My Good-ish Experience
I rented some movies so that I could watch them over the Christmas break. This didn’t work out with two movies. In the midst of watching these issues cropped up. And the screen advised me to contact Amazon Customer Support. So I did.
I initiated the contact via online chat because that is what Amazon has decided. As I work in the Customer arena I quickly figured out I was dealing with a ‘dumb’ bot – fit only for a small number of rigid scenarios. My issue didn’t fit within this frame so I asked, in writing, to be put through to a human being. I was – yet wasted minutes unnecessarily and didn’t appreciate this.
Question: If the customer is genuinely king then why didn’t Amazon treat me like one? Why didn’t Amazon treat me like an adult: give me the option of going directly to a human being via chat, via telephone, or via email?
Answer: Amazon’s focus is clearly on reducing/containing the costs associated with customer interactions. Not on delivering good customer service, nor on enabling/facilitating a great customer experience.
Now, I am through to a human being via online chat. I describe my problem, provide the relevant details, then wait. After a few minutes, this human being asks me for the order numbers. I find the orders and respond with the order numbers. After a few minutes, I am told that I have been refunded the money I have paid for these orders. I write back “I am not interested in the money. I contacted you to get the issue fixed. The issue is that I paid to watch these movies. I cannot watch them as there is an error. I have been asked to contact you. I have and I expect you to fix it so that I can watch these movies. I wait more than a few minutes. Finally, I am told that this issue is fixed. I thank this person and disconnect from the chat.
Question: Why did this person seek to refund me the money as opposed to addressing the issue that I was facing?
Answer: Because it was easier/quicker to refund the money than to fix the issue. Which is to say that the priority was to get me off the chat then to do that which was necessary to ‘deliver’ a good customer experience. This leads to question the metrics that are used to measure the performance metrics that are being used by Amazon to drive customer interactions.
I found myself happy and grateful. Why? Because I got the outcome I had desired – to watch these movies with family & friends. Yet, the bad taste to do with the experience of getting to this outcome still clings. In the past, it was not this hard to get good customer service from Amazon.
The Bad Experience
I order an electronics product and I am given a delivery date that falls in the next two days. That works for me. The product does not turn up. Instead, I get a message saying that there is an issue with my delivery but it’s on its way and will arrive shortly. It doesn’t – a week goes by. I have seen this before and I know what to do: I go cancel the original order and place a fresh order for exactly the same product. This new order is fulfilled the next day.
After a few days, I notice that Amazon has not refunded me for the order Amazon has failed to deliver and which I have canceled. So I contact Amazon via online chat. The bot is there, I ask to be put through to a human being. After a few minutes, I am engaged in an online chat with a human being. I describe my issue: clearly stating what it is that I want: refund for the non-fulfilled canceled order.
What do I get in return? A bunch of reasons why that cannot happen: the product has to be found, then it has to find its way back to Amazon warehouse, only then can the order be canceled and the refund issued.
I point out the facts: 1) I order a product and Amazon supplied a delivery date; 2) Amazon failed to deliver that product; 3) I canceled that order and placed a new order…. And I want a refund on the basis. What is Amazon’s response? To repeat that which has already been communicated to me: the Amazon process.
At this point, I find that I have had enough of this nonsense – Amazon has forked up and instead of fixing the issue is wasting my time. I point out my rights and state that I expect a refund or proof that Amazon has delivered that product to me – my signature will suffice. The person on the other end of this online chat relents and issues me with that refund.
Question: Why is it that Amazon ‘delivered’ such a poor customer experience? Why has this organization turned a loyal customer to a reluctant customer?
Answer: Amazon is now infected with that ‘disease’ that infects organizations that are successful and grow large: focus on their policies, their operations, their needs/wants, and a blindness to the impact of these on the Customer Experience.
The Ugly Experience
I bought a set of electronics products as gifts for family members a couple of days before Christmas. A day or so after Christmas one of these family members noticed a price reduction on that product. And asked me to get that price reduction. Other family members were listening and wanted the same.
I contacted Amazon support and eventually found myself on the telephone with an agent. I explained that I had bought a bunch of electronics product at price £x, and that the price had now been reduced to £y. That I had another 28 days or so to send the products back to Amazon and get a refund. And that I could reorder (right then) the exact products at the lower price. That following this course of action would just create work for Amazon and for me. So how about you, Amazon, credit my account (with a gift card) for the difference in price?
Amazon’s response? No, we don’t price match. If you want to get the benefit of the lower price then return the existing products, and re-order at the lower price. That is what I did.
Why implement a policy that means that Amazon has to:
- Pay the freight costs with returning multiple products?
- Take receipt of multiple returns – as each product has to be returned on its own – and process each of these returns through the systems;
- Pick and pack multiple orders;
- Pay the costs of dispatching multiple orders – to replace those that had been returned;
- Incur additional cost with ZERO financial benefits, and an incur negative customer goodwill?
Honestly, I cannot explain this. This strikes me as stupidity: shooting yourself in the foot deliberately. The kind of short-sightedness and stupidity for which Brexit is the word.
Summing up these experiences what has Amazon achieved? Turn me from a happy (even delighted customer in the past) into a dissatisfied customer. Dissatisfied enough to share his experience with the world. Will I continue to buy from Amazon? Yes, but reluctantly. As and when a better option comes along I will take it.
I thank you for your listening and wish you the very best. Until the next time…
Source: “Amazon Products” – Google News