Amazon did the right thing
Well, Amazon had a major screwup with me a couple months ago. Jeez, it’s been that long ALREADY!?
Steph sold a big scrapbook project and wanted to get a fancy-shmancy video iPod with her earnings. So we ordered one from Amazon and it promptly arrived. I had it shipped to my office, since we didn’t want it sitting on our front porch in the cold. It shows up at my office, and while I wanted to let Steph have the fun of opening the box, I thought… it’s doesn’t matter if I open the shipping box…
Open the shipping box and pull out the lovely black iPod package. Um, wait a minute, the circular seal is broken… Huh. Ok, I slide the packaging open… Huh, the plastic baggie holding the headphones and other stuff is already slit open. The iPod itself looks a little smudgy. I pull it out. The silver back is scratched and worn. WTF?! I power it up. It say’s “Mike’s iPod” and has over a thousand songs already loaded on it. Try to Murphy’s Law, though, it’s all crap.
So I call Steph with the bad news and say that we need to return it and get a real new one, seeing as that’s what we paid for.
Amazon, to their credit, immediately sends another one. A new one this time.
I ship back the first one. Get the confirmation e-mail that they received it. And all is good, right?
Wrong. This month I got the credit card bill and noticed a little (well, not so little) charge that wasn’t supposed to be there. The charged me for the first one and didn’t credit me. Argh! So back on the phone with support. The girl says, “No it says we credited you.” I disagree. She (to their credit) quickly escalates me to the next level of support and says her manager will call me within 24 hours. He never does. But I DO get an e-mail saying basically “Oops. Our bad.” and they end up giving me the credit. Although it’s 59 cents short. Not sure what that’s about.
Feeling like I deserve something for their screwup I fire off a mildly irritated letter to them explaining the whole situation. They reply with the following:
Thank you for writing to Amazon.com. I have confirmed that we mistakenly charged you for the above order and have issued a refund to your credit card on February 13, 2007 in the amount of $332.49. The refund should appear on your next credit card billing statement. To compensate for the inconvenience and frustration caused to you in this case, please accept this $10.00 promotional certificate to utilize on your next visit to Amazon.com. Please note, this promotional certificate code has been automatically added to your account. You will not receive a claim code. Please accept my sincere apology that this occurred. As a representative of Amazon.com, I want to assure you that we value our customers' trust above all else--it's the foundation on which our company was built. Please know that we'll continue working hard to ensure that you receive accurate service, and to minimize the chances of anything like this occurring again. You may view completed refunds by clicking the "Your Account" link at the top of our web site, then clicking "Go!" next to "open and recently shipped orders." Completed refunds will appear at the bottom of an individual order's summary page. I hope that you will continue to consider Amazon.com for your future online shopping needs. Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question: If yes, click here: http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=rvgxqudy345958 If not, click here: http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=rvgxqudy345958 Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our web site. Best regards, Shantha Amazon.com Customer Service http://www.amazon.com
Things I find interesting about their reply:
- They use language like “… on your next visit to Amazon.com” in the not-so-subliminal attempt to make you come back.
- They have whole paragraph dedicated to explaining that the certificate is ALREADY in my account and I’m not getting a sep email. How many questions did they have to field before adding that paragraph in?
- Finally they have an easy to use satisfaction feedback thingy. Just click here for satisfied, or here if not. Couldn’t be easier for them to get their resolution feedback.
So even though they fall under the category ‘big nameless, faceless corporation’ and they screwed up, I’ll still shop there. They really did address the problems quickly. And, when I pushed, they threw me a bone in the form of a $10 bribe to keep coming back. Good enough.
Have you had any bad online shopping experiences? Did they turn out OK in the end?
6 Comments to Amazon did the right thing
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Actually, I also had an issue with Amazon..last year…it was over a video I ordered for school…and they also remedied the situation in a timely fashion. I’m glad it all worked out in the end. As for them assuming you will return to their site…hmm thats how they GET you!! Its a conspiracy towards all us consumers and all stores are joining in on the plot!!
Never had a bad experience with Amazon but mmm I think I have only ordered a few things from them, and no problem. Mainly it’s those dang Harry Potter books, so how can they screw that up, right? Oh geeze, wonder if I just jinxed myself.
You know for the amt they charged and didn’t credit, a $50 gift cert would have been much better, but hey $10 is better than nothing, right???
Overall, all of my experiences with Amazon have been positive. I can recall a few small issues but they were all taken care of quickly and to my satisfaction. Now PayPal I feel is the embodiment of evil. I’ve had tremendous problems with them. (Too much to comment in this box with, perhaps it deserves a post of it’s own).
Anytime a company gives you something for your trouble they deserve props, good customer service is so rare these days.
Wow, a “used” iPod, that’s really weird. Glad everything turned out alright in the end.
I use Amazon a lot, but never had any screw ups.
Don’t you hate it when they compensation requires additional purchases from the offending vendor? I had my brakes done a while back and they forgot to tighten the bolts that held the calipers in position. After the second application of the brakes, the entire caliper assembly moved out of position and slammed into the rim. The car stopped, but not in a manner consistent with brake design. After having to get towed back to the repair shop and have them fix it (took until the next day to get the car back) they decide to send me a certificate for a discount on my NEXT service by them. There is a laugh!!! I would love to find a way to do that kind of thing when I pay poeple like that….OK, sorry about shorting you a few bucks for the crappy work….how about I pay you extra on the next service??? Let’s see how that works!
[...] And, no, I don’t blindly go through life with machines paying my bills. I check them ever week. In fact I noticed Amazon mistakenly charged me several hundred for something I returned. And that Moe’s double charged me $10 for a dinner once (’course I couldn’t find the receipt and doubt if I could have gotten restitution, so just let that one go…) I keep a Google Spreadsheet of all the bills and check them off throughout the month as they appear online in my bank account. [...]