Amazon Customer Service

[Stephen Smith Sr]

Sorry in advance for the length of this post, but it's a good one.

I've been looking for a 10" cabinet saw for quite some time. I came across the Amazon Warehouse Deals website which has open box and returns for sale at pretty great discounted prices. After finally pulling the trigger on the JET 10" Xacta with the 50" extension and downdraft table (at a $774 discount that only has minor scratches to the accessories) I had to wait another 3+ weeks for delivery. When the delivery day finally came I get a call from my son-in-law saying there appears to be a mistake. He said there's only one box. I said that's ok, the electronic invoice said it's shipping 1 package and weighs about 640lbs. Then he said "I'm holding the package"! :eek:

Ok, that's a problem.

Long story short, I refused delivery and called Amazon customer service. That's where things got fun. The lady I spoke with was having an issue understanding the real problem that only a single box (I'm assuming it was the fence) was delivered and it wasn't the most expensive part, and I'm missing the saw! There was a bad phone connection as well as a language barrier which made this so much fun. She kept telling me she would issue a credit and for me to reorder it. She couldn't grasp that this was an open box and there wasn't another one on the website to reorder.

She finally transferred my call to a shipping dispute representative. After I finally explained the entire story to "Sara", she said don't worry we'll figure this out. She said she'd contact the shipper for them to do a dock sweep and would get back with me in 24-48 hrs. Well 48 hrs comes and goes and nothing! I send Sara an email and asked what the plan was if the saw didn't get found.

She finally replies and says the saw was nowhere to be found and she was issuing a credit to my account! What a let down. Basically a month down the drain.

But, the rest of the email is crazy. She then said I've also issued an additional credit of $774 to purchase a new one! Guess what? I was not expecting that at all. In my opinion, Sara (Amazon) went above and beyond with that one. Now that is customer service.

New saw is getting delivered next week! Nice! :cool:

[Nick Decker]

Agreed, that's a "good one!"

[Marshall Harrison]

Agreed, that's a "good one!"

Only if the new saw actually shows up at his house. :D

[Nick Decker]

Only if the new saw actually shows up at his house. :D

If it's a $774 credit to his account, sounds like he could spend it how ever he wants. :)

[John K Jordan]

But, the rest of the email is crazy. She then said I've also issued an additional credit of $774 to purchase a new one! Guess what? I was not expecting that at all. In my opinion, Sara (Amazon) went above and beyond with that one. Now that is customer service.

New saw is getting delivered next week! Nice! :cool:

Incredible! I've had them go way beyond what I expected and even hoped for but your story is the tops!

JKJ

[Frederick Skelly]

Great story. Super-amazing customer service. I don't think even Lee Valley would do that, but good on Amazon!

Do us all a favor. Come back to this thread after the new one arrives and say "yes, they really did what they said they would - just to close it out.

Enjoy that great new saw!
Fred

[Nick Decker]

Stephen, I'm gonna guess that you are a regular and good customer of Amazon. Let's not forget that while they're talking to you they're looking at at a screen containing your buying history, probably even have assigned you a specific category/code that tells them, "Don't piss this guy off! Do whatever it takes!" etc. etc.

I'll confess to being one of their prolific customers and, while never involving that much free money, they've surprised me quite a few times.

[Dave Lehnert]

At the beginning of the year I placed an order for a few things with Amazon.
One of the items was a CD that was not yet released. They held my entire order and would not ship till the release date of the CD that was 6 weeks out. Not the way they operated in the past but whatever.
Fast forward to the release date. I contacted Amazon about my order. Said it would be another two weeks because I picked super saver shipping. Again, not the way they did in the past.
Long story short. I complained that was the exact reason I order from Walmart.com now and they ship free with no membership.
My order was at my door in two hours if I remember correct. Impressive for sure.

[Frederick Skelly]

Bummer Dave. Thanks for the tip about Walmart. My concern with them is their customer service in the store, has never impressed me. How is ir online?

