Has Amazon started to suck?

[VashHT]

I feel like their CS has gotten a lot worse. The last few times I've dealt with them it was awful, and they refer you to an "specialist" for anything other than basic questions.

 

[Thebobo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcs3j8qc5SI

:thumbsup:

 

[Maximus96]

I love that when I drop off my returns at a UPS store, I get a notice within a few hours that my refund has been processed.

 

[WilliamM2]

My last several orders have taken at least a week to ship, so I won't order anything I need quickly.

Yesterday I wanted to purchase two 27" monitors, so I put them in my cart just to get the "estimated delivery". They offered me my 4th free trial to Prime. I took them up on the offer, and they shipped them next day air from Arizona to Michigan. I have them already.

Apparently they are trying to impress new prime members. I'll cancel before the thirty days is up.

 

[Captante]

Definitely not

-AND-

OP = Raging moron?


Seriously although I've had a few problems with Amazon in the past they were always resolved quickly and to my complete satisfaction.

 

[Stopsignhank]

Amazon is the fucking devil.

They don't ship things on time,
They delay shipments except for those special prime flower people
They made me ill last week because I was on their website while cooking dinner and messed up the dinner
They put the metals in the vaccinations and caused autism
They blew up the Hindenberg
They caused the black plague
They don't know the air speed of an unladen swallow!!!!!

 

[lxskllr]

They caused the black plague

That's racist!

 

[Captante]

Amazon is the fucking devil.

They don't ship things on time,
They delay shipments except for those special prime flower people
They made me ill last week because I was on their website while cooking dinner and messed up the dinner
They put the metals in the vaccinations and caused autism
They blew up the Hindenberg
They caused the black plague
They don't know the air speed of an unladen swallow!!!!!

Also shot JFK, faked the moon landing AND kicked my dog !!!1! D:

 

[Stopsignhank]

That's racist!

Fine.

Amazon caused the Bubonic Plague.

However I have to draw the line at kicking Captante's dog! That is just B.S. right there!

Clearly they must be shut down.

 

[Charmonium]

Still better than the alternatives.

As Amazon continues to conquer the world, look for them to pull back the red carpet and have a more "FU" treatment. Why, you ask?.....B/c, like Comcast, they CAN......they're the main game in town.

That's what seems to be happening. Shipping times have gotten much better since they opened a distrib center a few towns over - as long as you're buying directly from Amazon which isn't always the case. For non-Amazon, I'd say the shipping times have gotten worse.

They are No. 1 now by killing off their competition, don't have to cater to get customers anymore and who else are you going to shop with?

I've ordered from Walmart online and they're actually pretty good. They don't have the online part down yet but they're plowing billions of dollars into it. If anyone can compete with Amazon, it should be Wally world. There's also Jet.com but I haven't tried them and my guess is that since they're just a facilitator, service is going to be spotty.

They started delaying my orders in the past few years. I used to get "free" next day shipping because I live near a fulfillment center and mail sorting center. Now I don't get a shipping notice email until ~5 days later.

It could have something to do with orders from Amazon vendors rather than Amazon itself. Just a thought. Probably doesn't explain all of the delays though.
==================
My issue today was with customer service. It's been at least a year since I had to call them for anything and even the last time there was a noticeable change in attitude.

First of all, I clearly got an off-shore call center rep since I could barely understand her. Although I also had a similar problem recently with someone allegedly in Kentucky so make of that what you will.

Then the woman puts me hold multiple times and comes back with a different story each time. Now mind you, the ONLY reason I was calling was because a vendor was trying to nickel and dime me on a return. I had to pay shipping back and they didn't give me a full refund. The difference was about $3 but it pissed me off.

This is one of those calls that a couple of years ago would have gone like this.

Me - vendor short changed me on order number blah-blah
Amazon - how much was the difference
Me - $3 dollars
Amazon - no problem, your account has been credited.

 

[rh71]

For as big as they are, they are doing just damn awesome. Even their outsourced customer service is outstanding. The only improvement would probably be... Prime Movies.

 

[xgsound]

Nobody goes there.
It's too crowded.

Jim

 

[xgsound]

I love that when I drop off my returns at a UPS store, I get a notice within a few hours that my refund has been processed.

I've done that twice and by the time I got home my account was credited.
I live 3 miles from 7 UPS dropoffs.

Jim

 

[smackababy]

Has Amazon really gotten worse or have they raised the bar for internet shopping to an unattainable level?

 

[pcgeek11]

Prime member here and every dealing I've had with them is great.

Lost item in USPS, Amazon overnighted a new one. The lost item showed up two days later from USPS. Called Amazon they said keep both, no worries.

 

[SilthDraeth]

I am a prime member and live 20 miles from a town of about 40k. Anyways, I have ordered a ton of stuff from Amazon over the years. Sometimes the price is a bit higher, sometimes a lot cheaper than what I can get at local b&m stores. Plus I don't have to drive 40 miles round trip to shop.

