The Kafkaesque Amazon Experience (Semi Rant)

[BeBMan]

And it came that Bebsus went along to buy stuff at Amazon. Nothing big, just for some 25 Eurodoubloons

It always worked neatly inda past, so what could go wrong? Ohhh, the human factor...

Well, first it was my mistake: I had chosen a wrong method of payment, leading to payment trouble.

However, I noticed it right after I sent out the order, but too late, too late...

This is when the fun started. Errm, the "fun" rather.


I. Bebs calls Amazon customer service

Everyone is friendly at Amazon. I get a lot of ppl understanding my trouble. I get offered another free month of A_Prime (additional to the umpteenth free trial I just started).

Yet noone is actually really able to correct the mistake I made. But no prob I hear, I could wait for the ordered stuff to arrive and pay then. For some reason, changing the method of payment after the order is out seems to a huge undertaking in the 21 century....but ok, I wait.

...And wait.

...And wait.

After two weeks of waiting with no stuff arriving, I get a mail from Amazon, asking why I didn't pay yet (seems auto-generated)


II. Bebs calls Amazon customer service (again).

Everyone is friendly at Amazon. I get a lot of ppl understanding my trouble. Ppl say my order is stuck somewhere, and I could ignore those emails asking for payment until the issue is resolved and stuff does arrive (and pay then).

After another week I get another email asking for payment.


III. Bebs calls Amazon customer service (again).

Everyone is friendly at Amazon. I get a lot of ppl understanding my trouble. Finally someone sez: oh yeah, your order is held back because no payment arrived yet

[rah]

I've had no problem with those friendly people. I had an item not show up and contacted them. They were quite friendly and offered to refund the sum to my credit card (at least it was the right one) and then told me to purchase the item from another of their friendly providers and let them know the order number and they would upgrade it to overnight delivery at their expense. I got the new order the day after I complained at no extra cost. I was actually quite impresses. And boy, did I mention it already, they were really friendly.

[Dinner]

So you are a dead beat?

[Dauphin]

My take away from this is that maybe you can order friends on Amazon?

[BeBMan]

And boy, did I mention it already, they were really friendly.

They also offered me very friendly to rate the stuff I have not received yet. Right after their very friendly customer service sent me 2 emails which were clearly meant for another customer, because they adress some woman unknown to me (who had bought a product unknown to me)

My take away from this is that maybe you can order friends on Amazon?

Yeah, but they never arrive

[Lorizael]

I had no idea there was anyone at Amazon to call.

[rah]

I didn't call them. I exchanged typed messages with a friendly robot in a chat window at their site.
So you are probably correct.

[Proteus_MST]

They also offered me very friendly to rate the stuff I have not received yet. Right after their very friendly customer service sent me 2 emails which were clearly meant for another customer, because they adress some woman unknown to me (who had bought a product unknown to me)
Yeah, but they never arrive

I hope they, at least, prolonged your Amazon Prime Abo by a month for each time you called them

[BeBMan]

But I can still call them a couple times to ramp up the pressure

I had no idea there was anyone at Amazon to call.

Yeah the German Amazon version has those chat thingies too rah mentions. But there's also a phone servive still active (it's actually not obvious at Amazon.de itself, I guess they prefer those other means).

[Lorizael]

As a former call center customer service guy, don't make their lives any worse than they already are.

[BeBMan]

The last very friendly guy did send corrected data which allowed me to complete the payment. Now I'm just waiting for stuff, big improvement

As I'm on Prime now stuff should arrive quickly. Unless it's a creative new way to make TehBezos rich by charging without delivering.

Otherwise it's the friendly ppl again - no choice

[rah]

As a former call center customer service guy, don't make their lives any worse than they already are.

Yes, having managed a call center where I had to get on the phone on occasion, I'm never obnoxious to them. If it's sales I just tell them not interested, thank you and hang up. My simple rule is never give them a chance to breath or you'll be on longer than you wish. I am usually even nicer to survey requests since I now work for a market research company (which usually disqualifies me).
If it's CS, I know there is never any benefit in going berserk. Persistence is the key. And an occasional reminder that customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition.

[BeBMan]

Oh Amazon. After I had paid, they send nothing. I felt ignored, so called the friendly ppl again today.

"Looks like it got lost. But of course, what a fauxpas, mea culpa -- we send your money back asap, and feel free to order the same again".

[Lorizael]

So how long did this whole ordeal take? I ordered some shoes from Amazon on *checks email* May 2, got them, wore them for a couple days until I realized they didn't fit, returned them to an Amazon locker and ordered new shoes, got those, and received notice that my return had gotten back to Amazon (and my refund had been finalized) yesterday.

[BeBMan]

From the day I ordered 1st, over a month now. Never had any prob with Amazon before. Admittedly me making a mistake initially didn't help, but I wasn't prepared for that much chaos and confusion