[Matt Day]

Much lesser value here, but I ordered some pull ups for my son because I was running out. Needed Prime delivery or I’d have to go to an actual store - who does that anymore!? Lol.

Get an email saying the items were delayed 4 days, frustrating call with language barrier and poor reception and 15 minutes later I have new items shipped out to arrive on time and I can keep the delayed order. All worked out in the end and now I’m pull up rich!

Glad to hear your saw will work out for you!

[Stephen Smith Sr]

The only stipulation was that the item had to come from Amazon itself and not a 3rd party. As soon as I put the saw in my cart the promotional credit showed up. Like Marshall said, it's a good deal as long as my saw actually shows up this time.

The question is: who ended up with the saw? Amazon had to have had possession of it at one time to be able to quantify the damage as mentioned in the description. Also, because of the business I'm in I've actually visited an Amazon warehouse before and let me tell you they have quite the operation, and there's no way they only had the fence when it was supposed to be a complete saw. So that leads me to think that someone on the transportation side ended up with a nice saw that just so happened to disappear along the way. Unfortunately there are some dishonest folks out there!

[Stephen Smith Sr]

We buy pretty frequently, but certainly not to the extent they would consider us a "big fish". There's no way they have us targeted for special treatment. My wife has always said their customer service was great, I just never dealt with them myself. No company is perfect, but I believe they were truly trying to make the situation right, and they certainly did that.

[Greg R Bradley]

I see good and bad here. Amazon will work with you to try to make things "right". BUT they just seem completely brainless and stuck in their standard procedures. An example is that I have all my Amazon items delivered to my business, roughly a half million dollars worth a year. Of course, I have a business account and have "Prime". Prime shipping means accelerated delivery for a flat $99 a year. There have been times they pay for Fedex Priority Overnight to get me a $4 item the next morning. Normal freight is $65 so even if they are getting the deal of the century on that it has to be a BIG loser. Another is they keep using their Amazon local delivery since I'm a few mile from one of the big warehouses (and the second biggest UPS and Fedex distribution centers in the US). The Amazon local deliveries keep using local subcontractors to leave stuff in front of my shipping/receiving office after hours. The life expectancy of anything left in this area after business hours is minutes. Aluminum cans left in the back of my truck DURING business house usually disappear in an hour! but they just keep "delivering" stuff and leave it in a commercial area filled with homeless trash up to 8:00pm!
Interesting is the $30,000 per month that I buy from Amazon is 80% screwups, not normal items. One item today was some parts storage bins at $36.24 per case. If I reordered they would be $127.20 per case. Here is the link to one of the items:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XHG72YQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is the order:
389247 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XHG72YQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Clearly their goal is to drive all of the legitimate businesses out of business so that they own everything and then we are getting completely screwed over. Sadly, they are screwing the sellers that are willing to sell on Amazon in the process.

[Ben Rivel]

Over the years Ive gotten quite a few free things from Amazon due to mistakes and mishaps like this and their odd way of handling them.

[Peter Christensen]

Stephan I'm glad you have a good resolution to your purchase.

Recently I wanted to buy a Makita 4 stroke string trimmer for the yard. Amazon had it for just under $400 so I ordered it. In the checkout process because it was a big package it wouldn't accept my postal box address and wanted an alternate address for delivery. It wouldn't accept my house address because I couldn't put in the postal code because the house doesn't have one. So I called the service department for help and after explaining the problem a number of times the guy putting me on hold said there was nothing that could be done so I politely asked for someone higher up. He hung up on me. Called back and another woman tried her best to do something but they can't override the system. She could only suggest shipping it to a friend or relative at another address. So since Home Depot sell them online and price match I tried to order from them. Same thing with the online order happened so I called them to order by phone. They would price match but wouldn't send it to my address without a postal code nor would they send it to a store for pickup. A friend let me use his UPS Store address for delivery and I got the trimmer that way from Amazon. A really dumb system that doesn't allow anything from the standard. The trimmer worked really well as any Makita product does.

[Chris Parks]

Sadly, they are screwing the sellers that are willing to sell on Amazon in the process.

My daughter looked at selling through Amazon ans learned that if a seller ends the deal they don't get the stock back as Amazon simply destroys it.

[Bob Bouis]

I had a similar experience with a warehouse deals sawstop. At least, half the experience was similar. The saw arrived sans the table, fails and fence. Sawstop quoted me like $900 for the parts, but Amazon told me to take it or leave it. Either return the saw for a refund for keep it as is. No adjustments, period. They wouldn't even try to find the other half of the saw.

I ended up keeping it because the discount was substantial enough and I already had the parts lying around. Just had to buy a new fence. Behold the frankensaw:

https://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=373684&d=1513211349

I didn't make a table for it because I was waiting on the overhead dust collection do-dad. I'm actually making it now...

[Bob Bouis]

Oh, yeah, and my favorite part of my experience was where Amazon denied that they EVER adjusted anything when warehouse deals failed to deliver. They told me people who said otherwise were spreading misinformation. So please stop spreading misinformation. Hah.

I'm a pretty good customer (~200 orders a year...) but also a bargain hunter, and I don't hesitate to return stuff; so it's possible their response was tailored to me as someone they're probably not making much money off.

[Jim Becker]

T So that leads me to think that someone on the transportation side ended up with a nice saw that just so happened to disappear along the way. Unfortunately there are some dishonest folks out there!
When I read your OP, this is exactly where my mind went...they actually knew that the product was, um..."misplaced"...and therefore, made right by you in a very generous way, probably because it was an unique item they only had in a quantity of one. Someone there was in a very good mood that day and supported you very nicely!

[Derek Meyer]

Amazon can be weird about their returns policy sometimes.

Last year, I built 9 computer systems for a local business, and I ordered some of the parts from Amazon, including the memory. I had two separate orders (due to order quantity limits), one of 5 pieces and one of 4. After I received the parts I learned that the memory was not compatible with my chosen system, and had to order different memory. Amazon didn't have the correct modules so I ended up ordering them from another reseller.

I was able to return the first 5 modules for a refund with no issues. However, when I tried to process a return on the other 4 modules it was denied. The email referred to something in the product description about "returns not allowed", but there was nothing in the actual product notes that said that returns were not allowed. So, I emailed customer service to try and get a return. Not only did he authorize the return and credit me for the full purchase price, but he told me not to return the 4 modules. So, I ended up with 4 free memory modules. Due to the state of the current memory market I recently sold one on eBay for about 50% more than I paid originally.

These modules were "Sold and shipped by Amazon.com" so there was no third party involved. I'm really surprised they didn't want them back, but I guess the value of these is insignificant to a company as big as Amazon. I'm not complaining though - now I've got more money to buy lumber and tools with. :)

[Joe Adams]

Behold the frankensaw:

I built a riding mower from two non-running John Deere models my neighbors were throwing out.

Engine from one and tranny from the other. The rest of the parts mixed and matched as needed.

I ordered a big Frankenstein decal on eBay for the hood and commissioned it "Franken-Mower".

Nice job on the saw!

[Ted Phillips]

My daughter looked at selling through Amazon ans learned that if a seller ends the deal they don't get the stock back as Amazon simply destroys it.

Amazon doesn't quite destroy everything. They just load them in bulk pallets and sell them at auction. Lots of folks are making a living at combing through the Amazon return bins and posting the junk on eBay...

TedP


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm1NEFl13aU

[Dave Lehnert]

Bummer Dave. Thanks for the tip about Walmart. My concern with them is their customer service in the store, has never impressed me. How is ir online?


Like any store, customer service depends on who is working.
My local store is very bad on service at the registers. But at the order pick up counter, I have always had positive experience. Same girl has worked the counter for a year or two. She also shoppes for the in store items ordered on line.
I like I can have my stuff shipped to store and not have it sitting on my front porch all day. Walmart is across the street from work so I'm in and out in 10min.
Walmart for 90 days will refund your money if they lower the price. I ordered a bike rack for my car. Cost around $40. 4 or 6 weeks later it dropped to like $19. I sent an online chat message to Walmart.com and they refunded my money on the spot.

