than 2 lbs. After that, I got over 2 lbs.

The orders were usually correct, except for the missing blackberries, and they didn't cancel any of the items after I'd paid. The deliveries have been made within the 2 hour windows.

The prices are variable and go up and down constantly like the main amazon site, so sometimes they are at least as good or better as elsewhere and sometimes very expensive. The fresh fruit has usually been pretty good, except for bananas. They are in bunches and the same degree of green or ripe, which doesn't work well for me. The packaged non-perishable items are usually okay.

I am a prime member, so I get free delivery if I spend $35.

I will probably have to continue to use amazon fresh for the foreseeable future. I would suggest if you want to or have to that when there are problems you complain to customer service every time. Maybe if they get enough complaints they will start doing things properly. I know - pigs might fly, but one can hope. Apparently they used to use dry ice, but they don't now, not where I am.

I hadn't thought of doing it before I got a comment, but I have just reported this online to the public health department for the food safety issues, and the message said they'd reply in 2 day's time, so we'll see if anything comes of it.

Sat - I used them again tonight, with a delivery window of 7 - 9 pm, and hoped it would be cooler then. It turned out to be in the 90°s F. Today outside, and it will only get hotter and hotter over the next several months. It gets up to 110°F. Or more in the summer. It was about 2 hours and 20 minutes after the email arrived that the shopping was delivered. Once again, in spite of the heat, no care was taken, and my frozen items were mostly liquid and my refrigerated items were warm. This obviously can't go on. There aren't any very satisfactory options for food deliveries where I am. It's not as though I haven't looked into it. Amazon think they can do whatever they like no matter what. Nobody ever does anything about this, no matter how many times you complain. I can get a refund or a credit, but that's not the point. I really don't think it's too much to ask for them to take proper care. It wouldn't take that much extra time or effort and would save them money in refunds and possible lawsuits from food poisoning. I think it's rather hypocritical of them to send emails saying to refrigerate the perishable items when they arrive when they don't take any steps to see that they arrive cold or frozen.

Update - 3 May 2020 - Worst experience yet. This morning I got an order that I thought should be reasonably safe. I didn't order anything frozen or that needed to be kept cold. However, they still managed to mess things up. I ordered organic cabbage and what I received I don't believe to be organic because it wasn't marked organic like it always has been when I do my own shopping, and the bags of organic yams were supposed to be 3 lbs and were just over 2 lbs. This is a problem I've had before with amazon fresh, cheating the customer by providing significant! Y underweight items. What's worse this time is there is no way to contact amazon or request a return. They are now not even taking phone calls, they had already stopped taking emails some time ago, and when trying to request a return, after filling in the reasons, nothing else happens. It says to look at their return policy or'contact us', but there is no way to contact them, so instead of clicking on continue to do with the return/refund it only says'ontinue shopping'.

Update - 21 June 2020 - Last night I had another delivery, and the same thing happened with the frozen food arriving thawed. I have had other deliveries between this and my previous update, and the same thing has happened virtually every time. I made another complaint, over the phone which is the only way to contact them, and the US-based lady was very nice. They always have been. She told me she would tell her supervisor as well as filling in a form to send to the correct department about this. It has been much easier to get a delivery window recently. To date I have never heard anything from the public health department.

4 July 2020 - frozen items and other perishables continue to be delivered partially or completely thawed or warm, in spite of my many complaints, but that's not what I ordered today.

I particularly wanted organic green cabbage for juicing. I tried a couple of months ago, and they delivered ordinary cabbage instead. I let it go for awhile and decided to try again. Yesterday amazon fresh didn't have any, so I did the whole foods market option and ordered that way for delivery today. The cabbage was the main reason for ordering, and I bought other items that I don't need right now but will use to top up the order to $35 for free delivery. I ordered all but one organic vegetable, and not a single one of them was organic, and the cabbage was out of stock, but not when I ordered it.

Amazon fresh claimed to have organic cabbage today, so after the whole foods market shopper failed to deliver them, I ordered some, again along with other items I don't need right now to get the free delivery. The cabbage I received was not organic. I rang and complained and hesitated to get replacements, but because I really wanted organic cabbage, I reluctantly agreed, especially because the woman I spoke to said she would put a note on the order about it. Surprise, surprise. The replacement cabbage is also not organic, so I once again had the inconvenience of complaining and asking for a refund, but the worst part is I still don't have any organic cabbage, and I spent in the region of $90 on items I would have bought in future but not right now in my unsuccessful attempts to get the cabbage. If you want organic cabbage, don't bother with amazon. The odds are that you will only get ordinary cabbage.

