• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Wow, what has happened to Amazon customer Service?

Status
Not open for further replies.

No_Style

Member
For me, it was about five in a month where price drops occurred for items bought and sold by Amazon LLC within a return period. They refused to honor the reduction calling it a price match every time. They told me to return the item(s) at cost to myself and re-order it at the new price every time. That's just ridiculous.

That is ridiculous and one of the few head scratchers in Amazon's policies. I understand not price matching competitors during a return window but what about your own store? I had one instance when a price lowered while the item is in transit. They've suggested that I refuse the order and just return the unopened box which is fine but a bit weird -- even to the postal office.

For other instances, I just select a reason that will give me a free return label and just buy it again.
 

Maximus.

Member
Never had an issue with them.

They do seem to hold items when you aren't subbed to Prime, but thats just the reality of their service.

I am surprised they didn't at least ship faster after their mistake, though I am sure their customer service has been abused to no end, so they probably give no fucks for little issues in most cases.
 

Hydrus

Member
WTF!! So I bought a pair of shoes 3 days ago, then the next day the price dropped by almost 10 bucks. I emailed amazon to refund the price difference since it was within 7 days, and they told me they wouldn't do it. They have always done this for me in the past. Never had any issues, and I never took advantage of them by constantly doing it. What the hell amazon?
 

n64coder

Member
I dropped Amazon once they began sitting on items for a week before shipping them out. Ain't no one got time for that.

Its mostly been Newegg and trusted eBay sellers. With them I receive shipping info within 24hrs.

What kind of shipping did you choose? Super saver shipping?

I'm a longtime Amazon prime customer and have always been pleased with their service. Yeah, probably 2-3 times over 17+ years was a package late. They've always been consistently good with me and I do order a lot of stuff.
 
Sorry about your experience, OP.

I am a Prime member and the customer service has been excellent in my opinion. Even got credited for things that i shouldnt have been able to return.
 

Istaerion

Member
WTF!! So I bought a pair of shoes 3 days ago, then the next day the price dropped by almost 10 bucks. I emailed amazon to refund the price difference since it was within 7 days, and they told me they wouldn't do it. They have always done this for me in the past. Never had any issues, and I never took advantage of them by constantly doing it. What the hell amazon?

It's their policy now to refuse "price-matching" on all products except televisions which is still on a case-by-case basis rather than guaranteed.

At best, they will tell you to buy the item again with the discount and return the old one; if it's used or open though, you could be subject to fees. It's a huge hassle to get around a policy which should have never been implemented in the first place as big name retailers generally give you about a week from purchase to refund the difference in the event that a sudden price drop occurs or what-have-you.
 

KyleP29

Member
The money issue is another kettle of fish. I know that Amazon place a hold on the funds while they are waiting to be shipped... this puts an "authorized charge" on the card. Then when they actually ship the authorized charge falls off and the actual debit to the account is made. I don't know if this is what the confusion is from.

This seems most likely.

Most companies place a hold/pending charge on a purchase made. It stays there until until it actually goes through and debits or it falls of once authorization fails.

From my experience the vendor typically see the card has authorization has been declined fairly quickly while that hold.pending charge wont fall off until 5-7 business days from when the card fails to authorize.

This added delay is usually where you see the vendor saying the charge didn't go through while the bank is stating it did.
 

oni_saru

Member
Non-prime CS now compared to years ago is shittier. It's the way it goes now that they want ppl to subscribe to prime.

Sucks but you either get a Prime account or settle for possibly shitty CS, late shipments, etc.
 

jb1234

Member
It takes absolutely bloody forever for them to ship items to me now, even if they're in stock beforehand. This didn't used to be the case. Not a Prime member, of course.
 

mackattk

Member
They have gone downhill. I ordered a label maker and it went down $30 two days later. They refused to refund me the difference, pissed me off something fierce. Literally every other retailer would have no trouble matching a price so shortly after purchasing. I have prime.
 
