Grumpy woman on Amazon's service - forget the "prime" hype...

Just when Amazon decides to market their "Prime" service in the UK, a questionable proposal to this reader and occasional customer, they disappoint and frustrate me with a current delivery.

First the good point(s), as I aim to provide a balanced approach; call it the results of the day job.  Said parcel was delivered ahead of estimated delivery time; I was anticipating the end of November because they told me this.

Now for the misdemeanours: the box was an odd shape for two hardbacks, way too big and roomy.  This did not augur well.  But, excitedly I opened the box.  Yes, I received what I'd ordered, but both hardbacks had taken a bashing in transit.  For both, it affected one corner in particular, more than nicely crushed.

And, for the first time - I've been tempted once before but never got around to it - I chose to seek a return, (these were investment puchases, you understand).  Thus I followed the instructions and logged into my account.  Chose returns.  Selected the relevant reasons.  Then, by gum, I have an error message to add insult to injury.  Amazon policy appears to be a 30 day return, statutory rights outside this respected, but my proposed returns seemed to fall outside of this, even with a November purchase and a deadline of the end of January 2008 (their deadline as specified in the error message) for returns.  And yes, you read that correctly.  It seems to be 3 months to me too! 

I then hit on "help" as it didn't make sense and thought I might find someone to correspond with on an intelligent basis of communication.  No such luck; it's only pages of standard help queries.  So I logged out, hypothetically speaking.  You can't log out of Amazon's site, you have to clear your cookies to do so.  (Another longstanding gripe of mine...)

One can only wonder at the inability to pursue a return with the efficiency that one can make an order.  I will deal with this tomorrow evening.

I don't want damaged books when I have paid good money and expect a perfect delivery.  I don't want to find it hard to pursue a return when more than disappointed.  I don't expect existing "policy rules" embedded in a website to hinder my approach at correcting a misdemeanour on the part of the supplier.

If anyone has experience of a successful return to Amazon.co.uk, please let me know.  I seem to need all the help I can get, etc. ...

Comments

[Euro Crime (Karen M)]

Amazon used to pack their books much better, even clingfilming them down or whatever the stuff is, is better than having them loose. I got a refund of £3 off a damaged book once after I complained. I'm less keen to use them now and wary of the delivery method. If it's not parcelforce then one's parcel could end up 20 miles away at the courier depot etc.

[Ian]

Amazon in general and their customer service in particular is something that strikes me as suffering a long, lingering, slow, and sad decline in overall quality.

Way back in the dizzy early days, when presumably they were still flush of dot com cash and optimism, they were peerless in everything they did. When they delivered the wrong book to me phoning them shortly before Christmas 1998 and getting the issue resolved was quick, easy, and involved talking to a most helpful assistant.

Fast forward to 2001 and tracking down a non-delivered digital camera became an exercise in eye-watering futility and frustration, and the end of what had the prospect to be a love affair with the site.

Now, a creaky underlying platform, loss of focus (books really don't seem to be at the heart of their service), and the blurring of the lines between what they sell and what a "partner" sells all serve to make Amazon less a destination of choice than a chore to visit.

On the upside, when I have returned things using the automated system my account's been credited promptly and the print-your-own return slip all works well.

[Maxine]

I've always found Amazon to be very good on returns, actually. Their customer service is absolutely mind-blowingly awful, and takes about 5 hours to even find a way into it past the web forms (I think I usually have to start out by pretending I want to query an old order, then delete the subject line!). And they are useless even when you can get to email them with a non-standard query, which is why I cancelled my Amazon Mastercard. I took this out because you got free Amazon vouchers for every so many pounds you spent, but their e-commerce system just wasn't up to it. Infuriating. The "voucher code" went through the order but then the full amount went through the checkout, happened several times.

So I am not an unthinking Amazon supporter. But I have been impressed by their returns service. One Christmas, for example, I ordered Cathy a juice maker which arrived broken. I went through the returns system, printed out the returns label they provided, and had to wait a couple of days (as it was Christmas day) to find a post office open to return the parcel. In the meantime, 26 Dec, the replacement arrived!
Another time I bought a Wii game for the girls, which was also broken. I tried to get a replacement but they had sold out, so they refunded the amount to my card, no questions asked.
I do find that items are often broken, eg CD cases cracked, DVDs shaken out of their spindle in the case, and book corners crushed. So I do not rate them on their packing, but I do find their returns OK. All I can suggest is try again, because you clearly are in the timeframe of the returns window, and good luck. I hope you don't end up having to contact their customer services by email, as you'll then be in an endless loop with a different (uncomprehending) operative each time.