Update - 3 August 2020 - I'm still using them, nothing has improved, recently items have sometimes been cancelled before delivery due to being 'out of stock', prices have mostly gone up by quite a bit, they have been taking extra money up front for no good reason, as you can't add to an order and I always click'no substitutions'. There didn't used to be anywhere to click on 'no substitutions', and I may be wrong about this, but I don't think you can choose substitutions. It seems like they have changed the way they are doing things, but not for the better - perhaps getting the food from some other place and maybe using personal shoppers. I thought before that all the drivers did was deliver. It's definitely different somehow. I had a delivery the other night containing frozen items, and I was watching the map, and the driver was very near my house, probably less than 5 minutes away, but instead of stopping and delivering my shopping he/she drove an hour out of the way past me on the freeway before coming back to make the delivery, which made no sense.

Update - 3 November 2020 - I have continued to use amazon fresh due to there being no real alternatives, and there have been a few occasions when they have actually got the order right. Not many, but a few. They have recently, finally, mostly changed where the order is coming from to a closer location. It's not close, but it's closer than the other locations.

However, today was a first, and in some ways the worst experience yet. I hadn't got the usual email about the order being on its way. The delivery window was nearing its end, so I looked in my orders on amazon and it said that my order had been refused and was being returned to sender. I rang CS to ask what that meant. The lady didn't seem sure but said she thought it meant I had cancelled it. Not only had I not cancelled the order, I had also not refused it, and I've been alone here, so I know that nobody else refused it. I told the lady that was a blatant lie and to please make a record of that. Since they didn't have stock of the main items I wanted because of doing this, they couldn't do a replacement order. I am beyond disgusted.

A few hours later I got a phone message from somebody at the amazon delivery department, and when I rang back almost immediately the woman who answered didn't even know who she was. A few hours later I got an email about the refund giving the bogus reason 'shipping address was undeliverable.' Since when? Do they mean the address that probably thousands of orders have been delivered to over the years I've been here? Amazon never want to admit they're wrong, not in writing anyway, and if you attempt to leave an honest negative review about them on amazon.com, they will suppress it and say it didn't meet their guidelines.

21 December 2020 - They've done it again. I got no shipping email. They failed to deliver my order. After the delivery window had come and gone my account said it was runnng late but was on its way. Nearly 2 hours later it said 'unable to track order'. Customer service said the driver had failed to take the order. Of course, not everything in the order was in stock, so I opted for a refund. When I got the email about the refund, it said 'shipping address was undeliverable.' As I already have said, amazon will never admit they've done the wrong thing in writing.

I am disabled. I ordered groceries from Amazon Fresh 4 different times, and Amazon Fresh were never delivered. They have the worst Delivery Drivers, who don't follow instructions, because I left my apartment intercom number and my phone number in the driver instructions section.

I called Amazon Fresh to make a complaint the first time, and tried to trust them to deliver properly after that, to no avail. Same thing has happened 3 more times. Amazon Fresh Delivery service is NOT RELIABLE. Period.

Amazon Fresh has forces me to shop at Walmart, because they take EBT too now, so Amazon Fresh is not the only food delivery service that accepts EBT.

I am telling everyone I know who shops with Amazon Fresh, to switch to Walmart, because it appears Amazon has so many customers, that customer service isn't really important. That sucks. Amazon's clearly illiterate or non- caring drivers suck. Amazon Fresh sucks.

I have been ordering weekly since April of this year. I found the service helpful due to lockdown. The service has taken a turn for the worse, probably around the time lockdown was lifted in SF Bay and people went back to their real jobs. Same time period, the name of my delivery man or woman is no longer given. When you have a question for the driver, you have to go through a third party either in Seattle or India. I can't say who is less sympathetic, the delivery drivers or the customer service who claim Amazon Fresh will take care of your issue. Okay so my issue was "please do not leave my groceries in the lobby." The first time they were sitting there for 10 minutes because I missed the call. This time they didn't call. When I saw the alert that my order had been delivered I panicked and ran out of my unit thinking the worse. I don't trust Prime. I will not give Jeff Bezos another dime. I'll miss the convenience of having my groceries delivered but I need them to be delivered to my door as advertised. P.S. They accept tips. I have a hunch the drivers give better service to people who include tips on their orders.