You aren't the first person to suggest this. I was explaining this situation to two other people and they seemed to think a class action lawsuit was realistic. You can't say you are charging one price and raise it without the knowledge of the customer. Maybe someone with some legal expertise can elaborate on the situation...

Damn! I didn't know amazon could re-instate an already canceled order. I once canceled an order and wanted to reorder using a new promo. After canceling I discovered the item price went up. I called amazon and they said once an order was canceled it could not be re-instated. I ended up re-ordering and had an order specialist re-adjust the price for me. If they could simply re-instate an order, it would have saved me hassles waiting and explaining over the phone

A class action lawsuit is relistic. I can imagine there are tons of people who didn't check their CC statements and had been overcharged without knowledge. Any legal expert here?

Not sure about a class-action suit, but what about the court of public opinion? Didn't Amazon's little experiment when they changed prices for different customers make a minor flap in the evening news a couple years back?

A bit of publicity could be fair warning for the casual customer who might otherwise get sucked in by a "free shipping" promo that may or may not actually get applied. Plus, a bit of bad publicity might actually motivate Amazon to finally do something, especially with the holiday shopping season coming up in a month or so. Dunno if this kind of thing's newsworthy, though.

I've been pretty happy w/ Amazon for the past couple years, despite the glitches, but when 3 of every 4 orders has screwed up billing -- and in Amazon's favor every single time -- it's too much.

Back to lurking.

Do Not Email Amazon or any other CS reps for that matter.

I find that the dim bulbs that take CS rep jobs cannot read an email message to save their lives. Any time I send an email message to Amazon or anywhere else, I get a canned response that barely has anything to do with my situation.

However, Amazon has a very good CS phone rep system in that everyone is very polite, and you end up being transferred to one of the few people who has a clue.

But, they'll never get it right by email.

I've had these sorts of problems for months and months (I'm sure I saw the "minus minus" back in 2001).

GEOFF - Can you call Amazon and try to get through to some management person? If one of us were to call, we wouldn't get too far in terms of trying to get the problem fixed - they would just adjust our own orders, and never do anything about getting the problem fixed.

But - as a representative of many customers, who has a web site that provides a lot of business to Amazon, perhaps you can get through to someone who can give the software people a kick in the butt to fix all this, once and for all.

Thanks!

I received some junk mail from some guy who has higher-power in the amazon land:

"Jeff Bezos" [email protected]

Will that work?

Just got emails from Amazon crediting me for the super saver shipping I was charged on two orders that I haven't notified them about yet. Perhaps they're getting on top of this now.

I got an email saying they were crediting me 8.99 for a bad order; unfortunately, I had already called, and gotten agreement to credit me 12.92....(which would be correct)

we'll see which one goes through

I also received two emails this morning indicating that I was going to get a refund on two different orders. In both cases the amount of refund they say they are going to give me is actually MORE than what it should be...in one case by $5 and in another by $3.99. I just wish they would get it right the first time without having to deal with refunds, right or wrong!! Hopefully, however, this is a sign that they are cleaning up their act and perhaps future orders will go through correctly from input to delivery. (I know...not likely!!)

take a look at this, i think they are trying to rip me off again:


(i deleted the original email confirmation, but this summary on my order history is accurate):

1 of: True Romance (Unrated Director's Cut) [DVD]
$20.24

1 of: Man Bites Dog [DVD]
$22.46

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item(s) Subtotal: $42.70
Shipping & Handling: $3.97
Promotions Applied: -$13.24
-----
Total Before Tax: $33.43
Tax: $0.00
-----
Total for This Shipment: $33.43
Total paid by Gift Certificate: $33.43
Total paid by Credit Card: $0.00

ok, sounds good, now this is what it says below the summary on the actualpayment information/print an invoice:


Item(s) Subtotal: $42.70
Shipping & Handling: $3.97
Share the Love: -$4.27
Super Saver Discount: -$3.97

Total Before Tax: $38.43
Sales tax: 0.00
Gift Certificate Amount: -$33.43

Grand Total: $5.00

they removed 5.00 bucks, i guess it was from the 5 of 35 coupon i used. so according to this i owe five more dollars.
but then i get the shipping notice today and it says this:

1 True Romance (Unrated Director $20.24 1 $20.24

1 Man Bites Dog $22.46 1 $22.46

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Subtotal: $42.70
Shipping & Handling: $3.97

Share the Love: -$4.27
Super Saver Discount: -$3.97

Promotional Certificate: - $5.00

Total: $33.43

Now, in this they give me the 5 dollar coupon, however, there is no mention of the gift certificate, which leads me to believe that they are going to charge me that full 33.43 and place my gc of that amount in amazon limbo....right? they are screwing me?
keep in mind i haven't touched this order since i placed it, no adding and subtracting things to it, etc .

