Amazon Finally Pissed Me Off! (1 Viewer)

[David Norman]

One of the things i have suggested several times to Amazon is the ability to filter out 3rd Party sellers completely.

I want to search Amazon items. Too many 3rd Party sellers selling wrong items or wrong versions, bootlegs, open items as new, import items listed as US. Yes they will return it or refund, but that is irrelevant. The only things I tend to buy from 3rd Party sellers are items generally sold by companies selling their own items or rarely an OOP item that can't be obtained elsewhere. At least on Ebay I can filter out those sellers using stock pictures which for most non-businesses is almost always a red flag for 'something wrong/bootleg/hiding something'

 

[Rodney]

One of the things i have suggested several times to Amazon is the ability to filter out 3rd Party sellers completely.

That would be a nice feature.

 

[BobO'Link]

For items that were purchased for myself, that's hasn't been terrible. But for items that were purchased to be gifts, those were unusable as gifts and had to be repurchased, in one case missing the actual occasion it was intended for. If this just happened once or twice, it's one thing, but it's something else that over 90% of the items I purchased in the past two years labeled as "new" from "fulfilled by Amazon" weren't actually in new condition. That to me suggests that there's a systemic problem in how merchandise is being evaluated. The third party sellers are clearly dropping their items to a lower price to get the first set of eyeballs, but I wonder if people would be inclined to order if it actually said "*Not actually new - shrink wrap may have been removed, cover is damaged and case may have been punctured - not suitable for collectors, displays or gifting" Is that really worth the twenty cent saving over the one sold by Amazon that actually is new?

Part of the problem is that Amazon doesn't seem to curate any of those MP "Fulfilled by Amazon" products (and they don't do that good of a job on the Amazon Warehouse products). Based on return addresses, some are actually sent by the MP vendor themselves using Amazon labels rather than from Amazon's warehouses. Others are simply sent to Amazon for warehousing and are pulled and shipped like anything else.

And, NO, it's not worth saving a few cents over Amazon's price for opened/damaged/cutout/etc. product. I look closely at descriptions and if I do order from a MP "Fulfilled by Amazon" I give it very close scrutiny upon arrival. If it doesn't match the description, I complain and leave a 3 star review. If a vendor screws up like that a 2nd time I cross them off my "trusted vendor" list and leave a stronger negative review. Of course Amazon "removes" those from impacting a vendor (they consider 3 stars as negative) and puts in a "We take responsibility for this as it was fulfilled by Amazon" type message.

 

[jcroy]

The "being let down" is my biggest reason for not purchasing much any longer. We've all been burned buying the latest and greatest, only to find out a few months later there's an "enhanced" version, extra scenes etc.

Then further on, another one with director and actor commentary, more behind the scenes stuff. Then a special collector's edition, maybe in a special container, like they did with "Total Recall".

I literally bought four different versions of "Aliens". Not falling for it ever again.

(At the risk of going further offtopic).

I encountered this ^ quite a lot back in the day when I use to buy a lot of music cds (or vinyl records even further back). This was long before I started to buy dvds/blurays.

Frequently I would buy a remastered album (or compilation) which had some extra tracks tacked on, such as unreleased songs from studio outtakes or "rough mixes". In the end, it turned out many of these "extra tracks" were largely crap. (Especially when they sounded like the tape was "being eaten up").

After too many letdowns of this sort in the past, I wasn't fooled as easily anymore by the time I started buying a lot of dvds and blurays in 2011. So this was never really an issue for me when it came to dvds (or blurays).


(More generally).

This feeling of "being let down" has a much larger scope for me, than just dvd/bluray purchases.

In practice, I've found this to be the case for just about any "collectable" type of item I have purchased over the years. In addition to dvds/blurays and cd/vinyl, I have encountered this repeatedly in other niches such as books, games, musical instruments, Star Wars figures (when I was young), cards, artwork, etc ...

At this point, I still don't know why this happens quite frequently for me.

