Something really irritating has happened to me with Amazon.com.

On July 14, I placed an order for two soundtracks: The Royal Tenenbaums and Dawn Of The Dead. I used a $5 off $35 coupon in my order.

Here's a part of the invoice they sent me:The Dawn soundtrack soon got delayed and Amazon informed me that they would ship the soundtracks separately at no extra cost. This change was reflected on my order status. So far, so good.

I waited and waited and waited, but Amazon just didn't ship the Tenenbaums soundtrack. I even asked them about it but don't remember ever having received a reply.

Anyway, a little over a week ago, I checked the order status page to see that the order was being prepared for shipment. Great... or not. Two things had happened to my order without warning:

1. Amazon had removed the $5 promotional certificate from my order.

2. The CDs would ship not in two shipments as promised but in one.

Of course, it was too late to cancel the order, and I immediately started an e-mail correspondence with Amazon. In three or e-mail messages, I have patiently tried to explain how I am being mistreated as a customer. Every reply I've received has pretty much been a variation of the following:They simply don't seem to care about #2 (see above) at all. And what's worse, not only have I been overcharged $5 but now that the order was shipped with a receipt that claims the value is $38.55, the package will definitely get stuck at customs and I'll have to pay a further $9 customs fee.

I feel that even though the order "did not meet the minimum requirements" for the certificate, it should be honored if it was initially accepted in the order. Furthermore, when an order is promised to ship in two shipments, it shouldn't be recombined to one without my consent.

As a side note, I know Amazon has been having trouble with honoring coupons and other discounts. In fact, I had the same thing happen to me on another order, but the promotional certificate removed from that order was reinstated as soon as I informed Amazon about it.

I'd definitely call them and complain if I lived in the States. But I'm not going to call them from here (Finland) for the sake of $5; hell, the call alone would probably cost a lot more than that.

Can you suggest what I should do? Have any of you had similar experience?

Not sure about international calling, but can you not use the toll free (1-800-201-7575) number outside the US? If so, I'd call. I have called Amazon for price adjustments, etc and never had an issue getting what I requested over the phone. If not, I'd ask them to provide some sort of return postage if the order cannot be cancelled, or dispute the charge with your CC company.

Amazon has some sort of problem in their system - I have routinely had coupons and STL dropped from my orders when they enter the shipping stage. I usually call and have the problem resolved. I would advice you to deal with CS and tell them the order was accepted with the coupon and ask them to honor it - otherwise ask why the coupon was honored in the first place. If they took the coupon when they accepted the order, to ship it later without honoring it is just a bait and switch.

This type of mess is typical for Amazon. The Amazon of old days is gone. Unless you like chronic problems, late deliveries, etc., shop elsewhere.

Tyler_Durden, I would try emailing again (don't include the old emails, just recap the situation), and be sure to include the lack of help the past emails have elicited. But this time ask for an order specialist to look at the situation. I'd put that as the first sentence, and launch into the story after.

While I have had problems with their billing system myself over the past year (their new system sucks big time) emails have fixed 90% of the problems. Phone calls fixed the other 10%, but that's mostly because I call after two emails that didn't solve the problem. If I were not in the U.S., I'd just be persistent with the emails, frustrating as that can be.

The last time I had a problem (and had to call) the csr tried to tell me I couldn't use share the love and a promo coupon on the same order. I simply said, yes I can, I've done it many times before, and please get an order specialist. An OS came on and the situation was fixed in one more minute. And she corrected the guy on his misinformation. Even though it is more of a hassle now if an order changes for any reason (discounts/coupons get dropped) - I've never had them fail to fix a situation. Hang in there.

Thanks guys; I'm waiting for another reply from them, but if one doesn't arrive soon, I'll just keep trying.

I'd raise hell. I am in complete 100% agreement that if the coupon comes off in the shopping cart and the order goes thru with the coupon code intact, there should be no taking the coupon code off later on. I've had similar things happen to me before. I lost a coupon on an order when I called with a problem on my order and the CSR upped my shipping to two days free of charge. Only thing was that when she did that, she caused me to lose my coupon, as once you change the shipping, you lose your coupon. So, if you ask me, I think that is what happened here. You mentioned that the shipment status changed from two to one shipments. I imagine that is what caused you to lose your coupon.

