posted
I buy almost all my books and cds from Amazon lately, because it's just so handy, and I've been really happy with them until recently.
The last time I had any sort of problem with my order, a cd that wouldn't play in my drive, I called and they sent me a postage paid sticker, and they sent out a replacement, and it was all fine and dandy. Their customer service people were super nice and friendly and helpful. I was pleased with how they handled all my orders, and particularly the one I had trouble with.
Well, today I tried to call about my tool cd, which should have been here on the 2nd and still isn't here on the 6th. I'm sort of wanting that cd, and I wondered what happened to it. The tracking info online just said they had notified the carrier to pick it up (the USPS). I couldn't find any further tracking information. So I picked up the phone today to call and ask what was up. Well, I had a really unpleasant experience.
They have a new computer phone system that supposedly listens to what you say and responds. The only thing is that it keeps asking the same questions over and over even if you don't know the answers, and it keeps repeating the same menu options over and over even if your problem is not on the list. Why can't it transfer you to a human person after the third or fourth missed attempt? When I finally became frustrated and started saying "human" "person" "rep" "representative" "live" "operator" and every other word I could think of that might be in its dictionary, it hung up on me. I tried 4 times to negotiate the menus, and kept getting stuck in dead ends. It was infuriating.
Is this the new Amazon customer service system? I hope not. If so, I'm not buying anything else there ever.
Has anyone else called Amazon recently? Did you get the same deal? What sort of experiences have you had with them? And what online books and cds places do you use?
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Amazon has gotten increasingly difficult to deal with as they expand their product line further and further. When they only sold products stored in their own warehouses, it was a relatively simple matter: now Amazon is partnered with god knows how many third parties to sell products through their site.
I'd recommend checking to see if the item you bought was directly from Amazon or whether it was "offered by (someone else)." If offered by someone else, contact them directly. Beyond that...that sucks.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Can't speak to Amazon's customer disservice... but I can tell you that when you get those stupid automated router systems, they will *usually* finally send you to a human being if you stay completely silent through three cycles of the prompts. Yes, this means you have to sit for a minute or two before you get to someone, but better to sit in silence than sit even longer because you can't drill through the levels their way.
I've only had one system disconnect me rather than send me to service. And that was UPS.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Something that might work, that I've done with other companies' automated phone systems, is just pick one of the options that sounds like you'll have to speak directly to someone (even if it has nothing to do with your particular issue) Then just ask *that* operator to transfer me to the appropriate department.
Posts: 3516 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
They had this thing at Christmas where you went on the site, entered some basic info, and got a phone call from the customer service rep. Worked great.
posted
The other crazy thing is that, of course, I pulled up the exact order and shipment that I was talking about on screen before I got it to make the call. But then it asked me questions which were not on that screen! I had the tracking number showing, but for some reason the screen didn't show the order number, so the phone asked for the order number. I finally shifted around to a different screen and found that, then it asked me for something else that wasn't showing. Of course I memorize all my Amazon 12 digit order numbers on outstanding orders!
I seriously hope that was a pilot for the new system, and that they'll decide to either fix it or go back to the old way. Otherwise, it will make buying from them impossible.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I bought an Amazon ecard Saturday for my daughter's birthday on Sunday. She still hasn't received it this morning. I've called them twice - rather, I've put in my info and they've called me, yesterday and today. Both times I've been connected with a real person after a short computer phone tag deal. I STILL don't know what's happening or why the gift certificate hasn't been emailed, but I haven't had any trouble getting through.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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quote:I bought an Amazon ecard Saturday for my daughter's birthday on Sunday. She still hasn't received it this morning. I've called them twice - rather, I've put in my info and they've called me, yesterday and today. Both times I've been connected with a real person after a short computer phone tag deal. I STILL don't know what's happening or why the gift certificate hasn't been emailed, but I haven't had any trouble getting through.
Triple check spam filters. Everything about an emailed gift certificate SCREAMS spam to filters.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Yeah, we thought of that, but according to the Amazon site, the ecard hasn't been sent yet and I haven't received the email telling me it's been sent. I told my daughter to watch for it, and she said she usually gets emails from Amazon without trouble, so I don't think that's the problem here.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
I called again tonight, thinking that perhaps the computer-only-no-human-fallback system was only on weekends and it did the same thing. I tried the trick of not speaking for three times through, and it hung up on me. I can't find any menu option that will get me a person.
This has been so incredibly frustrating that I vow never again to buy anything from Amazon.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I tried one more time, and found a way to a person. The person I finally talked to said they have real live people available 24/7 but it's apparently hard to find the right path through the menu maze to get them. She gave me an 800 number that gets right to them, but it's not shown on their site, for some reason.... a policy decision that someone should be fired for. That and the decision to hang up on a person if they don't give the right answer to the computer, rather than routing them to a human being.
They're sending me out a new one UPS next day. It should be here tomorrow.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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