Great Selection but Very Poor Customer Service
by surfer2821 - Written: Jan 20 '02
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The Good: Amazon.com has a multitude of online stores and used merchants. Their selection is great and often reasonable for books. For other items like software and electronics, their pricing varies. Sometimes daily. If one watches their pricing, one will notice they do change, sometimes daily with sales and specials. However, like regular stores, the sales and specials don't last forever. For many Amazon.com is convenient as a one stop mall. Offering wide selections at good to average prices, I wished I could recommend it.
The Bad: While Amazon.com has a great selection with books and other stores, it has problems. Their customer service are really a negative. Problems finding their customer service phone number ,which by the way is 800-201-7575, poor communication, and untimely shipping have definately turned me away. Most my problems have been with their gift certificates and borders gift cards. I have used both types and have had repeated problems. Upon reaching their customer service department, I have had to wait days for them to contact their supervisors, managers, and other mystery overseers. Recently I recieved two gift certifcates for christmas. Both did not work at the checkout screen. Both were actual paper certificates worth $50 each. After communicating with their customer service by email, phone calls, and then some more phone calls, I managed to have them reissue both three times. Luckily the third time worked. Other people and friends I know have had similar problems as well. Their customer service in general is poor as of late. Often unknowledable and perhaps frazzled, they seem be mostly unfriendly and inefficient at best. Often they blame the customer. Here are some examples that really happened. If an item was shipped in error, its your fault. You just didn't order the correct item even though your selection is select on the confirmation email. If your order never arrives, you are lying. It really did. You are just trying to obtain free merchandise. Perhaps the best are the gift certificates the don't work. Thats usually a simple response. You already used them. Or someone you lived with. Unbelievable. Take my word, keep all your paperwork and talk directly with a supervisor, they always have their no matter what a customer service rep says.
Summary: Shopping at Amazon.com can be a good experience if you don't have any problems. Unfortunaley, life is not perfect and shopping at Amazon.com especially not. I really can't recommend shopping at Amazon.com because of their customer service. However, if you must shop there read on. Don't use any gift certificates or border's gift cards. Be sure to use a real credit card, not a check card or electronic check transfer, and you can at least dispute the charges on you monthly bill if something goes wrong. Make sure someone can pick up your package or keep it secure until you can pick it up. (You might be surprised that Amazon.com will deny or refuse to reship something that never arrives which they consider stolen or reported as such). Be sure to keep all your reciepts and paperwork.
Recommended:
No
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