Note to Amazon.com: 125.00 > 83.79

The BBQ Pit
1

OK, I wasn’t pissed yesterday. Now I’m pissed. Someone at Amazon.com seriously needs to go back to grade school. I thought simple math would be a requirement there.

As a bonus from work, for kicking ass last month, I got a gift certificate to Amazon.com, in the amount of $125.00. Yay! There’s some stuff on my Wish List that I’ve really wanted but haven’t had the resources to pick up, and I can probably get a little early Christmas shopping done too. Very cool.

So Tuesday morning, I go on and pick out something for my wife, and a few things for me. It comes out to $83.79, so I’ve got enough with some left over. I put in my gift certificate claim number, and the total is returned on the next screen: $83.79 total, -$83.79 gift cert, balance owed $0.00. Perfect. Submit the order.

Get the confirmation e-mail, and being a careful online shopper, give it the once over. All g-- wait, what’s that? $83.79 total, -$41.21 gift cert, balance owed $42.58? Wha-fuh?

Check the order in account history online, same thing as the e-mail. Ohh-kaay… time to check if there’s any limitations on the gift certificates in the fine print. I purchased three books, one CD and one DVD, all through Amazon proper. All would seem to apply to the gift certificate. No problem there.

E-mail Amazon Support. Give them my order number, the amount of my order, the amount of my gift certificate, and the specific amounts shown in my e-mail and in my account currently. Politely as what the fuck is going on (not in those words).

Wait.

Cut to next day: I’ve gotten a shipping confirmation from Amazon. Yay Amazon, they figured it out! Not so. They have shipped two items, the others are waiting, apprarently pending payment. The two items they have sent total $29.22. The three still “on hold” total over $50.

Wha. FUH?

Wait a little longer. Give them their 24 hours.

Get home from work… still no change. Send another e-mail, a little less polite, a little more strongly worded. Make it clear that this is my second contact, I received no direct response to the first. Give them my order number (again), my gift certificate amount (again) and my gift certificate claim number.

Go to the store. Return to find this response in e-mail:

WHA. FUH?! What MORE information can I give them?

Lower in the e-mail, find the link that says “If this e-mail did not resolve your question, click here.” CLICK. Click with a vengeful fucking heart.

Send a third e-mail, containing my order number yet again, and explaining that I have given my gift certificate amount, claim number, my order amount, what my account is showing. What more can I give them? Make it clear that I expect them to resolve this. From my perspective, it’s as simple as 125 is greater than 83.79. Fuckin’ A your e-mail didn’t help jack shit. Worded slightly more politely than this.

Send. Wait. Post rant on Straight Dope while waiting.

Grr.

2

Amazon is great until you have a problem. Their customer service is horrible. Bummer.

3

What’s all this “Wha-Fuh” stuff?

4

Eternal, are you intentionally being dim, or are you trying to provoke something?

5

I’m just saying, if it’s supposed to be his cathphrase or something, I’d consider running some more by a focus group.

6

Amazon buried its customer service phone number a couple years back. I’ve only needed to use it once, but the issue was resolved very quickly when I actually spoke to a human being.

They’re at: (800) 201-7575

7

Most customer service online seems to run this way nowadays, which is a shame. If you use their intricate online help desk (with a huge FAQ that solves no problem an intelligent creature might have), you’ll be less likely to get the problem solved than if you called them on the telephone. Personally, I think if a company is going to offer online help (whether on the site, through email, or through chat), it must be at least as good as the help one would get by way of the phone. At least! But so many places completely neglect it, either accidentally or intentionally.

8

Looking at this, I now see a little more clearly why Amazon has never made a profit.

9

Drastic, thanks for the phone number. I was planning to dig around for just such a thing if I didn’t hear back by this afternoon. Nothing so far… I provide technical support for a call center myself, so I know the way things work, generally. I’ll definitely put that number to use, if I have to.

Governor Quinn, I was thinking the same thing myself, last night. Funny that.

Eternal, it’s short for “What the fuck?” It’s not a catchphrase, exactly, just an abbreviation I’ve heard in more than a few circles. Think shortening it down to “Whafuck?” then a little more to “Wha-fuh?” My friends and I used to use it in situations where we couldn’t say the longer version. Sorry to confuse you.

10

Seems like somehow they charged you twice for your order.

The first screen you had said the total was $83.79 and after using $83.79 from your gift cert the balance owed was $0.00. This would leave a remainder of $41.21 on your gift cert. The confirmation e-mail you got said they applied that $41.21 from your gift cert but that you still owed $42.58.

They took the money from your gift cert but never applied it to your order.

11

I’ve never had a problem with Amazon setting a problem right – on the few occasions where something’s gone amiss they’ve remedied things lickety split. Maybe I’m in the minority, but that’s a big reason why I continue to patronize them.

12

Frank, that’s a good point… I hadn’t done the math there, but I think you’re right. Thanks for pointing it out.

Dewey, this is the first time I’ve ever had a problem with Amazon that wasn’t my fault… I’m unimpressed with their customer service thus far.

13

Little update… I haven’t had to resort to the phone (yet), and I’ve received an e-mail response to my original message that is much more detailed and helpful, and the issues should be resolved soon.

OK, feeling better. Apparently some people at Amazon are better-equipped to actually help customers than others. I don’t know why that should be a surprise – our support department is essentially the same.

Thanks for letting me vent, anyway.

14

You may wish to avoid “The Good Cook” and “Insight Out” book clubs on line. Dealing with their errors and customer service (sic) makes me wish I’d never had the bright idea that buying books would be fun.

15

I’m glad that your problem is on the road to being solved as I’ve never had anything but great service from Amazon.
In fact, when a despicable excuse for a human being stole my credit card and racked up $1800.00 worth of charges at Amazon last month, their fraud department spotted it within less than 24 hours, alerted me via email, and cancelled the account.

16

In the interest of balance, I must say that I had a recent screw up at Amazon that was handled very expeditiously and correctly.

17

I have usually had excellent service at Amazon.com. I ordered a whole shitload of items from there for Xmas gifts now that they have free shipping. I ordered them on Tuesday and I have already received most of them.

However, I have a big complaint. Today the kiddies and I walked up to our front door to find their karaoke machine that I had ordered just sitting on the front stoop. It wasn’t in a box, it wasn’t it brown paper, it was just sitting there.

So much for the damn Christmas surprise, Amazon. :frowning:

18

WTF?
:wink: