MR. BEZOS AND YOUR EXECUTIVE OFFICE DOESN'T CARE WHAT I'VE BEEN GOING THROUGH

there's always skype?

irony or irony

i just received a package from amazon that i didn't order
but it's not amazon's fault.

i think the guy who ordered it use to live here. he must have picked
my address from the list without actually paying attention.

but i went to amazon's contact us page, clicked the phone button,
entered in my phone number ... and they called me right away.

so now i have a return shipping label in my email and i'll be sending
the package back tomorrow morning.

(1) Very few CEOs actually respond to customers. Particularly for what
are all routine customer service issues. That doesn't minimize the
important to the customer, but for a CEO to be effective they cannot
possibly deal with every customer that had a problem with shipping,
gift notes, out of stock issues, or pricing issues. As important as
these are to you, I assume that you never actually believed that this
would be handled by Jeff Bezos himself, nor would be even read a copy
of your complaint.

(2) , I presume, is employed there specifically to deal with customer
service issues. Again, the CEO's job cannot be to deal with every
customer. If he did, he'd never be able to get anything else done.
It's not "dirty work" to have someone assigned to customer service (or
several, since it does take more than one person to handle such a
job).

(3) Many large companies, certainly of the size of amazon, have
toll-free (at least within the US, if not North America) numbers to
reach customer service staff. Not just the standard customer service
number, but to reach specialists like . However, not all do. I don't
think that this was a trick, however, to make you go away. I think
it's just that someone made the (perhaps wrong) call not to provide
with a toll free number. That said, one thing you can do is call her,
say "I don't want to pay for this call, please call me back." Given
that she's already reached out to you, I'd expect that she's agree to
call you back such that you don't have to pay more than a minute or so
of the call.

(4) As for the delivery tracking issue, I agree that amazon.ca (as far
as I can tell) doesn't tell you the name of the delivery company. That
would lead me to assume it was Canada Post. Was it? I am totally
ignorant of postal laws in Canada, but I wonder if there might be some
reason why amazon.ca would be required to use Canada Post or a
specific private delivery company to be in compliance with the law?

(5) It is lousy to be told that your package was delivered when it was
not. Have you discovered why this happened? As a practical matter,
asking the delivery company will likely be the best way of getting an
answer. No sense in having righteous indignation against amazon when,
what you really want is to find out why the delivery company told
amazon that the package was delivered when this was not the case.
There could, you know, be a totally logical explanation.

(6) Possible regulations aside, it's important to let a company know
that their delivery company has failed, such that the company can made
a decision about whether to switch delivery companies. However, just
because one customer had something go wrong does not immediate say
that the delivery company is unacceptable and that amazon.ca bears the
responsibility. Remember, they were the ones that were lied to. They
simply passed along the information they were provided.

(7) As for the gift notes, let me ask: what did you really expect? No
where does it ask you questions like "what color card would you like?"
or "pick a font for the writing" or anything of the sort. Which means,
it's "you get what you get." While someone that's never ordered a gift
from amazon before might not have any idea what would happen (and
amazon could do better about saying), clearly you formed a picture in
your head about what a "gift message" is. That image was something YOU
created, not amazon. They failed in that they left it up to your
imagination. However, in the end, they did deliver what they promised,
which was a "message."

If having a particular card is important to you, best to arrange for
it yourself. Why leave it up to a store to select a card for you?

Anyway, as someone who has sent and received amazon gifts, I'm used to
these gift messages. When I send something directly to someone, they
can see on the packing slip (on which I can request no prices) my
message. For people that I care more about than letting them receive
my message on a packing slip, I call them. I send them a card. I have
the item shipped to me, I wrap it and enclose my own card or
handwritten note, and then mail it to the recipient.

(8) On your #3, I miss how the dispute made something go out of stock.
Both of your other complaints are about something you actually
received. Did you have another issue where you failed to order
something because of a dispute?

In any case, when something is out of stock, amazon can do little for
you, other than to get it in stock. Sometimes, a business will agree
to extend the discount, especially if you ask up-front. But not
always. High volume businesses like amazon often won't do this, but
it's worth calling and asking... while the item is still on sale (not
after). You may have done this and maybe their refusal to ship the CD
immediately or give you the discount whenever it arrives was the
dispute?

Anyway, while there may be some things that didn't go as you wanted, I
see nothing that seems like amazon did anything wrong. Further, the
fact that they had someone () contact you directly shows that they are
clearly trying to understand your issues and perhaps help resolve
them. But, in reading your letter, it seems like you don't need any
resolution because there is nothing to resolve. The thing you're
asking is for them to pay you the difference between what they sell
the CD for and what you paid (which you did, I'm assuming, on your own
accord). Do you know any business that will, when you say you
purchased elsewhere for more money, pay you? Who does this?

Concerning your points:

1) No, I definitely didn't expect him to read my e-mails initially.
When things became unresolved, yes, it would have been nice if he had.
Am I shocked he didn't, no.

2) I have never seen a less competent executive assistant and one so
unwilling to help out. In many respects, an executive assistant
always does the "dirty work", but I guess I never had to say that
since usually executive assistants DO help customers. Ms. Aviv did
not.

