PEA wrote an entry today about her frustration with customer service which reminded me of my own little ongoing saga. I spent quite a bit of time on the telephone with Amazon two weeks ago in an attempt to return duplicate Christmas gifts. It took quite a bit of explanation to get the concept across to the representative but it seemed like we finally came to an understanding. Unfortunately, she kept e-mailing me return information for the same item, not four different items.
I admit that part of the confusion was that although they were all from the same customer, they had been purchased on three separate occasions so there was some research required. It took several follow-up e-mails after we'd terminated our phone conversation before I finally had the necessary information. Even then they had one of the items to be returned wrong, but I figured since that order number was the same that I could substitute the actual DVD I was returning by crossing out the misinformation and writing in the correct item. I was told that I could not mail said items via USPS but had to use UPS. She assured me that UPS would pick up the returns and provide mailing labels - all I had to do was package them for shipping. Of course there had to be three separate packages, one for each order number. So said packages sat by our front door until this past Monday when I recontacted Amazon to ask what the heck was going on. I also specifically requested an address where I could mail, via USPS, my packages.
Amazon apologized and provided me with UPS mailing labels and tracking numbers (argh!) I noted that they also showed the original purchaser as the return addressee, not me, so who knows where the credit will go? However, lo and behold, Amazon's address was the same where I had returned a DVD that I had purchased. I had actually mailed it the same day I contacted Amazon regarding the others and have already received credit to my account. (So they can be efficient)
Anyway, I re-boxed all four items into one package, used my Click-N-Ship USPS account and had my mailman pick up the package Wednesday. Now I just have to wait and see who, if anyone, gets the credit.
I hope this makes sense. Writing it all out makes it sound more complicated than it actually is/was.
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That is ridiculous. I went through a similar thing with my kids' university. They said UPS would pick up our packages and provide mailing labels. It was inferred that the delivery man would handle that when he arrived. Nothing happened. Then we found out that we had to create the mailing labels with tracking numbers online, print them out ourselves and affix them to our boxes before the delivery man would show up. I think part of the problem is that people just don't have clear communication skills now-a-days. Written instructions as well as verbal instructions are vague. Who left out telling us which website to go to? A website wasn't even mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI'm fuming right now because last month I bought a business insurance policy from State Farm. They asked me to pay a certain amount, and then called to say that they made a mistake and I actually owe a different amount. So I wrote out a check, only to have that check returned to me by my agent because they found another mistake and quoted me for a third amount. I wrote out a second check for the third amount, only to receive a refund in the mail because it was too much. After making a special trip into town to the bank to deposit the unexpected refund check and wasting all that gas, they then billed me because they refunded me too much!!! It really makes you wonder if their reps ever passed sixth grade math.
This is one reason I hesitate to order anything too pricey on Amazon; I fear it would be difficult making a return, since so many of the goods they sell are not directly from Amazon, but from other sellers.
ReplyDeleteSounds like they hired some extra help for the holidays, but forgot to train them. =) Hope you get it all worked out. I think customer service in general has gone downhill, unfortunately ~
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