Call them up ASAP so they can fix the problem.

I too just got an email confirming the refund I was due for being overcharged $15.22

They added an extra $5 by refunding all my shipping costs. That was a nice jesture.

What's nicer is that I received my order today!

My sentiments exactly! Done and done (about a month ago, and much happier for it).

well, i have had the same problem that everyone else has, GC's being taken away from the order. however, i usually call and they are very polite about the whole thing. the weird thing is that usually when this happens, my order total usually ends up being a couple of bucks cheaper then it was before. they usually have to adjust the actual price instead of re-applying the coupon so maybe they are trying to make up for their screw up. i really don't know. i wish that i wouldn't have to call about it so much, but at least with me, they are trying to correct their mistakes.

Same problem here. AMAZON SHOULD DIE DIE DIE!!! I actually contacted them and the said the promo can only be used once (I bought a memory card for $100 from them using a promo $5 last month) and that my recent order of LOTR and True Romance cannot be applied. I was told I could cancel the remaining portion LOTR preorder (meaning I was charged $22 for TR - that for which will not arrive in a week and a half since I took advantage of their free shipping offer)

Lets see: $22 for True Romance a week and a half late w/ LOTR preorder that a $5 discount was not applied. Wow me thinks my butt is a little sore right now

DIE AMAZON.COM DIE DIE DIE


... forgot to mention the return of True Romance would mean added shipping charges deducted from my credit since (which probable would end up having the $5 discount afterwards ) it was "not their fault" according to their site return policy. Sorry but this is my last business with them, even if I was on an island and nevermind ...

Has anyone had the REST of a messed up partial order ship? How do they handle that?

I'm thinking of cancelling the rest of the order, in case it messes up too, but now that I've been refunded, I'm wondering if it would be CHEAPER to leave it (i.e. it gets the shipping refund that the first did not get)

Conversely, I'm worried it will get charged shipping too and I'll have to call again.

Anyone actually gone through the process?

Well, I know that I e-mailed them for refunds of $17.22 and $21.46 that were due to me from two orders, and they wrote back offering me a refunds of $22.22 and $26.46, respectively.

Hey, I was pleased thinking I was getting an extra $5.00 off each order. However, when the refunds cleared my credit card, they were for the proper amounts (no extra $5).

Anyhow, I am not complaining cause I still got them delivered for almost 50% off retail....but just to warn that just because they offer an extra refund doesn't mean that is what will end up on your CC.

Yeah - I'm thinking of cancelling the rest of my partial orders, and starting fresh.

They indicate they will be super cheap, but now that I have my credit card refunds, I have a feeling they might overcharge rather than undercharge when the rest ships.

I have a theory --

By dropping promo certificates and charging for shipping and otherwise billing more than originally invoiced upon shipment of an order Amazon has basically raised their sales revenue for the books. I too was emailed a notification of an overcharge, stating that they would credit my cc. That was about 1 week ago, still no credit.

With Amazon's primary concern over the past couple of years to actually show a profit... Are these problems that we are continually experiencing just programming errors? Or are they in fact a slick accounting practice that effectively boosts sales? What if refunds were not accounted in direct correlation to sales? Can we all say Worldcom?

also they take awhile to credit you. so my last credit has now slipped into October and my incorrect overcharge reflects in September .

neat trick

bhomatude:

My thoughts exactly. Still haven't received those promised credits from the emails last week. But now that the third quarter has ended, I expect they'll go through. This is turning out to look more and more like an accounting scam to increase revenue by raising prices without customer's approval and then not refunding the difference until after the quarter ends. When the market sees Amazon turned a profit, their stock will increase. At the least, the SEC and the FTC should be looking into this.

Another interesting point:

Notice how everything was shipping that they could put out the door? Even super saver shipping - everything would partial ship.

Today, super saver shipping DOES NOT say "oh, 3 items, 3 shipments", now it says "will ship everything in December when last item is available".... (i.e. it's back to "normal", but for a while, it was SHIP IT NOW - and book it.)

I also notice that all my credit card refunds are dated Oct 1 - FOURTH QUARTER.

Has anyone ever received shipping refund for sending damaged item back to Amazon?

They usually enclose a return mailing label with replacement order but I didn't get one this time. I called them and requested another one to be sent out to me. After 3-4 weeks I still didn't recieve one. Then I received a reminder email telling me to return the item within 10 days or else they would charge the full price on my CC. In the email they said if I did not receive a mailing label, I would just mail the item back and they would refund the shipping cost. I sent it (a large DVD boxset) back via Prioity Mail and they have received it (as I saw the return section in the order webpage) but no refund information. I rushed them an email and no response yet.

How do they normally refund return shipping cost?

Amazon must not of cared about getting my refund on the fourth quarter to boost third quarter profits. I called for a refund on 9/25 and it was posted to my credit card on 9/27.