Mostly Ordinary

I know, I know - I comment mostly on blogs hardly ever do I blog myself. But you'll need to excuse me whilst I vent. I've been using amazon.co.uk for years, too many really and I've almost never been disappointed by them. Over the years thousands of pounds have gone their way in return for shinny toys and books, even when I've found it elsewhere cheaper I've always used them because I trusted them; which was worth that extra few quid. Sadly my love affair with Amazon is over, they've let me down - badly. Now normally I'd give most organizations, especially ones I like, the benefit of the doubt but in this case I'm afraid their pathetic attempt at customer service has cheesed me off to an unfathomable extent.

So here is my tale of woe. Recently I ordered a Playstation 3 from Amazon, I waited and waited for it to arrive, studiously tracking it via. their website as it made it's way towards me over the few days it took. When it arrived I realised why I had waited so long, apparently bereft of vehicles to transport it Amazon had arranged for it to be dropped from a great height to my door step. The box was bent and torn and when I opened the package it looked as if they Playstation itself had been kicked around the warehouse before being package; bits hung off it and the case was badly crack. For a moment, and just a moment, I thought about plugging it in and keeping it in the sorry state I'd found it - but I thought spending close to £400 on something that was going to sit in my living room I wanted it in tip top condition.

Annoyed I check the amazon.co.uk website and it helpful informed me that they would send me a replacement at the same time I was sending it back - cool I thought.

Problem was amazon.co.uk was all out of stock so I had to ask for a refund, which meant finding a box to ship it back in (because the original one was in such a bad state) drive 30 minutes to a Post Office that handled parcels, wait in queue for over an hour and then pay £20 to send it back.

Then I had to run around looking for a new PS3, so you can imagine how pissed off I was when I saw that amazon.co.uk had shipped me that games that came with the deal after I'd told them I was sending it back and wanted a refund - this means (I assume) that I'll now need to make the awful trip back to the Post Office to send this back before Amazon.co.uk give me my cash back.

So - to the crux of my gripe - I sent them the email quoted below:

11/05/07 15:38:29
Your name:*****
Order No: 026-*****-*****
Comments:Hi,

I recently ordered a Playstation 3 from Amazon as a gift. When it
arrived the product had obviously be abused either in transit or in
the warehouse, the box was damaged the unit itself had panels
cracked and hanging off. I called the Amazon Contact Centre and was
told you were out of stock. This meant I had to repackage the
product (because the box was too badly damaged to reuse) drive into
my local town and queue for over and hour to post it back to you, at
a cost of £20.

I then had to try and locate a similar unit which I bought from
Game at a higher price without the complimentary games.

I now see that despite me registering to return this item you have
dispatched the second half of the order and assume that I'll have to
repost these games to you and that you will not give me my refund
until you receive them as well? The irony being that I now have both
these games reserved at the Game shop I bought the replacement
Playstation from because they were out of stock I will be posting
them back to you and then picking the same games up from the Game
store afterwards. Surely the system you use to record returns should
be smart enough to cancel other parts of an order when a customer
registers to return part of it?

I have to say that having wasted a day, being at the moment @£400
out of pocket and hoping that your returns process will refunded me
quickly I'm deeply disappointed in Amazon, an organisation I've used
for many years. All for the lack of some care from either your
employees or agents in delivering my purchase without beating it to
death - I'm glad you don't sell pets.

Will Amazon compensate me for this very poor and frustrating
experience?

Frankly this is tame, the frustration I had having to hike around Croydon town centre with their property and then queue in the 'main' Post Office that only had four windows open and have the chav population of the UK claiming their benefits in front or me and still having to wait two to three weeks for me to get my money back was enough to even enrage my normally clam demeanor. I expect a response, not a long rambling one, not one offering my a large Amazon.co.uk voucher - just a note saying they understood and either they'd refund everything before they got the two games back or if I was very lucky telling me to keep the games. Mmmm - this is what I got:

Dear Mr ******,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk regarding your recent order
#026-*****-*******.

Firstly, please accept our apologies for this situation.

On confirmation of receipt of the item at our Fulfilment Centre by
your carrier, please allow up to two weeks for us to process your
return. If you have not received notification from us that your
return has been processed after this time period has elapsed, please
contact us at http://www.amazon.co.uk/email (or using the link
below) with your tracking number and we will take further action.

Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused. We
hope that you will give us another opportunity to prove the quality
of our service to you.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk


Please let us know if this e-mail answered your question:

If yes, click here:

If not, click here:

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail.

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help
section of our website.


Warmest regards

Adam
Customer Service
Amazon.co.uk

For the last twenty years I've been involved in design systems that allow businesses to interact with their customers, I've designed call centres from Kuwait, to Finland, London to Berlin and this is what's called in the business 'a canned response' which means that an agent (although pissed off at amazon.co.uk I don't believe that use auto-responses - that would be too low) has read my email and selected from a list a prewritted reply.

Three words amazon.co.uk - you cheeky sods - the very least you could have done was to actually reply to the three questions in that email, you know the ones that end in question marks?

As a pioneer on Internet retailing I would expect amazon.com to be the World leader at customer services via. Internet channels sadly their first touch with customers they've let down is appauling.

Adieu Amazon.co.uk - you won't be seeing me or my credit card any time soon.

Labels: amazon.co.uk