# I Hate Amazon.com **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 2, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627 "2006-02-02T03:40:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/1 "2006-02-02T03:40:53Z")
I am so incredibly frustrated right now, I could scream. I cannot believe what is occurring right under my nose, with no recourse, no service, no explanation. My brother gave us a $100 gift certificate to Amazon–a nice, thoughtful gift, I’m sure we all agree. I went to use it yesterday. I bought a book and Life of Brian DVD. Total comes to $60.40. It’ll ship in a few days, and I am happy. Yay! Then, I get the confirmation email. My balance is not $40.60, but $39.60. 😕 So, I look further into this. There is a “promo” from Burger King charged to my account for the amount of $1. Where did that come from? I ask myself. Now, I am not an especially petty person, and I can well afford a buck. BUT. This bothers me no end. I feel like I went to the store and the sales clerk just added a buck to my purchase without asking. And why not? They have a promo deal with the store next door, so it’s ok. So, I email them–to say, what’s up with this? I received their reply just now, after work. Sodding, bloody unbelievable. Seems that hasten to “reassure” me that the BK promo will only be taken out once. 😕 x2, at least. How is only being robbed once a good thing? I loathe fast food–in fact, I make a point of NOT supporting it at all, personally, and making sure that my kids don’t eat there but a few times per year. Fast Food sucks. So, I have now written back stating that if this is the new Amazon policy to just take amounts at the whim of other businesses, I am done with Amazon. I await the reply with baited breath. I will also call tomorrow, if I don’t get an answer to my query. Has anyone heard of such nonsense? Is this the new way of doing business–just charge the account small, petty amounts and take the decision making away from the consumer? WTF?? ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/2 "2006-02-02T04:23:00Z")
$100 less $60.40 _is_ $39.60. Not sure what the burger thing was, but if your numbers are right it appears to have been free. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/3 "2006-02-02T04:26:56Z")
I’m a little confused. If you spent $60.40 out of $100.00, your balance _would_ be $39.60, not $40.60. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/4 "2006-02-02T04:35:46Z")
Stupid, sexy miscalculations. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/5 "2006-02-02T04:42:17Z")
My wife wanted some audio CD’s for Christmas because she has a really long commute. I asked for advise here and carefully ordered 4 of them from Amazon on Dec. 15th. with special wrapping and everything. On December 23rd, I got an e-mail stating that the order was delayed. I was very, very pissed but I had other presents to give. I forgot about her CD’s after Christmas until I got an e-mail just yesterday 01-31-06 saying that the order is expected to ship by 03-15-06. If it isn’t available by May 1st, they will give me the option of cancelling the order. I deal with big volume IT systems professionally so I don’t feel the need to yell at some customer service worker but that is more than a little extreme. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/6 "2006-02-02T11:25:14Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I forgot about her CD’s after Christmas until I got an e-mail just yesterday 01-31-06 saying that the order is expected to ship by 03-15-06. If it isn’t available by May 1st, they will give me the option of cancelling the order. WAG: Did you pick the “ship everything at once” mailing option? I suspect the issue is one of the items is on back order, not all of them. If you haven’t, take a close look at the availability of the various items; you might be able to get them to drop the offending item or split it out from the others. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/7 "2006-02-02T13:44:42Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > My wife wanted some audio CD’s for Christmas because she has a really long commute. I asked for advise here and carefully ordered 4 of them from Amazon on Dec. 15th. with special wrapping and everything. On December 23rd, I got an e-mail stating that the order was delayed. I was very, very pissed but I had other presents to give. > > I forgot about her CD’s after Christmas until I got an e-mail just yesterday 01-31-06 saying that the order is expected to ship by 03-15-06. If it isn’t available by May 1st, they will give me the option of cancelling the order. > > I deal with big volume IT systems professionally so I don’t feel the need to yell at some customer service worker but that is more than a little extreme. Same thing happened to me, sort of. I also had other prezzies to give. But I paid extra for the 2-day delivery and they didn’t make it. I sent an email pitching my bitch and they refunded the extra shipping charge. I was happy enough with the outcome. I don’t understand the Burger King thing either… ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/8 "2006-02-02T14:10:05Z")