Almost everything is 2 day free shipping, sometimes I pay for the 1 day. When I have had issues, Amazon pays return shipping and UPS picks it up at my house with the shipping label. So I don't even have to leave my house to return stuff to Amazon.

I once ordered a pair of $360 hair clippers, for $119. They where out of stock and supposed to ship in a month. Well I think it was a listing error, and they where marked "frustration free packaging"

Anyways, they never arrived but Amazon sent me the same product in regular packaging, over a month later for free. So I still got the product.

I am happy with them.

 

[Charmonium]

I once ordered a pair of $360 hair clippers, for $119. They where out of stock and supposed to ship in a month. Well I think it was a listing error, and they where marked "frustration free packaging" Anyways, they never arrived but Amazon sent me the same product in regular packaging, over a month later for free. So I still got the product.

That's the "old" Amazon. If that happened today, I'm pretty sure that not only would you not get jack but they would want you to prove that you never received the package. The days when they would take your word for something are long gone.

And I understand that. I'm sure a lot of people abused a lot of their more liberal policies. But that's not the reason that they're tightening up. They could easily weed out the people who abuse the system. They're doing this because they need to prove that they can earn a profit. And the only way to do that with such slim margins is to be less customer service oriented.

CS costs money. A lot of money. That's why you now have to try to decipher the impenetrable accents of their off-shore support staff. And that's why they let vendors nickel and dime you on returns - returns that you shouldn't have to pay anything for since they weren't your fault.

 

[twinrider1]

Not as good as they used to be, but still awesome.

Free shipping threshold has increased.
Prime cost has increased.
Shipping has slowed.

On a side note, their streaming UI has always sucked. I'd pay an extra $5/year if they could just license the Netflix UI.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I have three items on a truck for delivery that I ordered wednesday, the combined two day shipping of which would likely have equaled the cost of my prime membership if I wasn't a member. I'm pretty happy.

 

[brianmanahan]

i voted "raging moron" in honor of newell steamer who is no longer with us

 

[lxskllr]

i voted "raging moron" in honor of newell steamer who is no longer with us

What happened to him?

 

[purbeast0]

so what i'm getting out of this thread is that the only people who think amazon has gotten worse are those non-prime members who order $49.99 dollars of stuff JUST to quality for the free saver shipping that estimates like 7 day delivery time which is not guaranteed, and they cry because they don't get it in 2 days.

gotcha.

 

[Charmonium]

so what i'm getting out of this thread is that the only people who think amazon has gotten worse are those non-prime members who order $49.99 dollars of stuff JUST to quality for the free saver shipping that estimates like 7 day delivery time which is not guaranteed, and they cry because they don't get it in 2 days.

gotcha.

Maybe that applies to some of the people here but I've been a prime member from the beginning and have no qualms with shipping of Amazon supplied products. I do often have a problem with stuff that doesn't ship from Amazon by one of their crappy vendors.

But my real issue is with customer service. I rarely have to call them so there's that. But when I do, I don't expect to be kept on hold for 15 or 20 minutes for a $3 refund that I should have gotten in the first place. And I shouldn't have to get a headache trying to understand the asshole on the other end of the line trying to communicate with me in some 3rd world version of English.

 

[purbeast0]

Maybe that applies to some of the people here but I've been a prime member from the beginning and have no qualms with shipping of Amazon supplied products. I do often have a problem with stuff that doesn't ship from Amazon by one of their crappy vendors.

But my real issue is with customer service. I rarely have to call them so there's that. But when I do, I don't expect to be kept on hold for 15 or 20 minutes for a $3 refund that I should have gotten in the first place. And I shouldn't have to get a headache trying to understand the asshole on the other end of the line trying to communicate with me in some 3rd world version of English.

i've contacted amazon customer support probably 30+ times since i've been a prime member. not once have i had to call in and always just used chat, and i've always had my problem resolved very fast and in a way that made me happy.

and having problems with stuff not shipped and sold by amazon isn't really their fault. that's like getting upset with ebay when a seller screws you.

 

[Charmonium]

i've contacted amazon customer support probably 30+ times since i've been a prime member. not once have i had to call in and always just used chat, and i've always had my problem resolved very fast and in a way that made me happy.

and having problems with stuff not shipped and sold by amazon isn't really their fault. that's like getting upset with ebay when a seller screws you.

I'll give the chat option a try if I can figure out how to invoke it. I don't recall every seeing that as an option but then I wasn't looking either.

As for not having responsibility for vendors, that's a bogus argument. They are NOT like ebay. With ebay you understand that they are just an intermediary and you either do or don't deal with a vendor based on their rating. Amazon purports to have more control over their vendors simply by virtue of the fact that they sell the vendors' products right next to their own. So while I don't expect the same level of service from an Amazon vendor, I still expect to be treated fairly. And when I'm not expect Amazon to intervene as appropriate.