Nevertheless, I've been semi-futilely using this warped aspect of my personality as an easy way of "reverse engineering" my OCD compulsive collecting/completionist type behavior, which doesn't involve any medications (or self-medicating with dope and/or booze). Basically I attempt to trick myself into NOT buying something. (This does not always work).

 

[Malcolm R]

That would be a nice feature.

I agree. It seems like more and more lately when I'm browsing on Amazon, the default is always for a 3rd party seller, rather than Amazon. You have to search around and click several things to finally find the Amazon listing. I'm not sure why Amazon would be promoting outside sellers over their own listings, but it seems to be happening.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm thinking the commission they take from the seller must be higher than whatever the profit margin would be for the same item. Let's say Amazon is selling a disc for $6 and the third party guy has it for $5. Maybe Amazon paid the studio $5.50 for the disc so they only get fifty cents. Meanwhile, the third party guy is selling a cutout, so he paid almost nothing for it, and Amazon is taking at least 20 percent, so they get a dollar on that sale instead of fifty cents. Then, if and when all of the third party options sell out, they can raise the price on their own version and get a higher profit margin on that.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I do not use the 3rd party seller option for BDs or music, but I do use it for other items where the 3rd party seller is substantially less expensive or they are the only ones offering an item. So far I have not experienced any issues, but the items I have purchased are not really susceptible to packaging damage, or if the box is a little damaged it's not important (such as printer cartridges).

I did recently buy a new camera lens via 3rd party even though the price was the same through Amazon. In this case, though, the 3rd party seller was well-known to me -- I buy most of my camera equipment through them. I used their Amazon storefront so I could apply about $80 in Amazon rewards points and gift cards to the purchase. Still got free shipping and no sales tax. The lens actually shipped from the 3rd party seller (Adorama), and not Amazon.

 

[jcroy]

I do not use the 3rd party seller option for BDs or music

Similar sentiments here too.

The rare times I'll order from a "3rd party" dealer for cd/dvd/bluray is if it is fulfilled by amazon (ie. where amazon warehouses the actual items of interest).

Most of the time I'll pay the extra 50 cents (or slightly more) to order directly from amazon, and not a 3rd party dealer.

Easier to do exchanges/returns in the event a cd/dvd/bluray disc is defective.

 

[ScottHM]

I'm not sure why Amazon would be promoting outside sellers over their own listings, but it seems to be happening.

I did recently buy a new camera lens via 3rd party even though the price was the same through Amazon. ...Still got free shipping and no sales tax.

Is it possible that the sales tax issue is the reason Amazon is promoting 3rd party sellers? I know since the first of the year I've had sales tax added to all my purchases directly from Amazon, but they still do not charge sales tax when I order from a Marketplace vendor.

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[Todd Erwin]

What is really pissing me off with Amazon recently is delayed shipping and lack of shipping options now that I live in a rural area. Even though I am a Prime member, because we don't get normal UPS and Fed Ex deliveries out here in the boonies, my only option is standard ground shipping. But wait, it gets worse - as in most cases, Amazon uses UPS SurePost for my orders. What is UPS SurePost? That is where a package is dropped off at UPS, UPS delivers to the USPS sorting facility closest to the destination, and USPS actually delivers the package. I've had orders lost on their way to UPS, lost at the sorting facility in Fallon, or orders sitting at my local post office waiting to be placed in my mail box (or a note indicating that it is behind the counter) for several days because "UPS SurePost is not a priority for us."

When I call to complain to Amazon, they are quick to blame the carrier for losing the package. I'll ask them why they continue to use the same carrier that has been losing my orders, they say "We've made a note for the upper management to see on your behalf, and trust us that this will improve next time." Then it happens all over again, and they giveme the same answer......

The funny thing is, I've been getting my review screeners delivered to my new home by UPS and Fed Ex without much issue, and by USPS to my mailbox, too. So, something fishy is going on at Amazon shipping centers.....

