Because, perhaps, it would cost them far more than that to hire, train, and pay a better class of telephone customer service reps?
I had an Amazon order last year for a backpack. It was a pretty nice day pack, about a $75 purchase. It wasn’t there when expected, or for a few days after. There was a tracking number that existed only in-house, no barcode scans after being created. I did the Amazon “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” thing and got a call from a foreign call center. It was a pretty okay experience, they sent me a no-charge replacement right away.
A week later, the original package (that still showed no history of tracking scans in transit) showed up. It took Amazon a bit of convincing (again through a foreign call center) to issue a return shipping label, but they eventually did. Since this was the original purchase with a charge attached, they credited the purchase price, even though I had received a zero dollar replacement.
I called (more specifically, hit the “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” button online) to tell them they made a mistake and they should re-charge the $75 to my account. It wasn’t a good experience.
First they told me emphatically that they had refunded the $75 to my account. I told them that I knew that, had received a credit for full purchase price and a no charge replacement. I literally told the rep that I wanted them to charge me $75 to square the account and was met with argument, then put on hold in disbelief. I waited on hold for over five minutes before I hung up and never heard from them about the matter again. Thanks for the free backpack, Amazon!
I spend a ton of money with Amazon. They do a lot of things right and the times I get a US based support rep (probably in Seattle, I don’t think they outsource to US companies) the service is impeccable. They understand shit and they fix shit correctly and decisively. I think they’re doing themselves a disservice with outsourced foreign-country customer service.
With all of that said, feel free to try your luck with their customer service department. You’d probably be better off keeping the keyboard or donating it somewhere if you don’t want it.
That’s certainly the business logic behind it, but when someone tells you to “just keep” $1600 worth of RAM or even a $75 backpack, it’s enough to make a customer question the logic behind the business.
Not true. The OP and Amazon had a business transaction. The law only applies to unsolicited merchandise and the parties had no previous transactions.
Other than the US operations, I’m as ignorant as the next person - but for us that’s not so much the case. We’re paid above industry standard (in fact a lot of my co-workers jumped ship from the other major shipping concerns) and right up there in Obama-money. They require some pretty good training and pay us for everything from that training to daily stretching. And they drop the axe FAST on anyone who doesn’t work hard and work “their” way. Considering its a basic job, we have more college graduates and advanced degrees than you would expect.
The issue I see more is that a big part of the company (and most of the people who effect the customer) are part time. Full time isn’t even an option. As a result you have people who are “working hard” for the most part but distracted by their “real jobs”. Yesterday one of the people I work next to sometimes was clearly making mistakes; ones we could catch and correct as coworkers often do. I talked with him at break and he said he had had a really shitty day at his “real job” and was just distracted. That kind of thing happens a lot I fear. And as part timers we get no time off paid and only have 10 hours unpaid leave every quarter. Ten days a year unpaid sick and vacation time combined. I’ll probably have to leave late summer since my wife gets 5 weeks paid and I can’t ask her to take a “stay-cation” just so I can keep a “fun money” gig. Which means they lose a trained person who loves the work and company for a crap shoot who may or may not be any good.
The other comes back to that communication thing. You get “points” for various infractions. Clock in early or late even by a minute, half a point or a point. Miss a day, 1.5 points. Hit 6 points and you are fired. Problem is you aren’t warned you have any points until you hot 4.5 or 5. Which means get sick at that point and you are gone. It puts a lot of pressure on someone and really effects morale and causes a lot of people to resign at the warning phase rather than wait for the axe. They screen the Hades out of us during the hiring process but no-one does exit interviews - I wonder if things would change if they did.
Again, don’t get me wrong. I love the job I do and I love the company. Given the chance I would stay here as long as I physically could. But that doesn’t mean its perfect. Its made a lot of money and is creating new jobs every day - and that isn’t bad given the economy its grown up in. But I think basic communication both directions could make it even better.
In contrast, Amazon accidentally shipped to me a heavy trailer hitch bar, and several pounds of maca powder and chia seeds. I TOTALLY understood why they didn’t want me to ship that back.
Never happened, just like the colonists didn’t give the Indians smallpox infected blankets.
I’ve received random stuff worth about $25-30.00 retail that I wasn’t expecting and wondered about it as well. Turns out there was a promotion, I just wasn’t aware of it, nothing on the invoice or bill of lading either.
This is true for many aspects of Amazon. I once had an idea for a joint-company service involving Amazon and the products my company makes, but when trying to find a contact in Amazon marketing to talk to, the closest I found was a web page that basically said “We are not interested in receiving communication from any other company. If we want to do business with your company we will contact you”.