OOPS!–sorry, bad in math. It was late and I was tired. This is what I got in reply to my query: (this was last noc) > [@](#): > > Thanks for writing to us at [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com). > > I’ve checked into your [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) account and found that the current > balance on your gift certificate is $39.60. Your gift certificate > for $60.40 was already applied to this order. Burger King promotion > was applied for $1.00. > > Please know that on each order only $1.00 Burger King promotion can > be applied. Rest assured no additional amount has been deducted > from your gift certificate balance. 😕 So I sent an email saying that being only robbed once is no reassurance. I don’t really care about the dollar–it’s the business practice. This is what happened with mall certificates–after a certain time, they just reduce their value again and again until basically your BIL or whoever has essentially given Local Stupid Name Mall $100. Upshot of that is that I no longer give mall certificates–which is too bad, since they were a very convenient gift. Well, I am here this morning to say that yes, there is still a Santa Claus–my faith in Amazon has been restored. I got a very nice email from them today that 'splained the whole thing. First, (and I found this out this morning as well) my husband collected BK coupons (he likes BK) last summer. Apparently, there was one left on the account. (I will say this–nowhere did it say anything about BK --if it did, it was not easily found). So, Amazon applied this one remaining coupon to my order. This coupon that I didn’t know I had. To me, this reduction was not clearly stated, but YMMV. They are not taking money from GCs and giving it to random businesses. Looking at it that way, it sure seems not only unlikely, but also a foolish notion. I can only say in my defense, I knew it seemed odd, but I couldn’t come up with any other explanation (not knowing the source of the BK promo). but we can rail against the Machine–carry on! **Shagnasty** --that would burn me up, too. That happened to us with Delia’s (teen clothing site)–we ordered this one pair of cargo pants and got no less than 3 delayed messages over a course of 6 months. My daughter and I joked that by the time she got the damned things, they’d be out of style! We never did get them. Grr. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/9 "2006-02-02T14:13:37Z")
Perhaps **eleanorrigby** should purchase a calculator. I know that [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) stocks some nice ones. 😉 FYI, although they try desparately to hide it, Amazon’s customer service number is 800-201-7575. I can’t say I’ve been particularly satisfied with their service there, but IME it’s a lot less frustrating when, after someone fucks up your account, you can call them and bitch until they hand you off to one of the competent employees than just sending another email off into the ether never to be seen again. Still frustrating as hell, but less. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/10 "2006-02-02T14:25:46Z")
Have any of you ever been slammed by Amazon? For those who don’t know, “slamming” is a term usually used to describe how telephone companies add on extra services and charge you for them without your permission. Anyway, I was ordering several books for my wife, and when I started tracking the order, I noticed that an additional book had been added that I know I didn’t order. I had looked at the reviews of this extra book…months before!! I have no idea how it got on there. It wasn’t a huge problem, since it was a simple matter to send it back. But still, you almost have to think that out of everyone they do this to, some aren’t going bother returning it, so they wind up with an extra sale to tally. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/11 "2006-02-02T14:33:40Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Have any of you ever been slammed by Amazon? For those who don’t know, “slamming” is a term usually used to describe how telephone companies add on extra services and charge you for them without your permission. Anyway, I was ordering several books for my wife, and when I started tracking the order, I noticed that an additional book had been added that I know I didn’t order. I had looked at the reviews of this extra book…months before!! I have no idea how it got on there. I haven’t been slammed, but I have gone on and found all manner of strange recommendations that never in my lifetime would I pick. These have not been sent to the shopping cart and await a click to be mine, but I still scratch my head…but then, I never could stand RL sales help–they usually bring to the dressing room sweaters that I wouldn’t send to the Salvation Army, blouses that have vomit patterns etc–all because I said I liked one thing etc… :rolleyes: I am best left alone whilst shopping. I’ll ask if I need someone. I wonder how many posters will only read the OP and come to correct my math? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/12 "2006-02-02T14:54:53Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > I haven’t been slammed, but I have gone on and found all manner of strange recommendations that never in my lifetime would I pick. These have not been sent to the shopping cart and await a click to be mine, but I still scratch my head… Yes, I was looking something up on Amazon for my dad the other day - on a recently wiped version of FireFox - no cache, no cookies, no stored passwords - and next to the search results for our computer hardware was “The page you made” link, which was replete with pictures of books called stuff like “Artistic nudes” and “Tasteful erotica”. He and I found it quite amusing, but it could be potentially embarrassing for some. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/13 "2006-02-02T15:12:20Z")
