Shopping On Amazon.com Is A Generally Positive Experience
by smileyjohn - Written: Aug 08 '06
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Amazon.com has been in business since 1995 and went public in 1997 (NASDAQ symbol AMZN), the same year I first purchased books from them on-line. That first experience was very positive - the books were priced less than at all the local brick & mortar establishments and were delivered right to my door. I have shopped Amazon.com at least monthly ever since.
As more products were offered, my purchasing increased, plus we spend even more around holidays and other gift giving times. Besides books, Amazon.com is the first place I go to look for music, DVDs, small appliances and tools. Earlier this summer, while we were out pricing patio furniture, my better half suggested we look on Amazon.com before making a decision. Later that day we went on-line and found everything we wanted for our deck at lower prices than we had seen in the stores. Plus, we paid no sales tax or shipping charges and everything was delivered right to our house.
Amazon.com has also established relationships with other merchants and offers their products on the website too, but for the most part, I do not buy anything that is not sold directly by Amazon.com because the other merchants almost always charge for delivery and some charge tax. You can avoid being presented with other merchants' offerings by adding "amazon.com" when you search for items. Example, the search words: "george foreman grill amazon.com" should bring up only those grills for which you will not have to pay additional charges for tax and delivery. That does not mean I never buy from other merchants, I have been satisfied with the few items I bought that were not sold by Amazon.com, but were offered on their website.
Another feature we like is the "Friday Sale." It is not heavily publicized, but if you go to "Deals" on a Friday and scroll down you will see a link to the once a week sale. There are lots of bargains on items that we do not need and usually do not buy, but sometimes we find some gem items, such as king sized, 400 count, 100% cotton sheets with pillow cases for $35 one Friday and "Le Creuset" cookware at half off another Friday.
However, as with any relationship, the one I have with Amazon.com is not always rosy. To avoid pitfalls when making purchases, I have learned to always read the customer reviews. It is a great way to find out whether or not a super deal is really that super. Recently, I chose to not buy one brand of coffee grinder that was offered at a great price. From reading the reviews, I determined that, even at a great price, it was not going to meet our needs because of the problems people reported about noise level and difficulty cleaning. I ended up purchasing a slightly more expensive brand that was consistently rated high by reviewers.
The main issue with receiving a product that is not quite what I wanted, or does not function well, or is defective, is having to deal with customer service. This is the area in which, in my opinion, Amazon.com falls on its corporate face. I have a few tricks to share.
Hopefully, if you receive an item that has to be returned and/or replaced, you can do it without actually interacting at all with an Amazon.com employee. Recently, we received a set of ceramic canisters that arrived with some pieces broken. It was obvious that the box was not packed correctly to avoid damage. No problem with that one, I just followed the links for receiving damaged merchandise and printed out a free return label while their system generated another order for the merchandise at no charge. After receiving an email that the replacement had been shipped, I resealed up the defective box, taped the label to it and dropped it off at the post office a couple days later. The replacement canister set arrived properly packaged and in perfect condition. Did I mention they were a screaming deal?
If you are unlucky enough to have to deal with Amazon.com about a problem that can only be resolved by contacting a person, the option offered you will be to do it through email. Take my advice and call them instead at (800) 201-7575. I learned the hard way when a promised rebate never came through and I spent more than a week trading emails trying to make someone understand. Frustrated and tired of pat, unhelpful answers, I googled for a number to call to speak with a person and, low and behold, after a short conversation, my rebate code was sent the same day. FYI, they make the toll free number very, very cumbersome to get to on their site (they really want people to write), so list it in your contact information.
Amazon.com recently launched a grocery division. Stay away from that area of the site for now. All of the four grocery related orders I placed created problems (one arrived with damaged goods, one was cancelled because they did not have the product, and two keep having their anticipated delivery dates pushed back). It will be cool when they have their act together because the prices I see are really discounted, but they obviously do not have a handle yet on being able to provide the grocery products.
Approximately 90% of my Amazon.com transactions happen without a glitch with the merchandise arriving within the promised time frame. It is the other 10% of transactions that can make me crazy because of the resulting hoops I have to jump through for resolution. Even though I abhor the customer service aspect of shopping with Amazon.com, I keep going back because, thankfully, the bad experiences do not come up too often, I save money, and it is convenient for us.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Books, DVDs, Music, Tools, Appliances
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