When I had contacted them about mine being lost off my accout, they continually tried to make it look like it was my fault, I didn't qualify for it, whatever blah blah blah. I had to call them three times before I got results. And calling is the best, bummer you can't do that. But stay on them with the emails.

After all this time, you would think amazon.com would have fixed the bug in their system that causes people to lose their coupons once the shipping method is jacked around with.

If you read my post in the other forum, something similar happened to me and they essentially denied me free shipping on a single item even though my amount was well over $25 even after the coupons and STL.

So, I nicely responded by asking them to spell out exactly what the final price would be. Then they finally relented and admitted they made a mistake. The whole lame thing is that they said they would overcharge me when my order shipped in Nov then I must ask for a refund.

Does that make sense to anyone?

You should definitely CALL amazon, it's much easier to get a favorable response in my experience.

This happens all the time to me. When an order ships it is processed by their software and it decides what the final charge is - its this software thats at fault, dropping coupons, STL etc.
So, if you call before the item has shipped, no matter what the CSR does, it has no bearing on what the software will do when the order ships. The mistake has to be corrected after the fact.

Now, the question is, why doesn't Amazon (which surely knows by now that there is a problem with the software) fix the problem at the source? They could probably save a bunch on CSR and telephone calls if they just fix the issue.

I personally think they don't fix it because for every person they have to issue credits to, there are probably a half dozen people who just give up. I had to call three times to get results on my order, and they just seem to keep on refusing to help people thru email, so I am sure that there are enough people who just give up on trying to save on their coupons they lost, so amazon.com more than likely makes enough money off of this "bug" to make it worth the while of the suits who run the place who don't have to field all the phone calls and answer all the emails. Likely the people responding to the complaints about the "bug" in the software are powerless to change it or to correct the problem, and the people who can correct it see it as a way to fraud more money out of their customers.

Don't forget the time amazon.com tried their "price testing" and wound up having to refund many people they over charged for items. It seems to me amazon.com is more than willing to try shady pricing schemes and to leave "bugs" in the system in hopes nobody will say anything and thus make more money off of people.

Calhoun you're right on the money.

As I continue to try to get them to correct the amount before they charge me (which any reputable retailer would do) the saga continues.

I sent them another email about their suspicious "overcharge then refund" policy (even though they have two months to correct the problem) and instead of fixing it, they offer me a $5 promotional coupon! How is this a refund? I still have to place another order to use it.

I replied the same to them and said that if they overcharge me I will still be asking for a cash refund and be contacting the BBB as well.

Wasn't Amazon lauded for their great customer service? What happened?

Why do they overcharge and then refund? Simple. Interest. Sure, the interest that they can earn off of your $5-$10 may not be much, but multiply that times hundreds or thousands of orders.

There is a major grocery chain that does not care if it ever makes a dime off of selling groceries. They make their money by only buying on 30+ day terms with their suppliers. They take your money, earn interest on it for 1-3 months, then pay their bills with your money, keeping the interest. It is a very viable and sometimes profitable business practice. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Amazon was doing this with these "overcharges."

How viable is refusing the shipment and disputing the charge with your credit card company?

Amazon's customer service structure is one that I have found deplorable for years. Unfortunately, it is catching on. Basically you structure your CSRs so that a person has to jump through hoops to get to the last person who can actually help them. Why not save time and money by just solving the problem right off the bat? Like you guys said, there apparently is more money in suckering the ones who give up.

When someone says "Can I help you?" I never answer "Yes." My reply is always, "Perhaps you can point me to the person that I NEED to talk to." This usually forgoes all of the early bullcr@p steps, and surprisingly works.

Get this:

After I sent a response to the promo-coupon they sent me in-leiu(sp?) of a billing correction they responded by saying that it wasn't a refund at all, just a nice gesture on their part.

They also now claim that I will be charged the correct amount even though it lists the total price wrong.

So which is it?

Hmmm. . . maybe it wasn't me then. I had an order last month that was supposed to have $30 taken off because I had a promotional gc. I didn't notice that the coupon didn't go through at some point, but I made a new order last week and all of a sudden I had a $30 gc. I thought I'd lucked out and they were letting me reuse the coupon, but when I checked, it hadn't gone through the first time. I probably just spaced it, but maybe it was something with the software.

tasha