I've had issues with Amazon lately too. They have been shipping items with ground shipping even though I'm a prime member. They lie and say the item isn't in stock to get a later guarantee time, but then immediately ship it using shit service.
 
Wal-Mart is still on top. Amazon is like number 8 out of the top ten companies in revenue.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laureng...l-2000-worlds-largest-retailers/#48cee5f329a9

I was talking in terms of market cap.

Every single order I placed in the past month has taken more than 2 days to arrive. It used to be that if you placed an order on Friday, you would have it at your place on Monday. Now if you place an order on Friday you don't get it till Wednesday. That really takes away the value of Prime IMO.
 

exemp30

Member
Being prime or not has no effect on the quality of service you get from Amazon. At this point it depends on the rep you get, they all follow a guideline whether it's good service or not.
 

explorer

Member
I had my first real negative experience with Amazon customer service recently. I bought something for $199.99 that dropped to $99.99 the very next day. When i went on Amazon chat to see if I could get the price difference, I was told that Amazon does not price match, except on TVs. This was peculiar to me because I had requested a handful of price adjustments in the past with absolutely no issues. The rep, who was clearly a non-native English speaker, kept telling me that this was NEVER Amazon's policy and that I probably was given an exception before. At any rate, I asked the rep if he could give me an exception. He flatly told me no. I asked the rep if I could cancel my order (it hadn't shipped yet) and order a new item at the reduced price. Again, I was told no. The rep told me I would have to order a second one and ship the original one back. When I asked to speak to a manager, I was told the exact same thing. I even called the phone support for another opinion and was, again, told the same thing. Ultimately, I had to order another one and refuse delivery of the more expensive one with UPS.

What really made me mad though was the fact that the reps and the managers kept telling me that it was never Amazon's policy to offer a price match/adjustment in the past. Anyone who has used Amazon as much as I have knows that's a flat out lie.

I later found a reddit thread where users complained about the same thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/amazon/comments/4h127l/amazon_no_longer_price_matches_within_7_days/

FYI: I'm a Prime member.
 

mcrommert

Banned
I sent an Email to Jeff Bezos. It doesn't go to Mr. Bezos.

Below is most of the Email I directly to sent to Mr. Bezos:




Below is an excerpt of the response I got:

I'm sorry what? You think its reasonable to think you deserve money back because a product changed prices?????
 

Kito

Member
Last year they gave me a full refund on my 2.5 year old Wii U console because I was paranoid the controller's gyro was off (Prime member). I expected a replacement controller or discount on a new console. Bought a new Wii U bundle with the £250.
 
I'm sorry what? You think its reasonable to think you deserve money back because a product changed prices?????

Why not? Most stores have some sort of a price adjustment guarantee. The fact that Amazon no longer does is pathetic and another in a long line of things that has me taking my business elsewhere lately.
 

Ashhong

Member
This is all so mind boggling. I've returned so many things and had so many problems arise, only to have them fix it immediately with no problems. I don't think I've ever been transferred to another person. Wtf are you guys doing that there are problems lol
 
I bought a winter jacket just before Christmas for $160. It's a size too small so I go to exchange it but I notice the price is now $220 and they're telling me I will be charged the difference. I go to Amazon support chat to see if there's any way I can get an equal exchange as I had no idea it was on sale at the time. They tell me no which is perfectly reasonable but then I ask if after exchanging, if it goes on sale again within the return period, will I be able to get the difference refunded to me? They tell me they only price match on Televisions.

Insane because now what they're forcing me to do is return the worn/used item for a full price refund and then I'll just re-buy the item at the discount. Why not just issue the refund difference is beyond me.
 

soco

Member
It takes absolutely bloody forever for them to ship items to me now, even if they're in stock beforehand. This didn't used to be the case. Not a Prime member, of course.

Even as a prime member I'm seeing some items not ship for 2-3 days, even though they're in stock. Not sure if there's heavier than expected orders or something.

I placed one one on the 3rd and some of the items were marked for delivery today, tomorrow, and sunday. All were in stock.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom