The Gall of Amazon

[Bruce Wrenn]

On Dec 25th, I ordered an item, sold by a vendor and shipped from Amazon. Item shipped following week. Traveled from Indiana to central NC in a little over 24 hours . Left Amazon facility about 20 miles from my house following day. Late that night get email saying delivery was delayed a day. Today get email saying they lost my purchase, and I can cancel order and reorder. Two problems, one I used my Amazon points and also 6 months no interest financing for purchase, which only ran thru Dec 31, 2021 (last year!) Here is the kicker! Today got a "Rate your transaction survey from Amazon." How do you rate an item that was fulfilled by a vendor and then shipped and lost by Amazon?

[Brian Elfert]

I would contact Amazon and see if they can reship the original order under the original terms. I didn't realize the option with the Chase Amazon Visa to get either six months interest free or the 5% cash back has ended.

I had a fairly expensive Amazon order get damaged in transit in September. Amazon automatically cancelled my order and said I would get a refund a few weeks after the item got back to them. I reordered the item, but why doesn't Amazon automatically ship a replacement? I had to contact Amazon after several weeks to get my money back on the first order. Luckily my finances were not impacted by paying a second time for $1,500 item.

[Jim Becker]

Yes, work with customer service. You can actually get them to call you...it's not the easiest thing to find on the web site, but it's there and the few times I've needed to use it, they were fast, efficient and courteous.

[Ronald Blue]

Yes, work with customer service. You can actually get them to call you...it's not the easiest thing to find on the web site, but it's there and the few times I've needed to use it, they were fast, efficient and courteous.

I've found they go to great lengths to hide the human interaction option whether via live chat or a voice call. I think if they thought they could get away with it all customer service would be automated. In their defense other companies are nearly as bad.

[Jim Tobias]

Give it another day.... I got that same message "they lost my purchase, and I can cancel order and reorder". Then then a day later it is out for delivery today!
They are definitely having some communication issues.

Jim

[Doug Garson]

Agree with Jim, we have a pair of air cleaners in the house that Amazon reported were lost but had already arrived. Also agree customer service is hard to contact a real human, but once you do they do their best to help you out.

[Tom M King]

I think there were at least two shipments last year that were "undeliverable", but were already here.

[Brian Elfert]

I've found they go to great lengths to hide the human interaction option whether via live chat or a voice call. I think if they thought they could get away with it all customer service would be automated. In their defense other companies are nearly as bad.

If you do chat support with Amazon you have to chat with their automated system before it will connect you to an agent.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Give it another day.... I got that same message "they lost my purchase, and I can cancel order and reorder". Then then a day later it is out for delivery today!
They are definitely having some communication issues.

Jim

I'm on my FOURTH day of "try again tomorrow to cancel your order." Of course, tomorrow never comes!

[Ronald Blue]

If you do chat support with Amazon you have to chat with their automated system before it will connect you to an agent.

Oh yes! Finally after being fully frustrated you manage to get a real person.

[Bruce Wrenn]

After only FIVE DAYS, today did Amazon allow me to cancel order. However I haven't gotten email showing that it was actually canceled. Now the fun starts, as my Amazon account closes on the last day of the month, meaning this month's bill will include this order. This means next, a battle with CC company to get item off my bill. PS, yesterday, I ordered a replacement, which is scheduled to be here tomorrow.

[John Redford]

I suspect as more and more small, and even large, businesses are closed due to the power of pricing that Amazon commands that these issues and poor service will only get worse.

I wish I was wrong.

[Brian Elfert]

Amazon can so good and so bad at times. I placed an order last week for four items and they all showed a Jan 3rd delivery date. Three of the four items arrived a day early on the 2nd, but the fourth item hasn't even shipped yet. I would have like to work on the project his evening, but that isn't happening. I don't know any local store that carries this item so I had to order it from someone.

[Mark Bolton]

I dumped amazon early last year. Was a heavy prime/business prime user. I wouldnt worry about gaul, Amazon is usually pretty accommodating with refunds, giving you free stuff when you complain, etc... however Ive been waiting for years because I knew they were doing the typical bait and switch with Prime/2day and once they got enough people on the hook they would change their policy. Covid was a perfectly timed excuse for them to abandon 2day, start weaving all sorts of overseas items into their Prime package.

I allowed my business to become a little lazy relying on the convenience of prime even though I had begun to see items I was ordering cheaper elsewhere and with free shipping (cheaper than prime). When Amazon bailed on the 2day and then started showing repeated signs that it was pretty much never going to come back.. I cancelled my prime account and I havent bought a single thing from Amazon since and Im saving money.

They have run a bait and switch for the past couple years and its going to get nothing but worse but they have two things going for them. #1 they have people in a routine and unless seriously catastrophic things happen most Americans are too lazy to change their routine. And #2 theyve established a simple process (i.e. Walmart) where people are willing to pay more to not have to shop at multiple sources.

Its comical how predictably this model repeats since the onset of "big box" back in the 90's.

Im not a bit worse off having plonked Amazon and Prime. Their quality went in the toilet (Walmart) they started pushing the worst of the worst. Good riddance.

[Jim Becker]

Interestingly, it's been very, very rare for anything I order via Amazon to take more than one or two days for delivery and quite often, those few things that have longer delivery times have tended to show up early. I've even received items ordered late in the evening by mid-day the next day a few times. I guess being located near a major metropolitan area with multiple Amazon distribution centers doesn't hurt, however. I had one vendor issue two months ago and it was resolved immediately.