 

[Mike Frezon]

When I call to complain to Amazon, they are quick to blame the carrier for losing the package. I'll ask them why they continue to use the same carrier that has been losing my orders, they say "We've made a note for the upper management to see on your behalf, and trust us that this will improve next time." Then it happens all over again, and they giveme the same answer......

The funny thing is, I've been getting my review screeners delivered to my new home by UPS and Fed Ex without much issue, and by USPS to my mailbox, too. So, something fishy is going on at Amazon shipping centers.....

Todd: I just reported in another thread that Amazon came up late--yet again--on release date delivery to me. Their rep did that same song and dance which really burned my hide because he kept insisting that he was going to fix things so that I would never experience this problem again. How could he possibly believe THAT?!?

Direct from my chat with Harpreet:

Me: I thought one of the reasons I am a Prime Member was to get items delivered in a timely manner.

Harpreet: I can totally understand that you Mike

Me: This is becoming less and less of a rare occurrence for me.

Harpreet: I would request you to please understand that this situation was the result of a combination of technical and human errors, and that in no way did we intend for this to happen.


I will definitely passed this feedback to the concern department they will surely take care of it.


I will make sure, that you will never face any kind of issue regarding this in future.

Me: I am not insinuating that anyone at Amazon is doing this on purpose. I am simply saying that more and more items are arriving past their due date.

And you are very clearly NOT the first Amazon customer service representative to guarantee that this won't happen again in the future. This line of reasoning doesn't even make sense.

You can't say this package us late due to a combination of technical & human errors...and then, in the next breath, say it will never happen again.

Harpreet: We truly value this kind of feedback, as it helps us continue to improve our store and provide better service to our customers.


I can understand the complications that you have faced with this order/

Me: So which is it? It will happen again...or it won't?

Harpreet: I have create the personal follow up for you so that it will never happen this again.

Me: Because I am seriously reconsidering whether or not I want to continue as a Prime member.

Harpreet: I can understand.If I were on your place if feel the same.

Harpreet then tried to tell me that Megan Leavey wasn't eligible for the release date delivery. This was not true. I pay attention because I've had customer service reps tell me this before. Even so, I received notices from Amazon as recently as Saturday, September 2nd that both titles would be delivered by September 5th.

Me: Harpreet: I thank you for your attention, but I hope Amazon understands that the company is definitely making delivery promises to its customer and then not meeting them.

Harpreet: Sure.


I will make sure, that you will never face any kind of issue regarding this in future.

How can anyone make the claim that future mistakes won't happen?

 

[Todd Erwin]

I hear you, Mike. I had a similar chat experience yesterday that prompted my earlier post.

Amazon: "This won't happen again."

Me: "That is what the last rep said, yet here we are again with the same situation."

Amazon: "We really mean it this time."

Me: "Again, that is what the last rep said regarding my last order."

Amazon: "I will make sure it gets escalated this time. Thank you again for being a Prime member."

Me: "Ok. Sure. Whatever that means..."

Amazon: "Be sure to hit the end chat button."

Me: "Ok. I'll be sure the door doesn't hit me on the way out, too."

This was met with indefinite silence. I hit the end chat button after a few minutes of no further response.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don't know if it's better or worse that whenever I complain to Amazon, they apologize, but they never promise that it won't happen again.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I hear you, Mike. I had a similar chat experience yesterday that prompted my earlier post.

Yeah. "Escalating the order" Whatever that means--EXACTLY!

In the quote above from my chat, you see that Harpreet said, "I have create the personal follow up for you so that it will never happen this again."

I asked him what that meant:

Me: Tell me how the "personal follow-up" works.

Harpreet: I'll send the confirmation follow up email to you.

Me: I already get text messages that tell me that my order has shipped...and then another telling me that it is going to arrive by such-and-such date.

What is a confirmation follow-up e-mail going to do differently?

Harpreet: We'll created the follow up so that we'll track the customer package.

Me: Isn't it already being tracked? I'm confused.

I hope you can explain this for me.

That was when he changed the topic by trying to tell me that Megan Leavey wasn't eligible for release date delivery (probably because we were having the chat n it's release date).

Look, I get it. Nobody's perfect and Amazon IS really very good at what it does. And like DaveF said above, many of us will complain yet continue to shop there. But some of their strengths (one of them being customer service...another being on time deliveries) are starting to slip. And I guess that can be expected when a company becomes a leviathan. But I'm not going to let them make promises to me and then make excuses or try to lie their way out of it when they fail to meet them. Just talk to me like a decent person and I'll be much more willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

But some of their strengths (one of them being customer service...another being on time deliveries) are starting to slip.

It's disappointing for sure. What's particularly vexing to me is that I'm sure that this is part of a calculation that they've made on their part. They've almost certainly run the numbers and discovered that the savings from using cheaper shipping, unreliable carriers, and outsourced customer service that make mistakes that need to be corrected with cash giveaways and/or membership extensions is still less than what it cost for them to just do everything right the first time around.

It's just like the movie theaters that cut corners on presentation, knowing that whatever they lose by having to give out free passes now and then is still cheaper for them than putting in the effort to do it right so that no one complains.

That's where the economy and customer service seem to be going these days -- trying to find how much you can cut corners and how many avoidable slipups can be accepted before the cost of fixing those mistakes exceeds the savings. In Amazon's case, it sure seems like their profit margin is allowing for a lot of mistakes.

I mean, really. I've lived in my current apartment for three years, and every single time they have used one particular carrier in three years, that package simply fails to arrive. Not that it's late, not that it's damaged, but that it simply never shows up. Once or twice, I get. But over three years, there have probably been a dozen packages that never arrived and that the carrier was unable to track at all even with a number. If that's my experience with this carrier, I can't imagine it's unique. How cheap is this company offering services that Amazon is willing to accept a dozen product losses because replacing those twelve products is still cheaper than just using FedEx, UPS, or USPS? In the end, whenever that carrier loses my package, I end up winning. Amazon sends me a replacement package, if I complain enough, they'll usually give it to me for free, then on top of that they'll extend my Prime membership and/or offer me a $10 credit. So if I order a $10 disc and it shows up late or not at all, instead of me spending $10, Amazon is giving me that $10 disc for free, a $10 credit, and a month of Amazon Prime free (worth about $10) -- so instead of spending $10, Amazon has given me almost $30. But what kind of sense does that make long term?

 

[Todd Erwin]

Today was very odd. My wife had me contact Amazon because we were credited for an item that was initially lost but then magically arrived (it had been misplaced at the Post Office because it was shipped UPS SurePost even though UPS showed it had been delivered and signed for).Chat connected me with a Nagamanigandan, who first wanted to connect me to the "concern department." When I asked what that was, Nagamanigandan says "I'm sorry, the Y Team."

The Y Team? The Concern Dept? I abruptly ended the chat and requested a callback, then demanded to speak to someone from the US. Spoke with Brandon, who was very familiar with the outsourcing issues (including how they are quite literally giving away the store), apologized and managed to connect me with the correct department.

I think as soon as word gets out to the millennial freeloaders out there who are always looking for a handout that Amazon is quite willing, in many cases, to give you an item for free by complaining on the chat line, things may change.

 

[Todd Erwin]

One thing I was told was to always complete the shipper or carrier feedback form when issues occur to make sure they get documented. My experiences with outsourced service centers (particularly Amazon and Sony) is that they have a tendency to not document issues customers are calling about, so when you begin to demand your issue get escalated, you begin hearing from the higher tiers of service that "this is the first I'm hearing about this...."

Of course, now that I've gone looking for that form, it does not seem to exist!

 

[Rodney]

I just got off the phone with Amazon, after a frustrating experience, and I definitely feel that Amazon is not the same company they were in terms of customer service. Sorry for the long rant but I need to get this out, and you guys/gals are cheaper than a psychologist!

