Who Holds Amazon Accountable For Screw-ups?

I may just letting my misguided anger write this post. Let me first say I am a HUGE fan of Amazon and have spent over $6,500 on “stuff” in the last year. In the Amazon balance sheet that’s like finding a penny on the floor for you and I, however to me $6k is a good chunk of change.

How often does the giant make mistakes? And what recourse do we have as consumers? The simple answer is don’t shop at Amazon, but I would expect that to be hard to do. Even my parents who are terrified of someone getting their credit card number online shop Amazon.

Lost.. Where did you go?
What happened?

The beast know as Amazon loves to promise insanely fast shipping times. If anyone is going to invent a Star Trek like transporter its going to be Amazon. Recently I purchased a Blink camera system which was expected to arrive the next day. Great! I didn’t need it for two days, but early is good.

On the day of arrival everything was going great:

      • 2:13 AM – Package arrived at carrier facility
      • 8:08 AM – Out for delivery

Then pooof a delay was posted

      • 4:14pm – A carrier delay has occurred

Ok, what does that mean? Did the truck break down? Did the driver get sick? Maybe a flat tire? Who knows, the good news was that Amazon said they were going to get my shipment back on track and have it delivered tomorrow.

Wait, I just checked in with the tracking before I went to bed and a new message appeared.

      • 11:28 PM – Lost by carrier – undeliverables

Wow, another vague message. Was it stolen off the truck? Did it ever make it on the truck?

Talking With Amazon Customer Service

The next morning I called Amazon customer service, who by the way answered the phone in about 1 minute (give credit where its due) and quickly looked at the order to see what was going on. They said indeed the package was lost and gone forever. They asked me what I wanted to do, so I replied go to the warehouse (which is about 20min from where I live) pickup another and deliver it as promised. I mean they deliver stuff same day all the time.

I was then placed on hold for about 5 minutes and a different operator returned, I’m guessing supervisor? They said my only option was a refund. I didn’t want a refund I need the camera system TODAY. Nope.. not going to happen. Here’s your refund and because we value your business I can give you a $5 credit to your account.

A company with a market cap of almost 800 Billion dollars thinks a $5 credit is a way to say I’m sorry for loosing my order. I have only spent $32,000 with Amazon since I have become a member and have had a Prime subscription since 2015.

Size matters

Once a company like Amazon hits a certain size any and all customer service goes out the window. In a small to mid size company, maybe they would call down to the warehouse and have Jimmy or Phil drive one over to my quick. Or maybe they would give me a $25 gift card for my trouble, or extend my Prime subscription for a couple of months. NOPE.. As with all large companies the customer service department is forced to follow a script and execute as directed. I guess I could escalate this to executive customer service and get a tad bit more satisfaction, but its probably not worth the effort.

I will say the CSR I spoke with told me there was no one above him that could help me. He was the top guy and asking to speak to his supervisor was a mute point. I think when he answered the phone he said his name was Jeff  B

Thanks Amazon.. I’ll try not to spend my whole $5 credit in one place!

Thank you for reading my blog RANT
-Joe

 

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