I am a member of Amazon Prime. What this means is that I pay an annual membership of $70, and in exchange for that, I get “free” (meaning at no extra cost beyond the membership fee) two-day shipping on anything I order from Amazon.
Last Sunday, I ordered a DVD collection from Amazon with the two-day shipping option. This meant that the order shipped out via USPS on Monday, November 1st. By all accounts, this meant that my order was scheduled to arrive on November 3rd, a Wednesday. But Wednesday came and went, with no package. So did Thursday. Amazon’s website had no update about the location of the package, and the USPS website had no record of the tracking number provided by Amazon. At which point, I sent an email to Amazon’s customer service wanting to know what was up. I got back a response saying that late arrivals can happen, and that I should wait a couple of additional days.
I was annoyed, but I waited. I’d really been looking forward to watching my DVDs over the weekend, but they didn’t show up on Friday, either. Or on Monday, November 8th. At which point, I contacted Amazon a second time, telling them they needed to resolve this. So they agreed to overnight via UPS a second DVD set to me, scheduled to arrive on November 9th.
I was bothered by two things, though. First of all, they offered no compensation to make up for the lack of a timely shipment. And second, their email offered me the “opportunity” to pay for both sets of DVDs if the second one showed up and I didn’t feel like sending it back, which I found to be kind of insulting.
Comically, on November 9th, my original order showed up. The item that was overnighted and actually scheduled to show up on the 9th didn’t arrive until the 10th. So now, I have two identical DVD sets, both of which arrived late, and apparently, an obligation to return one of them. And I’m feeling a bit morally conflicted. My points:
[ul][li]Technically, I paid for two-day shipping (“technically” because the cost is covered by my Amazon Prime membership). I did not received two-day shipping. I got nine-day shipping. It seems like there should be some attempt at compensation for that, but none has been offered.[/li]
[li]On top of not getting any compensation, I now have to face the inconvenience of returning a package to them or face a potential second charge. So even though none of this was my fault, I’m actually having to do more work.[/li][/ul]
So, what would you do if you were in my shoes? Use your own criteria, of course, but here are a couple of things that may be pertinent:
[ol][li]The DVD set(s) cost $35[/li][li]I have no use for a second set of these DVDs, other than that it might make a good Christmas gift for someone I know.[/li][li]This is the first time I think I have ever had any kind of problem with Amazon in the long history I have ordering from them.[/li][/ol]
Your thoughts?