Amazon.com, Number 2 in the Holiday Shopping Experience. Not a Good Thing!
by JBduckling - Written: Dec 23 '06
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
|
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
Amazon.com through a blatant act of customer service, jumped to second place, out of three, in the JBduckling Holiday on-line shopping experience contest. In an updated review, Abt Electronics was the runaway winner, with MLB.com finishing a distant third. What helped Amazon.com to place? Here is my experience:
My first "order" this holiday season was a disaster with Amazon.com. I received an email about free shipping with a $25 purchase. My boys like sports figurines and books, so I placed a pretty decent order via Amazon.com.
1. Secondary orders: I did not realize Amazon is a website for other merchants, so it was confusing with sports figurines. These did not qualify for free shipping, however, there were some bargains to be had, plus the virtual selection of the Internet is unlimited. I got over this minor inconvenience because all of the third party merchants came through. Kudos to Spawn.com for high quality third party service.
2. The original orders for three books, I was supposed to receive by December 22nd via UPS. Everything seemed to be in order until I went into the delivery information and saw the order was delayed until January 25th! Yikes! What the???? This was news to me so I emailed AMAZON.com customer service about my situation. Some off-shore response team personally answered, gave me a $5 credit but still could not guarantee Christmas delivery. I still held out for some hope.
3. Every day, I received the same "deal" email from Amazon.com, touting free delivery and Christmas delivery. I blistered another email to customer service, received another off-shore answer with nothing to add about when the items will be shipped, so I promptly canceled the order.
4. Still, I had that $5 in my account, so I went back on-line, ordered similar books plus one of the same, and poof! All were delivered within the week. Go figure. Botched one order, similar order got a hit.
5. Problem with on-line orders, if they had the opportunity at the time, to suggest another similar book, they would have saved all of us countless days and aggravating moments. I had to go through the exercise of cancel and reorder my self, plus it cost the company $5 or 20% of my order.
While I enjoy the ultimate selection at Amazon.com, I am becoming disappointed in their service. I had to look at my order to see the delay. At one time, they were world class, now I feel they are turning into a pass-through website for secondary merchants. Gather their percentage from the pass and sale, and less hassle than buying directly through Amazon.com. I do recommend Amazon.com simply because of the shipping offer and huge, virtual everything in the world selection. Service is way below average.
This holiday season: Abt Electronics is a runaway Winner, with timely shipping and world class prices and service. Amazon.com is second by default and thanks to a $5 credit. Last place is MLB.com, I am still waiting for some Christmas gifts from them, with no reasonable explanation.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Kids books
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