I didn't get any of my Prime pre-orders this past Tuesday. Instead,I got an undeliverable message, and asked to call Amazon. This is to the same UPS Store address I have used for shipments since the beginning of the year. When I called, after a few times trying to get the India representatives to understand why I was calling (no, I am not asking to have it delivered to a different address) I was transferred to Amazon Logistics, who made notes into my account explaining this was a UPS store, added its hours, and said they would go back out for re-delivery but not to expect it today, and the issue was most likely due to a new driver in the area.

Two days later I get the packages (Thursday instead of Tuesday), and one of the items specifically states that they hand delivered it to me This inaccurate information is a big concern to me.

I call, and they really don't understand my situation. "You didn't get your orders?" they say a few times before getting that I am a Prime customer and there was a delay. Then they tell me that Pre-orders are not guaranteed to be delivered on the Tuesday of release, and try to stand behind that until I explain that I got emails from Amazon stating that my packages were on the way and would be there on Tuesday. I then ask to get transferred to a supervisor, and go over this again.

Throughout, they apologize for my issue. They are good at apologizing. They offer me a free month extension of Prime for my troubles, then transfer me to Amazon Logistics in the US.

I explain to this person, and basically am told that they have been experiencing issues with the app the drivers use to deliver the packages, and somehow my packages got "misplaced" so they weren't able to re-deliver on Wednesday, and not to worry that the tracking info says that the package was delivered directly to me, but they are aware of when and where the package gets delivered and it would show the UPS store and not my residence. How comforting

The biggest piece of information I was given was, when I call in the future, I can ask for a US Customer Representative and while I hope I won't need to, if I call to Amazon I will be doing exactly that. The language barrier is a problem when it is not a canned, scriptable issue for them to take care of.

After all this and an hour on the phone, I am re-considering all my Amazon Blu-ray pre-orders. This company has become too big to care enough about the consumer.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The biggest piece of information I was given was, when I call in the future, I can ask for a US Customer Representative and while I hope I won't need to, if I call to Amazon I will be doing exactly that. The language barrier is a problem when it is not a canned, scriptable issue for them to take care of.

I try to avoid calling, and instead send an email. This way, I can write down exactly what the issue is, and hope that it'll be read and responded to in an appropriate fashion. I don't mean any disrespect to the overseas customer service agents who have been hired to do a job and are doing the best they can with training that clearly isn't able to address the nuances of delivery service issues. I think in addition to any language barrier issues, which I've been lucky enough not to experience to that degree, there's also a context barrier - I'm not sure the people working at the overseas centers have been fully trained on what Amazon has promised its customers, which I think makes it harder for them to respond effectively.

But ultimately, when it starts happening consistently, it's someone's fault, and I too am frustrated that Amazon's customer service and the user experience as a whole isn't what it once was.

I am re-considering all my Amazon Blu-ray pre-orders.

I end up buying a ton of products from Amazon besides movies, from clothing to kitchen supplies and household goods, and all of that is because I wanted prime to be able to get my new release movies delivered on street date. I've written to Amazon "executive customer service" before and they've pretty much turned a deaf ear to it, but my point was, "You're getting thousands of dollars of bonus business on unrelated items because I'm already a subscriber. But if my movies continue to come late, I'll cancel Prime and you'll lose those thousands of dollars of extra business, because I'll simply stop at the store on my way home from work instead of ordering online for household goods." The entire value of my Amazon Prime subscription is in getting my pre-order Blu-rays on release date. If I can't get that one simple thing, it's not worth having.

 

[dvdclon]

I try to avoid calling, and instead send an email. This way, I can write down exactly what the issue is, and hope that it'll be read and responded to in an appropriate fashion.

I prefer to do a chat instead, so I end up with a transcript of both sides of the conversation and hopefully avoid misunderstandings due to regional accents, etc.