Sucks, blows, and bites (a bit long)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

-Euty, UncleBeer, and/or Coldfire-
Please forgive if this belongs in the Pit, I didn’t feel it was quite strong enough for that. If you feel it should be moved, my apologies for making work for you :slight_smile:

So I ordered from Amazon.com twice, and they failed to deliver on time. So I sent them this messages:

Date: Sat Feb 10 08:04:04 PST 2001
Subject: Poor service
To: feedback@amazon.com
From: fritzs@hotmail.com

I have ordered from you twice now, and twice I have not received the service for which I’ve paid.

Specifically, I placed an order on 28-Dec-2000, and selected the “Next Day Air” shipping option. According to your website, it shipped on 29-Dec- 2000.

Simple math leads one to believe that it would arrive at it’s destination on 30-Dec-2000 (a Friday). It did not. In fact, the package did not arrive until Tuesday, 2-Jan-2001. However, it being the holiday season, I figured it was a common problem, with the millions of packages being shipped. So, even though I paid for overnight shipping and didn’t receive my package until the fifth day, I let it go. That’s just the understanding guy I am.

However, I placed an order 6 Feb 2001, and selected the “Second Day Air” shipping option. Your website says it shipped 7-Feb-2001. Again, simple math leads one to believe it would have arrived by yesterday, 9 Feb 2001 (Friday). Yet here it is, the 10th, and I have not received my package. The package will not be delivered today or tomorrow, I’m sure, as there is no weekend delivery for second day air packages.

I do not know if the fault lies with your company, or with UPS. However, a 100% failure rate for on-time delivery is unacceptable. I will no longer do business with amazon.com. Additionally, I’ve been charged with putting together a technical library for my office. Due to my personal experience with your company, I will not purchase from amazon.com, as I’d originally intended. I will find some one else, either locally or another on-line bookseller.

I’m certain one of your competitors can deliver in accordance with the shipping options given (for example, delivering the next day when one selects “Next Day Air”) and will deliver the service for which their customers have paid.

As I said, I do not know if the fault is yours or UPS, so you can be assured that UPS will be receiving similar communication.
=== END ===

So how did they respond?

Thanks for writing to Amazon.com to bring this to our attention. Please accept our sincere apologies for the late delivery of this shipment.

We do take full responsibility for any errors made during shipping. In an effort to compensate you for this inconvenience, I’ve requested a refund of the Second Day shipping charges for this package. A credit of $8.50 should appear on your next credit card billing statement. This amount represents the difference in cost between Second Day delivery and standard shipping, which more accurately reflects the service you received.

I hope this is a satisfactory solution. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance. We value your business and look forward to serving you again in the near future
=== END ===

No, I’m afraid this will not be satisfactory. Delivering on time would have been satisfactory. The time spent waiting is not refundable. Had “standard shipping” been acceptable, I would have chosen that option in the first place.

2

Perhaps you should insist that Amazon.com tack on a couple of extra days to the end of your life. That way you can recoup the time you spent waiting for your order.

What did you expect them to actually do about this? If you expected some kind of different compensation then you should have been more specific about your expectations.

I think the practical thing to do is to order the books you want for your library from the best source available. If that is still Amazon.com, I think it would be foolish on your part to strike them from your supplier list. It seems more logical to simply factor in the extra couple of days for regular delivery as opposed to the unreliable and more expensive next day delivery. Besides, I suspect that getting a particular book for a library a day or two late hardly ever constitutes an emergency. It’s not like you are ordering transplant organs for critical patients.

Seems to me there are more important things in life to get worked up about. YMMV.

3

Amazon sucks lately.

QuickSilver wrote:

Since when is next day air unreliable? I’ve purchased lots and lots of stuff with next day shipping. The only time I haven’t received things on time is when the shipper screws up.

Beelzebubba, I agree with you. I would have been pissed. I just went through a similiar thing with Amazon which proves that they don’t ship when they say they do. I ordered books on a Monday. At the time, all the books said they were “In stock - usually ships within 24 hours.” On Thursday, they had not shipped. I contacted Amazon who told me that one of the items had a 2-3 day availability, not the 24 hour I had thought. I didn’t press this point, even though I’m fairly certain I was right.

As it was, the order shipped on Friday. Excuse me? Even with “2-3 day availability” an order placed on Monday should be shipped at latest on Thursday, correct? So they sat on the books a day beyond what they stated on their web site.

This was no big deal for this particular order, but had I opted for overnight or two day shipping, you can bet I would be pissed. I’ve always been slightly pissed about the wait for things that are in stock. How come I can go to any number of on-line or mail order merchants, place an order for overnight shipping, and get it the next day, but Amazon makes me wait a minimum of 24 hours before shipping? Idiots. I want things fast. Amazon used to be head and shoulders above other merchants. Now they just suck.

4

Slight hijack but this reminds me of a time when I was moving my household goods across the country. We were concerned that they arrive at the proper time since there was only a two or three day window when it would be convenient for us to receive them.

When I asked the moving company when our goods would arrive they gave me a date within our window. When I pressed them to see how firm that date was they admitted they might be a day or two late. However – for a fee (about 10% IIRC) they would “guarantee” delivery. I asked them what the “guarantee” was. They responded that if they didn’t get the goods there on time, they refunded the fee! So, having paid them to do a job, they would take an additional 10% to actually do the job on time. If they didn’t do it on time, I only had to pay their normal rates.

Knowing a little about the transportation business, I suspected that no special steps would be taken if I paid the fee. It was just a windfall for them if they got lucky, and a losing proposition for me. Sounds like Amazon has the same guarantee.

5

Another hijack, but the subject line of this remind me of one of my favorite Simpsons quotes;

Bart: I wouldn’t had thought it possible but this both sucks and blows.