[Stephen Smith Sr]

So the saga continues....I was expecting the saw to be delivered last Wednesday. I’ve been out of the country so I was texting the family to see about the shipment. No luck, Wednesday comes and goes and no saw. My wife calls Amazon and talks with someone who is no help at all. Calls the next day, and the service rep takes another $250 off. That brings it down a total of $1024 off the original purchase price, which is a great deal. But only if I actually end up with the saw (as Marshall originally stated). For some reason they have still not confirmed a new date. Getting worried, not to mention this has been going on since the last week of May. I’ll let you know how this turns out!

[Nick Decker]

Please do let us know. Especially if it progresses to the point that Amazon is giving you money to take the saw off their hands.

:)

[Stephen Smith Sr]

Well it finally happened, I got my saw back on Aug 22. About 3 months after the original order was placed. I'd like to say it went fine since my last post, but that wouldn't be the truth. We talked to many different reps, escalating it as high as we could. Even sent an email to "Jeff". Eventually his executive team reached out to me but it was probably a day too late. A very nice woman was already able to cancel the order and place it with a 3rd party seller. All said and done I got the saw for about $1800 and also got a DeWalt router and 4 Bessey clamps for my troubles. Not a pleasant experience, but a great deal on a great saw. Loving this thing, cuts like butter!

[glenn bradley]

Glad it all finally got settled. Enjoy the tools.

[Simon MacGowen]

Not a pleasant experience, but a great deal on a great saw. Loving this thing, cuts like butter!

At least not a bad ending overall.

For machinery, I will only get it from a local vendor that has a physical presence. I have bought hundreds of things online, but won't try my luck with any stationary tools, no matter how much a deal it is. Simply too many things that can go wrong.

Simon

[Jim Becker]

For machinery, I will only get it from a local vendor that has a physical presence. I have bought hundreds of things online, but won't try my luck with any stationary tools, no matter how much a deal it is. Simply too many things that can go wrong.


I've always liked this idea, but it's become nearly impossible for a large percentage of folks to actually accomplish with so few brick-and-morter machinery retailers still in existence in most areas.

[Simon MacGowen]

I've always liked this idea, but it's become nearly impossible for a large percentage of folks to actually accomplish with so few brick-and-morter machinery retailers still in existence in most areas.

Those folks have little options, and the only recourse is to do business with an online merchant that is known to be reliable and pay a premium for such exemplary service. Several small Festool merchants have carved out a market for themselves based on that strategy. Yo constantly see praises from their customers, about them going the extra mile.

If I were in a situation where I had to spend a grand or two between Amazon and such a merchant, I would be more than willing to pay, say $50 more, for the peace of mind. Amateur woodworking is to bring fun and joy to my life. I wouldn't torture myself just to save a $100 here or $50 there, if the consequence of something going astray was detrimental to my woodworking health. Over all these years, I have never regretted paying a little more for the service or quality I enjoyed.

Simon

[Jared Sankovich]

Wow.. I likely would have passed on ordering my bandsaw from amazon had I read this thread before ordering. Fortunately there was no drama and it showed up on time and was about $800 off the street price.

393895393896

[Jim Becker]

Several small Festool merchants have carved out a market for themselves based on that strategy. Yo constantly see praises from their customers, about them going the extra mile.

Yup...I'm a customer of "Uncle Bob" and have been since not long after he got in the Festool business.

[Simon MacGowen]

Wow.. I likely would have passed on ordering my bandsaw from amazon had I read this thread before ordering. Fortunately there was no drama and it showed up on time and was about $800 off the street price.

393895393896

Good for you, Jared. As they say, high risk, high gain. Sometimes, even a reputable vendor can drop the ball, but it is usually also the vendor that will try to earn your trust back.

Simon

[Frederick Skelly]

I'm glad it worked out for you Steve. Thanks for following up with us.
Fred