3) Ms. Aviv sent me an e-mail saying to call her at that long distance
number and didn't care when I said that I wasn't going to pay long
distance. She didn't offer me any toll-free number so our
correspondence was limited to e-mails. I usually prefer e-mails anyhow
but because things got out of hand, I wanted to talk to her on the
phone but she didn't give me a toll-free number.

4) 100% no chance that they have to use a specific delivery company by
law. As far as who they used, I have no idea since the package was
left for me in front of my door such that anyone could have taken it.
I was not too pleased about that either. I wanted someone to have to
sign for it and a bell rung. I probably should have analyzed the box
more to see if it showed something but I instead asked Amazon.

5) Amazon told me that sorry this happens sometimes. That was their
answer. They weren't surprised. That leads me to believe that it
wasn't a rarity which further means they should perhaps be using
another courier.

6) I addressed this already if you read all the threads. Basically,
the courier is responsible to Amazon and Amazon to the customer. The
courier would reimburse Amazon if they did something wrong and Amazon
should but doesn't pass on the savings to the customer as
compensation.

7) I addressed this already too but basically it isn't about how nice
a card or font. I didn't expect anything fancy since I didn't pay for
giftwrapping. What I THOUGHT was there would be 3 gift notes attached
to each gift I indicated. Just a note. It could have been something
very plain. That wasn't the issue. I didn't expect 3 gift notes on 1
packing slip and frankly I find notes on packing slips to be a pretty
silly thing. The system should indicate an error when someone has
more than 1 gift note since I think it's reasonable that nobody would
want more than 1 recipient to read a packing slip with more than 1
message on it. The explanation about packing slips should be on the
same page as where we put the gift notes so it can't be missed. I
didn't notice that "learn more" button.

8) Ok, I'll explain this again. There was my initial order that I
received a day after it said delivered. That is the one with the
wrong tracking and gift notes issue. There were things I put in my
cart and I was discussing with Ms. Aviv about compensation for what
had happened. It was during this time that an item in my cart went
from $17.99 to over $40. It wasn't on sale at $17.99, by the way. It
was listed as the regular price. I bought it for $13.99 at a store
near me so Amazon's price wasn't good.

I had a $15 credit and free expedited shipping from Amazon so I
ordered a CD from Amazon. I had it in the cart but since we were
still working on things, I didn't proceed to checkout. The product WAS
in stock but by the time I realized Amazon won't do the right thing, I
decided to just get the CD and be done with them. I proceeded to
checkout and it said temporarily out of stock. It was going to cost
me nothing since it was $12.99 and I had free shipping. The balance I
owed was $0. It is a Christmas gift and I was told on the screen it
wouldn't be there by Christmas. Ms. Aviv said it may be. I was going
to wait. Then I did research. I found out that the suppliers of this
CD don't have it anymore and it's been discontinued. I asked Ms. Aviv
repeatedly if I am waiting for something that will never come. She
kept ignoring that question. Finally she said, if we find we can't get
it, we'll inform you. Wonderful. Since I was told elsewhere that
nobody will be able to get it, I knew they were making me wait for
nothing.

I had to get it from a store that had it in stock sinc there would be
no new stock of this item anywhere. It cost more since I was getting
the CD from Amazon at $0. So, yes I expect Amazon to pay the
difference since it was SUPPOSED to cost me nothing for this CD and I
would have waited for Amazon but they were having me wait for
nothing.

T

The gift notes are sent to the receiver of the package. If you had
sent the 3 gifts to 3 different people at 3 different addresses then
each one of them would have gotten a separate gift note. Instead, you
had all of the packages sent to you at a single address. Therefore,
the gift notes were all on the same packaging slip.

The purpose of the gift note is to send a message to someone when you
purchase something and Amazon sends it directly to the receiver of the
gift. They are not meant to be used if you are going to have the gifts
delivered to yourself and then you are going to distribute the gifts.

um...

i only asked you what companies you've seen do this.


and i don't like to email people here. in fact the only people here
who have my email is pfb itself cos i had to use it to register.

as for calling companies up...
this isn't a service i've ever asked for.

i simply asked what companies you've seen do this, since you've stated
that you have seen it.

I dont really see what the major issue is. Tracking isnt Amazon its
whoever is shipping it. So you cant blame Amazon for the tracking
misinformation.

The gift notes issue seems to be a customer didnt read the procedure
issue. I have sent gifts many times and never had an issue with the
packing slip. Everytime they have arrived giftwrapped with a little
note attached with whatever I typed it out to say.

You dont really specify what the issue was where you lost the best
price on something. How? did they stop you from buying it? Was it a
black friday only special and you waited too long?

I wouldnt accept any business to accept collect calls. Esspecially in
this day and age where 99% of phone services give you free nationwide
calling.

I have been using Amazon since they were simply a book store, and when
I have had an issue they were very fast and very good at fixing it.

Sorry, I forgot to add that amazon prices aren't good. The item at
Amazon that was $17.99 and went to $40.45, I ended up buying at a
store near me for only $13.99. I was also going to get a movie that
was $12.49 at amazon and I ended up paying $9.99. So,besides their
nonexistent customer service,their prices can be easily beat if you
search the internet or go to a local store.