I’m still a little confused… partly about the math, and party about what the real terms of these BK coupons were? was a dollar really deducted from your account, and if so, what are you going to get for it at burger king? Or did your husband get a coupon at burger king that actually SAVED you money at amazon?? Call me curious. ---
**Author:** ![carterba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85e7bf/32.png) [@carterba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carterba)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/14 "2006-02-02T15:31:10Z")
Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but it looks to me like you got a dollar _from_ Burger King for some reason. > [@](#): > > Burger King promotion was applied for $1.00. Please know that on each order only $1.00 Burger King promotion can be applied. I read this as there was some promotion that saved you $1, and they’re telling you you can only use it to save $1 per order. But it’s confusing because, as others have pointed out, $100-$60.40 = $39.60, so there doesn’t seem to be any discrepency. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/15 "2006-02-02T15:52:48Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > I await the reply with baited breath. Please, what did you bait your breath with? Corn? Tuna? Insect larvae of some kind? Or are you just fishing for any spelling obsessives who might click on this thread? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/16 "2006-02-02T15:56:43Z")
I personally have nothing but good things to say about [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) customer service. Though I will admit their user interface is not exactly the most brilliant of designs. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/17 "2006-02-02T16:14:28Z")
In general, my dealings with Amazon have been great. I’ve had some delays on orders that shipped after Christmas, but I consider that to be my fault for waiting until the rush. If I go for the free shipping, I am careful to combine items with the same delivery schedule so that one item won’t hold up the whole shipment. Considering that the threshold is $25, sometimes it is easy to just make multiple orders that meet that minimum. In one case I ordered a woodworking tool (a router table). By the time it arrived, it had dropped $50 on their site. I notified Amazon that I could just return the table (heavy!) and reorder at the lower price. They credited me without any problem. The thing they do that bothers me: A number of us created Wish Lists this past Christmas on Amazon. Unimaginative, I know, but at least no one was disappointed and there were no returns. There is really no way that I can find ont their site to have Amazon create a link to someone else’s Wish List. You can add that person to your Gift Organizer, and it creates a Gift List, but when you click on that it adds a lot of stuff _Amazon_ thinks the person would want, instead of the list itself. It doesn’t seem to me to be that hard to link to what they really want. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/18 "2006-02-02T16:25:50Z")
Gah! make that bated breathe! :o \<----lamest embarassed smiley ever. :rolleyes: The way the order confirmation was written was misleading to me–I read it that a $1 was taken off my GC. I had NO knowledge that my husband had redeemed a BK coupon and added that to our account. I saw no such balance when I redeemed my Christmas GC. The total was $100.00–my account said $100. I still don’t know where they stored this BK coupon credit. Tell me this–if you knew you had 0.00 in your account, and were given $100, and then you bought 2 things and were informed that you now had $XX.xx, less the cost of the 2 things and “a BK promo”–what would you think? I thought that they had subtracted the BK “promo” from my balance of $100. NOWHERE did it ever say: you have $101 in your account. If it had–I would have said, 😕 and checked into it. Also, when they do the tally–the BK thing was minus, not plus. So, it looked to me like they took a dollar off. Got a nice note explaining this today–it’s all good now. I hafta agree–their method of sending emails etc is cumbersome, but I am glad I got a prompt reply and an accurate one (it took 3 emails, but I got nothing but time). Matter resolved and to my satisfaction. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/19 "2006-02-02T18:03:15Z")
> [@Plynck](#): > > In one case I ordered a woodworking tool (a router table). By the time it arrived, it had dropped $50 on their site. I notified Amazon that I could just return the table (heavy!) and reorder at the lower price. They credited me without any problem. AFAIK, the tools are actually managed by someone called The Tool Crib - apparently a semi-autonomous division of Amazon. They’re certainly the only part of Amazon that I’ve ever seen send out paper catalogs every other month or so. Nice people to deal with on the phone as well. As for the BK thing - I had a couple of those too. IIRC, it was along the lines of buy a Whopper and get a scratcher ticket that’s worth at least a buck at Amazon and could be worth up to \. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627/20 "2006-02-02T18:24:36Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > Gah! make that bated breathe! Trying to fix it sometimes just makes it worse, huh? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-amazon-com/342627.md?page=2)