Wait, I have to go and check if I have already spouted off about Amazon or should I say Crapazon. I know. I'm brilliant. Took me 10 seconds longer than most people to get that jazzy term out of my brain.
As far as I can tell I am all clear to drop this waste of customer service on all of you.
Up here in Canada we have a bookstore called Chapters which I have complained about ad nauseam but OMG, I could so french kiss them right now. I'm just saying. You have no idea how good you got it until you try a competitor.
Amazon, the Canadian branch, came along a few years ago but I had never really found a reason to buy from them. Basically they don't realize what is standard for the Canadian market. They might be better now but their DVD prices were so out of whack when they first opened it was crazy. After that I started to compare Amazon prices to Chapters and found that because I had a membership I saved even more money at Chapters than I could at Amazon. Since I prefer to keep money in my pockets I chose the one that was cheaper.
Well, I stretched out.
Way out apparently.
On June 30th I placed an order at Amazon for two books they had in stock and a DVD that they claimed was in stock but turned out wasn't when I went to check out. I admit that I took a second to think about my options at that point. I had just come back from the World's Biggest Bookstore and had gone hog wild so there weren't too many books I wanted at that time. I thought about it for a minute and thought 'meh, Chapters always ships things as they show up and they do it for free so obviously Amazon will be the same'.
Wrong.
I get an e-mail maybe three days later to inform me they had received my order. (Had I mailed that puppy in? What the hell took so long?) In this e-mail I am given a date of July 11th to 13th as the potential shipping day. I'm thinking there is no way they are going to make me wait weeks for the books they have in stock and since Chapters does the same I wasn't worried.
Days go by and I'm getting mad.
July 12th I write an e-mail telling them how shoddy I find their customer service (in a nutshell) and that I'm shocked that they haven't shipped me the books that were in stock. For Heaven's sake I could have bought the books twelve times over at local stores at this point. I didn't say that part although I was tempted. I did explain Chapter's policy on shipping and that they clearly were not competitive.
I get an e-mail back explaining how the ship date is determined and that they are sorry I'm not having a good experience and that they will now ship my books to me free using express shipping.
The new shipping date?
July 18th.
That my friends is a customer service department with a 'fuck you' attitude.
What's horrible is that I would soooo do this to someone too. Oh, our service isn't good enough for you? Well, let's see how you feel about this!
Karma sucks.
Edited: I got an e-mail today saying my order has shipped. Wonder if it's on the North American continent?
5 comments:
You know, I've never had an issue with Amazon. Oh, wait, that's not true. Once I did. I shipped some books to Grace in Aussie that she never received. They said they couldn't track them because it was international. We had words and I got a whole grip of stuff for my trouble. But then, I'm not a very nice person.
Anyway, I paid an exorbant amount of money for a Prime membership and i LURRRVE it. I get free two day shipping on everything and I guaranteed delivery by certain dates. It's fab.
Oh, and I hate B&N, just FYI.
I haven't had problems with Amazon that I recall (teh memory...'tis bad). They are usually pretty good about shipping stuff as it is available even if I choose "ship it all together" - except when I want them to. Then they wait until everything is available. Sneaks!
I use B&N more often, because I am a member there and get discounts and coupons. I loves me some coupons!
I've never had a prob with Amazon either. However, I live close to a B&N, which I hardly love, but when I really want a new release I know I can get it...usually.
I'd swoon to have a Borders. The closest is about a 40 minute drive and I love to go there. They always have everything and shelve books as soon as they can unless there's a strict street date release.
I've never really had a problem with Amazon, but I deal with Amazon U.S. (although I have bought from Amazon France and they've been great as well).
That being said, like Rosie, I REALLY wish I had a Borders close by. I used to shop in Borders all the time, but since I've moved, the closest is 60 miles away. B & N sucks in comparison.
Holly - I think the US Amazon can run circles around it's competition - it seems it's out of country ones are crummy.
And you're a great person!
C2 - Ah, see, it's that 'maybe we'll be nice today or maybe you can bite us' that would piss me off ;)
Rosie - Okay, I'll have to make a note that the next time I'm over the border I want to go to Borders and not B&N.
LinnieGayl - hmmm, maybe it was just my order then although I recall having this kind of a problem before. Back before Chapters came online I used to buy books from the US Amazon and they rocked. The shipping hurt like drilling through your fingers but they were great! I just wish their Canadian branch could be just as efficient.
CindyS
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