Spooky

I do a lot of ordering online, so I usually give a company several chances to respond before posting a complaint here. I'm posting not only because I'm mad, but because I hope someone "higher up" at Amazon reads it, since their customer service has not responded to two e-mails I have sent in the past week or so about the matter.

Here's my story:

Back on May 19th, I placed an order for Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix, going for their promotion where you were guaranteed the book on June 21st (yes, my zip code qualified!) and got free shipping through their standard shipping option.

Well, about a week ago when I noted my order could not be changed anymore because it was already into the "shipping process", I noticed that my order had been changed to 2-day shipping! This meant that I was being charged at outrageous $9 and some change extra for the book...pretty much making it the full retail price instead of the 40% off. Not only did they do that, but now the book's estimated delievery date is listed as June 24th instead of June 21st, meaning not only are they screwing me on the shipping, but I'm going to be getting the book three days later than those who are getting it shipped for FREE!

As you can probably guess, there has been NO answer to my e-mails from customer service...most likely because they want to get that package in the mail before they reply - at which point, of course, it will be too late to do anything.

Needless to say, the next time I really want to read something on the release date, I'm driving to my local Waldens or Borders. Just really bad customer service...I'm just glad this shipment was meant for myself and not some young child.

Anyone else have a similar problem, or has mighty Amazon singled me out as the "customer we'll tick off" for June?

Groucho

Pretty ironic considering that



Gets killed in the new book.

victant

Spooky, have you tried calling CS? Reading your post actually reminded me to cancel that Baseball 3-pack misprice I had already ordered. In order to get free shipping, I combined that ~$11 DVD with a $15 coffee grinder. When I cancelled the DVD, however, it sent the coffee grinder into the "shipping soon" stage, with the shipping coming out to almost $7! Needless to say I was pretty pissed (this was like 10 min ago, and much too early in the morning for me to be ). Well, I called CS and she was great! She said that since the order was ultimately due to a resultant misprice on an item, she was going to refund the shipping cost on the coffee grinder (there's no way to cancel the order at this point).

I hope you have the same luck. I would definitely have posted otherwise if things did not go as smoothly.

eau

Call amazon directly at 800-201-7575. If all fails, email to a higher power at [email protected]. Last time I got a response from the higher power within a few days and the problem was resolved.

xlpanda

definitely call...whenever i have any problems with my orders, i usually just call their 800 number and have the problem taken care of.

at the very least, you should get your shipping charges refunded.
if you complain about not getting the book as promised, you can probably get a promo gift certificate on top of that. hope it turns out okay for you

Spooky

Well, the GOOD news is that my book shipped from KY (I live in PA) Fed Ex this morning...so I guess there's a good shot I may get it on Saturday. Still upset about the shipping, but if I can get the book the same day as everyone else I won't feel as upset...I can always try and resolve the shipping mistake later.

Thanks for the helpful tips though guys! My work schedule usually doesn't give me a change to call customer service prior to closing, but I did use the resoultion e-mail...

victant

I think they're 24/7. Good luck anyways and have fun with the book this Sat!

eau

Yes, they are 24/7. I like to call them in the middle of the night as the CSRs in graveyard shift seem to be more patient and friendly about solving problem

Spooky

Oh, I assumed they closed at 5 PST...I'll give them a try.

Spooky

Okay,
Here's what the "friendly" people at customer service told me (as if I didn't know this). They can't refund my $9.48 shipping, although I CAN refuse the package and get a refund if I wish. I asked if they would credit my account and they said no, they weren't allowed to do that.

So I guess if the book comes on Saturday, I'll go ahead and accept it. If it doesn't come until next week, Amazon is getting a package back.

It still sucks since it was THEIR error, not mine in the shipping update...I'm wondering if this happened to anyone else?

Anyway, at least they got my book in the mail, which is the most important thing for me...I think I'll stick to DVD orders from them in the future, though. Never had a problem with a movie order...

Wallet Boy

There's one part of this I'm not following. After you entered your order, Amazon changed the amount of shipping you would have to pay a few weeks later? Why are they allowed to do this?

I can understand if you cancel an item and it goes below the super saver shipping minimum, but you said you were guaranteed free shipping and delivery by June 21st. Why did they charge you an extra $9 later without telling you?

That $9 should definitely be refunded. Am I missing something, or did they totally negate the original offer that you took advantage of?

Spooky

Good News from the folks at AMAZON!

John Clark, who is in Executive Customer Relations e-mailed me to say that not only was he going to credit me the shipping charge, but the other item in this order which hasn't shipped yet (which happens to be the new STAR WARS GALAXIES PC Game) will be shipped to me NEXT DAY AIR at NO COST!

Now, this is what I call customer service, and I want to thank those who pointed me to the right e-mail addresses and phone numbers to work this problem out.

I thought it only fair to post this since I did my fair share of complaining about them above...it's nice to see that once you work your way through the lower-end of customer service (who are probably only following rules their supervisors have stressed on them) you can get a problem worked out. Kudos to Mr. Clark!

eau

Their Executive Customer Relations definitely have more power in their hand. I once bought a DVD boxset and it arrived badly damaged. I used their online returns system to generate a return mailing label and requested for replacement instead of refund. Sent the sucker back and 2 weeks later they credited my account. Problem was that I used GCs to preorder it and by then the GCs had already expired. They credited my account instead of sending out a replacement and now the GC expired. I called the 800 number of the CSR couldn't help. As the last resort, I dashed an email to the ECR and few days later I received a brand new GC in the same amount (I did tell them that I was going to buy the boxset elsewhere and gave me back my money instead).

HotThang

You do realize that if you didn't get the book on Saturday, they would only charge you shipping and the book would be free? :-) I am really my copy arrives tomorrow but secretly not :-)

Sam

victant

Spooky, congrats on getting this resolved (with a bonus)! I've always been behind amazon with their excellent customer service--even if it means having to pay a little bit more than elsewhere.